chicago Roseland Hospital phlebotomist: 30% of those tested have coronavirus antibody A phlebotomist working at Roseland Community Hospital said Thursday that 30% to 50% of patients tested for the coronavirus have antibodies while only around 10% to 20% of those tested have the active virus. Sumaya Owaynat, a phlebotomy technician, said she tests between 400 and 600 patients on an average day in the parking lot at Roseland Community Hospital. Drive-thru testing is from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. each day. However, the hospital has a limited number of tests they can give per day. Owaynat said the number of patients coming through the testing center who appear to have already had coronavirus and gotten over it is far greater than those who currently have the disease. “A lot of people have high antibodies, which means they had the coronavirus but they don’t have it anymore and their bodies built the antibodies,” Owaynat told Chicago City Wire. Antibodies in the bloodstream reveal that a person has already had the coronavirus and may be immune to contracting the virus again. If accurate, this means the spread of the virus may have been underway in the Roseland community - and the state and country as a whole - prior to the issuance of stay at home orders and widespread business closures in mid-March which have crippled the national economy. In addition, those who show signs of already having had the illness should be able to re-enter society -- albeit with some modified social distancing measures in place -- rather than sheltering at home as they are no longer in danger. Of those who contract the coronavirus, around 25 percent may be asymptomatic. A recent study of 1,000 people in the Heinsberg District of Bonn, Germany found that 15% of the population had contracted the virus, many unknowingly and without symptoms. Of those, only 0.37% died from COVID-19, a figure much lower than those previously cited. sweden Sweden's Relaxed Approach to the Coronavirus Could Already Be Backfiring " Opinion polls show that citizens trust the Public Health Authority, with 48% saying they have very high or high confidence in the institution. “It’s rare for Swedish society to loudly disapprove of the government,” says Fu. “Even though people are concerned about losing loved ones, they also trust that the government is doing the right thing.”" “When you walk around, there is a total and utter absence of panic,” Fu says, who moved to Sweden from the United States last year. “The streets are just as busy as they would have been last spring.” As many public spaces throughout Europe empty out—with citizens only leaving home for essential groceries or medication—life in Sweden is carrying on, mostly as usual. Children walk to school while adults meet up for dinner at their local bar. Only the vulnerable have been advised to isolate and some are working from home. Yet in Sweden, where there are 9,141 confirmed cases and 793 people have died, experts worry weaker measures may be leading to a more severe outbreak in the country of just 10 million citizens. Sweden has a relatively high case fatality rate: as of April 8, 7.68% of the Swedes who have tested positive for COVID-19 have died of the virus. Neighboring countries, like Norway and Denmark, have case fatality rates of 1.46% and 3.85% respectively. (The U.S. case fatality rate is 3.21%.) While Sweden’s elevated case fatality rate could be a result of its low testing rates compared to its neighbors, experts say Sweden’s laissez-faire approach could also be to blame.

tokyo Running out of beds and gear, Tokyo medical staff say Japan's 'state of emergency' already here Official data tell a similar story. Tokyo’s government said that as of Sunday, 951 people with COVID-19 were hospitalised; in a live YouTube address Sunday night, Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike said there were about 1,000 beds allocated for coronavirus patients in the city.