Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Thereisalight..]

13 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

Fans have been allowed in grounds since late May - most clubs had some in the play-offs, and loads of non-league clubs have been playing friendlies in front of fans over the last few weeks.

With the exception of Falkirk, every club outside the top two tiers are already right now able to allow in close to a "normal" crowd, and we're still over a month away from the season starting.

The only way Stranraer and Albion Rovers won't be allowing "200 folk" in would be if we go back up the levels, which seems unlikely to me despite the slow route out of restrictions.

My reply was to someone who said he didn’t believe he’d be allowed in a stadium until 2022. 

As an aside, Whilst it was good to see Morton, Killie,  etc with fans. 500 is a pathetic number when they could have had 2000 there and use 4 “stands” rather than just 1 

[effeffsee_the2nd]

All pfizered up, get the roger moores open!

[mizfit]

775 new cases which is another decent drop.

The bad thing is it’s 4% of tests.

[D Angelo Barksdale]

Absolutely gone at 'discussions on bringing energy bars'

Deeply fucking stupid country.

[effeffsee_the2nd]

775 new cases which is another decent drop.

The bad thing is it’s 4% of tests.

20 thousand tests tho which is way more than what used to be done at the weekend

[Bairnardo]

Absolutely gone at 'discussions on bringing energy bars'
Deeply fucking stupid country.

What comes after jumping the shark? Like 3, maybe 4 stages after?

[NotThePars]

3 hours ago, Bairnardo said:

Hancock this morning giving it that they havent yet set out social distancing after step 4 of the roadmap, which iirc is June 21st, all restrictions gone.

Get to f**k greaseball. These clowns really dont think SD is a restriction, do they?

I work in the civil service in England and nobody in our org has any idea of what's going to change June 21st.

2 hours ago, Honest Saints Fan said:

I was at the cinema for the first time since restrictions eased. I can't see how they are going to make much money. The ticket was £4.50 and you could only book a seat at the end of each aisle every second row. 

Good to see everyone ditch their masks as soon as they sat down despite a warning on the screen every minute before the film telling you to keep them on.

Was at the cinema myself last night and there was zero distancing and barely any enforcement of masks. Truly love to see it. I've missed flinging popcorn near my face.

[SlipperyP]

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2127711/hi-so-clubbing-covid-explosion-krystal-clear

I'll quote the full article before it gets taken down, I I don't see it lasting long.

Quote

When the VVIP customers disembarked from their limousines at the Krystal Exclusive Club, young women in tiaras, angel wings and not much else sometimes greeted them.

The VVIP clientele were whisked to the VVIP rooms, with their padded walls and plush sofas. Thai government bigwigs partied at Krystal — one of its mottos is “the luxury entertainment of night light” — as did diplomats, army officers and business owners. For much of the pandemic, coronavirus restrictions did not stop the fun.

But this spring, as go-go dancers shimmied, Krystal and another neighbourhood nightclub, Emerald, turned into the epicentre of what is now Thailand’s biggest and deadliest coronavirus surge, according to health ministry officials. Scores of people linked to the clubs have tested positive, including an ambassador and a government minister. Police officers and women who worked at the clubs have been infected, too.

 

For all the mask-wearing rigour and lockdown obedience displayed by many Thais, the abandon of a privileged few catalysed Bangkok’s latest coronavirus outbreak, health officials said. The nightclub cluster also highlights the impunity of the rich in a country with one of the largest wealth gaps among major economies.

Thailand went for months without a confirmed case of local transmission, but the epidemic has now radiated from luxury nightclubs that cater to powerful and wealthy men to the warrens of slums that hug Bangkok’s highways and railroad tracks. In these cramped quarters, social distancing is impossible. Infections have also spread to prisons, construction camps and factories.

“The rich people party and the poor people suffer the consequences,” said Sittichat Angkhasittisiri, a neighbourhood chairman in the capital’s largest slum, Khlong Toey, where the coronavirus has infected hundreds of people.

After recording fewer than 5,000 cases total through November, Thailand racked up more than 5,800 cases on a single day in late May. The total number of infections is now about 175,000. Gone are the days when the World Health Organization praised Thailand for its coronavirus-fighting prowess.

Thailand’s virus surge, happening just as many Western nations approach a semblance of normality, is part of a late-breaking wave that has washed over much of the rest of Southeast Asia, where adequate vaccines are largely unavailable. Thailand is counting on local production this summer of the AstraZeneca vaccine by a company controlled by His Majesty the King. The company has never made vaccines before.

The phuyai, as the gilded elite of Thailand are known, can book overseas tours to get vaccines unavailable at home; one 220,000 baht jaunt for jabs in Russia is fully booked until July. But the poor struggle. Many must wait for cots at free government field hospitals set up in stadiums or other areas. The rich with mild cases can convalesce at expensive hotels.

“Society is very, very unequal,” said Mutita Thongsopa, a dairy company employee who came to Bangkok to support her family of farmers from Thailand’s northeast. “The phuyai destroyed the Covid situation themselves, and we, the small people, we cannot live.”

On April 27, Ms Mutita’s sister, Supatra Thongsopa, a 40-year-old grocery clerk at a Bangkok mall, arrived at a government testing site at 3am to secure a spot. She waited all day, then the next day and the next. As she waited, Supatra texted with her sister to complain of fatigue and stomach problems.

She was finally tested May 1. The result came back positive, and she died five days later. Supatra’s boyfriend, who also developed Covid, is still in the hospital.

“People are dying like falling leaves,” Ms Mutita said.

 

Although a Bangkok court sentenced the managers of Krystal and Emerald to two months in prison for violating a Covid emergency decree, no one else is facing charges so far. The police say they are looking into whether prostitution, illegal in Thailand, may have occurred at the clubs. Representatives of both clubs refused to comment.

“On the Krystal case, it is still under investigation,” said Maj Gen Sophon Sarapat, commander of a Bangkok Metropolitan Police division. “We are waiting for the suspects to turn themselves in. We have sent a letter to the owner of the club.”

When cases involve high-profile tycoons or politicians, though, investigations in Thailand have a habit of fizzling. Murder charges do not materialise. Well-connected individuals slip into exile. Thailand’s three waves of coronavirus infection have crested in the shadowy zones where the rich profit from questionable businesses and defy Covid protocols.

The first outbreak, last spring, was traced by virologists to a Bangkok boxing stadium operated by the country’s powerful military, which makes money on sports gambling. The second cluster, late last year, was tracked by health officials to a sweatshop seafood business, which depends on immigration officers turning a blind eye to workers trafficked from neighbouring countries. And the third, which has killed about 1,000 people, originated in the nightclubs whose cosiness with law enforcement is an open secret.

“In Thai culture, we can smile and lie at the same time,” said Chuwit Kamolvisit, the anti-corruption campaigner and former member of Parliament. “Maybe to survive in politics, that is OK. But when it’s Covid, this is too dangerous.”

Before he ventured into politics, Mr Chuwit made his fortune through a collection of massage parlours in Bangkok with names such as Victoria’s Secret. He said his business was greased by bribes to the police.

“Krystal is like another Government House, because it’s so popular with those people,” Mr Chuwit said, referring to the Italianate building that holds the offices of the prime minister and the Cabinet.

This year, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, a retired general who staged a coup seven years ago, warned that if anyone referred to Krystal as an alternate to his offices at Government House, they could face legal consequences.

 

 

It is hard to say how the coronavirus infiltrated Khlong Toey, where thousands of people live crowded together in slum communities near railroad tracks and a fetid canal. One origin story traces this spring’s outbreak to a woman who some say frequented various clubs.

Another story connects it to a man who met a friend who had partied in the Krystal neighbourhood. When he started feeling unwell, the man quarantined in his car because he had nowhere else to go, said Mr Sittichat, the neighbourhood chairman. Still, the man passed the virus to three others, setting off community transmission, Mr Sittichat said.

“Officials talk about quarantine, but that’s for rich people,” he said. “Our houses are too small. We have no space.”

In another Khlong Toey community, about 10% of residents have tested positive for the virus. Neighbourhood officials were forced to isolate the infected behind sheets of plastic at the back of an outdoor community centre.

After suiting up in a plastic raincoat and plastic glasses to deliver water to a new batch of Covid patients, Mariam Pomdee, a community leader, handed out donated meals to residents whose food supplies were waning. With the virus spreading through Khlong Toey’s narrow alleys, employers have been shunning its residents.

Yet, the people of Khlong Toey are vital to making Bangkok run. They deliver the packages and the takeout meals, their motorbikes weaving past Mercedes vehicles tightly sealed from the heat and the haze. They build the glass-sheathed condominiums and the malls that seem to materialise like mushrooms after the monsoons. Their vast market feeds Bangkok its vegetables, fruits and wriggling seafood.

Unemployment, already high because of Thailand’s pandemic-closed borders, has soared in Khlong Toey. To survive, some families have sold the vaccine registration cards they received as residents of a high-risk neighbourhood.

Thailand has yet to fully start nationwide mass vaccinations, and less than 2% of the population is fully inoculated. A few wealthy Bangkok residents have boasted on social media about buying vaccination cards from the city’s most desperate residents.

“The rich who are already privileged are stepping on the poor,” Mariam said. “They believe their money can buy anything.”

 

[accies1874]

Absolutely gone at 'discussions on bringing energy bars'
Deeply fucking stupid country.

The Euros could've been a good way to show that we're big boys and girls and can have adult drinks in stadiums and bring our own sweeties and chocolate bars.

Instead we get this:

[Lyle Lanley]

8 minutes ago, accies1874 said:

The Euros could've been a good way to show that we're big boys and girls and can have adult drinks in stadiums and bring our own sweeties and chocolate bars.

Instead we get this:

The SG are a fucking disgrace with the way they treat football fans in this country. 

Wonder if food and drinks will be available at the British and Irish Lions game at Murrayfield later this month. 

Edited June 6, 2021 by Lyle Lanley

[Michael W]

25 minutes ago, Avon Barksdale said:

Absolutely gone at 'discussions on bringing energy bars'

Deeply fucking stupid country.

Smart virus, Covid - infects people getting a pie but harmless for those queuing up to line UEFA's pockets buying tat. 

[Lyle Lanley]

31 minutes ago, Avon Barksdale said:

Absolutely gone at 'discussions on bringing energy bars'

Deeply fucking stupid country.

"A suggestion was made that fans can bring in a small snack, an energy bar was given as an example, which we pointed out was unacceptable.

"We also advised that we would find it difficult to encourage fans to arrive for the early entry slots if they were to remain inside the stadium for potentially five plus hours without any food.

"The reasons given for no food outlets was that socially distanced queuing could not be guaranteed.

"Football Supporters Europe pointed out the fact that UEFA fans shop were being permitted and this would pose the exact same challenge. They are escalating this on our behalf and we will see how this goes at the start of the week.

"We have subsequently pointed out that this is unacceptable for fans with certain medical conditions and also that no other entertainment industry would enforce such draconian sanctions be it rugby, cinema, theatre etc."

 

[accies1874]

The SG are a fucking disgrace with the way they treat football fans in this country. 
Wonder if food and drinks will be available at the British and Irish Lions game at Murrayfield later this month. 

Football and football fans are sneered at but I suppose if there's actually a concern with "queuing" then that'll apply across all sports. We'll soon find out.

Could you buy food and drink at the SPFL play-offs?

[Detournement]

50 minutes ago, Avon Barksdale said:

Absolutely gone at 'discussions on bringing energy bars'

Deeply fucking stupid country.

The SNP hate football fans. 

[sparky88]

50 minutes ago, Avon Barksdale said:

Absolutely gone at 'discussions on bringing energy bars'

Deeply fucking stupid country.

Catheters on every seat so that folk don't go to the toilet at half time. 

(this is a joke Jason, please don't get any ideas)

[101]

Makes sense that they might not be able to open food kiosks due to social distancing but they seem to be blaming queues. Mental.

[superbigal]

Daily Cases Update:   Graph continues to rocket  again today in infection land.   This time up another 9% and positivity up 2 ticks to 3.3%   Rest of UK bar Northern Ireland may have joined the party. At 88.1 cases per 100K Scotland would rank 6th worst major nation in Europe.

Angus  are the 1st council to break ranks in the levels system and now has in Kirriemuir the plague centre of Scotland. South Ayrshire is congratulated on leaping from Cigars to top spot in 14 days with a 1485% increase in cases.

Scotland has 9 0f the 15 councils in the UK with cases over 125  per 100K

Some significant changes in the major countries in Europe.   Denmark now tops the charts at a pretty respectable 117 cases per 100K. Netherlands 116 & Belgium 112 are the only other countries above 100. 

Scotland peaked at 301.9 for figures 29th Dec to 4th Jan, (UK was 642.1)    Cases that day were 16,496 and test positivity rate was 11.9%  

Total Cases 7 days from 28th May to 3rd June  were 4419 now 4813 up 8.92%.  Positivity was 3.1% now 3.3%.   Cases per 100k were 80.9 now 88.1

Home Nations Daily update:  UK Average  32.1 to 35.9 up 11.84%, England  30.9 to 34.5 up 11.65%,  Wales  8.0 to 9.4 up 17.5%, Northern Ireland 27.0 to 24.7 down 8.52%

Council progress in last 24 Hours as follows.

Click cases by neighbourhood to see the spread on the geographical map. 
https://public.tableau.com/profile/phs.covid.19#!/vizhome/COVID-19DailyDashboard_15960160643010/Overview

HELD BACK AT SCHOOL LEVEL RED 

South Ayrshire  158.1 to 171.4 Cigars to  top spot in a week.

Dundee City   140.6 to 162.1  Continues it's surge another 15%

Clackmannanshire  116.4 to 151.3 Everyone in Alva has been infected at least twice. What a hole.

City Of Edinburgh    134.1 to 149.7 continues charge upwards and jumps Glasgow.

East Renfrewshire    162.3 to 149.7  Basically spread throughout the area. No hotspots.

Glasgow City  143.1 to 147.0   On the rise again. Public health in control

Renfrewshire     134.0 to 133.4  3rd daily drop.

Angus   87.8 to 126.5  Over 200% rise in 2 days.  and Kirriemuir now Scotland's most rabid neighbourhood.

East Ayrshire   103.3 to 126.2   Up 50% in 2 days.

Midlothian    93.0 to 114.6 Up over 20%

East Dunbartonshire   101.3 to 106.8  

Stirling    80.7 to 95.5  20% rise for 2nd day.

North Lanarkshire    83.2 to 84.1

South Lanarkshire 76.7 to 82.1

North Ayrshire   82.4 to 80.9

OFFICIAL  LEVEL 1 BLACK

Perth & Kinross  49.4 to 68.4 Up near 70% in 2 days.

West Dunbartonshire   54.0 to 66.3  

West Lothian    53.0 to 62.3 Up near 20% after 30 yesterday.

East Lothian    50.4 to 57.9  

Falkirk   49.7 to 52.8

Fife  47.7 to 49.0

Highlands    44.1 to 35.2

Aberdeen City   22.3  to 28.0  Possibly kicking off now as up 70% in 2 days from low levels.

Inverclyde    23.1 to 27.0

Scottish  Borders    17.3  to 22.5

Moray   14.6 to 17.7

Argyll & Bute   15.1 to 14.0

Shetland Islands 4,4 to 13.1

Aberdeenshire   11.5 to 12.6

Dumfries & Galloway  9.4 to 9.4 

OFFICIAL LEVEL 0  Teuchters in Green

Orkney Islands  4.5 to 9.0 

Western Isles  3.7 to 7.5

 

 

 

[Dons_1988]

4 minutes ago, sparky88 said:

Catheters on every seat so that folk don't go to the toilet at half time. 

(this is a joke Jason, please don't get any ideas)

No that’s silly, you just need barcodes to scan at the toilet for track and trace purposes. 

[Pie Of The Month]

Just now, superbigal said:

City Of Edinburgh    134.1 to 149.7 continues charge upwards and jumps Glasgow.

Who was it on here from Edinburgh who was telling those of us from Glasgow we needed to take responsbility for cases rising?

[Todd_is_God]

It's going to be an incredibly frustrating three months or so waiting for everyone over 18 to get double dosed so the "we just don't know" brigade have nothing to cling to.

It's patently obvious the vaccines are incredibly effective at limiting transmission and keeping people out of hospital, yet these absolute losers are so desperate for their models and "expertise" to not be shown up as the useless junk they are, that we will all need to be micromanaged for another few months.

I say micromanaged, but the only people losing out now are those with businesses being absolutely strangled by pointless measures, long since understood to be largely useless, being imposed on them by a government and their advisors point blank refusing to admit that they were incorrect about something. The rest of us are paying lip service at best to their guff.

The UK Gov and SG know it's only going one way (hence why we are going to have a fan zone with cases at a level that was deemed to be Level 4 just a month or so ago) but, for some reason, are persisting with nonsense like closing kiosks to appease the Lovejoys and maintain the impression they are somehow in control.

Edited June 6, 2021 by Todd_is_God