Banz

Their total wages were actually decent, close to Rs 20000-25000 per month, but they had to bear the costs of owning, maintaining and fuelling their vehicle. I've seen some guys use bicycles instead of motorcycles. It's their operations that are incredibly wasteful. You order something, and some delivery guy from a kilometre away goes and picks up your order (probably wastes 10-15 mins waiting at the restaurant), then he drives towards you to deliver the order. They seem to do this one order at at time, sometimes they'll get 2 orders at the same restaurant. Surely they could deliver more at a time? When restaurants and pizza shops do deliveries themselves, they'll almost always pick up 4-5 orders at one time (if there are that many orders). If Swiggy/Zomato do the same, some of the individual orders may take a bit longer but the total deliveries/man-hour should rise considerably.

We were having pompfret, rawas and prawns last few weeks. Rs 1500-2000 worth of fish, when judiciously used among 4 people, still only lasts 2-3 days. Fish prices are more volatile so they will come down some time later. Also you can always go to Mumbai, Belapur, Alibag, etc. to buy fresh fish in bulk at a fraction of the retail price. The mutton price rise, I expect is permanent. I don't think it'll drop below Rs 600 now. Do they have a proper sample to extrapolate like this? Most of the people using Thyrocare tests would be urban residents. Anyways if true, we should be approaching herd immunity.

Swiggy/Zomato take an unsustainable 25-30% cut from restaurants, membership fees and huge delivery fees from customers. Just yesterday I ordered some momos, and the total delivery charge was Rs 56, for a total order price of ~Rs 250. Atleast earlier they were paying their delivery guys good wages.

The choice of meat was indeed a coincidence. Tuesday was Pithori amoshya, Thursday is a very common weekly upwas day around here (including in my house), on Friday there's some Hartalika upwas, and Saturday onwards it's Ganpati; so yesterday was the only day non-veg could be made and eaten at home.

I also bought mutton, thankfully no crowding at my mutton vendor. Mutton is still expensive here, at around Rs 650-700/kg.

Went to the registration office today. There was only one other registration besides us, but people still had a hard time keeping their distance. Thankfully all had masks. It's always a stressful 3-4 days afterwards.

I don't know for sure. But there are people who have been admitted to hospitals that have severe, may be permanent lung/blood vessel damage even after fighting off the virus and testing negative. Some people have died after being discharged. Those who have recovered at home without taking medical help tend to have less damage (otherwise they would have needed hospitalisation at some point).

Case count is just a lower limit on how many people were actually infected. Only those that get tested (and the PCR tests work within a specific time period) get counted. In addition to the 80-85% asymptomatic cases, there are many people with mild/moderate symptoms who do not get tested because of misdiagnosis/fear/stigma. The estimates for the actual number of covid infected ends up being several times higher than the official case count. At the end of March, it was estimated that there were between 16-28 lakh infected people in England. The total case count of the whole world at that time was a little over 7 lakh. And the 2009 swine flu pandemic infected between 11-21% of the world population (so between 70-140 crores). The actual case counts never even came close to this number. It would have been impossible to even count in real time, and the same is true today. After the Covid panemic ends, we will have better estimates of how many were truly infected.

It was a PCR done at Metropolis. The full name on the Report is "SARS-CoV-2 (COVID 19) Detection (Qualitative) by Real Time rt PCR*" Specimen Type: SWAB Test Principle: Real time reverse transcrpition PCR For tests results that say "Detected" it says: 1. Each "Detected" result has been verified using confirmatory test. 2. False positive cases are rare globally. For tests results that say "Not Detected" it says: 1. "Not Detected" result indicates absence of SARS-CoV-2 in the given specimen. However it does not rule out the infection completely and and should not be used as the sole basis for making decisions related to treatment and other other patient management decisions. 2. "Not Detected" result may be seen due to - a. RT PCR done on Nasopharyngeal Swab having 44% false negativity. b. Test done too early or too late where the virus load is below the detection limit. c. Improperly collected and stored specimen d. Viral Mutations

Many of my relatives have contracted and recovered from Covid. > Majority had mild/moderate symptoms and recovered at home. Many more others must have been asymptomatic. > Some had to be admitted to hospitals for moderate/severe symptoms and are recovering now. Pre emptively admitted my mother-in-law for just mild symptoms because we thought she was at high risk of developing stronger symptoms later, and it turned out great. Hospital discharged her 4-5 days later. > One person had to be admitted to ICU because of his and his wife's stubborn denial despite showing increasing symptoms for more than a week. His scan showed pneumonia affecting 30% of his lungs, and his Covid report came out negative (false negative). The report itself said there was 44% chance of false negative and doctors advised not to rely on that report, but he didn't listen. Don't be like this guy.

Yes indeed, but the two have different purposes. I actually wanted to make some normal paneer for the pasta too, but there wasn't that much milk (needed some for the sauce too). Paneer goes well inside the pasta with the vegetables. Cheese I used only as a topping.

Tried some stuff when living at the farm past 2 weeks. There were limited resources so this was a challenge. Made some mozzarella like cheese from milk. It's consistency was similar to paneer and I thought the method had failed. We did not have hand gloves for kneading and stretching the boiling hot cheese curds so we did it at a much lower than it is supposed to be done. Used it for making lasagna (used a pot-in-pot of baking), which turned out to be one of the best dishes we've ever made. The cheese did melt and it was stretchy, although not as much as mozarella. Also made some Chinese stuff. Hakka noodles and soya chilli.

Admitted my mother-in-law to the hospital last night as she had also started showing symptoms. Got an ambulance for her and she went and did the Covid test, and also a chest scan to see if there was any spread in the lungs. Whatsapped the results to our doctor who said pneumonia has started and it would be best to admit immediately before conditions get worse, as there's no caretaker left at her home (brother-in-law is already in hospital). Made some phone calls here and there, finally got a bed booked. Went to the hospital for the admission paperwork, they didn't have any ambulances of their own available at the moment, but they gave a few contacts. Had to call 2-3 guys before I found one who had an ambulance available. I had to pay Rs 3500, definitely overpaid but no time to bargain and can't really use own vehicle for this case. It was very stressful waiting at the hospital, especially since 2 other familes came to admit a patient and they had both driven-in the patient in their own cars. I am now staying in my room for a week, I hope I haven't been infected. By the way, there is a health scheme by the Government of Maharashtra (MPJAY) for people who have yellow or orange ration cards. It's not universal healthcare as it claims to be, but if you can avail it, please do.

Covid has now spread really deep into our community. Some family members and many distant relatives have been infected. My cousin sister, her little daughter and husband got it. They had no symptoms and stayed isolated at home and have now recovered. My brother-in-law (age 23) has been hospitalised for the past 3 days because of Covid like symptoms (pneumonia, difficulty breathing). He should recover in a few days but I wonder if he will have some kind of breathing problems for life. The bill is expected to go to about 3 lakhs. One of the injections had to be bought in black. We have been living on our farm, 15 kms away from the city for the last 10 days. There do not seem to be any patients in the nearby villages, so far.

Made paneer chilly and fried rice yesterday.

It was a terrible decision to allow people (especially healthcare and police workers) from outside Mumbai (Kalyan, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Panvel, etc.) to travel daily to and fro to Mumbai. Bulk of the cases from the first 2 months were from these categories. The rest wouldn't even have these many cases if the borders were closed and some temporary living arrangements were made for the people working in Mumbai.

You can eat the red meats raw. Bacteria are present only on the surface and do not penetrate to the inside.

Liverpool FC: Premier League champions 2019-20 James Carroll Liverpool Football Club are Premier League champions. The Reds have clinched the crown for 2019-20 after Wednesday’s 4-0 victory over Crystal Palace at Anfield left Manchester City needing a win against Chelsea this evening. The 2-1 defeat for City at Stamford Bridge ensures Jürgen Klopp’s side cannot mathematically be caught in the table. It means Liverpool have secured the club’s 19th league title, ending a 30-year wait following their previous success in 1990. In an unprecedented campaign, the club have claimed the championship earlier than any other side in Premier League history, doing so with seven games still to be contested. The Reds equalled a top-flight record of 18 successive victories – and also set a new landmark for number of consecutive league home triumphs, with the win against Palace their 23rd in a row. Their record for the season so far stands at 86 points accumulated after 31 matches played, with 28 wins, two draws and one defeat. Liverpool Football Club: Premier League champions 2019-20.

The 70% people who have already recovered become immune and can no longer spread the virus. So virus cannot freely spread from person to person then. The immune people shield the vulnerable ones. That is how vaccinations for measles, polio, etc. work, but I'm not sure if people who have recovered from Covid are fully immune like this.

Local trains started in Mumbai today, only for essential workers. Buses had been crowding up last few days. Trains are mostly empty right now, hope it remains that way.

Can't find anything for asymptomatic patients dying quickly (except for the BMC dy Comissioner himself) but here is an article from April about patients with mild symptoms suddenly getting very sick and dying. https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/230420/sudden-death-of-covid-19-patients-worrying-doctors.html

I've seen some reports of cases where people were asymptomatic for a long time and then suddenly health deteriorates over a few hours and they die.

BMC's deputy comissioner died from Covid. https://www.mumbailive.com/en/civic/bmc-deputy-commissioner-shirish-dixit-passed-away-from-corona-50999 https://www.loksatta.com/mumbai-news/coronavirus-bmc-deputy-commissioner-shirish-dixit-passed-away-sgy-87-2182950/

Time to renew Hotstar and Sony Liv subscriptions.

It is. It won't stand it court. Someone should file a PIL in Delhi HC.