Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

The willow is too close to the house.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Accountability, motherfuckers.

This fight is for everything.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

We still have time to mess this up!

Republicans in disarray!

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Come on, man.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Sunday/Monday, Jan. 3-4

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Sunday/Monday, Jan. 3-4

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This seems… premature, given what we’re hearing about current distribution:

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Reader Interactions

31Comments

  1. 1.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY yesterday:

    639 new cases, 56% are female. 892 people hospitalized, 139 patients in the ICU. We’re still at 592 deaths reported deaths.

    31% of the hospital beds are available on average and 27% of the ICU beds.

    10.1% positivity

    Yuck.

  2. 2.

    Mary G

    Almost every day my housemates hear of someone they know that has died of Covid, and it is horrifying. Their beloved doctor in Tijuana, the family accountant, her best friend’s ex-husband, a couple of second or third cousins, neighbors, coworkers in home health care. It really highlights the difference for me between Latinos and whites. I know maybe two or three people who have had it without being hospitalized, and none of my friends has died.

    Someone on Twitter joked that when we said to flatten the curve, we should’ve specified which axis we were talking about.

    ETA: Orange County health department took New Year’s day off, reported 4400 or so new cases on Jan. 2, then took Sunday off for computer upgrades. I dread checking it tomorrow. The y axis for hospitalizations has gone from 900 to 2400 and may have to be increased tomorrow, or not, as there is no more room.

  4. 4.

    opiejeanne

    Have we heard from the jackal who went into the hospital with Covid last week? I’m trying to remember his name, but he was waiting for a room when he posted here

    The last I heard he had pneumonia .

  5. 5.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 1/3 China reported 13 new domestic confirmed and 14 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Dalian in Liaoning Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (moderate), a traced close contact under quarantine since 12/22. 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered and 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There are currently 46 domestic confirmed cases and 28 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. There are 13 communities, 2 residential compounds and a village currently at Medium Risk in the city. Dalian Municipal CDC also shared more detail on the dynamics of the current outbreak: it started with 4 dock workers handling contaminated cold chain products off a Russian cargo ship, becoming asymptomatic cases and caught by weekly screening. One of the asymptomatic dock workers spread it to a residential compound via dinner party and home move before testing positive, creating a family cluster. 2 more dock workers became infected, also asymptomatic, and found via contact tracing. One of the latter dock workers spread it to a shopping area before testing positive (possibly via public restroom), causing chains of transmission that ultimately accounted for 65 positive cases by 0 AM on 1/3, including 11 vendors and 9 customers, as well as 45 of their close contacts. One of the vendors became a super spread himself, infecting several neighboring families, as well as 10 extended family at a dinner banquet, who infected in turn their families, neighbors and other close contacts, ultimately resulting in 21 confirmed and 12 asymptomatic cases as of 0 AM on 1/3. Several people from that transmission chain then visited an out-patient clinic at a local hospital, infecting 3 further cases. This outbreak happened despite weekly screening of cold chain logistics workers at Dalian Port, and the authorities believe it has spread faster than the outbreak in Jul., also originating from cold chain logistics.

    Shenyang in Liaoning Province reported 5 new domestic confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic, all moderate). The previously asymptomatic case is a traced close contact, under centralized quarantine since 12/26 and isolation since 12/27. The 4 new confirmed cases are traced close contact already under quarantine (since 12/23 and 12/27 and 12/29, respectively). There are currently 25 domestic confirmed and 1 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. As of 5 PM on 1/3, 884 F1 close contacts, 5,877 F2 close contacts and 16,099 F3 close contacts have been traced. Currently, 6,550 individuals (F1 & F2 close contacts) are under centralized quarantine, 11,473 individuals (F3 close contacts) are under home quarantine. 4,837 individuals have been released from quarantine. 70,217 individuals deemed at risk of exposure have been tested multiple times. The mass screening is complete in the city. As of 12 PM on 1/4, 6,693,249 individuals have been swabbed, with 6,449,566 results obtained, all but 1 negative (to be reported in tomorrow’s data dump). A 2nd round of mass screening will commence in 6 districts of the city. All residents in Medium Risk areas are tested individually, residents in the cordon sanitaire are tested with 5:1 sample batching, and residents outside of the zone are tested with 10:1 sample batching. The positive case from the screening is from outside of the zone 3 residential compounds were elevated to Medium Risk. There are 1 community, 1 office building and 14 residential compounds currently at Medium Risk in the city. 

    Heihe in Heilongjiang Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, a traced close contact already under quarantine. 1 confirmed case recovered. There are 7 domestic confirmed and 2 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. There are 5 residential compounds currently at Medium Risk in the city.

    Beijing Municipality reported 2 new domestic confirmed  and 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine (since 12/26 and 12/28). There are 6 villages and 1 hotel currently at Medium Risk in the city. 

    Hebei Provincial Health Commission reported 4 new domestic confirmed and 13 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Xingtai in Hebei Province reported 2 new domestic (1 moderate and 1 mild) confirmed and 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases, a family cluster at Nangong District, a couple and the husband’ younger brother. The husband was the 1st discovered case, he went to a local hospital for RT-PCR test (the circumstance that promoted testing is not released) on 1/1, and received positive result at 8 PM of 1/2. The wife and younger brother were sent to centralized quarantine, as close contacts, at 8:30 PM on 1/2, and tested positive on 1/3 (asymptomatic and confirmed case, respectively). The brothers have attended lunch banquet, visited a children’s hospital at Shijiazhuang, and attended a trade show at Luoyang in Henan Province, over the past week+.

    Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases, and presumably the remaining 12 new domestic asymptomatic cases (not specified), at Haocheng District, where the city’s airport is located. All 3 confirmed cases (including the 1 reported on 1/2) are residents at the same village, and all had developed symptoms (from 12/26, 12/30, and respectively), visited local clinics. 1 of the cases from 1/3 finally visited fever clinic at the closest regional city on 1/2. The other case was found via mass screening at the village on 1/3. The case reported on 1/2 had developed symptoms early in the morning of 1/2, and visited a fever clinic on the same day. She had attended a wedding on 12/28 (which are raucous events in rural China), but hopefully before she became infectious. Given that her symptoms started the latest, she is not likely the index case in the transmission chain. She may even have been infected at the wedding. No information has been released for the asymptomatic cases, but my guess is they were discovered during mass screening of all residents at the village. Unfortunately, it is clear an outbreak has already started at the village.

    On 1/2, China reported 20 new imported confirmed cases, 26 imported asymptomatic cases:

    • Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 6 confirmed and 12 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Pakistan, off flights diverted from Beijing
    • Shanghai Municipality – 4 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from India (via Germany), the UAE and the UK, and an Indian national coming from the UAE
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 3 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Egypt and 1 from Germany; 3 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Egypt, the Sudan (via Cairo) and Mali (via Cairo)
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each turning from Tanzania (via Cairo) and Zambia (via Addis Ababa); 3 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Tanzania, Iraq and Nigeria (all via Cairo)
    • Zhaoqing in Guangdong Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese each national returning from Tanzania and Nigeria, landing at Guangzhou and quarantining at Foshan
    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Mozambique and Uganda
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the Philippines, landing at Guangzhou and quarantining at Foshan
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), a Chinese national returning from Guinea (via Paris CdG)
    • Dalian in Liaoning Province – 1 confirmed case (previous asymptomatic), no information released 
    • Taiyuan in Shanxi Province – 1 confirmed case, off a flight diverted from Beijing, a Chinese national returning from Poland
    • Fuzhou in Fujian Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Indonesia
    • Hohhot in Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region – 1 confirmed case, off a flight diverted from Beijing, no information released
    • Chongqing Municipality – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Nepal
    • Yantai Port in Shandong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Russian crew member off a cargo ship
    • Binzhou in Shandong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the UK; the case landed at Qingdao in Shandong Province on 12/19, passed through 14 days of centralized quarantine and tested negative on RT-PCR 3 times and once for antibodies, upon released from quarantine at Qingdao on 1/2 the case was transferred by special transport to Binzhou, on 1/3 Qingdao authorities informed the Binzhou authorities that the case had tested positive during the final test before release from quarantine, the case was sent to isolation where she tested positive twice; 5 F1 close contacts, 7 F2 close contacts and 6 regular contacts have been traced and placed under centralized or home quarantine, all 667 residents at the compound have been tested, the compound is under lock down

    Overall in China, 1 cases deteriorated to serious condition, 17 confirmed cases recovered, 11 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation and 4 was reclassified as confirmed cases, and 452 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 411 active confirmed cases in the country (286 imported), 10 are in serious condition (4 imported), 294 asymptomatic cases (240 imported), and 1 suspect case (imported). 15,658 traced contacts are currently under quarantine.

    On 1/4, Hong Kong reported 53 new cases, 10 imported and 43 domestic (6 of whom do not have source of infection identified). 

  7. 7.

    satby

    So I’m hoping one of our lawyer jackals can weigh in on this question: if a worker in our doctor’s office refuses to get vaccinated for covid, can we require her to get it or be fired? We work directly with patients, often elderly with health issues who nay need physical assistance to get into the chairs or testing equipment. Indiana is an “at will” state, s o presumably we can fire her without even citing the vaccination refusal, but it may come down to “jab or lose your job”.

    I assume the only reason hospitals aren’t doing that right now when workers refuse is there’s a serious shortage of nurses and other staff. Edit: question raised because some doctors feel it’s murky due to the vaccines having only emergency FDA approval.

  8. 8.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 numbers. Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 1,741 new cases today at his media briefing, for a cumulative reported total of 120,818 cases. Dr Noor Hisham also reports seven new deaths today, for a total of 501 deaths — 0.41% of the cumulative reported total, 0.51% of resolved cases.

    22,089 active and contagious cases are currently in hospital; 122 are in ICU, 53 of them on respirators. Meanwhile, 1,010 patients recovered and were discharged, for a total of 98,228 patients recovered – 81.3% of the cumulative reported total.

    Dr Noor Hisham reports that Malaysia’s R0 is currently at 1.11.

    Five new clusters were reported today: Jalan Duyong and Jalan Sentosa market in Selangor, Jalan Nakhoda in KL, Ehsan Ibol in Perak, and Telok Mas in Melaka.

    1,733 new cases today are local infections. Selangor has 685 local cases: 158 in older clusters, 109 in Jalan Duyong and Jalan Sentosa market clusters, 274 close-contact screenings, and 144 other screenings. Sabah has 303 cases: six in existing clusters, 220 close-contact screenings, and 77 other screenings. Johor has 295 cases: 174 in existing clusters, 74 close-contact screenings, and 47 other screenings. KL has 244 local cases: 17 in older clusters, 109 in Jalan Nakhoda cluster, 63 close-contact screenings, and 55 other screenings.

    Negeri Sembilan has 56 cases: 10 in existing clusters, 40 close-contact screenings, and six other screenings. Penang has 55 cases: 33 in existing clusters, 13 close-contact screenings, and nine other screenings. Kelantan has 50 cases: 25 in existing clusters, 24 close-contact screenings, and one other screening. Kedah has 45 cases: 29 in existing clusters, 11 close-contact screenings, and five other screenings. Perak has 34 cases: 17 in older clusters,one in Ehsan Ibol cluster, 13 close-contact screenings, and three other screenings. Melaka has 34 cases: 10 in Telok Mas cluster, and 24 close-contact screenings.Pahang has 12 cases: five in existing clusters, three close-contact screenings, and four other screenings.

    Sarawak has seven local cases: 4 in existing clusters, and three other screenings. Putrajaya has six cases: two close-contact screenings, and four other screenings. Terengganu has four cases: one close-contact screening, and three other screenings. Labuan has one case, in an existing cluster. And Perlis has one case, found in other screening.

    Eight new cases are imported. Five were reported in KL, two in Selangor, and one in Sarawak. They are arrivals from Egypt (three), Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Morocco, and Congo.

    The seven deaths today are a 65-year-old man in Sabah with diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, and heart disease; a 67-year-old man in Johor with hypertension; an 83-year-old woman in Sabah with diabetes, hypertensuion, heart disease, and chronic kidney disease’ a 45-year-old man in Pahang with liver disease and retroviral; a 50-year-old woman in Sabah; a 68-year-old woman in Selangor with diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, and heart disease; and a 60-year-old woman in Selangor.

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: IANAL but Misery is also an at-will state and here one can be fired for any reason/no reason at all.

    ETA want to add, firing for no reason at all would be the preferred choice here unless one wants to become the latest FAUX news cause celebre and have armed goons demonstrating in front of the store.

  11. 11.

    Barbara

    @satby: Issue of forcing vaccinatIon is a bit complex. It probably can be required to work in certain positions or with certain populations even withbthe EUA. One question I have considered is how draconian the fallback can be if you refuse vaccination. Can your employer force you to prove negative statusat regular intervals on your own time and dime?  Nosocomial infection is occurring in health care settings notwithstanding PPE.

  12. 12.

    Geo Wilcox

    In regards tp that last post , we were at our local small town, rural Indiana Kroger last week. Not our usual shopping day but whatever. Some white 30 something female walked by us in the cosmetic area and I said “Asshole” . She pops back with “Have a nice day, asshole.” Whatever. We are  in the produce department all the way across the store when we see her again gabbing on her cell. My husband walked by her, all set to ignore her but she purposely stopped her conversation and coughed at him. I heard it 20 feet away. He turned on her and loudly called her a cunt for the whole section to hear. A set of managers was right by where he was standing, they heard &saw it all. He told her she was an idiot and a traitor. Stunned silence and then the clapping started.

    The next time we saw her, she was glaring at us as we used the self check out. So yes shaming these assholes is the only way to get them to shut the fuck up and go away.

  14. 14.

    Barbara

    @OzarkHillbilly: Right, but it can’t be a pretext for illegal discrimination of one kind or another. It could also offend community norms to such a degree that it might be counterproductive. There has been litigation regarding flu vaccine mandates and generally, employers give an opportunity for alternative compliance, but they have also prevailed in being able to fire employees who aren’t 100% compliant with an inconvenient alternative, like wearing a mask all the time.

  15. 15.

    Mary G

    Inflatable Christmas tree costume is the latest superspreader, per WaPo.

    A staff member dressed as a smiling, red-nosed Christmas tree strolled through the emergency department at a San Jose hospital on Christmas Day, hoping to provide holiday cheer.

    Days later, a coronavirus outbreak swept through the Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center, eventually infecting 43 employees and killing one.

    Hospital officials now say the “air-powered” Christmas costume is likely to blame for the 44 positive tests, all recorded between Dec. 27 and Friday. Experts said the fan inside the costume could have blown coronavirus-laden droplets throughout the department.

    “Obviously this is a highly unusual situation involving a well-intentioned staff member acting on their own without advance notice or approval,” said Irene Chavez, the hospital’s senior vice president and area manager, in a statement to The Washington Post. “Any exposure, if it occurred, would have been completely innocent, and quite accidental, as the individual had no covid symptoms.”

    You can just smell the defenses to the inevitable lawsuits that Moscow Mitch was trying to shut down in that language crafted by Kaisers’ lawyers.

    Why do even people who should know better insist on doing unsafe things? I am somehow following a bunch of Canadian progressives in Alberta, and almost every right wing upper member of the government took a vacation in warmer climes after telling citizens to stay home.

  16. 16.

    Mary G

    @satby:

    @OzarkHillbilly: That’s what I would worry about – not the legal issues, but having her run to Fox or Sinclair and inciting  protests or a boycott of the practice.

    ETA: Is that the toxic manager from before?

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Barbara: Right, but it can’t be a pretext for illegal discrimination of one kind or another.

    OK, no offense but I’m just gonna say “Bullshit” right now. That may be the law (IIRC you are in fact a lawyer so I defer to you on that) but in reality, companies can and in fact do just exactly that all the time. Both my wife and I lost our jobs because we were “too old”. In my case it was because they thought I was entering into an age of physical breakdown that would leave them at legal risk for workman’s comp (kind of involved story) and my wife because, well just plain and simply, she was well paid and had earned good benefits over 30+ yrs at her company. They decided it was cheaper to replace her with 2 numbnuts half her age at a third the wage and 1/4 the benefits. This had been happening in department after department throughout her company and when they got to her we knew the jig was up. They did some kabuki dancing to set it up and make it all look legal but the writing was on the walls, the floors and the ceilings.

    Suing? HA! I told her to forget about it. She talked to some other former cellmates who all told her the same story: “I talked to a lawyer and s/he said to forget it.”

    As some MOTU in history once said, “I don’t want a lawyer to tell me what I can and cannot do. I want a lawyer who will tell me how I can do what I want.”

  19. 19.

    satby

    @Mary G: No the toxic manager is gone, but her legacy hires are still there. This one is getting a second written disciplinary letter for her general lax, mistake prone approach to her job anyway, so it could be a self correcting problem. Most of the staff have been getting appointments for the vaccine about 2 weeks out from now, but this nimrod refuses. But the doctor prefers everyone vaccinated, given the risks to our patients as well as ourselves. She’s not a protected class and I’ve been writing her up in the hopes she gets the clue to move on before she’s fired anyway, so I don’t think she’d have a case to sue.

    It’s been years since I had to be a supervisor and the entitlement and change in work ethic is amazing to me. I expect to have to train younger workers in how to behave on a job, not experienced ones.

  21. 21.

    Matt McIrvin

    @OzarkHillbilly: Why cut the doses in half when the existing doses are being flushed down the toilet? The big problem doesn’t seem to be the initial supply of the vaccine, it’s that they’re not getting to where they’re needed and when they do, 60% of the target population won’t get the shots.

  22. 22.

    Ohio Mom

    Opiejean: Was the name Japa? I am a terrible speller. I think I remember the hospital sending him home? Not that that means he’s out of the woods.

    The high number of people, especially health care workers refusing to be vaccinated is very worrisome. The last thing we need is a pool of unvaccinated people for the virus to keep mutating in. H

  24. 24.

    The Moar You Know

    So I’m hoping one of our lawyer jackals can weigh in on this question: if a worker in our doctor’s office refuses to get vaccinated for covid, can we require her to get it or be fired?

    @satby: Depends on the state, but I can say (having just discussed this exact scenario with our workers comp/employment lawyers at work) that the answer is generally going to be “yes”, in California it is absolutely “yes”, and in the case of my employer it’s going to be “yes and there is no alternate work for you, so no unemployment and you’re gone”.

    It’s not going to be a lawsuit-free process.  And the kind of person who refuses vaccination for a deadly but preventable disease is probably going to be the type who sues.  That’s why we all have sky-high insurance premiums I suppose.

  25. 25.

    Platonicspoof

    @opiejeanne:

    @Ohio Mom:

    Japa or Japa21 sounds right, but B-J search function always gives me limited results. And I’m pretty sure the comment was not in one of Anne Lauries’ Covid posts.

  26. 26.

    bluefoot

    @satby: I would assume that it can be a requirement to be vaccinated for specific job duties (like interacting with patients).    But it may depend on the state.  My sister-in-law worked at a cancer center and was required to get a flu shot every year. (She worked in billing.)  I’ve previously been required to be vaccinated (and get titer taken) for HepB working in different labs in three different states.  Oddly enough, my current place of employment doesn’t require the HepB vaccination but does require you signing a waiver if you don’t get one.

  27. 27.

    bluefoot

    @sab: They do.  As does the FDA.  The effective dose was determined in the Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials.  This is a BAD idea, and a great way to generate vaccine-resistant strains of the virus.

  28. 28.

    WaterGirl

    Japa21 is who you guys are asking about.  We emailed the night he was admitted and then released, I’ll check in with him and see how things are going.

  29. 29.

    VOR

    @OzarkHillbilly:  As some MOTU in history once said, “I don’t want a lawyer to tell me what I can and cannot do. I want a lawyer who will tell me how I can do what I want.”

    Very old joke. A CEO is interviewing 3 candidates for a position. One is a scientist, the second an accountant, and the 3rd a lawyer. He asks the scientist “How much is 2+2?” Scientist says “within the limits of accuracy, 4”. Asks the accountant “how much is 2+2?”. Accountant says “4”. Asks the lawyer “How much is 2+2?”. Lawyer leans in and replies “How much do you want it to be?”

  30. 30.

    tokyokie

    I work in a nursing home, and had been working as the facility screener, which generally does not bring me into contact with residents. But that was before our covid rate went from 0 to more than half the residents in a week. Saturday, after a CNA reporting to work refused an assignment to a covid hall, the administrator asked me to fill in there for a couple of hours, which I reluctantly did. After the shift ended, I told the director of nursing, that because of my age and underlying conditions, I could no longer do patient care on the covid halls. Sunday I reported to work to find that my assignment had been changed since I spoke to the DON on Saturday and I had been assigned to do patient care on a covid hall. I refused to do so and went home. I keep asking about when we will get covid vaccinations, and nobody seems to know. So I signed up with the county to get one. Luckily, I tested negative today.

  31. 31.

    StringOnAStick

    My friend at the dental office in CO where I used to work told me the dental community was listed as 1b for vaccination, and offices were sent an email with a link to sign up for a vaccination time.  Turns out the email with the link has been shared all over the net to nondental individuals and now there’s no available slot for my old co-workers.

    I’m glad I retired.

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