*edit:

I think its unfair to say flu will kill more this year than Covid-19.
We dont know yet....  china did a amasing job, getting it under controll.

the horror scenario for covid-19 is much much worse than any flu though.

Today a private company that produce test kits in Brescia, near to the epicenter of the epidemy, have been sold an half million of them to USA... if this is normal...

These would have sufficed for the needs of the whole North Italy(Covid-19 Epicenter); however the diagnostic kits have been sold to the US and transferred by a military aircraft to Memphis. Considering also that in a month Italy have used only 150K test kits, with a 20% of positive tests, I 'm humanly disgusted by the company that made this... especially because we are doing only 15/20K tests daily, like if they were missing.

Italian Source: https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2020/03/19/news/coronavirus_tamponi_da_brescia_a_stati_uniti-251735473/?ref=RHPPTP-BL-I251736270-C12-P1-S1.12-T1

NYC now at 3615 cases according to the Mayor.

Video game retailer GameStop just sent a memo to all of its staff telling them to keep their stores open even during state lockdowns, and to tell law enforcers that it's OK because they're "essential retail"

https://kotaku.com/gamestop-we-can-stay-open-during-lockdowns-because-wer-1842415962?utm_source=Kotaku_Twitter&utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Twitter&utm_medium=Socialflow

Try "italy kits sold to usa" or this link: https://news.google.com/stories/CAAqSQgKIkNDQklTTERvSmMzUnZjbmt0TXpZd1NoOGFIV1JMYmpacFRqaFhPRzFLY2xZM1RWUktNMnRGUzFKeFpEWnNOM3BOS0FBUAE?q=italy+kits+sold+to+usa&lr=Italian&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en

There are also other sources in some of the most important italian journals:

https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2020/03/19/coronavirus-unazienda-di-brescia-invia-mezzo-milione-di-tamponi-agli-stati-uniti/5742785/

https://www.ilmessaggero.it/mondo/coronavirus_tamponi_italia_stati_uniti_news-5119120.html

Probably a response to China saying the virus same from America last week.

First death from community spread in Ontario
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/coronavirus-covid-19-ontario-thursday-emergency-bill-1.5502527

Health officials in Halton Region say Ontario's second coronavirus-linked death, a Milton man in his 50s, is a case of community transmission. 

"At this time what we know is that the individual did not travel outside of Canada recently nor was he a contact of a known case of COVID-19," Dr Hamidah Meghani, Halton's medical officer of health, said at a news conference on Thursday. 

An additional 44 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Ontario on Thursday, bringing the provincial total to 258 including two deaths and five resolved cases. Of those confirmed cases, 22 are currently hospitalized. The province remains under a state of emergency.

Meghani said the man had an underlying health condition, and that he had initially been treated at Milton District Hospital, but was transferred yesterday to Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital where he died the same day.

"We need to act now, this is the tragic proof that we need to work together to slow down the spread of COVID-19, not only as individuals but as a community, we need to take this seriously," Meghani said. 

"Gatherings and parties can wait, play dates can wait, some of your errands can also wait, allow your life to pause. Focus on what is important."




Some interesting statistics from the confirmed cases

Of the confirmed cases in Ontario, 80 per cent of the patients have travelled outside of Canada. Of those cases, 28 per cent returned from the U.S. and 26 per cent travelled in Europe, Yaffe said.

The most common U.S. states infected patients have travelled from are New York, Colorado, California, Nevada and Massachusetts.

Fifteen per cent of all cases in Ontario come from close contact with an infected individual.

Cases in the province are expected to rise as thousands of Canadians continue to return home from abroad, said Dr. David Williams, Ontario's chief medical health officer.

"The 45 [new cases] today seems surprisingly low with the flow coming in, but I won't be surprised if it goes up," Williams said.


So it seems 5% (the remainder) is from unknown origin (community spread( Of course that's without actually testing for community spread :/



A little bit of irony

Hospitals in the province are now rigorously screening visitors in the same way long-term care homes have been. Anyone who has travelled in the last 14 days or has come into contact with someone who has will be turned away.

"If you're ill you should not be visiting," Williams said.

However, if someone is there to see a loved one they may be able to negotiate with the facility on a case-by-case basis. They may be asked to take special precautions, like wearing protective clothing and masks.

I guess you can sill visit if you need medical help, but you do need to call ahead.

The number of cases under investigation in the province stands at 3,972. Health professionals told CBC Toronto on Wednesday that the wait period for test results in the province is currently between five and seven days.

This means the new infection numbers being reported each day actually represent the spread of the virus several days ago, raising questions about the actual current rate of transmission. 

FFS.

Meanwhile today on my run along the trails, there were now more people out, different families together with kids, kids playing together from different families. Closing the schools and parks doesn't help when you still have your kids meet up with friends, who meet up with other friends and so forth. I guess it's still a lot slower than putting them all together in a classroom each day.


Canada now at 814 total (+114 today) however up to seven days behind on test results, and still not testing a whole lot in general.

For example a comment on the article linked a few lines above:
"My wife was refused testing even though she was sick after contact with internationals from china and france. It is my belief that testing has been purposely limited to the hurt of Canadians. Without testing for community contact the numbers stay falsely low."

That's how politics work

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/trumps-chinese-virus-tweet/608263/

Recommended reading ^