Covid-19, five years on: this day in 2020
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Covid-19, five years on: this day in 2020
@covid5.bsky.social
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Relaying the news about Covid as it happened on this day in 2020

By @dhanendran.co.uk
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UK -- The Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been taken to hospital as a "precautionary step" after having "persistent" signs of coronavirus ten days after testing positive for the virus.
Front page of The Times, Monday April 6 2020, with the headline: "PM taken to hospital over virus symptoms"
April 5, 2025 at 10:00 AM
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UK -- People are generally observing social distancing regulations. A tweet from Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social points out that: "No one at local park is sunbathing. No one in non-household groups. Everyone socially distancing. Further restrictions... seem highly unnecessary." buff.ly/JVtyvHf
Sam Freedman @Samfr · Apr 5, 2020 No one at local park is sunbathing. No one in non-household groups. Everyone socially distancing. Further restrictions- unless there's clear evidence in the data - seem highly unnecessary.
April 5, 2025 at 8:00 AM
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UK -- Torsten Bell (@torstenbell.bsky.social) of the Resolution Foundation posts a chart to his email list showing that it's unlikely that the government will be able to return to its pre-Covid "austerity" agenda:
Chart 5 – (Not) repeating austerity …taxes will rise. No consolidation should come until we are out of this crisis, but it will come eventually. And when it does tax rises are going to be doing the work they conspicuously didn’t do post-financial crisis. Some will say that the tax to GDP ratio is already heading back to its highest since the 80s, so taxes simply can’t go up. The answer to which is 1) an ageing society means the tax take is simply bigger over time 2) our tax take during the 80s and 90s was artificially low given our spending as the state ran down it’s assets 3) actually the total tax paid by households relative to their income has if anything fallen over time, from around 37 per cent in the late 1970s to 34 per cent recently. Part of this is successive reductions in income tax shown below (see original TOTC here).
April 3, 2025 at 3:00 PM
covid5.bsky.social
UK -- BBC disinformation reporter Alistair Coleman (@alistaircoleman.bsky.social) says a new conspiracy theory going around purports that the government is advertising on the new £20 note the fact that it’s using 5G towers to spread coronavirus.
Alistair Coleman @alistaircoleman · Apr 3, 2020 There’s a ridiculous conspiracy theory going around that the government is advertising the fact that it’s using 5G towers to spread coronavirus on [checks notes] the new £20 note.
April 3, 2025 at 11:01 AM
covid5.bsky.social
UK -- The Economist newspaper has published a chart breaking down the digital surveillance techniques being used in the fight against coronavirus and the risk each poses to civil liberties.
Economist chart: Ways forward Data tools for the covid-19 pandemic Application Quarantine enforcement Contact tracing Purpose Knowing people are where they should be Knowing whose paths have crossed Flow modelling Social-graph making Source: The Economist The Economist Knowing how many people pass through places, and how quickly Knowing which people tend to meet repeatedly Data source GPS data sent from bracelet or phone Top down: Government takes data from platforms Bottom up: Phones provide data to each other Mobile-phone-tower data Civil liberties risk Medium High Low Low Mobile-phone-tower data with machine learning High Where it's happening Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, China Singapore, S. Korea Worldwide Google, US, probably more Nowhere known
March 31, 2025 at 2:04 PM
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USA -- Analyst Benedict Evans reports in his newsletter that Amazon is hiring 100,000 more workers and shopping service Instacart is hiring 300,000, each to deal with massively increased demand thanks to the pandemic.
🗞 News Ecommerce forced adoption: Amazon is hiring 100k more people to handle demand and Instacart is adding 300k (!). I keep wondering how much of this forced adoption will stick once we get back to normal - some things that were inevitable will be accelerated, but there is also now a mass experiment for lots of other fields. Where physical retail is acting as a logistics endpoint, converting it to delivery is mostly a unit economics question (and that will vary by product), but a lot of retail is about more than that - service, discovery, curation, or just leisure. So, how much of that gets converted to Instagram? Does the D2C bubble re-inflate? Links: Amazon, Instacart
March 30, 2025 at 12:01 PM
covid5.bsky.social
Europe -- a comparison using Citymapper data shows London's public transport network is now at eight per cent of normal traffic while Stockholm's is at 25 per cent.

Via Jon Prideaux on Twitter (x.com/jonprideaux/...)
Citymapper graph showing London and Stockholm's relative transport usage
March 30, 2025 at 10:04 AM
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UK -- The police are facing "a battle" to prevent people leaving their homes, The Times newspaper has reported buff.ly/818buYT
Police are powerless to stop people leaving home repeatedly every day, or driving to nature spots to exercise, chief officers admitted as forces began issuing coronavirus lockdown fines. The public need to be aware that “this is a national emergency, not a national holiday”, the head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) warned as forces braced themselves for people taking advantage of a sunny weekend.
March 28, 2025 at 9:00 AM
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UK -- On Twitter Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social writes a tongue-in-cheek comparison of lockdown measures around Europe buff.ly/MRcrlUJ
The "lock down" videos from different countries say so much about our cultures. France: police kicking people not complying in the balls Italy: mayors furiously gesticulating at random people. England: police ineffectually pleading at people through a megaphone.
March 25, 2025 at 10:00 AM
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UK -- Banks are staying open but are reducing their hours and asking customers not to come in if they can avoid doing so. This email from Nationwide explains the company's measures in place:
3. Stay away from our branches if you can The government’s latest advice around social distancing and the need to protect the most vulnerable in our society by asking them to stay at home means we need to change the branch services we offer. We’re reducing branch opening hours The core hours in our branches will be reducing from Tuesday 24 March. We are only offering basic day-to-day banking services and we may need to temporarily close branches at short notice, so please check the latest on our branch finder before you travel. We’re enforcing social distancing If you do have to visit, you’ll only be able to come inside our branch when it’s safe to do so, which means you may need to queue outside the branch if it’s busy. We’ll ask you to respect social distancing measures we have in place. That means standing two metres away from colleagues and other members. If you have to queue outside, please ensure you keep each other safe by maintaining the two metre gap outside too. Please don’t visit us in branch if you or someone in your household has a new and continuous cough or a high temperature. This is so important if we are to protect our NHS and save lives.
March 24, 2025 at 3:00 PM
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UK -- In an email to customers, online supermarket Ocado reports that it is undergoing 10 times as much demand as it had before the pandemic. It stopped taking orders for two days last week. Customers are now limited to one delivery per week, and some items are limited to one or two per customer.
As you will be aware, the Prime Minister addressed the nation last night, to announce some important and necessary measures in the fight against Coronavirus (COVID-19). We currently have around 10 times more demand for our services now than we did before the outbreak began, and with every announcement, we see a further extraordinary surge of customers to ocado.com. No matter how hard we work, we will not have enough capacity to serve the unprecedented levels of demand. As I’m sure you will have seen, we took the call to not take any new orders for two days last week, which was an exceptionally difficult decision to make. This didn’t mean we closed for business. Quite the opposite: all delivery slots during this period were sold out, and our colleagues worked tirelessly to deliver groceries to over 80,000 homes. It also gave us the opportunity to make some important changes to the website, changes like freeing up more slots so more customers can get the delivery they need. The good news is that the site has been up and running again since Saturday. The virtual queue is still there (this is vital to control the flow to ocado.com and keep the site operating smoothly) but, with patience, existing customers can continue to shop with us and edit orders. When we can confirm the availability of personal shoppers and drivers, we will release new delivery slots. These new slots will be released every day for the coming week, as and when we have capacity. These are some of the other important changes we’ve made to make it fairer for all: 1. Customers can only book one delivery slot every seven days, freeing up more slots for customers. 2. We’re making sure there’s enough for everyone by working closely with suppliers to constantly restock, so all customers get what they’ve ordered each time they shop. To help with fair distribution, some products are limited to one or two per order. 3. We’ve reviewed our range to make sure we have everything you need
March 24, 2025 at 2:00 PM
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UK -- Travel app Citymapper's "Mobility Index" shows that the number of people travelling in London, already down as people avoid crowded shops and offices, is down to 15 per cent of normal after the Prime Minister's "you must stay at home" message yesterday.
Image from Citymapper on March 23 showing travel in London at 15 per cent Image from Citymapper on March 24 showing travel in London at 25 per cent
March 24, 2025 at 12:00 PM
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USA -- News website Vox announces that it has deleted a tweet (buff.ly/ii2T8mX) from January in which it said "Is this going to be a deadly pandemic? No"
Screenshot of a tweet from @voxdotcom, taken by Twitter user @JerylBier https://x.com/JerylBier/status/1242537702349836288) which says: What is this #coronavirus? It's part of a family of viruses that attack the respiratory system. Should I travel during the outbreak? The CDC and the State Department advise avoiding travel to China for now. Is this going to be a deadly pandemic? No.
March 24, 2025 at 10:00 AM
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Europe -- Travel app Citymapper has started releasing data for various cities showing how transport levels have dropped in each place. buff.ly/tT01lhk
A screenshot of the Citymapper Mobility Index showing Milan with 9% of normal movement, and London with 83% of normal movement.
March 19, 2025 at 12:00 PM
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UK -- Many National Trust venues across the country are closing, the trust has announced.
Following the Prime Minister’s announcements about the need for social distancing as part of the coronavirus response efforts, many of the National Trust’s places are closing temporarily. I know you’ll have a lot to think about during these uncertain times but I want to thank you for your continued support and let you know what we can do to support you and your loved ones in return. The National Trust was founded for the benefit of the entire nation. Our role is to help people and nature to thrive, and we exist because millions of us share the belief that nature, beauty and history are for everyone. We'll try to keep open spaces available as far as possible, including coast and countryside while observing social distancing measures. We know that you and your loved ones are likely to need space and fresh air and we will do all we can to provide this. And while it might not be possible to visit all our places in person, they are still very much open for business virtually. You can check out our website and our collections online featuring objects and exhibits; download our podcasts and videos, and catch up on what’s new by registering for our newsletters. You can stay in touch with us on social media. We have lots of free content for you to enjoy. Over the coming weeks we will be ramping up our efforts to help people connect with nature, wherever they are. There is so much beauty to behold in the spring, even just from our windows. As always, I want to thank you for all you do to care for the nature, beauty and history that help unite and sustain us. Your ongoing support for our mission is greatly appreciated. The National Trust wishes you and yours continued safety and good health.
March 19, 2025 at 11:00 AM
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UK -- A patient has sent a pizza delivery to staff at the Whittington Hospital in London as they struggle to cope with massively increased demand. buff.ly/z9QfA0D
@RichardOsley on Twitter This one's nice. A thankful patient sent boxes of pizza to NHS staff at the Whittington Hospital, who are facing the shifts of their lives during the coronavirus crisis.
March 19, 2025 at 9:00 AM
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UK -- All cricket in the UK has been suspended, the governing body the ECB has announced.
Dear all, Following the Government’s latest advice around social distancing, it is with sadness and reluctance that we recommend that all forms of recreational cricket are for now suspended. This extends to training, pre-season friendlies and any associated cricket activity. Sport plays an absolutely vital role in the nation’s mental and physical wellbeing, and it helps people find meaning where there is fear and uncertainty, so one of our goals in the coming weeks will be to explore ways that we can support some levels of physical activity in communities - particularly at junior levels. Using our cricket community to support others could be one of the most important services we can offer during the difficult next few months. It will be critical that any decisions we do make are medically-led. And we will continue to work with Government and their advisors to ensure we are informed by science in our decision making. Over the coming weeks we will work with the game to understand what support is required across the cricket community, particularly local clubs and leagues. We understand that countless hours of work from thousands of volunteers have already gone into getting ready for the 2020 season and we know how disappointing this will be. We are thankful for the huge role that volunteers play in local cricket, to ensure the game remains at the heart of communities. We know that you and your clubs can play an important role in bringing your community together once we get past this period of time.
March 18, 2025 at 9:00 AM
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USA -- British gossip newsletter Popbitch has reported that actor Jared Leto "has just emerged from a 12-day meditation retreat in the desert, where he claims to have been totally oblivious to the global pandemic"
>> Water palaver << Jared's expensive wash Jared Leto has just emerged from a 12-day meditation retreat in the desert, where he claims to have been totally oblivious to the global pandemic that's been raging on without him. Here's hoping he had the foresight to stock up on mineral water before he left, because he may well struggle to adequately protect himself against coronavirus if he didn't. During a big photoshoot back in 2017, one of Jared's team was instructed to tell the on-set crew that Jared was "allergic to water" – insisting that if they wanted to take any pictures of him in the swimming pool then they would have to empty it entirely and refill it with Evian.
March 18, 2025 at 9:00 AM
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UK -- The British Library is to close until further notice, it has announced.
To keep our users and all our staff safe and healthy we’ve taken the decision to close our Reading Rooms and public spaces in London and Boston Spa for the time being, and suspend our public events. Over the coming weeks we will continue to offer as many online services as we possibly can so that the British Library remains open to everyone, wherever you are in the world. And we will be working hard to maintain this access during these unprecedented times. You can continue to view and explore our online collection. There are also many stories, images and resources available for anyone whose curious mind needs to be kept busy right now. If you were planning to attend an upcoming event or exhibition we’ll be in touch to let you know if and when these will be rescheduled or to arrange a refund. Please bear with us while we make these arrangements. In the meantime we’ll keep you posted on any changes and let you know as soon as our buildings can reopen.
March 18, 2025 at 8:00 AM
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UK -- Supermarket delivery firm Ocado reports that customers are struggling to order, as people try to use the service instead of joining queues for supermarkets. The company has implemented a "virtual queue" to try to limit the effect on its servers.
I’m very sorry our service isn’t running as smoothly as you’re used to at the moment. Like all supermarkets, we are working round the clock to keep up with high demand and make sure everyone gets what they need. We may not always get it perfectly right but we are trying our best. Thank you for bearing with us. I’d also like to take this chance to thank our amazing drivers and warehouse staff who are working tirelessly to deliver groceries to as many people as possible in these uncertain times. Their dedication and hard work is truly amazing. Naturally, the safety and wellbeing of everyone connected to Ocado remains our priority. We will continue to follow the latest advice from the Government and the World Health Organisation while the Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation continues. These are some of the changes we’ve put in place so far: Receiving a delivery. Your driver will knock and greet you as normal, but they will then place the bags on your doorstep. They will no longer be carrying them into your home or handing them to you directly. Also, please do not hand any used bags back, they will not be able to take them. Placing an order in advance. Delivery slots are selling a lot faster than usual, so we suggest booking one or more ahead of time to avoid disappointment. We are releasing further delivery slots as soon as they become available. Don’t forget, slots are bookable up to three weeks in advance. We’ve switched off the app. Due to performance issues driven by continued high demand, we have decided to keep our app offline for the time being. In the meantime, please shop on our website instead. Managing the flow to the website. We have also launched a new queueing system on the website to manage the increased demand. This will help us to give you the best shopping experience possible under the current circumstances. If you see a page saying you’re in a virtual queue just sit tight, don’t close or refresh the page or you’ll lose your place.
March 17, 2025 at 4:01 PM
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UK — the streets of Soho and London’s west end are deserted this evening as people heed the Prime Minister’s request for people to avoid unnecessary travel
A deserted Old Compton Street in Soho
March 16, 2025 at 9:45 PM
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UK -- On The Jeremy Vine Show, the model and businesswoman Caprice Bourret has an altercation with a doctor, Sarah Jarvis, who dismisses Caprice's support for a lockdown as "complete and utter nonsense".
March 16, 2025 at 9:29 PM
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Tan says: "There is no longer any reason to believe that coronavirus response should be “measured” and “sensible” in the conventional way. [Such] measures are now available only to countries which responded incredibly swiftly to the prospect of an outbreak and were thus able to contain it early."
tl;dr: You should be very concerned about coronavirus based on evidence from the last week of developments. You should take action on your concern. This is not the same as panicking about coronavirus. See below for details and justification. Governments and leaders of organizations should all take disproportionately extreme, apparently unreasonable measures to limit the transmission of coronavirus. See below for details and justification.
March 11, 2025 at 10:00 AM
covid5.bsky.social
USA -- Hospitals and health authorities around the country are setting up spaces for potential future testing of Covid-19 cases.
https://x.com/norcommmedia/status/1237528038604038144 COVID-19 UPDATE THE NORWOOD HEALTH DEPARTMENT AND NORWOOD HOSPITAL WOULD LIKE TO NOTIFY RESIDENTS THAT ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11. THE HOSPITAL WILL BE ERECTING A MEDICAL TENT OUTSIDE OF THE EMER- GENCY ROOM FOR POTENTIAL FUTURE TESTING OF NOVEL CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) CASES. PLEASE NOTE, CURRENTLY, TESTS ARE ONLY BEING ADMINISTERED TO INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT THEY NEED TO BE TESTED BY LOCAL PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS. PLEASE CONTINUE TO MON- ITOR UPDATES BY VISITING THE MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH (DPH) WEBSITE AT HTTPS://WWW.MASS.GOV/RESOURCE/INFORMATION-ON-THE-OUTBREAK-OF- CORONAVIRUS-DIS- EASE-2019-COVID-19. THE MEDICAL TENT WILL BE LOCATED ON THE BACKSIDE OF THE HOSPITAL IN THE PARKING LOT CLOSE TO THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT.
March 10, 2025 at 9:00 AM
covid5.bsky.social
UK -- The Queen has decided to stop shaking hands with members of the public, the Daily Mail reports.
Rebecca English @RE_DailyMail on Twitter The Queen has decided to stop shaking hands with members of the public, I've been told. The royal household is still following government advice, which does not ban handshaking, but I understand it's 'currently Her Majesty's personal preference' not to shake hands #coronavirus
March 10, 2025 at 8:00 AM