Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

If West Virginia and San Francisco had a love child.

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

No Justins, No Peace

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

The revolution will be supervised.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Sunday/Monday, March 7-8

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Sunday/Monday, March 7-8

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  3. 3.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY yesterday:

    New cases = 120. Reported deaths still at 1159.
    Positivity at 1.6%
    165 cases in the hospital, 46 in the ICU
    41% hospital beds available, 36% ICU beds available.

    I’m having an MRI today. I’m hoping that all of the med techs have had their 2 jabs and that Valium mellows me out enough that I don’t mind wearing a mask inside the noisy tube.

  4. 4.

    JWR

    That Ioffe tweet at the end, about people not understanding how this stuff works, is still mind boggling to me. I saw a Face the Nation clip with 5 citizens giving their various opinions about it, and one of them, a very outspoken man, was asked why, exactly, he was opposed to wearing a mask, and… crickets. Dude was flummoxed, because all he’d ever been doing was playing a bit part in the really stupid pandemic movie playing in his head. Up till now, when he was simply asked about it, he’d only been “owning the libs”, so no thought required. Or so I would guess.

  5. 5.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 numbers. Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 1,529 new cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 314,989 cases. He also reports eight new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 1,177 deaths — 0.37% of the cumulative reported total, 0.40% of resolved cases.

    There are currently 19,778 active and contagious cases; 160 are in ICU, 79 of them intubated. Meanwhile, 2,076 patients recovered and were discharged, for a cumulative total of 294,034 patients recovered – 93.3% of the cumulative reported total.

    Four new clusters were reported today: Cyber 72 and Jalan i-Park Tiga in Johor; Jalan Loke Yew in Kuala Lumpur; and Bukit Bayas in Terengganu.

    Bukit Bayas is a community cluster. The rest are all workplace clusters.

    1,673 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 721 local cases: 92 in existing clusters, 553 close-contact screenings, and 76 other screenings. Sarawak reports 252 cases: nine in existing clusters, 79 close-contact screenings, and 164 other screenings.

    Johor reports 118 local cases: 21 in older clusters, 24 in Cyber 72 and Jalan i-Park Tiga clusters, 34 close-contact screenings, and 39 other screenings.

    Negeri Sembilan reports 89 cases: 57 in existing clusters, 24 close-contact screenings, and eight other screenings. Penang reports 76 cases: 11 in existing clusters, 17 close-contact screenings, and 48 other screenings. Sabah reports 71 cases: 26 in existing clusters, 34 close-contact screenings, and 11 other screenings. Kuala Lumpur reports 69 local cases: nine in older clusters, two in Jalan Loke Yew cluster, 35 close-contact screenings, and 23 other screenings. Perak reports 49 cases: 29 in existing clusters, 17 close-contact screenings, and three other screenings. Kelantan reports 28 cases: five in existing clusters, 16 close-contact screenings, and seven other screenings.

    Perlis reports 17 cases, all in existing clusters. Terengganu reports 13 cases: two in older clusters, one in Bukit Bayas cluster, nine close-contact screenings, and one other screening. Kedah reports nine cases: four close-contact screenings, and five other screenings. Melaka reports four cases: one in an existing cluster, and three other screenings. Pahang reports three cases, all found in other screening. And Putrajaya reports one case in an existing cluster.

    Labuan reports no new cases today.

    Nine new cases today are imported: five in Selangor, two in Kuala Lumpur, and two in Johor.
    The deaths reported today are an 80-year-old man in Kuala Lumpur with diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, and heart disease; an 89-year-old man in Sabah with diabetes, hypertension, stroke, and heart disease; an 81-year-old man in Penang with diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease; a 67-year-old man in Sarawak with anaemia; an 85-year-old man in Penang withdiabetes, hypertension, and chronic kidney disease; a 65-year-old man in Johor with no co-morbidities listed; a 61-year-old man in Johor with kidney cancer; and a 75-year-old non-Malaysian man, DOA with stroke.

    In other news, the Ministry of Health has announced the incorporation of a non-profit company, ProtectHealth Partner GP, to coordinate private-sector general practitioners’ participation in the second and third phases of the national Covid-19 immunisation programme. (These are the phases covering, respectively, high-risk groups and the general public.) GPs around the country are invited to sign up.

  6. 6.

    Cermet

    @NeenerNeener: Understand – being so deep into that confined tube really gets to me – especially the length of time.  I have even done caving where I had to force myself through very tight parts and it bothered me far less. I have been putting off making my appointment for that very reason.

  7. 7.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 3/7 China reported 0 new domestic confirmed & 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province reported that all travel restrictions into and out of the Gaocheng District, the epicenter of the recent outbreak, has been lifted. The masters round of mass screening n the district produced no positive results. Residential compounds and villages had exited restricted access management already, but now people can travel across regions without restrictions.

    Imported Cases

    On 3/7 China reported 19 new imported confirmed cases, 17 imported asymptomatic cases:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 5 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from the US & 1 each from Finland, the UAE & Ethiopia (vis Vienna)
    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Kenya & the DRC; 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Mozambique & the DRC
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Cambodia; 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Chad (via Cairo)
    • Qingyuan in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the UAE, off a flight that landed at Guangzhou 
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 3 asymptomatic cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Saudi Arabia & 1 from the UAE, off flights that landed at Guangzhou 
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 2 confirmed cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Algeria; 3 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Algeria, Cambodia & Myanmar
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 2 confirmed & 3 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 2 confirmed cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Kirghizistan (via Tashkent); 1 asymptomatic case, a foreign national coming from South Korea
    • Taiyuan in Shanxi Province – 1 confirmed case, coming from Poland
    • Hohhot in Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region – 1 confirmed case, off a flight diverted from Beijing, no further information released
    • Nanjing in Jiangsu Province – 1 confirmed case, coming from Russia
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 1 confirmed case, coming from the Philippines; 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 each coming from the Philippines & the Ukraine
    • Qingdao in Shandong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Filipino cow member off a cargo ship (last port of call in Russia)
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released, yet

     

    Overall in China, 9 confirmed cases recovered, 16 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 2 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 310 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 183 active confirmed cases in the country (175 imported), none in critical/serious condition, 242 asymptomatic cases (241 imported), 1 suspect case (imported). 4,379 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    On 3/8 Hong Kong reported 9 new cases, 3 imported & 6 domestic (4 of whom do not yet have source of infection identified).

  8. 8.

    Nicole

    @NeenerNeener: 

    Valium before an MRI? That’s brilliant. I wish I had thought of that before the one I had to have of my orbital sockets- I had to keep my eyes closed the entire time and they kept telling me to stop moving my eyeballs (under the closed lids).

    Yeah, MRIs are no fun. Wishing you a quick as possible trip in and out of the tube.

  9. 9.

    JWR

    @Nicole: MRIs. Yuck! They didn’t give me Valium, but they did give me an IV drip of something that relaxed me enough to make it all the way through, but also allowed me to return to normal consciousness fairly quickly once it was all over.​​

  10. 10.

    Zzyzx

    Yesterday was the first day since October where the Worldometers 7 day US average dropped below 60,000 cases a day. It’s still too high but – as of now – it’s still going in the right direction.

  12. 12.

    Chris T.

    @Nicole: Mine was a knee MRI – not that bad.  I have had a bunch of CT scans as well but the machines for that are … less oppressive, somehow.

  13. 13.

    Sloane Ranger

    Yesterday in the UK we had 5177 new cases. This is a decrease of about 900 from the day before and a reduction of 31.3% in the rolling 7-day average. Weekend warning applies. New cases by nation,

    England – 4497 (down @600)
    Northern Ireland – 138 (down @30)
    Scotland – 390 (down @150)
    Wales – 152 (down @40).

    Deaths – There were 82 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. This is a decrease of 34.8% in the rolling 7-day average. Deaths by nation, England – 61, Northern Ireland – 3, Scotland – 0 and Wales – 18.

    Testing – Not updated at weekends.

    Hospitalisations – Not updated on Sundays.

    Vaccinations – As of 6 March, a total of 22,213,112 people had received the 1st dose of a vaccine and 1,122,402 had received both doses

    General – Schools re-open in England today and care home residents will be allowed one visitor provided they wear PPE.

  14. 14.

    Robert Sneddon

    The UK-wide decision to delay the second dose of Pfizer and Oxford vaccines was a desperate attempt to get as many people vaccinated first-dose as possible, especially the elderly who were clearly most at risk of serious illness and possible mortality from COVID-19. The result is that today about 40% of the adult population (16 years-plus) in the UK has had their first vaccination.

    We are seeing significant decreases in COVID-19 case numbers here week on week in large part due to that needles-in-arms effort but that is coupled with a serious national lockdown and mask mandates on public transport etc. Comparing the US and the UK, we’re seeing half the numbers of new cases per capita with about 30% more vaccinated individuals per capita.

    The intention is that if the longer interval between shots turns out to be a problem then there will be booster shots made available in the autumn and winter to improve the immunity levels. This may be necessary anyway to combat evolutionary forms of the disease if the initial Mk1 vaccines are less effective on the variants spreading around the world today and in the future. The downside is that the UK and other nations taking up boosters will use up more vaccine doses that would otherwise have gone into the COVAX distribution system to poorer countries.

  15. 15.

    Dan B

    @JWR: People will do anything to avoid changing their beliefs, including dying.  This knowledge has been made even more apparent to me with the Covid-19 pandemic.

    The best thing that could happen right now is a halt to non-essential travel.  Is anyone thinking about this?  I just got my jab and dread catching a more contagious variant before my immune system is fully primed.  What’s it like to be the last person to die in a war?

    People latch onto propaganda when it allows them to resist new information.  This is why Murdoch, Zuckerberg, DeSantis and Trump are so dangerous.  They would offer a loaded gun to a frightened teenager and then complain the youth did not exercise individual responsibility.

    We will have to take measures and hope the slippery slope can work with some brakes.  The alternative is more propaganda and rushing faster to chaos.  The propagandists have not suffered consequences.  They are encouraged, not deterred.

  18. 18.

    Scout211

    https://myturnvolunteer.ca.gov/s/landing

    California is asking for volunteers to help with the vaccination clinics throughout the state with the reward of a possible vaccination at the end of your shift (if there are doses left).

    https://www.abc10.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/vaccine/covid-vaccine-clinic-volunteering/103-922bb462-56af-4642-9f4b-a0064b483684

    When you volunteer, you become known as a ‘community health worker” and that, in turn, makes you eligible for the vaccine.”

    “So, it will be up to the site where you volunteer that you have done the shift, you’ve done the work, and that the site has enough vaccine to provide for the volunteers,” Fryday said.

    That shift has to be at least four hours, and you also must be 18 years or older. It will be up to the site to determine when the vaccine is given, so it could be given on a different day.

    You can volunteer at any location of your choice.

  19. 19.

    lowtechcyclist

    I took undergraduate and graduate courses at four different colleges/universities, and was a professor or instructor at two others.  Each had its own timing for spring break.  One of them had its spring break the first week of March every year; today would be their first day back *after* spring break.

    So when Laurie Garrett says that spring break this year is the week of March 29-April 2, I have no idea what she means by that.

  21. 21.

    lee

    On advice from here (moral quandary issues) , I went ahead and scheduled to get both my wife & I vaccinated.

    Being in Texas we are never in short supply of idiots. So I kept checking the CVS website for openings in small towns. Finally a small town close to where I live opened up appointments. I waited 12 hours and they still hadn’t fully booked. So I scheduled appointments for both of us.

    First shot is Wednesday and the second is the 31st!

  22. 22.

    Wag

    @Chris T.: 
    The tube of a CT scanner is a couple feet long and the scan takes 30 seconds. The tube of an MR machine is 15 feet long and the scan takes 30 minutes.

    Orders of magnitude mean something.

  23. 23.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @JWR: ​”MRIs. Yuck!”

    Oh, really. You might want to take a few moments to consider the “yuckiness” of the alternatives.

    In the mid-1970s I had chronic and annoying back and leg pain that the MDs finally concluded was most likely due to a herniated lumbar disc. I was admitted to hospital for surgery.

    The day before surgery I had two tests: an electromyogram (EMG) and a myelogram. The first consisted of having a needle wired to an oscilloscope pushed into my lower back and leg muscles at several depths at numerous locations while the MD observed the wave forms to evaluate nerve conductivity.

    After I’d spent the morning morphing into the Human Pincushion, I lay on a gurney awaiting the second test. This form of torture consisted of slapping me onto a pivoting table under a fluoroscope, inserting a large needle into the spinal column, injecting an x-ray-opaque dye into the spinal fluid, rocking me up & down on that table to slosh the dye up & down the spine, then taking x-rays.

    I had heard horror stories about this test & by the time they wheeled me in I was so scared I was literally shaking. Mercifully my neurosurgeon injected novocain to numb the target area before the horse needle went in…and the only side effect was that, in the evening, I couldn’t lift my head off the pillow without developing a splitting headache (from the increased pressure in the spinal fluid).

    Fortunately the MD was (medically) a very conservative guy. He visited me that evening – I was scheduled to be slabbed & stabbed next morning – and said, I don’t see anything in the tests that could be causing your problem, and I refuse to open you up just to poke around, Instead he called for an orthopedics consult – also negative – & then released me. Two years later, after another round of specialist visits, it turned out my problems owed to a version of arthritis in the spine – which surgery would not have helped, but NSAIDs and exercise did.

    Had I the same symptoms today, a mildly-uncomfortable-for-a-few-minutes MRI would have conclusively ruled out invasive and hazardous surgery. Without the pincushion and the spinal cord insult. You think my mid-1970s self would not have opted for that in a heartbeat??

    Jeebus Frackin’ Cripes. As my HS physics teacher posted at the front of her classroom, Kwitscherbeliaekin!​​

  24. 24.

    The Moar You Know

    Anecdata: drummer for last band was going to “wait and see” how vaccine went. He’s getting second shot Thursday.

    Rant: We never closed air traffic in or out of US nor tested or tracked one single traveler. Not under Former Guy and not now. This is the only thing I’ll slag the Biden admin on. We need a total travel ban for several months, one that includes private aircraft as well as commercial carriers. It would have possibly stopped this a year ago, but it would help enormously even now.

  25. 25.

    Robert Sneddon

    @rikyrah: Schools being reopened in the UK is a political landmine issue and all the national governments are under extreme pressure to open the schools. Last year they shut down the schools quite early in the initial lockdown but this had a big impact on the exam season during May and June. The patchwork solutions of estimating final results using computer models and teacher evaluations caused massive uproar and resulted in assorted Education ministers getting fired. The pupils and their families involved in pressuring the governments had a good case to make, those exam results were the basis of further education opportunities as well as being required for career opportunities and there wouldn’t be a do-over for the affected young people.

     

    The governments want enough school time especially for the senior pupils to justify some kind of fair equitable examination process at the end of the academic term. Reports from the UK indicate that limited in-person schooling of under-16s doesn’t seem to be a big driver of COVID-19 spread in the general population, including the teaching staff. How much of this is true is another matter but it’s very much in the Government’s interest to get as many bums on seats in schools as they can before exams start.

     

    There’s talk of having shorter breaks and longer school hours each day to try and make up some of the lost teaching time, it will be interesting to see if this works.

  26. 26.

    gvg

    @The Moar You Know: ​
      It is too late for that. We already have many millions of people here infected. A travel ban is useless at this point. Also there is no way to trace effectively when the infected population is so high. You can’t determine where anyone got the infection because everyone has multiple possible sources and the number of employee tracers it would take is mind boggling.
    In addition the GOP has injected so much bile into the population that I don’t think people would answer questions honestly. nearly half of all the possible infected people and half of all the people anyone says they had contact with would not answer a tracers questions…so it wouldn’t work and is a waste of time. Doing it would just make us look incompetent. Shoot ourselves in the foot.

  27. 27.

    Ivan X

    So, I’m going to be obtuse, because I read both tweets and still don’t get it. If I’m vaccinated (which I’m not, and probably won’t be for some time), what is the risk to myself or others if I dine indoors? Actually asking, not trying to be selfish or difficult, I just want to understand.

  28. 28.

    oatler.

    For aging NatLamp fans, Tony Hendra has left us due to Lou Gehrig’s disease.

    “By the way, the Boston gig’s been cancelled. I wouldn’t worry about it , it’s not a big college town.”

  29. 29.

    Jay

    @Ivan X:

    Covid starts in the sinus’s.

    It’s unknown if the current vaccines prevent the 1st stage of infection and spread.

    They do prevent to various different levels, ( all over 90%), major infection, hospitalization and death.

    So, to sum up, being vaccinated does not mean you can’t get infected or continue to spread the disease,

    and currently, indoor dining is believed to be the #1 means of community spread.

  30. 30.

    StringOnAStick

    @Ivan X: From what I’ve read here and elsewhere, one of the biggest drivers of Covid infection is indoor dining.  I’m not vaccinated yet and have zero interest in going to a restaurant now or after I get vaccinated, until infection numbers are way, way down.

  31. 31.

    J R in WV

    @gvg: ​

     

    GOP has injected so much bile into the population that I don’t think people would answer questions honestly. nearly half of all the possible infected people and half of all the people anyone says they had contact with would not answer a tracers questions…so it wouldn’t work and is a waste of time. Doing it would just make us look incompetent. Shoot ourselves in the foot.

    Neighbor works at the County Health Department for the state capitol. She reports their serious effort at tracking went no where on that account, so they gave it up for the most part.

    Also told of listening to employee next to her desk call to check on a patient, then said “Oh, I am so sorry to hear that!” upon hearing the patient had died the night before. So stressful for everyone, everywhere.

    Disagree that attempting tracing and tracking would make us look incompetent — we are incompetent in reality on account of The Former Guy’s mismanagement of everything, especially the Plague.

    I think in reality our only hope is vaccinating everyone as quickly as possible. People can be allowed to refuse, but must go into quarantine until they decide to take a vaccine. No travel, no shopping, no working, just stay home until you see the light and take the vaccination. Or hold them down and shoot them up. I’m tired of the BS from the ignorant but belligerent. Can you tell?

  32. 32.

    J R in WV

    @lee:

    On advice from here (moral quandary issues) , I went ahead and scheduled to get both my wife & I vaccinated.

    Being in Texas we are never in short supply of idiots. So I kept checking the CVS website for openings in small towns. Finally a small town close to where I live opened up appointments. I waited 12 hours and they still hadn’t fully booked. So I scheduled appointments for both of us.

    First shot is Wednesday and the second is the 31st!

    Congratulations~!!~ Also, going to use doses they can’t give away in that small town, so well done on that aspect also too. Amazing how dim  some people can be, isn’t it?

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