[LKJ1988]

Originally Posted by Florida2014

Totally agree! The world will run out of food in the next 3 weeks, mark it down! And I plan on shooting my neighbors to take their food as well. Can never be too prepared!

I would think you would need it when all things fog up and go down hill. Peeps will break into homes looking for food if all comes to a end.

[Arcenal813]

Originally Posted by LKJ1988

I would think you would need it when all things fog up and go down hill. Peeps will break into homes looking for food if all comes to a end.

Coronavirus: Apocolypse 2020...

[Miss Hepburn]

Oh no, not Florida. Too many seniors.
It will be interesting to see life in the US in 3 weeks.
But, I'll have my TP.

[LKJ1988]

I don't really care bear. I am fine as it is. This event won't be the big 1. This is how the planet takes care of itself over millions of years with these bugs. Way too many peeps on the planet by billions and it is over stressed at it is. Less peeps would help the planet.

[Arcenal813]

Originally Posted by LKJ1988

I don't really care bear. I am fine as it is. This event won't be the big 1. This is how the planet takes care of itself over millions of years with these bugs. Way too many peeps on the planet by billions and it is over stressed at it is. Less peeps would help the planet.

More or less my sentiments. Looking at where this came from, it's no shocker. Overpopulated, dirty air, poor sanitary conditions (outside of the major urban centers...) Yep, recipe for disaster.

[Yac]

Please keep this thread only for local news for Florida. Other posts, speculations, etc. will be deleted or the thread will be closed. If you want to discuss more general issues, please do so in the Current events or Health forums

[WRnative]

Florida state officials report a lack of testing kits in Florida; only 100 Floridians had been tested as of 3/5.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/hea...240855611.html

COVID-19 fatality rates are much higher for the elderly, especially those with underlying medical problems, making Florida especially vulnerable to COVID-19.

https://www.cato.org/blog/covid-19-d...-who-estimates

A massive testing blitz in Korea, even inclusive of drive-through testing stations, apparently is keeping its COVID-19 fatality rate low. The effort also apparently is lowering the rate of new infections by checking "community spread."

<<South Korea is experiencing the largest virus epidemic outside of China, where the pneumonia-causing pathogen first took root late last year. But unlike China, which locked down a province of more than 60 million people to try and stop the illness spreading, Korea hasn’t put any curbs on internal movement in place, instead testing hundreds of thousands of people everywhere from clinics to drive-through stations.

It appears to be paying off in a lower-than-average mortality rate. The outbreak is also showing signs of being largely contained in Daegu, the city about 150 miles south of Seoul where most of the country’s more than 5,700 infections have emerged. South Korea reported the rate of new cases dropped three days in a row. >>

Unlike in the U.S., after Trump administration cutbacks of pandemic preparedness programs, Korea was prepared for the introduction of a novel virus.

<<An outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in 2015 killed 38 people in South Korea, with a lack of kits to test for the MERS pathogen meaning infected patients went from hospital to hospital seeking help, spreading the virus widely. Afterward, the country created a system to allow rapid approval of testing kits for viruses which have the potential to cause pandemics....

In a short space of time, South Korea has managed to test more than 140,000 people for the novel coronavirus, using kits with sensitivity rates of over 95%, according to the director of the Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine.

That’s in stark contrast to countries like its neighbor Japan and the U.S., where the issues China experienced early on -- with unreliable and inadequate testing resulting in thousands of infected patients not being quarantined until it was too late -- are now threatening to play out.>>

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...virus-outbreak

https://www.worldometers.info/corona...id-19-testing/

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-...across-the-u-s

This Fortune article explains why the U.S. lags far behind other countries in testing for COVID-19, but unfortunately it's behind a pay wall.

https://fortune.com/2020/03/03/coronavirus-us-test/

[Corrie22]

WRnative...you live in Ohio.....Ohio didn't have any test kits at all until today.....zero...nada...zilch....

[Variable]

Authorities still don't know how or where the Sarasota/Bradenton person with coronovirus caught it. This person didn't travel and didnt knowingly associated with travelers. Possible community spread?

In the mean time, Florida doesn't have enough capacity to perform tests even if a doctor orders the test. Florida is stating they only will test if the person traveled to known region and has symptoms or has symptoms and also had close contact with a person that is positive . As of Mar 5th.

Florida rules for who can get tested might change in the future if more test kits become available. Also the 3 State labs in Florida are overwhelmed and taking 48 hours to test. Commercial labs might start testing also, but date when this will occur is unknown. Might be days or weeks before commercial labs are setup for testing.

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by Corrie22

WRnative...you live in Ohio.....Ohio didn't have any test kits at all until today.....zero...nada...zilch....

Like Florida, Ohio doesn't produce its own viral test kits. That's the responsibility of the federal government. Ohio's elderly population is 15.6 percent 62 or older compared to 16.2 percent nationally, and 20.3 percent in Florida. Unlike Florida, Ohio does not yet have any confirmed OVID-19 cases and so likely isn't a priority for allocations of test kits? So, what's your point?

https://www.infoplease.com/us/compre...-statistics-48

https://www.infoplease.com/us/popula...on-sex-and-age

https://www.infoplease.com/us/compre...-statistics-48

Ohio's Republican governor Mike DeWine has scaled back substantially The Arnold Sports Festival, a gigantic athletic competition held annually in Columbus, by banning spectators. The Arnold begins tomorrow. Cleveland is scheduled to host a first round venue for NCAA's March Madness, as well as the MAC annual basketball tournament. It would seem possible, barring some new developments, such as massive testing, control, and a decline in new infections, such as is occurring in Korea, DeWine also will ban spectators from these upcoming Cleveland sporting events that draw out-of-Ohio visitors. DeWine's worry is over events that draw spectators from outside of Ohio, especially internationally, unlike sporting events continued to be hosted in Ohio, such as Ohio State basketball games and pro sports events, that mostly draw visitors from within Ohio, which does not yet have any confirmed OVID-19 infections.

https://abc6onyourside.com/news/coro...e-city-leaders

<<Banning spectators and canceling [The Arnold] will likely have a big impact on [Columbus]. An estimated 200,000 people who visit the event contribute $53 million to the economy and fill 18,000 hotel rooms.>>

https://www.newarkadvocate.com/story...al/4945991002/

The Arnold in particular as a global attraction would seem to have a similar OVID-19 threat level as Disney World and other Florida attractions such as Universal Orlando that attract foreign visitors. It will be interesting to see what drastic actions, if any, are taken in Florida in an attempt to limit OVID-19 risks, especially given the much greater economic importance of international tourism to Florida's economy.

A threat to both Ohio and Florida also would be visitors from a U.S. OVID-19 hotspot, such as Washington state.

Blanket and easy, affordable COVID-19 testing, as in Korea, perhaps would allow infected persons to self quarantine and limit community spread of OVID-19 in anticipation of the virus infection rate declining, as higher temperatures and humidity are expected to limit infections, as with the flu, as summer approaches. Obviously, Florida will experience higher temperatures and humidity much earlier than Ohio, and that may be factor in Florida's emergency considerations. However, if Florida does become a hotspot for OVID-19 infections, all bets are off.

Nobody knows for certain yet if OVID-19 community spread will decline substantially during warmer, more humid months.

All Disney theme parks in Asia (China and Japan) are closed currently in an attempt to limit OVID-19 community spread.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/28/toky...-concerns.html