covid diary 23rd March

 23rd March 2020
NZ - 66 cases reported
World - 329,275 
Deaths- 14,376
Recovered- 95,656

This is a global pandemic that is becoming more serious all the time.
 I thought I'd start a post on how it seems to be evolving here in New Zealand. There is a lot of information on the web, but I think it will be superceded and some deleted, so I'm trying to do a basic journal with screenshots.





So far there have been 66 reported cases in NZ, so still in its infancy. China seems to have plateaued at the moment and Italy and Spain seem to be ramping up quite a lot. The US has now taken 2nd place, so that is spreading quite a lot. I think more being reported now.
 
India and Africa are both being under reported in my opinion. India should have it sweeping through the country as they are well travelled from all parts of the globe and have a very high density population, so I can see it really taking over there.
Africa will be under reported due to limited medical facilities for testing. Over time that will take off when more people are infocted.

I think the more western countries are going to have a more difficult time of it as they are a lot more open. 
The example of closing Bondi beach in Sydney as there was no social distancing occuring.

The reporting seems to be haphazzard as detection/testing seems to be pretty limited. So countries could have far higher rates but as they have not been tested, so the cases are not reported.

Also the incubation period, when people have it but do not display symptoms, seems to be quite long, up to a week I think. So there is a discrete time when it can be passed without awareness, hence the explosion of cases that suddenly come to light.

My current knowledge of symptoms is pretty limited, I'm sure I'll be a lot more knowledgeable in the near future as the risk becomes greater.

Wellington and travel

Currently I'm looking out at Wellington airport and there are no planes on the runway, I can hear one small cesna in the sky heading north. monday morning is a busy time for flights up and down the country. Also not many planes at the terminal either.

 Also cobham drive traffic (to Airport & miramar) seems to be light, definitely not as much traffic. Especially going into town. It is 10am but its usually far busier.
The neighbours, who work over in Miramar, are at home on monday, that is unusual, so they must be self isolating early. 
 
I just put 1200 into KiwiSaver, as the Government puts in a dollop too. So that is worth doing for that amount. May not have been the wisest thing to do at this time, but its done now. But maybe Govt will give access to those funds later when things start biting.
Countries talking about relief packages so that will be interesting to see what is coming.

Mapping

The Bing map for the USA is mapping by  state and even by city regions, Japan, China and other areas of the Globe. I think Bing being US is doing this in US but not elsewhere.

NZ is still one dot for the whole country, so infected cases, although mentioned by region, are only giving country totals to date. I think soon there will be regional and city maps
There is the alert system on at the moment in NZ, and we are at level 2.

So, airports closed to tourists, only NZ nationals allowed in.
there are calls for total lockdown and for Schools to close, but that has not happened to date.
There is an economic balance to be struck with making people unemployed and keeping things going in the short term. The government seems to be taking the middle road at present.

Who's being affected

This will affect the vulnerable of society the most,as usual. Especially economically.
 But there seem to be distinct groups who will be more vulnerable, the eleerly and people with underlying deseases.
In Italy, where it is the worst at the moment, there is talk of triage and the more elderly are unlikely to get any medical support, the thinking being the younger have more years , and of productivity.

Services

Jobs being advertised in Wellington region today: 2369

Jobs advertised will drop a lot in the coming weeks.
 Council services: Most public facilities closed down.

Metlink:

Update 2pm

Up to level 3 and level 4, full shutdown in 48 hours. There will be a party at the supermarkets from now on. and a few empty shelves.
36 more positive cases identifide so over 100 cases now. That must have been the trigger point for moving to the next level. 
Lots of TV watching I suppose, or some drawing details.