Overnight we had ten new cases confirmed for a total of 54. Authorities are now conducting home testing in three large cities and so that number will rise. Later today the Prime Minister will announce the specifics of further restrictions.

For context, Slovakia has about five million people and is about half the size of New York State. Much of the country is mountainous and lives in small to medium sized cities. The capital has about 600,000.

TheFirebird. Just curious, what kind of work do you do over in Slovakia ? I've always liked the idea of working abroad for a time but not speaking the local language might be tough.

This should be it's own thread! Where did the cruise originate, you are saying Spain? People starting to get crazy?

third coast.. said:

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I am on a ship in the Med and we have been quarantined to the ship since 1 MAR when we departed Rota Spain after an overnight stay. We are supposed to be headed to Panama at some point in the near future, but no idea if we will be allowed off of the ship there or not. there will be a lot of people on board who will be overdue to get off the ship and want to go home. its wild out here.

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In the past couple of days, Panama closed its ports to all cruise ships. That is what has been publically announced thus far. Cargo ships are one thing because gotta keep the supply chains functioning, but seems many places are not interested in tourist visitors right now.

cypress-ag said:

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TheFirebird. Just curious, what kind of work do you do over in Slovakia ? I've always liked the idea of working abroad for a time but not speaking the local language might be tough.

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I work in public affairs. I do speak the language, although this is an odd one to learn. There is a decent expat community of Americans that manage without it but outside the capital would be tough.

Just got an email that there is a confirmed case at my daughter's international school. A high school student tested positive and my daughter is early elementary, but it is one facility. We will see how it develops.

third coast.. said:

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I am on a ship in the Med and we have been quarantined to the ship since 1 MAR when we departed Rota Spain after an overnight stay. We are supposed to be headed to Panama at some point in the near future, but no idea if we will be allowed off of the ship there or not. there will be a lot of people on board who will be overdue to get off the ship and want to go home. its wild out here.

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Damn, that's a real lockdown. Don't go crazy man

I though Boris Johnson announced this morning that everyone over 70 had to do a 4 month quarantine?

I'll need to check. Been busy today and haven't paid much attention to the news. I was out a lot earlier today and did see tons of old people shopping who were definitely over 70.

Also forgot to add... I made a wine store run earlier and the lady working the register said they had been slammed all day like it was the week before Christmas.

It will be interesting to see how the various strategies play out over the coming weeks and months. It will help the whole world prepare for future outbreaks.

From a cultural standpoint, Brits typically take longer to make decisions, but decisions once made are usually more effective and lasting. Knee jerk decisions are very rare here. That sometimes works out better and sometimes worse.

I'm very curious how public health care systems like the NHS perform against private in the US. When all of this plays out and is over, the data will be very interesting and we should have many lessons learned moving forward.

I am in Guatemala. We had our first confirmed case on Friday. It was a man returning from visiting family in Italy. In the last 48 hours things have escalated rapidly.

Schools are closed until at least after Holy Week. Europeans, Americans, and nationals from several Asian countries are banned from entering Guatemala. No gatherings over 100 people are permitted. Grocery stores have been insane. I tried to go shopping Friday afternoon but gave up.

TXCityAggie said:

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I am in Guatemala. We had our first confirmed case on Friday. It was a man returning from visiting family in Italy. In the last 48 hours things have escalated rapidly.

Schools are closed until at least after Holy Week. Europeans, Americans, and nationals from several Asian countries are banned from entering Guatemala. No gatherings over 100 people are permitted. Grocery stores have been insane. I tried to go shopping Friday afternoon but gave up.

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That really is a quick escalation, especially with just one case. Could however, look really smart.

Today the expected closures of all but essential business was announced: groceries, medicine, sanitary supplies, gasoline. The nations largest factories will likely be idled tomorrow (mostly auto plants). Public and private hospitals and clinics to defer elective and non-emergency surgeries and procedures.

I'm in Aus/NZ.

Each country is enforcing a mandatory 14 day self isolation upon arrival. I was meant to fly to Aus this week but that has been put on the back burner.

No massive panics here although some ******* from Australia got tested for COVID-19 and decided to say "**** it" and still get on a plane to New Zealand. He ended up testing positive.

New Zealand has only 8 cases at this point and went six days without a new case last week.

Aust Ag said:

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TXCityAggie said:

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I am in Guatemala. We had our first confirmed case on Friday. It was a man returning from visiting family in Italy. In the last 48 hours things have escalated rapidly.

Schools are closed until at least after Holy Week. Europeans, Americans, and nationals from several Asian countries are banned from entering Guatemala. No gatherings over 100 people are permitted. Grocery stores have been insane. I tried to go shopping Friday afternoon but gave up.

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That really is a quick escalation, especially with just one case. Could however, look really smart.

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The government here is well aware that they are in no way prepared to handle an outbreak of the virus like we are seeing in Europe and the USA. If it gets loose here then it will be really bad. Today there are a couple of more confirmed cases and the first death.

Just updating Panama number of confirmed cases - which I thought might be interesting to some since Panama has a tropical climate. We are now at 55 cases (Day 7 after first confirmed case).

Here is the cases here and the government's actions:

Day 1 (Monday) : 1 case
Day 2: 8 cases (Panama closed all schools nationwide and any events greater w/ 50 or more, all sports cancelled)
Day 3: 14 cases (Panama passed some laws giving tax breaks to employers allowing work-at-home)
Day 4: 27 cases (Panama passed restrictions at all supermarkets nationwide limiting purchases per person of certain items to address hoarding)
Day 5: 36 cases
Day 6: 43 cases (No flights allowed into country from Asia or Europe, ports closed to any cruise ships)
Day 7 (Today): 55 cases (All bars, casinos, gyms now closed. Restaurants not allowed dining on-site, only take-out orders and food deliveries allowed)

Of the 55 cases, about 10 are hospitalized. The other 45 or so are in self-quarantine at home with mild symptoms. There has been 1 death credited to coronavirus so far.

Panama's confirmed numbers actually rising higher than some larger neighbors like Colombia, but some of that may be due to Panama aggressively testing. They announced early in the week that they had about 3000 test kits in stock and were in the process of getting more.

Where in Guatemala? Just curious, as I've traveled all over it. Not recently, of course, but in the past.

I'm in the Canary Islands which are part of spain and we started our nation wide lockdown today.

Fun times.

Guatemala City

Updating: my eight year old is officially on mandatory home quarantine due to positive tests at her school. It does not apply to family members. But this will be a rough two weeks without forest walks.

Severe restrictions remain in place. Borders all effectively sealed.

News in Tenerife is that many in the Spanish Gov do not think the 14 day lock down will be near the end of it. They expect that length to be expanded considerably.

Are the hot woman immune from catching the virus there? Just kidding and thank you for the info/feedback thus far.

I am in Nigeria at the moment and scheduled to return to Texas on April 2nd, but contemplating on staying put in order to mitigate catching the virus, if I haven't already been exposed to it, on the trip home and introducing it to the family or community I live in. The folks I work with are mainly ex-pats and a whole slue of them had flown in from all over the world prior to this thing blowing up (late Feb to as recent as Mar 14). As of this moment, we have implemented a mandatory 14-day self isolation upon entering the country if flying from mostly every country sans South Africa.

Someone I know IRL is on TexAgs.

Just updating Panama number of confirmed cases - which I thought might be interesting to some since Panama has a tropical climate. We are now at 69 cases (Day 8 after first confirmed case).

Here is the cases here and the government's actions:

Day 1 (Monday - March 9th) : 1 case
Day 2: 8 cases (Panama closed all schools nationwide and prohibited events w/ 50 or more, all sports cancelled)
Day 3: 14 cases (Panama passed some laws giving tax breaks to employers to encourage work-at-home)
Day 4: 27 cases (Panama passed restrictions at all supermarkets nationwide limiting purchases per person of certain items)
Day 5: 36 cases
Day 6: 43 cases (No flights allowed into country from Asia or Europe, ports closed to any cruise ships)
Day 7: 55 cases (All bars, casinos, gyms now closed. Restaurants not allowed dining on-site, only take-out orders and food deliveries allowed)
Day 8 (Today): 69 cases, 7 of them hospitalized. And 4 of the 69 cases are doctors (3 having to now stay at home and 1 doctor hospitalized) (Only Panama citizens or residents allowed to enter the country. Lines at supermarkets are super long because only 50 people are allowed in a grocery store at any given time, so waiting lines outside the supermarkets can be 2-3 hours just to get in, basically a grocery store trip now looks like will be about a half-day task)

BackwardsInBoots said:

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Someone I know IRL is on TexAgs.

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Seems that's true!!!