2019 Novel Coronavirus Covid-19 Discussion

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#2579973 6-Oct-2020 11:33

lxsw20:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54423988

Absolute shambles. You can bet there will be 0% accountability for this too.

Given the number of XP machines in the NHS that got infected with wannacry in 2017,

It does not surprise me that they chose/needed to use xls ....

There will still be plenty of single task machines ( likely win7, running pre 2007 versions of excel) sitting on the end of lab test machines spitting out test reports.... there will be no funding to upgrade them and they will continue to work day in day out....

its only when you have a pandemic that blows the test numbers through the roof that 16 bit numbers show their age....

ezbee

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#2579983 6-Oct-2020 11:43

New Zealand just stamped out its third Covid-19 outbreak ( The bin lid did it )
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/we-just-stamped-out-our-third-outbreak
""
"It’s pleasing to note the extensive use of the NZ COVID Tracer app by one of these cases has significantly assisted contact tracing efforts," the September 23 Ministry of Health statement read.
""
"Internationally, there's still not been an official case of what they call fomite transmission. We might have the first one in Christchurch, where it is that real particular and not the aerosolised version of the virus," he said.

However, the virus lingering in the air around the bin as an aerosol couldn't be fully excluded.
""

Seems to be an emphasis on nailing this down to one thing like the potential elevator case, where it appears to be more a balance of potential probabilities of Air or Surface transmission.
Isolation facilities in particular should minimize communal spaces.
For surfaces regularly washing hands, or sanitizing , developing and promoting this habit is an easy solution.
Masking helps reduce probabilities of shared spaces in proportion to quality of mask, and how often its replaced.

Promoting good habits in general public is made tricky by certain high profile people and media who go nuts over fear campaign.
Tracer app with all its frustrations, and I have had a few, is more important now we are out an about as said above.
Arming people with knowledge and tools to be able to be out and more active without fear, is not a fear campaign.
Don't fear the door handle , just a spritz of sanitizer or wash your hands.

Covid while in Singapore they don't fear the forth round of mask distribution.

Around 7.6 million free reusable masks collected in fourth nationwide distribution exercise

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/around-76-million-free-reusable-masks-collected-in-fourth-nationwide-distribution

Taiwan mask vending machines in transit stations.

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#2580147 6-Oct-2020 15:58

lxsw20:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54423988

Absolute shambles. You can bet there will be 0% accountability for this too.

It's happened here in New Zealand.

Don't ask for more details than what I give here.

At a NZ hospital, doctors would create their own departments Microsoft Access databases, because

they have "God" complexes, and think they're experts in everything
they got tired of waiting on the in-house developers.

So a doctor responsible for administering radiation to cancer patient created a database tracking treatments, without letting the IT department know.

Never even approached the in-house developers.

I'm not sure if it was a bad design, or the database became corrupted, but a patient with terminal brain cancer got way too much radiation.

It was estimated to have taken two to four months off his already short life expectancy.

All swept under the carpet.

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#2580156 6-Oct-2020 16:24

In 2006 I was CIO of a (now defunct) New Zealand medical software development company. We hoped to sell our product to the NHS.

The NHS had just spend 12 billion pounds (yes, billion) on a dodgy electronic medical record system.

NHS IT: Over budget, overdue and unpopular

The day that I arrived in London to demonstrate our software, there was a small fire in the basement of one central London hospital, and the entire Greater London medical record system fell over for a week.

To make matters worse, I discovered that brand-new standard issue NHS PCs only had 250MB of RAM - not enough for our software, which needed all of 2GB of RAM (at the time, 2GB was typical in NZ school PCs).

No sale. 😕

Sideface

mattwnz

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#2580160 6-Oct-2020 16:31

lxsw20:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54423988

Absolute shambles. You can bet there will be 0% accountability for this too.

The badly thought-out use of Microsoft's Excel software was the reason nearly 16,000 coronavirus cases went unreported in England.

And it appears that Public Health England (PHE) was to blame, rather than a third-party contractor.

The issue was caused by the way the agency brought together logs produced by commercial firms paid to analyse swab tests of the public, to discover who has the virus.

They filed their results in the form of text-based lists - known as CSV files - without issue.

PHE had set up an automatic process to pull this data together into Excel templates so that it could then be uploaded to a central system and made available to the NHS Test and Trace team, as well as other government computer dashboards.

The problem is that PHE's own developers picked an old file format to do this - known as XLS.

As a consequence, each template could handle only about 65,000 rows of data rather than the one million-plus rows that Excel is actually capable of.

And since each test result created several rows of data, in practice it meant that each template was limited to about 1,400 cases.

When that total was reached, further cases were simply left off.

For a bit of context, Excel's XLS file format dates back to 1987. It was superseded by XLSX in 2007. Had this been used, it would have handled 16 times the number of cases.

In Oz, their contact tracing in Victoria was still relying on Faxes and pen and paper ! So at least they were using computers.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/sep/08/salesforce-to-digitise-victorias-covid-contact-tracing-after-federal-criticism

We don't know how NZs one was operating prior to it being "Gold Stanadard", but I hope it wasn't using faxes etc between DHBs like Oz? Guess it will all come out in the review.

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#2580236 6-Oct-2020 18:53

Don't open our borders yet.

"Iceland, an early coronavirus role model, closes bars and gyms as cases rise"

Iceland announced new coronavirus-related restrictions this weekend, following a spike in cases in recent weeks despite the island’s early success in limiting the spread of the virus.

The government ordered bars, gyms and some other businesses to close and is limiting most group gatherings to a maximum of 20 people, down from prior restrictions that capped events at 200.

The country, home to about 360,000 people, has recorded fewer than 3,000 cases of the novel coronavirus.

Icelandic officials on Monday also voiced concern over a growing number of people testing positive for the virus who had not previously been identified as having been exposed to it — a first indication the country’s contact tracing system may be starting to buckle under the strain of new cases.

Iceland’s tracing program, implemented earlier this year, earned praise early in the pandemic, alongside an ambitious testing plan, in which the country teamed up with a biotechnology company to offer free tests for anyone who wanted them.

Earlier than many other governments, Iceland vowed to ensure paid leave for anyone forced to self-quarantine or self-isolate.

The country’s strategy appeared to pay off — the number of daily new cases largely hovered in the single digits this summer.

As with New Zealand, Iceland’s remote location could have enabled the country to effectively stamp out the virus. But with tourism accounting for around 8 percent of the country’s gross domestic product before the pandemic, it reopened its borders to many European and some other travelers over the summer.

At least some of Iceland’s recent cases have been linked to tourism. State epidemiologist Gudnason recently blamed two French travelers — who both tested positive for the virus but did not self-isolate in mid-August — for a cluster of about 100 coronavirus cases on the island, the Guardian reported.

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#2580238 6-Oct-2020 18:55

Also, a good reminder: the WOF extension is due to expire.

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#2580464 7-Oct-2020 08:31

WHO boss says we may have a vaccine by the end of the year in the shortest news article I've ever read on 1 news. Literally just the one line.

nzkiwiman

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#2580567 7-Oct-2020 11:26

^ That's not news; the news will be when we have a vaccine and they have figured out the logistics to get a dose to every single person on the planet

tdgeek

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#2580572 7-Oct-2020 11:35

nzkiwiman:

^ That's not news; the news will be when we have a vaccine and they have figured out the logistics to get a dose to every single person on the planet

Yes and the articles were paragraphs with a video not a one liner. The usual negative stance on everything.

Asia, America's, Europe, they are all a long time from anything remotely usable. As you say, we need a vaccine, but it has to be good, not justa hopeful vaccine. And it needs to go to the billions in those three areas, as well as everyone else. And be affordable

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#2580652 7-Oct-2020 14:02

Press release:

There are no active community cases of COVID-19 remaining in the country after the last people from the recent outbreak have recovered from the virus, Health Minister Chris Hipkins said today.

“This is a big milestone. New Zealanders have once again through their collective actions squashed the virus. The systems that have been developed and strengthened since our first wave of COVID-19 have worked very effectively to chase down the virus, isolate it, and eliminate it,” Chris Hipkins said.

“It’s really good news, but as always we cannot sit back. Constant vigilance and team work, with everyone playing their part to ensure we stay on top of the virus, needs to be our new normal for some time to come.”

Since August 11, there have been 186 community cases of COVID-19 reported - 179 people linked to the Auckland August cluster, six people linked to the Christchurch returnees group, and the worker from the managed isolation facility at the Rydges.

“The scale and speed of the response ensured the virus was not allowed to spread unimpeded, as people worked around the clock to rapidly identify and isolate cases as they emerged in our communities, then trace and test their contacts,” Chris Hipkins said.

“The Auckland August cluster has been our largest by some margin, and it has taken considerable effort from across the health system, and from all New Zealanders, to contain this outbreak so quickly.”

In the two months since this outbreak began, laboratories nationally have processed nearly half a million tests – almost the same number as in the whole six months prior.

“This has been an extraordinary effort, and just one facet of our resurgence plan that responded to the virus re-emerging in our communities,” Chris Hipkins said.

“Everyone played their part. That came once again with enormous sacrifices, and I thank everyone for their efforts. I especially want to acknowledge members of the Pacific community in Auckland who were particularly affected by this outbreak, and whose cooperation was critical in the success of our response.”

“While having stamped out COVID-19 in our community for the second time is a real achievement that New Zealanders should be proud of, there is an ongoing risk that further community cases will emerge in the future.

“I urge New Zealanders to remain vigilant and to not let complacency creep in.”

Everyone should continue to keep a record of where they have been and who they have been with and maintain good hygiene practices. Doing this will support us remaining in Alert Level 1 as the risk of the virus spreading in the community is much greater when there are no restrictions on gatherings or going out.

“If you become unwell, stay home and seek advice on getting a COVID-19 test,” Chris Hipkins said.

One of the successes of this outbreak was the ability to rapidly trace contacts of confirmed cases, including in instances where cases had kept track of every place they had been via the NZ COVID Tracer app.

“We must all continue to keep a detailed record of where we have been and who we have seen. Part of the reason we were so successful in tracing contacts of cases so quickly in this outbreak was through the details that cases were able to provide us.

“Even though we will all be in Alert Level 1 from tomorrow, please keep using the app as part of your daily routine – it will help protect your whanau and community.”

We expect the Auckland August cluster will officially ‘close’ in four weeks – which is when there have been no new cases for two incubation periods from when all cases are considered recovered.

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#2580674 7-Oct-2020 14:22

Nice, job done again

wellygary

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#2580699 7-Oct-2020 15:19

tdgeek:

Nice, job done again

Interesting that they finally decided to declare these cases "recovered" just before going down to level 1, but hey ho..

I'm now more interested in the Sydney outbreak, after 12 days with no community cases, they have had 3 pop up, all appear unconnected....

It will be interesting to see if they can keep it under the "hotspot" limits of 10 cases a day for 3 days...

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/nsw-records-3-new-cases-of-community-transmission/news-story/1a69a28951db39bd98f14b04bff0390b

But on the other hand, Queensland is about to hit 27 days with no community transmission.... so it might be a full gold coast bubble for Christmas rather than a one way bubble to Sydney....

tdgeek

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#2580706 7-Oct-2020 15:29

wellygary:

tdgeek:

Nice, job done again

Interesting that they finally decided to declare these cases "recovered" just before going down to level 1, but hey ho..

I'm now more interested in the Sydney outbreak, after 12 days with no community cases, they have had 3 pop up, all appear unconnected....

It will be interesting to see if they can keep it under the "hotspot" limits of 10 cases a day for 3 days...

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/nsw-records-3-new-cases-of-community-transmission/news-story/1a69a28951db39bd98f14b04bff0390b

But on the other hand, Queensland is about to hit 27 days with no community transmission.... so it might be a full gold coast bubble for Christmas rather than a one way bubble to Sydney....

Not sure thats relevant. In terms of AKL Level 1 thats down to no ongoing CT cases. Recoveries dont matter, as they are out of circulation while recovering.

Australia wise. Some are manic that we are allowing Kiwis to return home, as they are the source of cases here. How will that go when if there was a two way bubble, where some states are good some are not, and you can walk, drive, rollerblade across borders? If the two way then is paid MIQ I guess it doesnt matter

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#2580708 7-Oct-2020 15:30

wellygary:

But on the other hand, Queensland is about to hit 27 days with no community transmission.... so it might be a full gold coast bubble for Christmas rather than a one way bubble to Sydney....

Yes, as if it was hard to someone to fly from New Zealand to Queensland and then find their way to Sydney...

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