Wuhan coronavirus

Deaths are down a little on yesterday but apart from that very much the same as yesterday.

Total confirmed cases are at 84,279, with 5288 new cases, up 55 (1% increase) on yesterday. Total deaths are 10,621, with 746 new deaths, down 171 (20.6% decrease) on yesterday. Total tested this (24h) period, 12681.

As of 9am on 12 April, 352,974 tests have concluded, with 18,000 tests carried out on 11 April.
282,279 people have been tested, of whom 84,279 tested positive.
As of 5pm on 11 April, of those hospitalised in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus, 10,621 have died.

Interesting blog post about the pros and cons of contact tracing.

Contact Tracing in the Real World

There have recently been several proposals for pseudonymous contact tracing, including from Apple and Google. To both cryptographers and privacy advocates, this might seem the obvious way to protect public health and privacy at the same time. Meanwhile other cryptographers have been pointing out some of the flaws.

https://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2020/04/12/contact-tracing-in-the-real-world/

Crisis as HALF of Welsh hospital's A&E staff test positive for coronavirus as UK coronavirus cases soar to 84,279

Dr Rogerson said: "We're probably up to around 50% of the consultant workforce at the Gwent in A&E, who have swabbed positive for coronavirus.
"And a similar percent in our nursing team - which is probably inevitable, but it is proving a challenge when it comes to staffing the department, when we are facing these numbers coming through."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8212459/Crisis-HALF-Welsh-hospitals-E-staff-test-positive-coronavirus.html

80% of NYC's coronavirus patients who are put on ventilators ultimately die, and some doctors are trying to stop using them

Some doctors are trying to reduce their reliance on ventilators for coronavirus patients because of reports of abnormally high death rates for patients using the machines, The Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
New York City officials have said at least 80% of coronavirus patients who were on ventilators in the city died, the AP reported. Unusually high death rates have also been recorded elsewhere in the US and the world.

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/coronavirus-ventilators-some-doctors-try-reduce-use-new-york-death-rate-2020-4

Confidential NHS patient data, US data mining firms, UK government, AI...... What could possibly go wrong?

UK government using confidential patient data in coronavirus response

Technology firms are processing large volumes of confidential UK patient information in a data-mining operation that is part of the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, according to documents seen by the Guardian......

.....A Whitehall source said they were alarmed at the “unprecedented” amounts of confidential health information being swept up in the project, which they said was progressing at alarming speed and with insufficient regard for privacy, ethics or data protection......

.....The NHS said the data in the Covid-19 datastore would remain under its control and be subject to severe restrictions under data protection legislation. “Strict data protection rules apply to everyone involved in helping in this critical task,” an NHSX spokesperson said.
However, the Guardian was able to see confidential documents used by Palantir, Faculty and NHSX officials to plan, develop and execute the Covid-19 datastore. It is unclear who was responsible for making the documents – which did not contain NHS patient data – accessible via an unrestricted portal......

.....Palantir’s role in the project involves integrating NHS datasets with the US company’s data-management platform, Foundry. Microsoft, Google and Amazon products are also being used on the datastore project, but staff at those companies are understood to be less directly involved.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/12/uk-government-using-confidential-patient-data-in-coronavirus-response

How the cell phones of spring breakers who flouted coronavirus warnings were tracked

X-Mode and Tectonix focused on a high-profile case: tracking location data from the phones of people who visited the beach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in March -- among them spring breakers who made national news two weeks ago when they ignored warnings to practice social distancing despite the worsening coronavirus pandemic.
The results of tracking data, a map posted on Twitter, showed where people went after they visited the beach, spreading out all across the country to major cities including New York and Chicago, possibly bringing the coronavirus with them.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/04/tech/location-tracking-florida-coronavirus/index.html