Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

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

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

I was promised a recession.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

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

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

The willow is too close to the house.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

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

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, Sept. 16-17

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, Sept. 16-17

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(Back story)

Hey, remember ‘Right Wing Warrior’ Laura Loomer?

Reader Interactions

49Comments

  1. 1.

    germy

    OK Senate candidate Pastor Jackson Lahmeyer says tonight he has a “religious exemption” form on his website for people to take to their pastors to sign to avoid vaccine mandates. He says if they won’t sign, he will sign them all, and has already signed thousands. pic.twitter.com/hGP2PvYnQN— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 16, 2021

    A nice young man, a pastor, who is also running for public office.

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    I do take issue with the reporter’s downplaying of the infected customer as “careless.”

    “Sorry, but that’s absolutely 150% fricken dumb,” Wallace said.

    “As soon as you might be exposed, isolate your damn self!” Source

    Also locally,

    In its latest cluster report, the state Department of Health said it investigated two COVID outbreaks at educational settings on Kauai and Maui.

    The Health Department said 45 infections stemmed from an unnamed independent school on Kauai in August. Officials said the school was not strictly following mask mandates.

    DOH said 27 students and teachers tested positive for the virus, which then led to the infection of 18 close contacts.
    [snip]
    The other COVID outbreak was reported at a Maui public elementary school, which led to 26 infections. But only three of those cases were linked to exposure at the school.
    [snip]
    DOH said because the student population at the school is younger than 12 years old, students are not eligible for the vaccine, leaving them vulnerable to the virus.

    Furthermore, the school reported that only 60% of its staff are vaccinated.

    Officials said two people who were infected attended school despite having COVID symptoms. Source

  3. 3.

    Chyron HR

    Look forward to Joe Biden and the media telling me how this is all Ron Desantis’s fault.

    “Purposefully turning the third largest state into a COVID petri dish and making no attempt to restrict movement of infected people will cause infections in other states, too.” How did I do?

  4. 4.

    germy

    TN has the highest per-capita covid death rate in the country. Why? One reason is that people listen to geniuses like Pastor Dale Walker. Here he is yesterday outside a hospital trying to break people out so they can be healed by prayer and ivermectin. “This is a 1776 moment.” pic.twitter.com/pblIsFyxA5
    — Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 15, 2021

  5. 5.

    John S.

    The levels of epic stupidity (along with the heat, hurricanes, etc.) in Florida are why after nearly 40 years of living here, I am done. My wife and I are going to Washington in a few months to look for houses so we can relocate next year.

  6. 6.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY:

    Monroe County web site says 213 new cases and 4.5% test positivity.
    NYSDOH says 296 new cases. I still have a tv delivery, furnace maintenance, doctor appointments and car maintenance scheduled across the next few months, so I’m worried because our case counts have gone wild again.

  8. 8.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 9/16 China reported 62 new domestic confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic) & 6 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Fujian Province reporter 61 new domestic confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic) & 6 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 261 active domestic confirmed cases & 9 active domestic asymptomatic cases.

    • Putian reported 28 new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 157 active domestic confirmed cases (89 mild, 66 moderate & 2 serious), including 57 at 12 y.o. or younger, & 9 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 3,987 F1 & 3,280 F2 close contacts have been traced and placed under centralized quarantine. 3,921,373 individuals in the city have been swabbed, w/ 3,815,016 tests completed. Fengting Township at Xianyou County is currently at High Risk, w/ the ~ 70K residents in the township screened 6 times since 9/10. 2 zones, 1 residential building, 1 school & 2 villages have been elevated to Medium Risk. 2 zones, 1 residential building, 1 school & 5 villages aren currently at Medium Risk, all at Xianyou County. The ~ 800K residents in Xiaoyou County, excluding Fengting Township, have been screened twice since 9/12.
    • Quanzhou reported any 1 domestic confirmed case, a worker at the shoe factory w/ the outbreak in Fengtibng Township in Putian, & has been under centralized quarantine since 9/11. There currently are 19 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. 511 F1 & 2,095 F2 close contacts have been traced & placed under centralized quarantine. 2 villages have been elevated too Medium Risk. 3 villages are currently at Medium Risk.
    • Xiamen reported 31 new domestic confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic, 23  traced close contacts & 8 from mass screening). There currently are 84 active domestic confirmed cases in the city, all at Tongan District. 1,905 F1 & 2,377 F2 close contacts have been traced & placed under centralized quarantine. a community has been elevated to High Risk. 1 zone & 1 community are currently at High Risk. 4 villages & 1 residential compound have been elevated too Medium Risk.
    • Zhangzhou reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, a traveler from Xiamen. 2 of the case’s co-workers at Xiamen have already tested positive, & the case chose to travel to a hospital at Zhangzhou to be tested, rather at Xiamen per company & government regulations, for reasons unknown.

     

    Yunnan Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, at Ruili in Dehong Prefecture, a traced close contact of the domestic confirmed case reported one 9/15 & already under centralized quarantine. There currently are 9 active domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases there. The last Medium Risk village in Ruili has been re-designated as Low Risk. 

    Hunan Province did not reported any new domestic positive cases. 12 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There are currently are 33 active domestic confirmed cases in the province, all at Zhangjiajie

    Henan Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 10 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.

    • At Zhengzhou 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases in the city.
    • At Shangqiu there currently are 8 active domestic confirmed cases.

     

    Hubei Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 11 active domestic confirmed (6 mild & 5 moderate) & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • At Jingzhou there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case.
    • At Jingmen 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There are currently 6 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
    • At Wuhan there currently are 4 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases.

     

    At Shanghai Municipality there currently are 4 active domestic confirmed cases.

    Imported Cases

    On 9/16, China reported 22 new imported confirmed cases (2 previously asymptomatic), 14 imported asymptomatic cases, 2 imported suspect cases:

    • Yunnan Province (locations not specified) – 16 confirmed cases, 15 Chinese nationals returning from Myanmar & 1 from Laos; 4 asymptomatic cases, 2 Chinese nationals each returning from Myanmar & Laos; all via land border crossings
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Japan & the UAE; 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national returning from Bangladesh & a foreign national coming from Ethiopia
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 3 asymptomatic cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from the DRC & 1 from Turkey, off flights that landed at Guangzhou
    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Japan
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 2 confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic) & 1 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), coming from Ethiopia; 1 asymptomatic case, coming from Jamaica
    • Shanghai Municipality – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Tanzania (via Amsterdam Schiphol); 2 suspect cases, no information released
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from South Korea

     

    Overall in China, 45 confirmed cases recovered (29 imported), 12 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (11 imported) & 3 were reclassified as confirmed cases (2 imported), & 917 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 916 active confirmed cases in the country (587 imported), 5 in serious condition (3 imported), 378 active asymptomatic cases (359 imported), 2 suspect cases (both imported). 15,875 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 9/16, 2,165.679M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 4.251M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 9/17, Hong Kong reported 3 new positive cases, all imported (from Germany, Qatar & the UAE, all had been fully vaccinated).

  9. 9.

    Tony Jay

      Britain will consider easing England’s COVID-19 rules for international travel after the travel industry complained that a myriad of onerous rules and red tape were hobbling airlines, holiday and tourism companies.

    How do you say it over there?

    “Uh, what is ‘evidence that ‘following the science’ went out of the window the moment Party donors started squealing about their dividends’?”

    But never mind. The Egg-shaped Emperor ‘beat’ Covid months ago, the UK Media told me so.

  10. 10.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Chyron HR: Florida’s case rate per capita is still twice as high as Vermont’s, but in a few weeks, there will likely come a moment when cases are higher in the Northeast because they slowed this wave down and it’s already burned through the tinder down South, and I am positive that we’ll have another round of “where does DeSantis go for his apology?” then. Never mind the deaths or the hospital occupancy.

  11. 11.

    Suzanne

    @John S.: I hear you. I have been missing AZ, even has a dream about it last night. Woke up and remembered that they’re out of water but full up on crazy people. Sigh.

  15. 15.

    mrmoshpotato

    Re: everyone who refuses to get vaccinated.

    You selfish, murderous bastards!

    My brain refuses to come up with anything more eloquent.  I’m so done with the willfully unvaccinated.

  18. 18.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 17,577 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 2,067,327 cases. It also reports 346 new deaths as of midnight, for a cumulative total of 22,355 deaths – 1.08% of the cumulative reported total, 1.21% of resolved cases.

    Based on cases reported yesterday, Malaysia’s nationwide Rt is at 0.98.

    891 confirmed active and contagious cases are in ICU, 410 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 22,970 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 1,833,248 patients recovered – 88.2% of the cumulative reported total.

    19 new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 5,247 clusters. 1,387 clusters are currently active; 3,860 clusters are now inactive.

    17,574 new cases today are local infections. Sarawak reports 3,480 cases: 176 in clusters, 2,311 close-contact screenings, and 993 other screenings.

    Selangor reports 2,646 cases: 79 in clusters, 1,352 close-contact screenings, and 1,215 other screenings. Johor reports 2,334 cases: 162 in clusters, 1,389 close-contact screenings, and 783 other screenings.

    Perak reports 1,596 cases: 484 in clusters, 444 close-contact screenings, and 668 other screenings. Sabah reports 1,533 local cases: 73 in clusters, 852 close-contact screenings, and 608 other screenings.

    Penang reports 1,462 cases: 238 in clusters, 463 close-contact screenings, and 761 other screenings. Kedah reports 1,233 cases: 11 in clusters, 677 close-contact screenings, and 485 other screenings.

    Kelantan reports 869 cases: 37 in clusters, 496 close-contact screenings, and 336 other screenings. Pahang reports 832 cases: 233 in clusters, 482 close-contact screenings, and 117 other screenings.

    Terengganu reports 719 cases: nine in clusters, 571 close-contact screenings, and 139 other screenings.

    Kuala Lumpur reports 364 local cases: 12 in clusters, 193 close-contact screenings, and 159 other screenings.

    Melaka reports 287 cases: 31 in clusters, 139 close-contact screenings, and 134 other screenings.

    Negeri Sembilan reports 197 local cases: nine in clusters, 130 close-contact screenings, and 58 other screenings.

    Perlis reports 41 cases: 13 close-contact screenings and 28 other screenings. Putrajaya reports 31 cases: 25 close-contact screenings and six other screenings. Labuan reports 10 cases, all from other screenings.

    Three new cases today are imported: two in Kuala Lumpur and one in Negeri Sembilan.

    The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 202,298 doses of vaccine on 16th September: 62,108 first doses and 140,190 second doses. As of midnight yesterday, the cumulative total is 39,685,414 doses administered: 21,783,871 first doses and 17,973,545 second doses. 66.7% of the population have received their first dose, while 55.0% are now fully vaccinated.

  19. 19.

    Percysowner

    I don’t watch the MSNBC lineup, instead I listen to it on podcast next day. Last night Rachel Maddow was talking about the crisis in the Idaho hospitals. Unfortunately she kept saying Ohio for a while. So there I am, walking my dog before morning coffee, hearing about Ohio hospitals being closed for all elective surgery and for certain non-emergency surgery. I was very concerned. Fortunately Ohio isn’t there yet, but our state legislators are working on it.

    I have surgery scheduled for Sept 30, and I want to have it, not wait and worry while COVID patients eat up all the available beds.

  20. 20.

    New Deal democrat

    Continuing good (or less bad) news on the Delta wave as cases in the US are 10% below their peak for the third day in a row after the Labor Day artifacts exited the data, and in the UK cases continue to decline rapidly from their secondary peak, now down almost 25%.

    Deaths continue to rise, as expected, with the 7 day average in deaths over 1900. I expect this to rise another 500 to 1000 before peaking.

    It’s too soon to know how if the spread among schoolchildren will cause a similar secondary or even new peak in the US, or just slow the decline.

    As an aside, does anyone know what has happened to 91-Divoc? It has failed to update for 2 days in a row, so no convenient way to compare State-level data.

  21. 21.

    satby

    @Tony Jay: well, I had planned a trip to London (pre-Delta, but post opening) and for a fully vaccinated person the additional covid testing to leave, on Day 2, and come home added almost $600 to my trip, almost as much as my 7 day hotel stay. So I’m about to cancel it (again, this was a reschedule due to last year’s covid surge). The UK measures seem overdone compared to the EU ones.

  22. 22.

    New Deal democrat

    @Matt McIrvin: As of 2 days ago, Florida was right behind North Dakota and poised to overtake it for 2nd place in total confirmed cases per capita. It was in 12th place and rapidly rising in deaths as well. Since May 2020, it is probably in the top 5 for total deaths per capita.

  23. 23.

    Matt McIrvin

    I’m seeing a huge burst of people going “If the vaccine really works, why do YOU care why I’m vaccinated? I guess YOU don’t really believe in it, huh?”

    …and continuing to believe that this is an absolutely irrefutable argument, because their friends all congratulate them on the irrefutability of it, and everyone who might fire back concluded months ago that trying to convince these numbnuts of anything is like talking to a wall. Honestly I don’t even want to start shit any more.

  24. 24.

    Matt McIrvin

    @New Deal democrat: For total deaths per capita, until recently the Northeast looked relatively bad because they took such a horrific hit way back in spring 2020 (and some of the states aren’t undercounting COVID deaths as badly as Florida).

    But I’m talking more about the focus on whatever happens to be going on this particular week, since the memory hole is strong in this country.

  25. 25.

    Mousebumples

    @Matt McIrvin: what about all the kids who can’t be vaccinated or people like my MIL who has gotten a booster already, as a kidney transplant recipient, who may not be fully protected? That’s how i respond.

    It’s not about fully vaccinated me. It’s about those that are too young to be vaccinated or those that have weakened immune systems and are at higher risk.

    *sigh

  26. 26.

    Matt McIrvin

    @New Deal democrat:

    It’s too soon to know how if the spread among schoolchildren will cause a similar secondary or even new peak in the US, or just slow the decline.

    I think it is now possible to see the tick up in the Northeast, where younger schoolchildren are a substantial fraction of the unvaccinated. The peak in MA was just starting to level out and it looks like cases are rising again. But the big outbreaks in the vacation areas, where permanent residents are heavily vaccinated–the Cape and the islands–are subsiding rapidly, as you’d expect from the season ending.

  27. 27.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Mousebumples: Really, there are lots of reasons:
    1. The vaccine isn’t perfect for anyone–even if you’re vaccinated, it’s a lot safer for there to be less virus about than more.

    2. This is particularly the case for the elderly and immunocompromised.

    3. Children under 12 can’t yet be vaccinated at all.

    4. It’s bad for everyone who might need medical care when the hospitals are overflowing with severely ill and dying COVID patients.

    All this stuff should be obvious. But “hur hur, if you think I’m a danger to you, you must not believe in the vaccine” sounds like an unanswerable burn to these people.

    Some of this also serves as a response to the people who are pro-vax but want to lift all non-medical interventions and just let it rip, on the grounds that it’s inevitable that everyone will get COVID anyway, and breakthrough infections aren’t that bad, so we should just accept it and get it over with. As I think Cheryl said, these people are a relatively small part of the population but they’re very loud on social media. To some extent the debates within the subset of people who are vaccinated is an echo of the wider disagreements in microcosm.

  29. 29.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ken: The implication is that everyone really knows the vaccine doesn’t work at all, but the liberals pretend they believe in it because we get off on forcing other people to do stuff for its own sake. Just like with global warming, etc.

    The latest burst of it I saw was somebody incensed that theme parks could have vaccine mandates for their employees. Yeah, he wants Disney park staff to be free to spread virus to guests, on the grounds that if we believe in the vaccine so much it shouldn’t matter anyway.

  31. 31.

    Matt McIrvin

    @New Deal democrat: covidactnow.com has (smoothed) state and county data. Also the NYT tracker (whose vaccination numbers, I suspect, are more accurate since they don’t just rely on the CDC).

    91-DIVOC stopped aggregating hospitalization data a while ago since they were only getting it from the old COVID Tracking Project. So I rely on them less than I did.

  32. 32.

    CCL

    1. @Suzanne: I hear you.  It does get better though. I was born in Tucson…grew up there.  Moved to the Northeast.  Miss home, but prefer to remember it; not daily experience it.    Just sold the old homestead there because I am more happy in the slightly more sane part of the country.
  33. 33.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    Reuters via Anne Laurie @ Top:

    Vaccinated Australians promised more freedom even as COVID-19 cases mount

    Given TX and FL, I’m not sure we’re in a position to be critical of Australia’s (or, for that matter, anyone’s) Covid-19 policies.

  35. 35.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    via germy: 

    “This is a 1776 moment.” pic.twitter.com/pblIsFyxA5
    — Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 15, 2021

    Yep, in the sense that the right-wing were the losers then too.

  36. 36.

    germy

    an unvaccinated person died (crowd cheers) but they were unvaccinated because of their disability (crowd boos) but they were a republican voter (crowd cheers) but they were a mother (crowd boos) to a future school shooter (mixed reaction from crowd)

    — DIESEL ⛽️ (@ThinDieselle) September 16, 2021

  37. 37.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I’m seeing a huge burst of people going “If the vaccine really works, why do YOU care why I’m vaccinated? …”

    “Honestly, I don’t. The more Republicans die from Covid, the less there are to vote in elections.”

    And yes, I know the unvaccinated pose a continuing threat to the rest of us – due to the increased viral load and breakthrough infections from Delta, as well as the breeding ground the unvaccinated supply for evolving new strains.

    That said, these aren’t people who will listen to reason, so there’s no sense in trying to make them. It’s more satisfying to just let them know I look forward to their funerals.

  39. 39.

    Robert Sneddon

    Scotland — 5,885 new cases were reported over the past 48 hours due to a technical issue with some of the COVID-19 case reporting yesterday. The test positivity rate is 9.9%, also affected by the technical issue. The number of new deaths was 30 overnight. ICU bed occupancy numbers are 87, down seven from yesterday while hospitalisations are 1,037, down 17.

    There were just under 4,500 vaccinations carried out in Scotland yesterday (Thursday) with about 35% of these being first vaccinations. 91.0% of 16+ adults in Scotland are now vaccinated with their first dose and 83.5% are fully vaccinated. 66.0% of 16 and 17-year-olds have now received their first vaccination. It seems first vaccinations for adults have stalled out with only the 16-17 year olds coming forward now.

    Scotland will start offering single-dose vaccination to 12-15 year olds beginning on Monday. It will be interesting to see the rate of takeup of this program when it has been running for a while. The public health folks here in Scotland aren’t reporting school attendance to be a big reason for the spread of COVID-19 here. Scotland is doing noticeably worse in terms of new cases compared to England at the moment and one differentiator between the two nations is that Scotland’s schools restarted a couple of weeks earlier than England, in mid-August. We’ll see.

    Winter is coming.

  40. 40.

    smith

    @New Deal democrat: ​
      The problem with 91-divoc is actually a problem with the Johns Hopkins database, on which it’s based. For some reason JH posted exactly the same numbers for 9/16 as they did for 9/15, and the guy who runs 91-divoc must have noticed and didn’t update. I’m assuming this will be straightened out shortly.

  41. 41.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Really, there are lots of reasons:
    1. The vaccine isn’t perfect for anyone–even if you’re vaccinated, it’s a lot safer for there to be less virus about than more.

    2. This is particularly the case for the elderly and immunocompromised.

    3. Children under 12 can’t yet be vaccinated at all.

    4. It’s bad for everyone who might need medical care when the hospitals are overflowing with severely ill and dying COVID patients.

    All this stuff should be obvious. But “hur hur, if you think I’m a danger to you, you must not believe in the vaccine” sounds like an unanswerable burn to these people.

    I would add #5: even if this plague just kills anti-vaxxers, many of those anti-vaxxers are the parents of young children who are orphaned by their deaths.  This has happened too many times already, and each such story breaks my heart.

    And as the parent of a minor child myself, the sheer irresponsibility of parents who won’t get vaccinated enrages me.  As a parent, you’ve got a responsibility to be around for your kids if you can, until they’re ready to fly on their own.  Refusing the shot is refusing that responsibility.

    Too bad, kids, Mommy and Daddy didn’t care enough about you to get the shot.  Now you’re looking at each other and wondering, “what happens to us now?”

  42. 42.

    Ken

    @lowtechcyclist: You remind me of a post — it might even have been here at BJ — where someone talked about when they first realized what it meant to be a parent. They got sick, the sort of thing where before being a parent, they would have spent the day in bed. But they had a baby, so they couldn’t be sick.

  43. 43.

    Sloane Ranger

    Thursday in the UK we had 26,911 new cases but this does not include information from Scotland, due to “technical issues” not otherwise explained. The rolling 7-day average was down 22.4% (for what this is worth absent Scottish figures). New cases by nation,

    England – 22,949 (up 871)

    Northern Ireland – 1071 (down 233)

    Scotland – see above

    Wales – 2891 (up 593).

    Deaths – There were 158 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. This is an increase of 4.7% in the rolling 7-day average. 123 deaths were in England, 5 in Northern Ireland, 26 in Scotland and 4 in Wales.

    Testing – 1,084,585 tests were conducted yesterday but figures do not include Scotland for above mentioned reasons. This is a decrease of 9.7% in the rolling 7-day average, but how much of that is due to the absence of Scotland’s figures, I don’t know. The PCR testing capacity reported by labs was 829,367.

    Hospitalisations – There were 8339 people in hospital and 1081 on ventilators as of Wednesday, 15 September. The rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions as of 11 September was up by 2.5%.

    Vaccinations – 48,505,068 people had received the first shot of a vaccine by 15 September and 44,234,077 had had both. Figures do not include Scotland due to above named technical issues. As of 15th September, 89.2% of all people in the UK aged 16+ had had 1 shot and 81.4% were fully vaccinated.

  44. 44.

    MoCaAce

    5. A lottery or “random allocation”…

    Step right up folks and spin the wheel of death!
    Actually they may have to modify the wheel so people can spin it from their hospital beds.

  45. 45.

    VFX Lurker

    @Matt McIrvin: The latest burst of it I saw was somebody incensed that theme parks could have vaccine mandates for their employees. Yeah, he wants Disney park staff to be free to spread virus to guests, on the grounds that if we believe in the vaccine so much it shouldn’t matter anyway.

    Los Angeles County public health officials want to go the extra mile and mandate proof of vaccination or a negative test before entering a theme park. This would affect Six Flags Magic Mountain and Universal Hollywood.

    I’m all for it. Hoping they’ll accept a digital vaccination record, but I can bring my physical CDC vaccination card if needed.

  46. 46.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    One of the assistant managers at the Home Depot I work at was out for about 2 weeks, found out yesterday that it was due to a COVID infection.  He’s back now but was saying that he’s just getting over the cough and still has fatigue and he still feels like things are hazy mentally just a bit.

  47. 47.

    Matt McIrvin

    @VFX Lurker: That’d be awesome.

    A month and a half ago, when there wasn’t as much virus around here but the rise of Delta was already making me a bit nervous, I went to Six Flags New England. I had tickets I’d gotten as a birthday present in more optimistic times. Was ambivalent about actually using them but decided that, with all of us vaccinated, overall infection rates still low-ish and planning to stay outdoors the whole time, we weren’t taking a huge risk.

    The interesting thing was that nearly everyone there was in full “pandemic is over” mode. Almost no masks aside from mine, zero social distancing. Some people had masks on their kids who were too young to vaccinate, but I’d say it was a minority even of them. Ride lines were crowded.

    Somehow, I didn’t get infected. But I’d have been much happier if they had a vaccination-or-test-out mandate. The risk would still have been there, of course, but not as blatant–and I wouldn’t be at any great risk of killing somebody else.

  48. 48.

    Matt McIrvin

    @lowtechcyclist: Of course, some of them have swallowed conspiracy theories and genuinely believe that getting the vaccine is the thing that will kill them, and not getting it is the responsible choice. Which is why I mostly blame the people who are feeding them these lies.

    It’s so tiring though. Every online forum that even vaguely touches on politics or health ends up turning into a forum for these antivaxxers spewing the same garbage unless there’s merciless active weeding. Comments on YouTube are particularly horrifying–you just can’t post a video about COVID and leave comments on; it’s going to become an antivax platform, with all these antivaxxers just congratulating each other on how they’re punching through the lies in a huge circle jerk. Reading that stuff it can start to feel like the world is 90% antivax.

  49. 49.

    The Pale Scot

    The Killer Bees have to get back on SNL and lament the actions that humans are taking against their good friends, the Coronaviruses, who took them all in when they were starving.

    I can’t find a clip of the sketch

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