Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

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

“But what about the lurkers?”

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

The willow is too close to the house.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

T R E 4 5 O N

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

“Squeaker” McCarthy

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

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

by | 31 Comments

This post is in: ,

(Mildly NSFW)

======

======

======

Reader Interactions

31Comments

  1. 1.

    NotMax

    Looks as if Saudi Arabia will become the 44th country to exceed 500k reported cases by the end of the weekend.

  2. 2.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 7/6 China reported 2 new domestic confirmed & 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Yunnan Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases (both previously asymptomatic, both moderate), both at Jiegao sub-district in Ruili, Dehong Prefecture, 1 Burmese & 1 Chinese nationals. There currently are 23 domestic confirmed & 0 domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 community remains at Medium Risk.

    All positive cases from the recent Delta Variant outbreak at Guangzhou in Guangdong Province have recovered.

    Imported Cases

    On 7/6, China reported 15 new imported confirmed cases, 10 imported asymptomatic cases, 2 imported suspect cases:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 8 confirmed cases, 2 Mainland Chinese & 1 Taiwanese residents coming from Taiwan, & 1 Chinese national each returning from Israel, Czechia, Canada, the UAE & Thailand; 2 suspect cases, no information released
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 2 confirmed & 1 asymptomatic cases, all Taiwanese residents coming from Taiwan
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 2 confirmed cases, no information released
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Bangladesh & Myanmar; 5 asymptomatic cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Cambodia & 1 each from the DRC, the Central African Republic & the Sudan
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Algeria
    • Yunnan Province (locations not specified) – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Myanmar, via land border crossing
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released, yet
    • Beijing Municipality – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
    • Jiangsu Province (location not specified) – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released

    Overall in China, 28 confirmed cases recovered, 8 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 3 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 805 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 447 active confirmed cases in the country (418 imported), 5 in serious condition (all imported), 470 asymptomatic cases (464 imported), 5 suspect cases (all imported). 8,167 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 7/6, 1,342.381M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 10.712M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 7/7, Hong Kong reported 3 new positive case, all imported (from Russia, the UK & the Philippines).

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    Locally, beginning July 8,

    In addition to expanding its “vaccine passport program,” the state is also easing restrictions Thursday on gatherings and restaurants.

    Under the new rules:

    • Hawaii restaurants will get the green light to move to 75% capacity. However, they’ll still need to meet 6-foot social distancing guidelines.
    • Social gatherings of 25 people will be allowed indoors or 75 outdoors.
    [snip]
    …Hawaii’s mask mandate and other COVID restrictions remain in place. Statewide, masks are required indoors but not outdoors. Source

    Also,

    Hawaii is averaging 45 new COVID cases a day and health officials say almost all of those infections have one thing in common: The patient isn’t vaccinated.

    According to Hilton Raethel, head of the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, 98% of people diagnosed with COVID statewide over the past couple months haven’t gotten a COVID vaccine.
    [snip]
    In June, a total of 116 COVID patients were hospitalized in Hawaii.

    According to Raethel, more than 90% of those admissions hadn’t gotten the shot or weren’t fully vaccinated. He added, “There’s been 114 COVID deaths this year but not a single one of those was for an individual who is vaccinated.” Source

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Missouri hospital CEO: Vaccine opponents should ‘Shut up’

    “If you are making wildly disparaging comments about the vaccine, and have no public health expertise, you may be responsible for someone’s death. Shut up,” tweeted Steve Edwards, who is the CEO of CoxHealth in Springfield.
    ………………………………
    Erik Frederick, the chief administrative officer of Mercy Springfield, also turned to Twitter in an effort to bolster vaccinations, noting that they prevent deaths.

    “So if you’re vaccinated there is a light at the end of a tunnel,” he said. “If you’re unvaccinated that’s probably a train.”

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Businesses, churches, schools and health care providers will be protected from lawsuits regarding the pandemic under a new law in Missouri.

    Back in January, Gov. Mike Parson made COVID liability protection a top priority for lawmakers. Parson said Wednesday at the signing for Senate Bill 51 the pandemic was one of the most “dramatic emergencies” to ever hit the state. The new law exempts business owners and health care providers from being sued for spreading COVID unless proven by clear and convincing evidence.

    Protecting people from Covid? Nah, we don’t do that. Because freedom and all that. Making sure businesses can’t be sued for being covid superspreaders? Absolutely! Because Freedumb! and all that.

    And I just love that “proven by clear and convincing evidence” bullshit. Sounds like a higher bar than “beyond a reasonable doubt” to me.

    The same day Parson signed the COVID liability bill into law, Missouri recorded more than 1,000 new COVID cases for the first time in nearly five months. In addition, some counties in the state are seeing a rising number of the Delta variant.

    Fitting.

  8. 8.

    p.a.

    Read the Reuters link abt the issues in Oz.  Sad to see the ones who got it right from almost the start; Australia, S Korea, Vietnam, now having issues.

    Per Reuters, Aussie issues are 1) initially betting on AstroZen vacc, then slowing shots as blodclot issues appeared, 2) no hometown ability to produce vaccs, 3) supply issues once they started ordering Pfizer & Moderna.

    Basically seems like US, GB, & Israel the only really successful vacc stories.  And if the Orange Shitstain had won…

  9. 9.

    WereBear

    Got my Excelsior vaccine pass situation straightened out. Not that I’m going anywhere.

    The Republicans have long wanted to kill us. I’m tired of trying to save themselves from going with us. Someone here mentioned their COVID skepticism goes so deep they delay going to the hospital because “it can’t be COVID.”

    Now that’s some high level denial.

  11. 11.

    Robert Sneddon

    @p.a.:  It appears that every country is going to go through a similar level of infection, rising case numbers and disease severity, more or less. China is continuing to apply strict social controls internally even with the reported low spread of this disease within its borders but all the countries that supposedly conquered COVID-19 and then opened up to outside visitors, even with quarantines and testing protocols, are now seeing increasing numbers of cases in their populations categorised as second and third waves.

    Early prophylactic success and initial low case rates left those populations exposed to later waves of infection, coupled with evolutionary pressures causing the virus to mutate into a more transmissable form like the Delta variant which aids the current spread of the disease.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Luetkemeyer is a state senator from the KC area and a main sponsor of the bill:

    “It covers both consumer actions as well as actions from employees, so anybody that would be on the premises of a business would be covered by this legislation,” Luetkemeyer said.

    I can’t tell if he means employees are protected from lawsuits or barred from filing lawsuits. If I were a betting man, I would go with the latter but this being MIsery, it’s always possible the law was written so badly that it means both, or neither.

  13. 13.

    Soprano2

    @WereBear: That was probably me, it’s what healthcare workers have said in articles in the paper here. They honestly believe it isn’t any worse than a cold for everyone under age 60.

  14. 14.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Soprano2:

    That was probably me, it’s what healthcare workers have said in articles in the paper here. They honestly believe it isn’t any worse than a cold for everyone under age 60. 

    If dead kids ever wanted to haunted some bastards…

  15. 15.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Director-General of Heath Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 8,868 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 808,658 cases. He also reports 135 new deaths today – the most in one day since the pandemic began — for a cumulative total of 5,903 deaths — 0.73% of the cumulative reported total, 0.81% of resolved cases.

    As of 7th July Malaysia’s nationwide R0 was at 1.07.

    There are currently 77,275 active and contagious cases; 952 are in ICU, 445 of them intubated. Meanwhile, 5,802 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 725,480 patients recovered – 89.71% of the cumulative reported total.

    29 new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 2,999 clusters. 855 clusters are currently active; 2,144 clusters are now inactive.

    8,858 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 4,151 local cases: 141 in clusters, 2,662 close-contact screenings, and 1,348 other screenings. Kuala Lumpur reports 1,129 local cases: 385 in clusters, 426 close-contact screenings, and 318 other screenings.

    Negeri Sembilan reports 896 local cases: 407 in clusters, 316 close-contact screenings, and 173 other screenings.

    Perak reports 543 cases: 423 in clusters, 36 close-contact screenings, and 84 other screenings.

    Kedah reports 360 cases: 148 in clusters, 106 close-contact screenings, and 106 other screenings. Johor reports 336 cases: 162 in clusters, 120 close-contact screenings, and 54 other screenings.

    Sarawak reports 279 local cases: 31 in clusters, 189 close-contact screenings, and 59 other screenings. Sabah reports 279 cases: 182 in clusters, 57 close-contact screenings, and 49 other screenings. Penang reports 235 local cases: 115 in clusters, 54 close-contact screenings, and 66 other screenings.

    Melaka reports 183 cases: 41 in clusters, 105 close-contact screenings, and 37 other screenings. Pahang reports 152 cases: 77 in clusters, 68 close-contact screenings, and seven other screenings. Kelantan reports 135 cases: 79 in clusters, 27 close-contact screenings, and 29 other screenings.

    Terengganu reports 68 cases: 18 in clusters, 32 close-contact screenings, and 18 other screenings. Labuan reports 64 cases: 31 in clusters, 24 close-contact screenings, and nine other screenings. Putrajaya reports 47 cases: eight in clusters, 29 close-contact screenings, and 10 other screenings. Perlis reports one case, a close-contact screening.

    10 new cases today are imported: four in Kuala Lumpur, two in Sarawak, two in Penang, one in Selangor, and one in Negeri Sembilan.

  16. 16.

    Mousebumples

    In good news, Wisconsin is now averaging 0 COVID deaths per day, over the last week. (1 death reported Tuesday).

    My daughter is still too young to be vaccinated, but my husband and I have been able to enjoy the occasional Date Night in an actual restaurant. Still different enough from the Before Times but… closer to the new equilibrium we’ll find.

  17. 17.

    Soprano2

    @mrmoshpotato: I guess I should clarify, it’s what healthcare workers have said the patients coming into the ER with Covid say. Evidently some healthcare workers here believe it too, based on what some of my co-workers have told me their doctors said about Covid and the vaccines.

  18. 18.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I don’t know, if the Hard Right wants to refuse vaccines and risk their heath, that’s their choice.  The concern they might cause more dangerous variants pales next Brazil.  Anyway it sounds like anti-vaccining thing is a religious thing now with the Fundies.

  19. 19.

    Robert Sneddon

    Scotland — From a briefing by the First Minister earlier, 2,802 new positive cases have been reported since yesterday along with four more deaths. The test positivity rate is 8%. Hospitalisations and ICU bed occupancy continue to increase but slowly.The First Minister’s briefing was remarkably upbeat given the current upswing in new cases being reported. The vaccination program seems to be working to tamp down the worst effects of this disease in those who catch it with the hospitalisation rate dropping from 13% of cases during the winter period surge in infections to only 3% at the moment. The total number of beds in use is causing some concern in that it’s displacing non-urgent in-patient treatments and other elective surgeries. This is exacerbated by a reduced number of staff on duty due to self-isolation from exposure to increased numbers of confirmed cases as well as holiday and leave being taken by staff (the summer is usually a quieter period for the NHS so staff tend to take annual leave during this time).
    The Great Re-opening in early August is still on track but with caveats. The medical establishment and the government are recommending facemasks and social distancing even after the restrictions are lifted but it will be on a voluntary basis.

    Vaccinations continue at about 27,000 per day with second doses continuing to predominate. There’s still no clear information about a booster vaccination campaign but I presume plans are being made.​​​

  20. 20.

    Matt McIrvin

    The best news I’ve heard lately is the evidence that vaccine protection should last a long time–not the few months we all feared would be the case months ago.

    That suggests to me that pediatric vaccines and school mandates are extremely important tools for stopping the spread. Get people early when the disease is not necessarily severe, but when they’re most prone to be spreaders and when there are means to make it mandatory. These kids’ immune response to the vaccine is incredibly strong and they may end up less likely to transmit the virus for years.

  21. 21.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: If they were the only ones at risk, I’d agree. But they’re putting others at risk–children and immunocompromised people. Delta COVID can even be pretty unpleasant in fully vaccinated people, apparently, though it probably won’t send you to the ICU or the graveyard.

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    @Matt McIrvin

    While the vaccines are still under Emergency Authorization, a lot of stuff that would work for the good remains up in the air.

  23. 23.

    Soprano2

    Ah shit, I’m watching Maddow from last night. It’s bad that she’s talking about my city and Covid. *sigh* Right now they’re advertising on the local NPR station for respiratory therapists. I bet Steve Edwards at Cox never thought he’d be talked about on the national news.

  24. 24.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @p.a.:

    Read the Reuters link abt the issues in Oz.  Sad to see the ones who got it right from almost the start; Australia, S Korea, Vietnam, now having issues.

    You can add Taiwan, Thailand, Cambodia & Laos to that list. Taiwan is now reporting daily cases in the low double digits, compared to several hundred a few weeks ago. However, it has been exporting a steady trickle of cases to Mainland China (I do not have data for exports to other countries), indicating cryptic cases & transmissions chains are still around. This is reminiscent of cases exported from Wuhan to Thailand & Japan, while the official case count was stuck at 40+ in mid-Jan. 2020.

    Like Japan, Taiwan has never really tested enough throughout the pandemic. The current CFR is ~ 4.6%, & set to continue to increase. It’s excellent health care system is not yet in any danger of being overwhelmed, so the high CFR also suggests that the actual case count may be 5X higher or more. Taiwan also only counts a case if the CT count on the RT-PCR test is 30, having reduced it from 36 to 32, then from 32 to 30. There is risk the case is infectious w/ CT count of 30. In comparison, China is counting a case as positive w/ CT count of 40, which is probably the opposite extreme.

    Considering the number of infected Chinese nationals returning from Cambodia, the outbreak there is probably rather bad. Most Chinese nationals in SE Asian nations should have been vaccinated already, so that is another circumstantial data point that the SinoPharm/Sinovac inactivated whole virus vaccines do not have great sterilizing efficacy, and/or that the outbreak in Cambodia is really bad.

  26. 26.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Robert Sneddon:

    It appears that every country is going to go through a similar level of infection, rising case numbers and disease severity, more or less. China is continuing to apply strict social controls internally even with the reported low spread of this disease within its borders but all the countries that supposedly conquered COVID-19 and then opened up to outside visitors, even with quarantines and testing protocols, are now seeing increasing numbers of cases in their populations categorised as second and third waves.

    I do not believe Taiwan, Vietnam & Australia have loosened their travel restrictions and quarantine requirements. They all have eliminated clusters or outbreaks from leakages before. (In Taiwan’s case, IMO it has also been lucky, despite its low testing & somewhat looser quarantine requirements for overseas arrivals).

    What has changed for these countries are the arrival of more transmissive variants, Alpha for Taiwan & Delta for Vietnam & Australia. The measures that were successful in eliminating outbreaks of older variants are less effective against the newly dominant variants. Taiwans appears to have just about managed to suppress the Alpha Variant outbreak with the island wide “Level III+” restrictions. We will see after the island starts to loosen restrictions from 7/12, despite the outbreak not yet being eliminated. The measures taken so far may not be adequate against a Delta Variant outbreak.

    In China, both central & local governments went for the over the top in every aspect of response, at least after the government acknowledged the crisis on 1/20/2020. These measures, along w/ mass vaccination, appear to still be adequate against the Delta Variant. However, if a Delta variant outbreak occurs in one of the less well run & less resourceful inland provinces, it may take much longer to eliminate. It took Hebei & Xinjiang over 6 weeks to eliminate the outbreaks there, & that was the original strain.

    I do not believe China will relax restricts for incoming visitors/returnees (visas, testing & quarantine requirements) until well into 2023. Perhaps after 80% of the population have received more effective booster shots (mRNA or protein sub-unit).

  27. 27.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Soprano2:

    I guess I should clarify, it’s what healthcare workers have said the patients coming into the ER with Covid say 

    Thanks for the clarification.  Pronouns are fun.

    Apparently my statement still stands though.  I’m perfectly fine with dead, too-young-to-vaccinate kids haunting dead, selfish, stupid adults.

  28. 28.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @NotMax: What we know about Sinovac/Sinopharm inactivated whole virus vaccines: efficacy against symptomatic infection is mediocre, likely worse for sterilizing efficacy (including against asymptomatic infection), but very good against hospitalization & death. (I think the inactivated whole virus vaccine developed by India has similar performance.) So, still very helpful & worthwhile for countries that do not have better options, or not enough of the better options, which is the vast majority of the world. (Mind you, it may well be the case for the single shot J&J/Janssen vaccine, as well.)

    To me, the biggest issue is that the 1st shot of the Sinovac vaccine does not confer much protection, at all. Need 2 weeks after the 2nd shot. Most governments using the inactivated whole virus vaccines at scale have not adequately taken these attributes into account in their responses, & have not adequately educated their populations.

    The UAE & Turkey giving high risk people mRNA booster shots, 6 months after their 2nd Sinovac/Sinopharm shots, is the right course of action. A 3rd shot of the inactivated whole virus vaccine may also substantially boost efficacy.

  29. 29.

    Robert Sneddon

    @YY_Sima Qian: ​
     

    I do not believe Taiwan, Vietnam & Australia have loosened their travel restrictions and quarantine requirements. They all have eliminated clusters or outbreaks from leakages before. (In Taiwan’s case, IMO it has also been lucky, despite its low testing & somewhat looser quarantine requirements for overseas arrivals).

    It’s not the quality of the international travel quarantine arrangements I’m dubious about in terms of controlling the spread of this disease. Once there’s any kind of a breach, if the society behind that imperfect shield is open for business as usual, travelling, touristing, socialising, pubs and restaurants, beaches and sports arenas and churches packed out to capacity then it’s Game On for spreading infections, soaring case numbers followed by panicked attempts to shut everything down again while the authorities play whack-a-mole trying to put the genie back in the bottle.

    That’s when the success stories of last year become headline news today. No-one with border quarantines in place are relaxing the rules, if anything they’re enforcing them even more rigorously and not taking someone’s word that of course they’ll stay isolated at home for two weeks honest trust me. The leakers will still get through, the one-in-a-million asymptomatic case that doesn’t get caught by an RT-PCR test for three weeks before blossoming out into a superspreader event at fourteen nightclubs during a drunken weekend. Oops.

  30. 30.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Robert Sneddon: That is true. Vietnam is an example. Their responses to domestic outbreaks has been almost as vigorous as China’s, but it has not been enough against the Delta Variant, at least not quite enough for suppression, let alone elimination. There is still a difference in organizational/mobilization capacity and resources available.

  31. 31.

    Mart

    @OzarkHillbilly:  Mumble fuck Parson on the news last night complaining about Mercy Hospital Springfield saying they were running out of ventilators. All the idiot (who contracted the virus along with his wife campaigning maskless) had to say is the state has a reserve of ventilators; we have a disturbing virus Delta resurgence, get vaxxed, wear a mask, socially distance, wash your hands. Idiot is not running for reelection, so must be about stuffing $$ in his pockets.

Comments are closed.