Corona Virus Pandemic .

Well you would want to be on another planet to miss all the commotion about the Corona virus that originated in China and has spread to the rest of the world.

It is seemingly a deadly disease that effects the airways and lungs of infected people. There is no vaccine for  it at present and no drugs to alleviate the symptoms. Measures taken to contain the virus rely on isolating people away from possible carriers of the disease and hoping that the virus dies out in the containment period. To this effect the government has ordered the closure of schools, pubs, gyms, restaurants, night clubs and so on. The airline industry is being mothballed with the lack of people travelling and lot of hotels have closed down. All in an effort to contain the virus.

Despite this the level of new cases is averaging over a hundred cases a day and it is not believed to have peaked. It is now  past the containment phase and onto the delay phase. Ireland (32 counties) is more or less in lock down along with a number of countries in Europe. The Government (along with a lot of medics ) has warned the population to follow the guidelines given out otherwise we will have a Italian situation on our hands in about two to three weeks. Government also promises to crackdown on pubs flouting the virus ban.

How long will the containment take ? Possibly longer than the 29th March and maybe beyond Easter through to May. Elderly people are especially vulnerable and so are people with underlying conditions or who suffer from other aliments but the Corona virus will infect both young and old.

Measures will have to taken to stop the eating/ slaughter of wild animals in places like China, Africa. As diseases are jumping the species barrier. The matter of why they failed to contain the virus will also need investigation.

No one knows what the death toll will be, Hopefully it will be small.

My sympathies to any one infected by the virus or who has lost someone to it.

Links of Interest .