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BRAZIL HAS RECORDED 41,828 deaths during the coronavirus pandemic, surpassing the UK’s death toll, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Officials in Brazil reported 909 deaths yesterday. It is the hardest-hit Latin American nation with more than 828,000 confirmed virus cases.
The country now has the second highest death toll from Covid-19 behind the United States, figures from Johns Hopkins University suggest.
Brazil’s biggest city, Sao Paulo, is to free up space at its graveyards during the pandemic by digging up the bones of people buried in the past and storing their bagged remains in large metal containers.
The remains of people who died at least three years ago will be exhumed and put in numbered bags, then stored temporarily in 12 storage containers the city’s funeral service has purchased.
The containers will be delivered to several cemeteries within 15 days, a statement said.
Sao Paulo is one of the Covid-19 hot spots, with 5,480 deaths as of Thursday in the city of 12 million people.
Health experts are worried about a new surge now that a decline in intensive care bed occupancy to about 70% prompted Mayor Bruno Covas to authorise a partial reopening of business this week.
The peak of infection is predicted to hit Brazil in August, having spread from the big cities where it first appeared into the nation’s interior.
Dr Michael Ryan, the World Health Organization’s emergencies chief, said: “Overall the health system is still coping in Brazil, although, having said that, with the sustained number of severe cases that remains to be seen.
“Clearly the health system in Brazil across the country needs significant support in order to sustain its effort in this regard. But the data we have at the moment supports a system under pressure, but a system still coping with the number of severe cases.”
China
Meanwhile, Beijing authorities have closed the city’s largest wholesale food market after the discovery of seven cases in the previous two days.
The Xinfadi market, which has 4,000 tenants, will be disinfected after workers tested positive and the virus was found in the environment, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
China’s National Health Commission said six new cases were confirmed in Beijing yesterday, and another case was reported on Thursday. They are the first locally transmitted cases in the Chinese capital in more than 50 days.
Attention focused on the market after the discovery of the first three cases. Two of the infected people had been to the market, and the third worked with one of them at a meat research institute, according to Chinese media reports.
City officials said all the workers were being tested for coronavirus. They also ordered the testing of food and environmental samples from all the city’s wholesale food markets.
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ESB made an operating profit of €445 million last year.
They can fix their own problems please.
@Leo Massey: Correct and this ripoff given the green light as usual by our wonderful government…..a country of 5 million making profits of half a billion…..unreal.
@Leo Massey: They’re state owned. The profits go to the government. The money still comes from the same place in the end.
@Leo Massey: you are talking about ESB Group and final profit after exceptional item, interest and tax was €60m
@Peter Hughes: Was at one point we had one of the cheapest electric in Europe then was increased to allow other companies to come into the market. Well done FF
@Vincent #SaveDaredevil: and your proof for this claim?
@Vincent #SaveDaredevil: Yes it was the cheapest electricity in the EU at one point. But “competition” was introduced. This resulted in the ESB as it was then being obliged to raise prices so that private competitors could undercut them due to the small scale of the Irish market. It also reduced the cost effectiveness of the then ESB due to reduced scale. It has delivered precious little to the Irish public except the illusion of price competition in a tiny market with a widely dispersed population. Thank goodness they decided not to privatise the national grid. Competition is usually a good thing but, in my view, electricity generation in a tiny market like Ireland is as close to a natural monopoly as it gets. So regulate the public monopoly and don’t introduce faux competition.
@John R: The market was opened to competition in 2009. The ESB were not allowed to lower prices until it had lost a significant amount of customers to other suppliers. This happened in 2011 and the ESB were allowed set their own prices. They also had to change their name to Electric Ireland at the time. https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/cheaper-bills-are-on-way-as-esb-sets-own-prices-26710661.html
People saying we had the cheapest rates don’t seem to be able to produce evidence. It was a state owned company that generated revenue for the government. I’m sure they were nice however and rat it at a huge loss.
Map and share data on any kind of pollution anywhere @ OpenLitterMap.com – the data is accessible to everyone as open data so citizens can make sure local authorities are doing their job.
The ESB doesn’t have the money to change these oil filled cables which have given great service for a great many years. Newer PVC type insulation cables have no maintenance whatsoever and if the Regulator gives money to the ESB to change out these old cables, the ESB would do it no problem.
@Wild Goose: Sorry but they hit this for years. They made 445 million last year!!!!
@Vincent #SaveDaredevil: is that ESB networks that made that money or Electric Ireland which is a different company.
@Vincent #SaveDaredevil: Also you do realise that since its state owned the profits are handed to the government. it doesn’t really matter if its the ESB or the government who pays for it
@Vincent #SaveDaredevil: ESB Group made that figure. Also after exceptional items, interest and tax it was €60m for the Group.
@Darren Byrne: But will anyone be sacked for hiding this for years????
@Vincent #SaveDaredevil: here come the uneducated, shouting ill thought out baseless statements.
@Vincent #SaveDaredevil: They didn’t hide it. They reported it to the body they were obliged to report it to.
FYI you can thank the Labour party for enacting the protected disclosures act 2014 which allowed Mr. McLoughlin his civil protections.
This is disgusting. A semi-state knowingly polluting waterways but deciding that it’s not in the public’s interest to disclose such information. Wouldn’t it be nice to have government organisations that lead by example. If the government don’t care, why should anyone else? A case of “do as we say, not as we do”?
@Shakka1244: The ESB has being reporting on this to the regulator for years. The reason this is in the news is that RTE picked up on it and the ESB are now taking to the EPA. whom they had not informed. The question is whose job was it to report this problem to the EPA? The ESB? The regulator? Or both of them? Or perhaps there is no statutory requirement to report it to the EPA at all which would seem most peculiar.
I fail to see the controversy in this. They used the common practice of the time when installing these cables, with non toxic biodegradable oils, newer maintenance free options are becoming available and these will be changed out over the coming years. There is no secrecy, only non awareness by the non technical public. I’d be surprised if the EPA if had not always considered and counted this as known source of soil contamination. That is a question that needs answering.
The continuous replacement at such a high level is surprising though, that might negate any biodegradability benefit. Have they worked out how much per year per cubic meter of effected soil? Or how low that needs to be effectively broken down? Or how flooding plays into it all?
Expect whopping great increases in electricity bills, have to pay for the new cables.
The oil filled cables are topped up from supply tanks at sub-stations.
Oil leakage was no secret but the ESB were hardly going to go boasting about it.
This looks like a flash in the pan sensation reporting.
BTW 1,000 m3 over 20 years over the whole country.
Does that count for much? I’d say there is more disposed into drains and back gardens every week.
They claim most was mineral oil, but these are old cables from when PCB was commonly used for electrical insulation and cooling:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polychlorinated_biphenyl
https://www.epa.ie/pubs/forms/surveys/PCB%20Information%20Leaflet.pdf
Ha like the missing 100,000 litres of JetA1 from #IrishAirCorps fuel farm that EPA, kept quiet about.
@Chemical Brothers: That be 3 Tanker loads very hard to hide 3 tankers.
Perhaps they should investigate the utter waste of money at ESB. While charging customers increases they regularly spend outrageous amounts sending staff away, nights out and bonuses.
Were we Irish born incompetent, or just blind to it?
@Denis McClean:
Olive oil has many uses but it’s is a fairly new phenomena here in cooking.
The extra virgin variety is great for a massage, it has been reported.
have your say