Covid19 blog

Ecuador es el país con el mayor número de muertes reportadas por Covid-19 en América Latina per capita, seguido de cerca por Panamá y la República Dominicana. En los últimos días han habido múltiples desgarradoras historias de horror en la ciudad de Guayaquil, la ciudad más poblada y un centro económico en Ecuador. Hay muchos informes de cientos de cadáveres que no han sido recogidos por los servicios de emergencia en la ciudad de Guayaquil y sus alrededores. Esta ciudad tiene un clima tropical durante todo el año, y las altas temperaturas registradas el pasado mes han acelerado la descomposición de estos cuerpos no recolectados, asi aumentando la angustia de sus familias. Esto ha llevado a que las personas cubran los cuerpos de sus seres queridos con plástico o los abandonen en la calle, a veces durante días. En un artículo en el periódico El Comercio, muestran la imagen de un cuerpo abandonado sobre un banco en una calle de Guayaquil, cubierto con una manta y un paraguas en

Ecuador is the country with the highest number of reported deaths by Covid-19 in Latin America per capita, closely followed by Panama and the Dominican Republic. In recent days there have been multiple horror stories in the city of Guayaquil, the most populous city and an economic hub in Ecuador. There are many reports of hundreds of dead bodies that have not been collected by the emergency services in and around the city of Guayaquil. This city has a tropical climate all year round, and high temperatures in the last month has accelerated the decomposition of these uncollected bodies adding to the distress for their families. This has also resulted in people covering the bodies of their loved ones with plastic or abandoning them on the street, sometimes for days. In an article in the newspaper El Comercio, they show the picture of a body abandoned on a bench on a street in Guayaquil, covered with a blanket and an umbrella on top. Next to it a placard that reads ‘We called 911

Michael Gove has just announced that the UK is currently carrying out 8,000 tests per day. Previously, he indicated that not only the NHS frontline will be tested but also members of the civil service. Mr Gove announced today that 25,000 will be carried out per day, but not until the end of April. But why are these statements not attracting more criticism? Is it due to a lack of understanding of the magnitude of the problem regarding testing? The NHS employs over 1 million people, where 423,000 are doctors and nurses in 2019. It was reported that an extra 20,000 doctors and nurses will be able to join the NHS frontline, reallocated from the private health sector. Additionally, up to 65,000 retired doctors and nurses have been asked to come back to the NHS in England and Wales during the crisis. This is the NHS frontline workforce who should be offered testing as a priority, and their number could amount to over 500,000 people. If the government fulfills its promise of ramping up

The case of the response and approach that Germany has taken in this pandemic has been interesting to follow. Many of my scientist friends, and people to whom I speak, have indicated scepticism about the reliability of the death rate due to Covid19 in Germany. It did initially seem odd to me that the death rate in Germany was substantially lower compared to many other major European nations including the UK, which at one point had a death rate of over 4% of confirmed cases. At the early stages of its epidemic, Germany had a death rate as low as 0.3% despite its very high number of confirmed cases. However, this death rate has been steadily increasing to the current rate of almost 0.8%. This is much closer to what other areas and countries with similar approaches (e.g. extensive testing, tracing and isolation of confirmed cases) are reporting. Germany has been more successful in their testing approach than any other country. It carries out over half a million tests every week compa