COVID-19 Thread 3/26/2020 (Bahrain Health Chief Claims Hydroxychloroquine Treatment is Effective; UK Epidemiologist Believes NHS Will Cope)

News is inevitably focused on coronavirus throughout the world these days. It seems that we are all held hostage to it to one degree of another, and it’s a problem that needs solving in order for life to progress. We have one thread that is getting very bulky with comments so I thought I would add new threads more regularly and include up-to-date stories that focus on possible solutions to the COVID-19 problem.

Thanks to Bob Greenyer for reporting on this first

Bahrain Health Chief Claims Hydroxychloroquine Treatment Effective in Treating COVID-19 Symptoms

“President of the Supreme Council of Health (SCH) Lt. General Dr. Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, the Head of the National Taskforce to Combat Coronavirus (COVID-19), has affirmed that the therapeutic protocol of the Kingdom of Bahrain which uses Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) medication in treating COVID-19-infected cases has proved its effectiveness. He said the kingdom is one of the first countries that used the medication, pointing out its success in alleviating the symptoms of the virus and reducing its complications.”

https://www.bna.bh/en/SCHPresidentBahrainstherapeuticprotocolprovedeffective.aspx?cms=q8FmFJgiscL2fwIzON1%2bDmX4XVZ8fQTmaJ3pfQVhjK0%3d

Top epidemiologist predicts that the UK health system will be able to cope with COVID-19 cases.

“[Neil Ferguson, Imperial College London] said that expected increases in National Health Service capacity and ongoing restrictions to people’s movements make him “reasonably confident” the health service can cope when the predicted peak of the epidemic arrives in two or three weeks. UK deaths from the disease are now unlikely to exceed 20,000, he said, and could be much lower.”