Covid 19
 

Good to see the GCC Unity in publishing the Coronavirus cases simultaneously on Monday the 24th Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman all had visitors form Iran who had the virus, how's it looking elsewhere?

https://timesofoman.com/article/2803...of-coronavirus

ER

Re: Covid 19
 

Nothing to report here. I am thankful that we are in full control of the situation with only a very limited number of cases despite having the busiest transit airport in the world.

Re: Covid 19
 

Wink twice if they're still standing behind you.

​​​​​​⠀‹If I were dependent on visa runs, I'd start to get a little nervous. Not inconceivable that that becomes impossible in the next few weeks.

Re: Covid 19
 

E-gates are now closed so travel history can be reviewed for all new arrivals.

Re: Covid 19
 

A group of friends were prevented from leaving a bar on Thursday night where the cycle tour were staying, eventually allowed out but IDs were scanned. I understand that later that night no one was allowed out.

Re: Covid 19
 

So are lots of people wearing masks over there? Are masks out of stock at stores? Price gouging going on?

Re: Covid 19
 

Just had a work email that no travel allowed for business unless it's to KSA and only then if it's to see clients (lots of FIFO people), seems daft but saves me from going next week I guess.

Heard there's two hotels in AD on lockdown.

Schools have canned all meet ups - fixtures, camps, tournaments, inter-school activities etc.
As soon as the first couple of kids get infected they'll just shut them down. Senior staff being asked to prepare for 'home learning' for children.

Re: Covid 19
 

Good bold move from the central bank today... Banks have been told to reschedule repayments to support businesses affected by the bug.

You can choose to read this one of two ways... 1) we are in a lot more trouble than we know, or 2) the central bank is progressive, reacting well and taking early steps.

I'm leaning towards #2 - overlooking that the roads and malls seemed very quiet on saturday.

Re: Covid 19
 

I lean towards option1 and Corona is just a very helpful excuse to cover up the state of the economy.

Re: Covid 19
 

You ol’ skeptic.

Re: Covid 19
 

https://www.zawya.com/uae/en/busines...1nL8N2AU043X4/

DUBAI - Dubai's Emirates Group has seen a "measurable slowdown" in business due to the coronavirus outbreak and has asked staff to take paid and unpaid leave, according to an internal email seen by Reuters.

...

Re: Covid 19
 

There'll be people on the streets chasing Chinese and Iranians shouting 'Cough in my face, cough in my face"

Re: Covid 19
 

Have ‘asked’ staff....

Re: Covid 19
 

Weird, my missus begs me for something really similar.

Re: Covid 19
 

Chinese or Iranian?

Re: Covid 19
 

Coughs in the face from little Scamp.

Anyway.

We just had another email - if you've returned form work or holiday from XYZ countries, don't come to work for 14 days, work from home. Then get tested, then come in.

Mother has a trip to Thailand in a few weeks, with a stop here first. I've told her to cancel it, seems mental to even bother going.
Luckily it'll probably end up being out of her control as there won't be travel / flights happening.

Re: Covid 19
 

we recently cancelled a meeting due to bug fears... but the happy hour drinks that were scheduled after remained. 😊

Re: Covid 19
 

Just in time for Expo2020 eh?

How's that going, anyway? I don't recall anyone outside the Gulf talking about it in the last few years.

I daresay it'll blow over in a month or two, but the lagging aftereffects will take time to shake out.

Re: Covid 19
 

My boss has a boys trip to Phuket planned...he's not cancelling :-)

Colleague of mine has a family holiday paid for in Northern Italy in April...he IS cancelling.

Re: Covid 19
 

Not seen it advertised everywhere? All over football hoardings, airports, signs in towns etc etc in the UK.

UK pavilion isn't due to be completed on time I heard.

Re: Covid 19
 

Being built by a British contractor as well , tut tut !!

Re: Covid 19
 

Sort of but not really. Their name is there but it's a different firm actually doing it, incidentally it's being built out of almost purely continental European materials.

The only British thing in it will be you or me when we visit.....

Re: Covid 19
 

Anyway, take the positives - I'm seeing less go-to-the-loo-and-leave-without-washing-your-hands sort of behaviour.

Re: Covid 19
 

A few are wearing them, although they are the paper ones that you see salon ladies wearing. Complete waste of time

Re: Covid 19
 

I've supplied a fair bit into them on that project , remember its been de-scoped by around 40% as well .

Re: Covid 19
 

Just before I changed companies the expected end date from the contractor wasn't in 2020....

Re: Covid 19
 

The LD's will be huge.

Re: Covid 19
 

I laughed at first and said they must be joking. Apparently the schedule had been trimmed, cut, chopped, re-hashed and redone several times. Couldn't get it earlier than January. Apparently.

Re: Covid 19
 

I don't think it will matter. I think the whole thing will be postponed. I cant see anybody rushing to see the Chinese exhibit or any other mass event come to that. At lease Flights to Doha over Iran wont be an issue any longer, nobody will be going to the footy either.

Re: Covid 19
 

They'll never postpone it. All this will be ancient history by October. I'd be surprised if they're still talking about cancelling things next week.

Re: Covid 19
 

I think that's a hard judgement to call. The reality is that it could potentially cancel itself if people stop travelling, better to postpone it and launch into success than have a failure.

Air traffic numbers (globally not the UAE which is, of course, fine) are quite down.

Re: Covid 19
 

On the game, Plague - when they close land and sea borders you are almost completely ****ed.
It's only through those do you really get the disease to spread massively and only through mutations does the disease turn deadly to the masses.
That's what I'm working off anyway. It won't kill me (probably) and we should just shut borders for 2 weeks or something. Just ban all travel.

Re: Covid 19
 

It's too late. the only thing that'll cure this is something else in the news cycle.

Re: Covid 19
 

You really think this is just in the news because there's nothing else newsworthy?

Re: Covid 19
 

potentially, yes. I do agree that when the media get bored of it, the problem will go away.

Re: Covid 19
 

OK, don't disagree that the media can make things worse, but the problem of people being ill, travelling, infecting others and death won't go away if the media stop reporting it, you just won't know how many died in South Korea today....

Re: Covid 19
 

Not 'just'. But I bet it won't be wll to wall coverage this time next week. People get fatigued with this stuff, and while it's obviously more dangerous than normal flu there isn't going to be a zombie apocalypse.

Plus, if your ticket sales are low this is a great reason to cancel and event right now.

Re: Covid 19
 

1) People are panicking because govts are taking extreme measures

2) Govts are doing so because they are subconsciously following China's extreme measures which may have been necessary for Wuhan but not the best method for every country

3) It didn't help that we got extreme details on the measures China took partly due to social media

if China didn't act the way it did, or if we didn't get to see it, you would not see the situation that you see now where Australia is talking about arresting people who are "suspected" of having a virus...…

Re: Covid 19
 

https://beta.spectator.co.uk/article...s-the-hysteria


There is something more to the Covid-19 panic. It is the latest phenomenon to fulfil a weird and growing appetite for doom among the populations of developed countries. We are living in the healthiest, most peaceful time in history, yet we cannot seem to accept it. We constantly have to invent bogeymen, from climate alarmism, nuclear war and financial collapse to deadly diseases. Covid-19 has achieved such traction because it has emerged at just the right time. At the end of January, Brexit had just been completed without incident. The standoff between the US and Iran — which preposterously led the ‘Doomsday Clock’ to be advanced closer to midnight than during the Cuban missile crisis — fizzled into nothing. The Australian bush fires, which caused an explosion in climate doom-mongering (even though the global incidence of wildfires has fallen over the past two decades) had largely gone out

Re: Covid 19