just spent my first week post-vaccine weekend actually doing stuff in crowds again and I am going to have internalized agoraphobia for at least another year
— Gorilla Warfare (again) (@MenshevikM) May 30, 2021
The United States is now averaging 20,132 new coronavirus cases per day, the lowest seven-day average since March 31, 2020, according to data from @CNN and Johns Hopkins University.
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) May 31, 2021
The United States will announce in the next two weeks how it plans to distribute 80 million COVID-19 vaccine doses it has pledged globally https://t.co/32OtXZKwBU pic.twitter.com/IDCljwOpKV
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 2, 2021
======
Best of intentions, WHO, but I’m afraid the SS Xenophobia has already done some record-breaking global cruises…
WHO switches to Greek alphabet for #coronavirus variant names. Under the new system variants of concern take on these names: The so-called British variant B.1.1.7 is Alpha; B.1.351 first discovered in S. Africa is Beta & the Brazilian P.1 variant is Gamma https://t.co/2qIc51WiLP pic.twitter.com/Drdz8CsUGL
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) May 31, 2021
The labels do not replace existing scientific names, which convey important scientific information & will continue to be used in research. The naming system aims to prevent calling #COVID19 variants by the places where they are detected, which is stigmatizing & discriminatory. pic.twitter.com/MwWGGMXPjn
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) May 31, 2021
Ho Chi Minh: Vietnam tests entire city amid new variant fears https://t.co/c4yUWkWFWl
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 31, 2021
China has reimposed coronavirus travel controls on its populous southern province of Guangdong, announcing anyone leaving must be tested following a spike in infections. The rise has rattled Chinese leaders who thought they had the disease under control. https://t.co/iWoOn6UQKW
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 31, 2021
China administered 100 million shots over five days after a surge in Covid-19 cases in Guangdong province. pic.twitter.com/dGeT9uBDkn
— SCMP News (@SCMPNews) May 31, 2021
Malaysia reports 7,703 new coronavirus cases https://t.co/t5GLRM00el pic.twitter.com/f71ZBS8whQ
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 2, 2021
Malaysia will begin a two-week national lockdown on Tuesday in an effort to contain its worst coronavirus outbreak since the pandemic started.https://t.co/2bcCW7hch3
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 31, 2021
Doctors prepare to ration care as covid surge leaves Malaysia in "total lockdown" https://t.co/KsDLjA7ryT
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 31, 2021
India reports 132,788 new COVID-19 infections, 3,207 deaths https://t.co/0CJJ5x50YP pic.twitter.com/tSUD4kAJSl
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 2, 2021
India's economy was starting to recover. Then a second Covid wave hit https://t.co/ENzyjlcto1
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) May 31, 2021
An Australian court has rejected a challenge to the government’s power to keep citizens from leaving the country so they don’t bring COVID-19 home. Most Australians have been stranded in their home nation for more than a year under the emergency order. https://t.co/S7tg0waW1G
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 1, 2021
Australia's Victoria state extended a snap COVID-19 lockdown for a second week in Melbourne in a bid to contain an outbreak of the highly contagious virus strain first detected in India https://t.co/cnJKLJnQ1S pic.twitter.com/SHkHSNoKqc
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 2, 2021
Russia on Wednesday confirmed 8,832 new coronavirus cases and 394 deaths, bringing its totals to 5,090,249 cases and 122,267 deaths https://t.co/e6TGW2DVsy
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) June 2, 2021
Greece and six other European Union member nations are introducing a vaccination certificate system for travel, ahead of the rollout of the program across the bloc on July 1. https://t.co/r1ysIKiSw8
— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) June 1, 2021
? The UK has recorded zero new Covid deaths within the past 24 hours for the first time in months
? It is the first time that no Covid deaths have been recorded within 28 days of testing positive for the virus since July 30, 2020. Read more: https://t.co/kUlcMMKnmo
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 1, 2021
The British government may require National Health Service workers to be inoculated against COVID-19 — a contentious proposal that was immediately criticized by opposition leaders as counterproductive. https://t.co/EFXWJXZxO3
— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) May 30, 2021
UK authorizes use of Johnson & Johnson 1-shot vaccine as #coronavirus cases begin edging up again https://t.co/eM72iUpusb pic.twitter.com/Pzzczdgdko
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) June 1, 2021
Thread –
Cyril Ramaphosa warns that infections are “beginning to rise sharply” again in several parts of South Africa, as he starts his latest pandemic TV address to the nation. Notes rising positive test rates in particular.
— Joseph Cotterill (@jsphctrl) May 30, 2021
Brazilian town sees 95% drop in Covid deaths after almost all adults vaccinated in experiment, researchers say https://t.co/17oTO8aqHS
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) June 1, 2021
Pretty big validation for those of us who’ve been using excess deaths to track the pandemic
Peru has audited its Covid deaths data to address undercounting, checking tens of thousands of death certificates
The result? A ~3x increase, almost exactly in line with FT excess deaths pic.twitter.com/81ylHiaD7J
— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) June 1, 2021
A steep slope of rise
Watching Canada on its way to being the #1 major country to get over the 63% of population ceiling for population vaccinated, and lead the world ??? pic.twitter.com/VUxG2OJQq0— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) May 31, 2021
80% of cruise enthusiasts would prefer to sail with vaccine requirement https://t.co/u9NsS2OqnB pic.twitter.com/iPydU76Sjs
— South Florida Sun Sentinel (@SunSentinel) June 1, 2021
======
SARSCoV2 variants have higher transmissibility & longer infectious period. New research. Some have been labeled VOC— variants of concern—because of their transmissibility & infectiousness. All have been linked to 2nd & 3rd waves https://t.co/TU0mhosoBq and https://t.co/aUkK2pH4kX
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) June 1, 2021
The World Health Organization approved a COVID-19 vaccine made by Sinovac Biotech for emergency use listing https://t.co/sGmA10E5aZ pic.twitter.com/wrg62amGl1
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 2, 2021
======
FEMA sent mobile clinics to rural areas and one stop-light towns in Nevada to ensure people can get inoculated. It’s one of the tactics health officials countrywide are using to counter waning interest in vaccinations. By @metzsam & @ssonner report. https://t.co/kTfkD4y3Fm
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 31, 2021
New Mexico is betting big that cash can persuade people to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. It's offering a $5 million grand prize, the largest single payout among the growing number of states staging lotteries to promote inoculations. https://t.co/C598gOeB7q
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 1, 2021
A group of 117 unvaccinated staffers from Houston Methodist Hospital filed a lawsuit seeking to avoid the hospital’s coronavirus vaccine mandate, saying it’s unlawful for bosses to require the shots https://t.co/k14WFUxMaa
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 29, 2021
Remember when Time Magazine’s person of the year was whoever looked at the reflective cover? I think we need a similar shift from a single or small number of recipients to a mass number of awardees, w all people choosing to not be vaccinated winning a Darwin Award. https://t.co/EAzvMYFtn3
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) May 31, 2021
SMILE, NEW YORK
????? https://t.co/dJkNewMm2p— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) May 31, 2021
All I'm saying is that political pundits who pushed "it's airborne AIDS" disinformation shouldn't be allowed to write about COVID anymore. https://t.co/vLHqhgw1Pk pic.twitter.com/ydjDu618Lv
— Charles ?. Davis (@charliearchy) May 30, 2021
YY_Sima Qian
On 6/1 China reported 10 new domestic confirmed (3 previously asymptomatic) & 7 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Guangdong Province reported 10 new domestic confirmed (3 previously asymptomatic) & 7 domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 46 domestic confirmed & 26 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Anhui Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There are 1 domestic confirmed & 5 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Liaoning Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There are 6 domestic confirmed & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
In Yunnan Province, there currently are 4 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases.
Imported Cases
On 6/1 China reported 14 new imported confirmed cases, 12 imported asymptomatic cases:
Overall in China, 15 confirmed cases recovered, 26 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 4 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 698 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 346 active confirmed cases in the country (290 imported), 6 in serious condition (2 imported), 380 asymptomatic cases (341 imported), 2 suspect case (both imported). 8,183 traced contacts are currently
As of 6/1, 681.908M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 22.44M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 6/2, Hong Kong reported 7 new positive cases, 6 imported (5 Indonesia & 1 from the UAE) & 1 domestic (a police officer, source of infection not yet identified). To date, 2.4004M residents have received vaccine shots, 1.3794M individuals w/ 1st shot only (594.8K w/ Sinovac & 784.7K w/ BioNTech) & 1.021M individuals w/ both shots (436K w/ Sinovac & 584.9K w/ BioNTech).
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY stats:
37 new cases – 75.67% were people under 40, including 9 children between 0 and 19. Adults in their 20s had the most new cases at 12.
Deaths are now at 1303. We’ve lost 12 people since last week.
1.9% test positivity
57.1% of Monroe County has at least 1 jab
50% are fully vaccinated
157 people hospitalized, 41 people in the ICU
Even though our case rate is coming down people are still dying…
Baud
Yay! COVID is back!
OzarkHillbilly
Actions (or in this case, inactions) have consequences. As much as possible, those consequences should be limited to the responsible people, not their patients.
YY_Sima Qian
The Alpha (B.1.1.7) & Delta (B.1.617) variants present themselves as significant challenges to all of the countries in E/SE Asia that had done well controlling COVID-19, see Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore & Malaysia. Epidemiological investigations into the outbreak in Guangzhou (Delta variant) have shown that the spread reached 4 generations within 8 days, noticeably faster than previous outbreaks with other variants. Mass vaccination of port/Customs workers appear to have slowed down the outbreak at Shenzhen (Alpha variant), though. However, they were probably among the 1st wave vaccinated at the end of last year, so their immunity may be waning, given the lower protection of the Chinese inactivated whole virus vaccines.
Strategies that worked against variants with R0 of 2.5 – 3.5 may not work so well against the newer variants with R0 of 4 – 6. It will certainly be much more challenging for South Korea to sustain its suppression strategy, absent mass vaccination. While local governments in China have often responded with over the top measures during outbreaks last year, these measures may well be appropriate this year. At least central and local governments in China by now have detailed response plans and have experienced resources to draw on from jurisdictions that had suffered and then eradicated outbreaks. Even with the ~ 20M doses / day pace for vaccination, it will be around end of Q3 before a large majority of the Chinese population have their 2 doses. By that time, many who had been vaccinated at the end of last year or beginning of this year will likely be due for 3rd booster shots.
sab
@OzarkHillbilly: Isn’t Texas a right to work state? Isn’t “right to work” a synonym for “right to fire with impunity”?
Mary G
The OC only had 21 new cases Sunday and 29 Monday with zero deaths either day. We’re down to only 63 people hospitalized, 15 of them in ICU.
Daily average of new cases a day per 100,000 is down to 0.9 and positivity rate is down to 0.6%.
The teen reports that the workers at the restaurant where he works have been told that mask use will no longer be mandatory some day next week. The ventilation is off the charts, with extra windows put in and fans pulling in outside air so I try not to worry too much
ETA: Hope you have everything you need to stay home, Amir. Keep safe.
something fabulous
I agree! I have been wondering why when it seemed clear and obvious why not to call it “the China Virus” we were still giving the variants place names. This is much better.
Amir Khalid
I have keeboard problems. Some kees dead. No can fix because lockdown. Mabe no can posttt todayyy.
OzarkHillbilly
@sab: Yes, right to work (which is about unions), and no doubt also a work at will state. In work at will states an employer is under no obligation to provide a reason for firing someone.
Mousebumples
@Amir Khalid: likely a time consuming option – does your computer have an on screen keyboard option where you’d need to use the mouse to “type”?
Glad to see this back, AL. Though I’m awaiting the day when we won’t need it anymore…
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Phrasing!
Booger
@Amir Khalid: What operating system are you using? Is On-screen keyboard an option until it’s fixed?
YY_Sima Qian
@Amir Khalid: You could consider posting from the mobile phone. Save the previous update and sync to the phone, and then edit from there.
WereBear
@Amir Khalid: The irony. Since you express yourself so well.
That’s a torment, all right.
Amir Khalid
@Mousebumples:
Yes, it does! Thanks for mentioning it!
Ken
DeSantis is going to lose this one, isn’t he? I hope the cruise lines don’t let him have a face-saving way out.
Although, capitalism being what it is, I can see someone offering specialty cruises for the unvaccinated. Not one of the major lines; when the passengers show up it’ll probably be a rented cabin cruiser.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Director-General of Heath Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 7,703 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 587,165 cases. He also reports a record 126 new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 2,993 deaths — 0.51% of the cumulative reported total, 0.59% of resolved cases.
There are currently 82,274 active and contagious cases; 878 are in ICU, 441 of them intubated. Meanwhile, 5,777 patients recovered and were discharged, for a cumulative total of 501,898 patients recovered – 85.48% of the cumulative reported total.
22 new clusters were reported today.
7,701 new cases today are local infections.Selangor reports 2,728 cases: 123 in clusters, 2,024 close-contact screenings, and 581 other screenings. Kuala Lumpur reports 699 local cases: 39 in clusters, 403 close-contact screenings, and 257 other screenings.
Sarawak reports 588 cases: 88 in clusters, 393 close-contact screenings, and 107 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan reports 586 cases: 187 in clusters, 237 close-contact screenings, and 162 other screenings. Johor reports 554 cases: 83 in clusters, 333 close-contact screenings, and 138 other screenings. Kelantan reports 541 cases: 51 in clusters, 381 close-contact screenings, and 109 other screenings.
Penang reports 407 cases: 125 in clusters, 184 close-contact screenings, and 98 other screenings.
Kedah reports 283 cases: 13 in clusters, 192 close-contact screenings, and 76 other screenings. Sabah reports 254 cases: 19 in clusters, 185 close-contact screenings, and 50 other screenings. Pahang reports 237 cases: 107 in clusters, 106 close-contact screenings, and 24 other screenings. Perak reports 224 cases: 61 in clusters, 97 close-contact screenings, and 66 other screenings. Terengganu reports 224 cases: 33 in clusters, 145 close-contact screenings, and 46 other screenings. Melaka reports 209 cases: 46 in clusters, 108 close-contact screenings, and 55 other screenings.
Labuan reports 159 cases: 67 in clusters, 45 close-contact screenings, and 47 other screenings.
Perlis reports seven cases: five close-contact screenings, and rwo other screenings. Putrajaya reports one case, found in other screening.
Two new cases today are imported, both in Kuala Lumpur.
Mathguy
The WaPo story on the 117 morons suing Houston Methodist shows that the editors of WaPo have a LONG way to go. The framing of the story originally was awful. They didn’t mention what outliers the 117 idiots are until several paragraphs in. That photo is really misleading-it involves only 2 nurses, while the rest of the douchebags are almost all non medical staff.
Mousebumples
@Amir Khalid: Yay, glad I could help! ?
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
COVID-19 “surging,” Malaysia in lockdown, the rapid increase in deaths—it sounds so dire just as we seem to be turning the corner here in the United States. I’m concerned for you, Amir. Please stay safe!
trnc
@Baud:
“I missed you, my old friend.” (Cough)
Sloane Ranger
Tuesday in the UK we had 3165 new cases. This is an increase of 31.9% in the rolling 7-day average and case numbers may still be affected by the long weekend. New cases by nation,
England – 2539 (down 82 from last report)
Northern Ireland -54 (down 9 from last report)
Scotland – 478 (down 48 from last report)
Wales – 94 (up 64 from last report).
Deaths – As AL posted above, there were 0 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. This is a decrease in the rolling 7-day average of 10.4%. Deaths since last report, England – 6 and Scotland – 1.
Testing – On Monday, 31 May, a total of 602,019 tests were conducted. This is a decrease of 16% in the rolling 7-day average, possibly at least partially attributable to the Bank Holiday weekend. The PCR testing capacity estimated by labs on this date was 654,078.
Hospitalisations – As of Thursday,27 May, there were 870 people in hospital. There were 120 people on ventilators on this date. The rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions has increased by 23.2%.
Vaccinations – As of 31 May, a total of 39,477,158 people had received the 1st dose of a vaccine and 25,734,719 had received both. In percentage terms this means that 74.9% of adults in the UK have had 1 shot of a vaccine and 48.9% were fully vaccinated.
PaulB
As always, thank you, Ms. Laurie, for your daily efforts here. I hope you had a good break.
Reporting from a Costco 45 minutes north of Seattle: I would say that no more than 5% of the customers were wearing masks, and only about a quarter of the employees. The company no longer requires masks in Washington and does not check vaccination status. Meanwhile, Washington continues to struggle to contain its latest outbreak.
The company is also resuming free samples, although they were still setting those stations up when I was shopping first thing yesterday morning and nothing was available. I wouldn’t have indulged, so it didn’t matter to me.
The store was very busy for first thing on a weekday morning. Perhaps because it was the first day after the holiday? I’m not sure. It was easily double the number of shoppers that I observed the last time I was there on a weekday a couple of months ago.
Even though I’m vaccinated, I was masked. Nobody said anything and if anyone had any questions, they kept them to themselves.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Test positivity rate in PA continues to drop steadily, now down to 3.8%.
I’ve done a few “normal” things but I agree with that tweet that says agoraphobia is baked into my bones right now. Not sure when I’ll feel like going to a movie or live theater.
Philly loosening most restrictions today. They’re expecting a big crowd at the 76ers game tonight.
Robert Sneddon
Scotland — 677 new cases of COVID-19 reported yesterday and a test positivity rate of 2.8%. 1 new reported death of someone who had tested positive within the past 28 days.
These numbers may be distorted by the long holiday weekend and reporting snafus but that high case number and test positivity rate is worrying. Yesterday the Scottish government moved all the urban areas to level 2 restrictions, including Glasgow and some rural areas with low case numbers to level 1. It’s possible the islands will got to level 0 soon, no restrictions at all. I can’t see us going back into lockdowns even if the case numbers increase — the Delta variant of the virus is becoming the most common version of COVID-19 detected in new cases and the current spreading rate, R0 is thought to be about 1.3 or so which is not a good sign. Hospitalisations and ICU bed occupancy are slightly up but nothing that would strain the health services and their ability to cope which is probably why we’re opening up a bit more.
Vaccination numbers are still high with nearly 50,000 injections in Scotland yesterday, about ten thousand more than the usual weekday rate of 40,000 or so per diem. Officially the vaccination program is currently intended for 30-year-olds and above but vaccination centres in the areas with the highest case rates are vaccinating anyone over 16 who turns up and asks for it. How long this above-average surge rate can be sustained is debatable as the supply chains for vaccines and consumables must be getting stretched.
Fair Economist
@YY_Sima Qian:
This is key. And, just as the public hygiene measures of East Asian/Oceanic countries are struggling to contain it, so are the vaccination measures in Seychelles, UK, and Bahrain. There’s still a hope that the superior mRNA vaccines used in the US will suffice, but I’m still betting on a “new normal” – we won’t be able to completely ignore public health measures even after vaccination.
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: As far as I’m concerned, Amir, post all you want. We can still figure out what you are saying.
Matt McIrvin
@Fair Economist: The “UK variant”, now called Alpha, is the currently dominant strain in the United States now. So there’s abundant evidence that the mRNA vaccines work quite well against that. All the other major variants of concern are already here and they don’t seem to be infecting huge numbers of vaccinated people.
I’m assuming that any booster shots we get in the fall or whenever will be tailored to some of these, nevertheless.
But the problem is just that the greater transmissibility means the thing can get a foothold even in places where there aren’t that many unvaccinated people, and infect all of them.
Barbara
I can’t link because it’s a work subscription, but I read a story this morning about efforts in port cities across the U.S. to vaccinate crew members of ships that are docked in port. Many have not been off board for months and months. This is happening across the globe, but in the U.S. it is being undertaken regardless of which flag the ship is flying under or the nationality of the crew member. That gave me a nice feeling, though others might say that simply reflects our relative surplus of vaccine.
Ruckus
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I still mask up when walking or in a store, which is still required in CA. And I don’t go out other than when I have to. Boss asked the other day if I had eaten out for any meal since this mess started and no I haven’t. Not even lunch when at work. Just not worth the risk. Will I go back to not being a hermit? I don’t know but it’s likely an even bet.
Cermet
In the US we are entering the stupid phase of the virial infection: the stupid people who refuse the vaccination get immune the hard way; illness with organ damage and for some, death.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
phuck these tricks
rikyrah
@Mathguy:
I don’t care if all 117 were nurses.
Phuck them.
Either get vaccinated or get a new job.
Matt McIrvin
@Cermet: Based on, admittedly, nothing but anecdotes, I suspect a lot of people in the US are foregoing vaccination literally because a doctor, nurse, pharmacist or other medical professional told them not to get vaccinated. Usually not for a legit reason, but because that medical professional is a wingnut or does not understand probability.
So the ignorance of certain people can have leverage beyond themselves.
Matt McIrvin
(I posted something that amounted to the above on Twitter and immediately got a reply saying “My pharmacist straight-up told me the risk of the vaccine would be greater than from getting covid. I trust her.” Case in point–even if there’s no legit reason, which I don’t know, how could I convince this person not to trust the pharmacist? I’m not a pharmacist, or a person with any medical credentials at all.)
Matt McIrvin
@PaulB: At my Market Basket in northern Massachusetts, there’s now a sign on the door saying only unvaccinated people have to wear masks, and of course nobody is checking, so when I went on Monday, I’d say about half of the people there were wearing masks. Do I trust them to be vaccinated? Of course not. And I was wearing my mask–I’ll be at the official two-week mark tomorrow, I figure I’ve got a pretty good head of immunity built up, but there was no reason not to. But nobody gave me any crap about it.
StringOnAStick
We were walking through our neighbourhood this weekend and caught a conversation fragment between two pickup plus trailer contractors, one saying “she got the vaccine even after I told her not to”. As they drove away we both independently looked for a company name on their doors so we could be sure to avoid hiring them in the future.
rikyrah
@Barbara:
Great story. Didn’t know that.
Brachiator
@Barbara:
This is a cool story. Thanks for the info!
Kayla Rudbek
Here in Northern Virginia aka Brood X habitat, I would say that the majority of the shoppers at the local Safeway grocery store were still masked. I’m all vaccinated, but I don’t trust the RWNJ here to mask up if they aren’t vaccinated. And I don’t want to be one of the 10% who even having mild symptoms still gets substantial damage from COVID-19.