New ‘cluster’ referred to by BBC only hints at real story as Johnson prepared to relax lock-down
The South Korean government issued an emergency order on Friday for the closure of all bars in Seoul after a single clubber infected at least 40 people and exposed over 1,900 more to the coronavirus. The closure is indefinite.
The authorities were forced to trace the contacts of the 29-year-old man, who has not been named, after his night out in the Itaewon district of Seoul – and have so far found at least forty people confirmed with the infection. The country had previously been free of domestic transmission of the virus after an extensive and rigorous programme of testing, tracing and isolating as recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The man is believed to have been asymptomatic – like half to three quarters of all coronavirus-infected people at any given time.
The BBC News channel has reported the move and described it as a response to ‘a new cluster’, but so far does not appear to have included the detail that a single infected source was involved. Warning that the country will be judged on its ability to prevent the spread of the infection beyond the Itaewon cluster, South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun gave details of the incident:
It seems that community spread occurred from a silent spreader who visited nightlife spots during the long holiday from April 30 to May 5.
South Korea’s proactive test-and-trace programme has enabled the country to limit coronavirus deaths to just 236 as of yesterday, without a lock-down. The UK government ignored the WHO recommendations and has seen over 32,000 deaths according to official figures, but the real toll is thought by many experts to be much higher – with some estimating as many as 70,000 or more.
In spite of the continuing high infection and death rates in the UK, which have made this country the worst-performing major nation in the world in fighting the pandemic, Boris Johnson is expected to announce a relaxation of the lock-down this evening. This has been attributed to pressure from the Conservatives’ corporate backers, though Johnson is likely to once again claim a scientific basis for the decision.
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FORESIGHT: MORE AVOIDABLE DEATHS will happen here if johnson continues on his deadly trajectory.
What use letting thousands more die❓❓❓ Surely tax Richard Branson, Phillip Green, Mike Ashley, the Hinduja brothers, the Barclay brothers, the Duke of Westminster, Charles & Mrs Parker-Bowles, Mrs Saxe-Coburg Gotha … no more addresses to the nation Maam until u put your vast wealth where your mouth is.
But surely tax all of the above and others properly and SAVE LIVES with lockdown. Allow the many to reflect. Develop other interests and talents. Prepare PREPARE for a Covid-19 world. THINK of how things must change and how to change them and SUSTAIN those POSITIVE changes for the next 300 years.
Surely that should be the TRUE LABOUR vision🌹🌹🌹
👍Signpost, Better still, nationalise the lot of it! Much of it seized after the Norman Conquest. C
Carlene, i was about to type PILFERED … then thought, restraint… exercise some restraint… u know how i get worked up. Its just so sad Carlene to see what seems avoidable. People have learnt to believe all sorts of myths to keep themselves as serfs.and slaves. The many have been taught to believe that the few are better than them.
The phone ins re Banker’s crisis, MPs expenses scandal etc showed that self helped serfdom. I cannot tell you the number of people who said they were poor but believe if we did not bail out bankers they would leave. None ever said where the bankers would go. Yet not a single multimillionaire parasitic banker phoned in. They paid Angela Knight handsomely to do that and so she did!!! Yet poor people used their time, and passion to phon day in day out, giving their knowledge of the deepest psyche of bankers they have never met, and share not the slightest positive connection.
DITTO re MPs expenses. The exploited are convinced that those who failed them like Bliar and Starner and May, Cameron, Major, etc who facilitated the flogging of state assets to every tax exiled and foreign hedge-funds you can imagine, deserve higher pay and then they would not need to abuse the expenses. I kid you not. Why and how I remain optimistic, continues to surprise me. 🌹🌹🌹
Sudden death of scheme to isolate incomers from abroad? Dropped by Johnson rather than face vitriol of Patel who has argued its essential to keep our borders wide open presumably to assist the alternative govt policy about herd immunity. If he loses her support the ‘wets’ in his cabinet may out vote him. He’s an incredibly weak PM buffeted by Cummings and the Press barons to sabotage his own policy. Once again he lets Cummings leak the new slogan to try and wrong foot the Devolved Nations.
Mayor of Seoul has closed bars in Itaewon district of that city, equivalent of (say) Soho. Their worry is that the person who tested +ve had visited a gaybar or two and as homosexuality is far from being totally accepted they are concerned that people with whom he came in contact with may be reluctant to come forward for testing.
“One infected clubber”………….surely an insignificant individual in the great scheme of things? You have to see the bigger picture, don’t you Boris?
Well seeing as opening bars/clubs isn’t even on our horizon yet in the UK, this from S. Korea serves as a useful heads-up.
Let’s hope it’s heeded!