[volkman10]

Total confirmed cases reach 5 in Karnataka, 56 in India.

Dell employee in Bengaluru tests positive.

One of the infected persons in Bengaluru is an employee of Dell. The company officially confirmed it and stated that the employee has been put into isolation. The infected person works at Dell's Domlur office.

Link

[speedmiester]

Originally Posted by sushantr5

I heard screening at Indian Airport is total mess. I am specially worried about my journey to India on 27th March. I see panic is more in India than Germany.

Few colleague recently traveled to India, they said that screening means just filling up the form. I am unable to understand why the form and declaration drama, instead of actual screening for body temperatures. Are we fixing the problem or are we fixing the responsibility? I doubt, authorities are reading and analyzing forms filled. I guess the only purpose of declaration is to fix blaim later in case of symptoms developed afterwards.

How else can one screen at airports, one can be infected and be asymptomatic for up to 20 days before developing a fever or any other symptoms.
The only way the virus can be contained is to for people to report themselves and be ready to be isolated till they recover from the virus.
We can't always blame the authorities, it is also our responsibility to take particular actions to ensure the infection does not spread.

Compared to what my friends in different countries are experiencing, India is doing a better job. Until we develop herd immunity, containment is the next best option to fight the infection.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by sushantr5

I heard screening at Indian Airport is total mess.

Few colleague recently traveled to India, they said that screening means just filling up the form. I am unable to understand why the form and declaration drama, instead of actual screening for body temperatures.

Are they not carrying out 100% thermal imaging at Indian airports? I'm pretty sure they are, and your colleagues may have missed spotting the scanner. The following article is from Jan 27 when only 7 airports were doing it.

https://www.livemint.com/news/india/...146102986.html

The duplicate forms are a hassle I agree, but a small price to pay in light of the bigger picture.

[Neo18]

Originally Posted by drive_angry

Pardon me for my ignorance but is the vaccine is place for Coronavirus? I heard Kerala CM saying that the state had treated some 3 patients having coronavirus a while back means there should be an antidote, right?

My wife works a biotech company. As per the Industry norms, it takes close to 18 months for a fully tested vaccine to be released to the general public. Stage 0 (this is where animal tests are complete and limited trials are undertaken on a very small number of suitable human subjects) will be complete in approximately 12 months.

As per various theories, vaccine developed for Corona started as early as November, when most of the public did not even know such a strain existed.

[vb-saan]

Originally Posted by sushantr5

I heard screening at Indian Airport is total mess. I am especially worried about my journey to India on 27th March. I see panic is more in India than Germany.

Irrespective of the mortality rate, the potential to spread is pretty high; it is prudent to comply with the safety measures, and not to label as panic reactions. You can already see the deep impact in Italy. Germany is also canceling or moving several events with huge public participation. You cannot expect the same orderly calmness of Germany or Singapore in every other place.

Originally Posted by sushantr5

Few colleagues recently traveled to India, they said that screening means just filling up the form. I am unable to understand why the form and declaration drama, instead of actual screening for body temperatures. Are we fixing the problem or are we fixing the responsibility? I doubt, authorities are reading and analyzing forms filled. I guess the only purpose of declaration is to fix blame later in case of symptoms developed afterwards.

I see the form/declaration as a useful step; that alone can come handy when a trace-back is required. You may lose 10-15 mins of your time in filling up the form or doing a declaration, but if it is helpful for a larger cause, why worry too much about that? Safe travels!

[ZenMaster]

Why do I see people generating random numbers from thin air and claiming it's just another fever citing x% of fatality rate of whatever.

There are times when we must regard everyone's opinion and other times when we must just keep shut and let the experts handle it. Due to social media and messaging apps people have just lost the ability to keep unnecessary opinions to themselves in the interest of the public.

Just because your friend or relative shared You a random message they got as a "forward" on whatsapp doesn't make it true.

Spreading lies and pseudo facts on the internet during elections and political unrest can at least be viewed as blind belief or political partisanship. But why are people not restraining themselves and use their common sense to analyze if something is truth or lie when 1000's of lives are at stake with a cause they cannot control ?

I request Team-BHP moderators to swoop and delete posts that can misinform members or public (after doing some fact checking with official number ) unless they provide context for a valid point.

This kind of irresponsible attitude by a family of 3 is the reason 5 people (probably a lot more pending test results and contact tracing) in Kerala have contracted this HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS virus (which may have a high/medium/low fatality rate which can only conclusively be determined once all this is actually over).

What makes this virus dangerous is its shear ability to SPREAD and INFECT.
It doesn't care whether you are young or old or rich or poor or whether you have a PhD.
Whether it can kill you depends on many many factors like you health status, your natural immunity, age, health facilities near you, etc. and most importantly How quickly you are diagnosed and sought treatment!

After coming from abroad from a highly infected country the family ducked from the airport and health authorities. The initial carrier patients, literally went, met and socialized with everybody that a normal person probably meets In a month in just a week because they came for abroad. I heard in the news they were reluctant to go to the hospital even after health authorities asked them to once they were pin-pointed as the initial carriers of the virus to that area.

As Dr.Vivek pointed out, its highly appaling how educated poeple seems to be spreading misinformation and taking such a serious situation lightly.

Mother nature has proved time and again that we must not mess with what we don't understand. There are times when we must swallow our pride and selfishness and now down and accept the reality.

As wise people said long ago:
PREVENTION is better than Cure.

[Hatari]

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

14,000 out of how many infected? Do road accident and smoking spread like virus from one person to another?

Please stop bringing up random statistics to make some point. Numbers on their own without any context are meaningless.

Whether the current level of panic is warranted or not, only time will tell.

Do you see such hysteria and panic over the 'random statistics' I quoted?
What percentage of smokers you know have quit smoking? .. 'Time has told' here.

It is treatable, so what are you worried about? Whatsapp and facebook are focusing more on the mortality rate than the ones that are surviving/being cured which is 25-30 times that number.

A vaccine is at least 6 months away.

Lets just be calm, responsible and take the basic precautions prescribed.

[JithinR]

Originally Posted by ValarMorghulis

There is no justification for anyone leaving the quarantine because one is not convinced. Quarantine is not just for the affected person's safety but for others too. Fleeing quarantine without approvals should be a criminal offense.

Agreed. It would be better if we start prosecuting people for hiding their travel history. There are a lot of educated folks who are doing their duty to make sure the virus doesn't spread.

In Kerala itself, you have the case of one family who hid their travel history and didn't even isolate themselves. Their arrogance resulted in hundreds of other innocents who now have to be quaratined. Now these are educated and a well to do family that acted in an irresponsible manner.

If nothing else I hope these idiots realize the consequences of what they have done when people when they are cured and come back home. Hundreds of shops, restaurants etc will run empty once people find out about a containment failure.

Originally Posted by KL01toKA03

Agree with the remaining parts of your post, but not this part. Criminalizing will result in fear. Some people might not seek medical help due to this. What is needed is spreading more awareness, and removing a lot of the stigma that is present in the society. Social distancing should be voluntarily done by people, instead of the China model where we saw people being forcefully confined in their homes.

The government should prepare isolation wards with decent standards, and publicize the facilities available, so that people will not have any fears in reporting their illness, and being quarantined thereafter.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to rely on an Indians sense of social responsibility in this case. Not with a disease this infections.

For a culture like Japan, where they wear face masks during even common cold it would work.
In India, it would be better to go through with filing criminal offences.

I do agree with the part about spreading awareness of medical facilities in place.

Originally Posted by opendro

I disagree. Unless I'm convinced that the virus has any more fatality than any other coronavirus, I would do the same. We, Indians, are never afraid of common cold and flu, even when we are ill, leave alone being not-ill.

Are you a qualified medical professional who is capable of doing this? Do you ask the pilot on a flight to prove to you that a plane is capable of lift before agreeing to fly on it.

If not for yourself, then at least for the sake of your kids (you seem to have them and that itself scares me) or elders in your home please try to stop acting like a doctor.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by Lambydude

Just to understand the point, why do you think 43 in India is not a worry but 6 in Kerala is? In fact with much superior health care facilities in Kerala, shouldn't it be the other way around?

The amount of appreciation and goodwill Kerala Govt got with the isolation and management of the first three cases has been completely undone by the Father-Mother-Son trio who landed in Kochi from Italy, evaded the medical screening and went home. They then visited relatives and attended functions, infecting how many people nobody knows. More than the cases identified, it is the possibility of those that can slip through is the main worry. Not only in kerala, but everywhere.

[msdivy]

There are reports that 2666 persons came in either primary or secondary contact with 1st infected person in Bangalore. This is appalling and lacks civic behavior. (Ref: Nearly 2,700 contacts of Karnataka's coronavirus patient zero on health department radar)

These simple, courtesy steps will help contain the spread:

1) If you are coming from outside India, self-quarantine yourself for 14 days.
Minimize your contact with outside. Do not visit the office, school, market, place of worship, playground, park, gym, any public place for 14 days.

2) Everyone must practice higher personal hygiene. Hold tissue when sneeze or cough. Wash hands.

Nobody is immune & anybody can get the virus. But with good practice, a possible epidemic can be contained.

Originally Posted by sushantr5

I heard screening at Indian Airport is total mess. I am specially worried about my journey to India on 27th March. I see panic is more in India than Germany.

Few colleague recently traveled to India, they said that screening means just filling up the form. I am unable to understand why the form and declaration drama, instead of actual screening for body temperatures. Are we fixing the problem or are we fixing the responsibility? I doubt, authorities are reading and analyzing forms filled. I guess the only purpose of declaration is to fix blaim later in case of symptoms developed afterwards.

Screening at the airports is not effective since the virus may take up to 14 days to show symptoms. If the travelers's temperature is checked and found to be normal at the airports, they can still develop the infection in the next 14 days.
The declaration is to track travelers and inform/quantine them if any of their fellow travelers develop the infection.

[lazy]

Originally Posted by opendro

I disagree. Unless I'm convinced that the virus has any more fatality than any other coronavirus, I would do the same. We, Indians, are never afraid of common cold and flu, even when we are ill, leave alone being not-ill.

Lovely approach.
Such attitude combined with highly communicable infections like Covid-19 is a disaster for fellow citizens.
One can protect themselves by being careful, washing hands, not touching face etc, but how does one protect themselves when we have such folks walking around in our offices or public spaces etc or when such people keep sending thier kids to school instead of quarantining themselves and thier families.

It's not just the virus the world is fighting.

cheers
lazy

[AltoLXI]

Originally Posted by Neo18

As per the Industry norms, it takes close to 18 months for a fully tested vaccine to be released to the general public. Stage 0 (this is where animal tests are complete and limited trials are undertaken on a very small number of suitable human subjects) will be complete in approximately 12 months.

Another factor is that the coronaviruses do adapt in very novel ways. While earlier there used to be intermediate host(s) for transmission, the viruses have evolved to attach to host receptors (like humans) bypassing the intermediaries (like camels and civet cats). This will result in quest for developing a vaccine for every known strain which of course is not very effective against the unknown strains. Scientists are thus in pursuit of developing a "universal vaccine" which can target all known/future strains. It is said that there plethora of coronaviruses out there in the species like bats.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Sawyer

The only answer to this is a vaccine;

Your post sounds as if vaccines are available to order: I'm sure you know that they are not. There might not even be a vaccine available for this virus until after it ceases to be a threat!

closing down things is easy, but how and when will you open them? Even working from home isn't good - just because it is doable? Why should your service providers work to deliver things for you at home then? Are they not human too? What happens if they stop going to power stations or water supply works? Or manning the supply chains of all that is consumed at home?

The logical end to all this behaviour of looking after just oneself is a complete breakdown of society and the rule of might is right.

Working from home is not not just about oneself. It is about limiting the circumstances in which infection can spread from person to person, and from that person to countless others.

Either that, or a quick vaccine, if things are not to rapidly unravel.

There is a political/economic aspect to that, which may or may not be acceptible to bring into this thread: How profit makes the fight for a coronavirus vaccine harder. tl;dr is along the lines of Big pharma wants to develop drugs that will sell profitably for years, not one-off fixes that have to be sold at low cost.

Originally Posted by mvadg

Hand sanitizer is unavailable to those without "connections"

It doesn't matter. Soap is good!

Originally Posted by Sawyer

And of course the other equally important thing is to prioritise care for those with serious symptoms, and not treat them as pariahs. In India, we seem to be hunting them down like criminals; at times like this the worst of human nature seems to come forth first.

People all over the world have complained about quarantine and conditions thereof.

Severe lethal-stage infection with this disease requires both isolation, for the sake of others, and intensive care for the sake of the pneumonia-suffering patient. A British NHS doctor has written that their health service would be unlikely to be able to cope with large numbers requiring such care, as ICUs are hard-put to dealing with their "normal" loads as per the current state of UK's healthcare. How would India cope with this? And how many could afford such a thing if they had to go to a private hospital? Such a thing would probably wipe out my meagre wealth, and all without any guarantee of survival anyway.

[Latheesh]

Originally Posted by sushantr5

I see panic is more in India than Germany.

Confirmed 'official' cases are already ~ 1300 in Germany. I even heard people here discussing about Italy trip as flight/hotel costs are low now, beat that!

[satishv1987]

It is important we do not play it down by saying - "It is just like the flu". It is not.

Covid-19 starts off with a dry cough and fever. In the absence of specialized care,this can progressively degenerate into pneumonia. Italy is seeing a number of fatalities in the 20-30 age group. It is not a disease that will only impact old people or those with pre existing health conditions. This misconception needs to be dispelled.

Covid-19 should not be compared to the flu. However, I did read a report from the WHO that transmission is unlikely if the carrier is asymptomatic.