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You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday/Thursday, April 7-8

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday/Thursday, April 7-8

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When you wanna eeeease back into live contact with other humans…


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Not the best precedent for getting our *new* pandemic under control…

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Talk about bad framing… MI’s Thumb is full of angry, undereducated, Cristianist White dudes busy ginning each other up about their precious FREEDUMB!!! From my perspective, a big reason Michigan has taken such a heavy hit is that there was a female Governor (Gretchn Whitmer) and a gay, female Attorney General (Dana Nessel) trying to TELL PEOPLE WHAT THEY COULD OR COULDN’T DO, Angry Sky Daddy forfend. (Unfortunately, a lot of their neighbors are isolated, older rural folk who don’t have much choice but to suffer along with them.)

Reader Interactions

38Comments

  1. 1.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY stats:

    New cases = 286
    Confirmed active cases = 2897
    2.6% test positivity

    Deaths at 1207

    38.2% of Monroe County has had at least 1 vaccine dose.
    24.9% are totally vaccinated.

  2. 2.

    mrmoshpotato

    Likely legal, ‘vaccine passports’ have emerged as the next #coronavirus divide. Businesses & universities want fast, easy ways to see if students & customers are vaccinated, but right wing politicians have turned the passports into a cultural flash point

    Time to buy popcorn futures for when foreign countries tell Russthuglicans, “No, your plague rat ass can’t come here. No, not fake news. Go suck the Kremlin’s ass, you murderous, selfish assholes.”

  3. 3.

    mrmoshpotato

    Lockdowns, mask mandates, and proposed vaccine passports have never been about containing the virus.

    They’re a strategic power play by the far left to gain more control.*

    *Please take this all with a (salt) mine’s-worth of “I’m an idiot!”

  4. 4.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 4/7 China reported 11 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all in Yunnan Province. There are currently 76 domestic confirmed & 25 domestic asymptomatic cases in the Province.

    • Ruili in Dehong Prefecture reported 11 new domestic confirmed (10 moderate & 1 mild, 3 previously asymptomatic) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There are currently 76 domestic confirmed & 24 domestic asymptomatic cases there. Of the newly detected domestic confirmed cases (all moderate), 3 are Chinese nationals & 5 are Burmese nationals. The new domestic case is a Burmese national. All new positive cases were found from the 2nd round of mass screening just completed in the city. 3 communities remain at High Risk. 3 residential compounds, 1 factory & 2 villages remain at Medium Risk.
    • Gengma County in Lincang City did not report any new positive cases. There is 1 domestic asymptomatic case there.

    Imported Cases

    On 4/7 China reported 13 new imported confirmed cases, 5 imported asymptomatic cases:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 9 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals each returning from the US & Brazil (via Switzerland) & 1 each from Switzerland, Russia & the DRC (via Addis Ababa), a German national coming from Germany & a Japanese national coming from Japan
    • 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 (previously asymptomatic), an Italian national coming from Italy
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Iraq; 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Nepal , off  flights that landed at Guangzhou
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Malaysia 
    • Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Belgium, off a flight diverted from Beijing 
    • Changsha in Hunan Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released 
    • Dalian in Liaoning Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released 

     

    Overall in China, 9 confirmed cases recovered, 5 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 5 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 381 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 263 active confirmed cases in the country (186 imported), 2 in critical/serious condition (1 imported), 291 asymptomatic cases (266 imported), 1 suspect cases (all imported). 7,423 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 4/7, 149.071M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 3.679M doses in the past 24 hrs. The the last 3 days formed a Tomb Sweeping Day long weekend in China, which probably explains the reduced vaccination rate.

    On 4/8, Hong Kong reported 10 new cases, 8 imported & 2 domestic (1 of whom does not hav source of infection identified).

  6. 6.

    Mary G

    Only 75 new cases in the OC today. The news on the CA variants is very welcome.

    Work on the needle phobic housemate and the teen is going well enough for hope that all of us will have had our shots by the week of April 15th. We can have Sunday pizza in the same room again, after more than a year of the dining room table sitting lonely and unoccupied.

  7. 7.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mary G:

    Work on the needle phobic housemate and the teen is going well enough for hope that all of us will have had our shots by the week of April 15th. 

    ?

  8. 8.

    Evap

    My youngest in Oregon got her J&j shot yesterday, the oldest in NY will get her first Pfizer today, my spouse gets his second Pfizer in a few days and I am fully vaccinated as if tomorrow.  *happy dance*. We are planning a grand family meetup this summer

  9. 9.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Director-General of Heath Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 1,285 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 355,753 cases. He also reports four new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 1,308 deaths — 0.37% of the cumulative reported total, 0.38% of resolved cases.

    There are currently 14,203 active and contagious cases; 180 are in ICU, 81 of them intubated. Meanwhile, 1,175 patients recovered and were discharged, for a cumulative total of 340,242 patients recovered – 95.63% of the cumulative reported total.

    Four new clusters were reported today: Jalan Taming in Selangor, Industri Parit Raja in Johor, Perusahaan Perai Tiga in Penang, and Padang Manggis in Pahang.
    Padang Manggis is a community cluster. The rest are workplace clusters.

    1,268 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 371 local cases: 95 in older clusters, two in Jalan Taming cluster, 195 close-contact screenings, and 79 other screenings. Sarawak reports 210 local cases: 46 in existing clusters, 131 close-contact screenings, and 33 other screenings.

    Penang reports 162 cases: 30 in older clusters, 60 in Perusahaan Perai Tiga cluster, 21 close-contact screenings, and 51 other screenings. Kuala Lumpur reports 107 local cases: 61 close-contact screenings, and 46 other screenings. Sabah reports 106 cases: 31 in existing clusters, 48 close-contact screenings, and 27 other screenings. Johor reports 101 cases: 12 in older clusters, 38 in Industri Parit Raja cluster, 35 close-contact screenings, and 16 other screenings.

    Kelantan reports 87 cases: 11 in existing clusters, 36 close-contact screenings, and 40 other screenings. Kedah reports 31 cases: 12 in existing clusters, 10 close-contact screenings, and nine other screenings. Perak reports 24 cases: three in existing clusters, nine close-contact screenings, and 12 other screenings.

    Putrajaya reports 19 cases: 10 in existing clusters, five close-contact screenings, and four other screenings. Negeri Sembilan reports 12 cases: three in existing clusters, one close-contact screening, and eight other screenings. Pahang also reports 12 cases: three in older clusters, two in Padang Manggis cluster, four close-contact screenings, and three other screenings. Melaka reports 11 cases: six in existing clusters, four close-contact screenings, and one other screening. Terengganu also reports 11 cases: five in existing clusters, five close-contact screenings, and one other screening.

    Labuan reports three cases, all in existing clusters. And Perlis reports one case, foud in other screening.

    17 new cases today are imported: 13 in Kuala Lumpur, three in Selangor, and one in Sarawak.

    The deaths reported today are an 83-year-old woman in Sarawak with diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, osteoarthritis and spondylosis; a 67-year-old man in Selangor with hypertension, stroke, and myeloproliferative disease; a 70-year-old man in Sabah with hypertension and tuberculosis; and a 60-year-old man in Selangr with chronic kidney disease and tuberculosis.

  10. 10.

    Martin

    Um, universities requiring to see student vaccination is nothing new. We require a shit-ton of vaccines from students. Always have, and the only difference with Covid is that there’s a legal risk of requiring it because of its emergency approval. But you cannot be a student without proof of about 20+  vaccinations. We added meningitis to the list just a few years ago when we were seeing coming back from Asia with it.

    Requiring it for guests is a different matter and still being discussed. Lots of categories of guests they’re working through.

  11. 11.

    Martin

    @Mary G: Same with my needle-phobic son. He thinks he’s  motivated enough to get it that with some help (xanax) he’ll be able to J&J.  That’s progress.

  12. 12.

    Central Planning

    Republican from Alabama outed for cheating on his wife. The only plot twist is that he was outed by a right-wing group. Maybe he wasn’t sufficiently deferent to TFFG. From the WaPo:

    On Wednesday morning, Alabama Secretary of State John H. Merrill went on a local conservative radio show to deny a story posted by a right-wing blog claiming he had an affair with a legal assistant, who also accused him of using racist language.

    The story was a false smear designed to end his bid for U.S. Senate, he said.
“People are attempting to use this to either advance the candidacy of other people, or they are doing it primarily to harm me and my family,” he said on the radio. “It’s very frustrating and very sad.”

    Hours later, when an AL.com reporter confronted him with a recording of an explicit phone call between Merrill and the woman, the lawmaker changed his story. Merrill admitted to the affair — and said that he would drop his plans to run for Senate.

  13. 13.

    Bluegirlfromwyo

    @mrmoshpotato: Of all the rwnj rhetoric around COVID, the they just want control one is the one that gets to me. You mean to tell me that I’m going to lock myself down for months just to get control of you for some unnamed reason. Really? And then they wonder why normal people think they’re assholes.

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    The New Yorker has an interesting article about Sweden’s experience with the pandemic. As you may recall, Sweden largely stayed open (bars, restaurants, etc., did not close), though people who could work at home did, and schools were online.

    The country’s top epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, led the controversial response, which remains in hot dispute there and elsewhere. Tegnell was an early mask skeptic, and though he’s softened on that, he still doesn’t think masks are a no-brainer like Dr. Fauci and most scientists here and elsewhere do. 

    TL;DR version: Sweden fared far worse than its Nordic neighbors that took more precautions, but it’s COVID stats are better than many EU countries’ outcomes. There are a lot of variables in play, so not one knows exactly why.

    That was my key takeaway from the article: there’s still so much we just don’t know.

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    Morocco on the cusp of becoming the 38th country to report a cumulative reported total of cases exceeding half a million.

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    @Mary G: & @Martin: I am super needle phobic too due to a traumatic childhood experience. I hadn’t had a shot in 15 years or so before my COVID vax on 3/30. I drove myself to the drive-up vax station and was so absurdly keyed up about it!

    While the nurse was prepping the shot, I looked the other way with my face all squoonched up and my foot nervously tapping the floor of the car, fighting the impulse to throw open the car door and run screaming through the parking lot!

    Well, I felt like a complete idiot when the nurse swabbed my shoulder with alcohol and I realized she’d already done the injection! Different needle gauges make a difference, I think, and this was a tiny needle. Didn’t hurt a bit (until the next day).

  17. 17.

    Geminid

    The AP story about the polio vaccination effort in Afghanistan is worth reading, to see the viciousness of the unidentified assassins who murdered three polio vaccinators, and the courage of the Afghanis who are still vaccinating children at the risk of their own lives.

  18. 18.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Bluegirlfromwyo: Yup.  So let me see if I understand this, you nutter, three things that prevent the spread of the virus don’t actually, and I deprived myself of visiting family and friends for a year just so I could go “Booga booga booga!  Control!  Mwhahaha!” at your stupid, selfish ass?  Sure thing, Jan.

  19. 19.

    Matt McIrvin

    Spouse who got J&J shot on Tuesday had to lie down for a while yesterday afternoon, seems pretty much fine now. It’s another week and a day before I’m far enough past my shingles shot that I’m clear to get the COVID vaccination, a few days after that that I’m officially eligible per state.

  20. 20.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    Greece: 3445 new cases yesterday, a bit down from the April 6 number of 4293 (source: Worldometers), and 75 deaths. Vaccinations just passed 2 million shots delivered, but the number of booster shots is 690,740. Vaccines are still only being given to healthcare workers, people with critical diseases, and people 60 years and over.

    On a personal note: I had one hell of a missed connection. My folks just returned to New York from Athens this past Sunday, and my dad got his first shot Monday; I’m due to join them Saturday, specifically to get vaccinated and to have other deferred medical tests performed. They asked my dad’s physician if there were any openings for a 50-year-old, and one was found … but it was for Friday afternoon, too soon for me, because even if I could have moved up my airplane ticket, I’d never have been allowed on a plane without the PCR test needed to enter the US.

    I don’t know whether to feel disappointed, stupid, or guilty that I’ve even got the opportunity to do this thanks to a gigantic heap of privilege.

  21. 21.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Bluegirlfromwyo: That’s the grand unified right-wing theory of liberals, though: that liberals don’t actually care about anything except controlling other people for its own sake, and every problem or threat we talk about (environmental dangers, structural racism, workplace safety…) is a hoax we made up to that end. We will go to any length whatsoever to get that interfering-busybody hit.

    Then if you look at Christian evangelicals or the way right-wingers insist on treating the poor, the extent to which this is probably projection becomes clear.

  22. 22.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR: I had to turn down my dose from that overflow supply that got my wife her shot, because I’m less than two weeks out from a shingles vaccination. In my defense, the clock was ticking on that one and if I hadn’t gotten it then I’d have had to start the sequence over–I reasoned that I probably wouldn’t be able to get the COVID shot until the 19th anyway.

  23. 23.

    Mary G

    @Betty Cracker: Brava for doing it despite your fears. I used to freak out in the old CT and MRI scan machines that were so tight I felt like a cork going into a bottle.

  24. 24.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Betty Cracker: I had that experience one year when I got a flu shot on the Army base where I was working. The guy told me they used a super small gauge needle for the soldiers and that I wouldn’t feel it and he was right.

    I don’t have a phobia exactly in that I’m not afraid to get shots, but I can’t watch the needle going in. Not in me, not in anyone else, not in a fake special effect on a TV screen.

  25. 25.

    Sloane Ranger

    Wednesday in the UK we had 2763 new cases. This is a reduction of 36.6% in the rolling 7-day average. New cases by nation,

    England – 2304 (up 367)

    Northern Ireland – 88 (up 31)

    Scotland – 289 (up 30)

    Wales – 82 (down 44).

    At least some of the increases may be due to reporting delays caused by the Easter Weekend and the reduction in Wales to the fact that they had reported 48 hours of data the previous day.

    Deaths – There were 45 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. This is a decrease of 35.5% in the rolling 7-day average. New deaths by nation, England – 40, Scotland – 5 and none for Northern Ireland and Wales.

    Testing – On 6 April a total of 631,846 tests were conducted. This is a decrease in the rolling 7-day average of 29.3%.

    Hospitalisations – There were 3536 people in hospital on 1 April and 469 people on ventilators on 4 April. The rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions is down 25.3%.

    Vaccinations – As of 6 April, a total of 31,707,594 had received the 1st shot of a vaccine and 5,683,509 had received both shots. This means that 60.2% of adults in the UK had received 1 shot and 10.8% had had both.

  26. 26.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Mary G: MRIs are still disturbing–not only are you stuck into a tube and forbidden to move, they’re LOUD. Got one once and I’m not sure I want to repeat the experience.

    (That ultimately resulted in my getting a bunch of metal in my leg and I’m actually not sure if I can get another MRI after that–probably I can but I should probably ask my orthopedist on Monday.)

  28. 28.

    Matt McIrvin

    I watched a news report through YouTube about the outbreak in Michigan–hospitals crammed with dying patients, the whole nine yards–and was depressed at how dominated the comments were by “I’m in Michigan and we’re all fine, everyone I know got it and it’s just a cold”, or “they’re saying people like my uncle died from COVID when it was lung cancer”, followed by “thank you for getting the truth out past the fake media!!!” etc.

  30. 30.

    Skepticat

    I see the prospect of a friendship fraying if not evaporating very shortly. A good friend from California is coming in Friday to his house here in The Bahamas, and he’s already ranting and raving about needing to wear a mask when he travels. He insists the entire thing is made up and overblown and we all need psychological help to get over our fear of dying. I’ll be declaring the tiny island a zone free of discussion of this issue, but it’s so discouraging when someone you thought was intelligent and sensible insists on proving he isn’t. A Bahamian friend won’t be vaccinated because of the chip. Same for him. Sigh.

  31. 31.

    Cameron

    A disturbing trend I’ve noticed over the last couple weeks: an increasing number of people going maskless at the supermarket, despite the yooge sign at the door requesting people to mask up. Fewer clueless and more looking for trouble, too – staring contests with masked customers, etc. I’m not going to waste my time with them; I just get what I need and keep moving.

  32. 32.

    Scout211

    I am reading on our local news site that one of the disturbing effects of more doses delivered and more vaccination sites available here in California is more wasted doses.  People are making multiple appointments and then not canceling the extra appointments after they get a vaccination. What?! This is not right. What is wrong with these people?

  33. 33.

    unique uid

    @Mary G: Only 75 new cases in the OC today. The news on the CA variants is very welcome.

    hi Mary, could you give me a quick overview of what “lockdown/etc” steps OC was using the last month?   I’m still comparing Michigan (3X the population as OC) to your county.  Trying to figure out what went wrong.

    Others: I also look with curiosity at comparisons to Sweden and Israel, both countries with similar populations to Michigan.

  34. 34.

    Matt McIrvin

    I do think the “vaccine passport” idea is probably overkill–the real point of mass vaccination is to get enough collective immunity in the general population that the virus can’t propagate, and at that point, discriminating between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated in some particular social situation becomes moot. The period when vaccine passports can do some good is probably brief and will be over by the time any formal system is up and running.

    It reminds me a bit of all the intricate systems of vaccination priority sub-tiers that state authorities invented when the vaccines first appeared, that often probably did more harm than good just by creating organizational overhead and confusion when getting the vaccines out, and became moot rapidly as supplies increased.

  35. 35.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Skepticat:

    He insists the entire thing is made up and overblown and we all need psychological help to get over our fear of dying.

    A made up thing is overblown? Shit! Everyone! Everyone! We overdid it on the hoax!

    And for the fear of dying? Ummm….

    A Bahamian friend won’t be vaccinated because of the chip.

    But I really wanted to track this most-fascinating stranger! Do they happen to carry their phone everywhere?  Also, they ever seen a picture of the needles used to chip dogs and cats?

  36. 36.

    Mart

    Hey idiot Rep Biggs, “Lockdowns, mask mandates, and proposed vaccine passports have never been about containing the virus.” Try going to parts of  South America without a yellow fever shot.

  37. 37.

    Skepticat

    @mrmoshpotato: I made precisely the same points to my Bahamian friend, who happened to have his phone in his hand at the moment. And my favorite questions to people who whine about the government overreach of asking people to wear masks is whether they have a driver’s license, stop at stop signs, and pay taxes. Sheesh.

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