Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

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

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Oct. 18-19

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Oct. 18-19

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… The simple answer: The FDA last month OK’d extra doses of Pfizer’s original recipe after studies showed it still works well enough against delta — and those doses could be rolled out right away. Now the FDA is weighing evidence for boosters of the original Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

“It’s less churn and burn on the manufacturing” to only switch formulas when it’s really necessary, said FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks.

But Pfizer and Moderna are hedging their bets. They’re already testing experimental doses customized to delta and another variant, learning how to rapidly tweak the formula in case a change eventually is needed — for today’s mutants or a brand new one. The tougher question for regulators is how they’d decide if and when to ever order such a switch…

Vaccines target the spike protein that coats the coronavirus. Mutations in that protein made delta more contagious but to the immune system, it doesn’t look all that different, said virus expert Richard Webby of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

That means there’s no guarantee a delta-specific booster would protect any better, said University of Pennsylvania immunologist John Wherry. Waiting for studies to settle that question — and if necessary, brewing updated doses — would have delayed rolling out boosters to people deemed to need them now…

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Reader Interactions

70Comments

  1. 1.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY:

    Monroe County web site says 131 new cases yesterday.
    A total of 1474 new cases in total for all of last week.
    The most cases were people in their 20s, followed closely by the 30 y/o age group and children between 10 and 19.
    68.1% of people in Monroe County are totally vaccinated, 75.9% partially vaccinated.
    COVID deaths since March 2020 now at 1426.

    NYSDOH says 189 new cases yesterday.

    Where did the idea that hospitals were getting paid for classifying deaths as COVID come from? I had an unvaxxed work friend tell me this on Sunday, claiming that COVID deaths were wildly exaggerated because the hospitals were getting paid for COVID deaths and that’s why she doesn’t need to be vaccinated; it’s no worse than a regular flu. She’s preparing to be laid off because she refuses to be vaccinated, even though she said she was ok with getting J&J last spring.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    Via LGM

    Nick Rolovich came to Washington State as a fun-loving coach, known nationally for his off-the-wall antics and an ability to win.

    Less than two years and 11 games later, Rolovich is apparently gone, and will be known nationally as the football coach who lost his job for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Future peoples will struggle to understand this.

    Current peoples are struggling to understand it.

  4. 4.

    p.a.

    @Jason Campbell
    Dennis Prager announces he has COVID-19 while ranting against vaccines and declaring that he was trying to get infected

    Teh stoopid abt science goes back at least to the conservative denial of the tobacco/cancer link that was becoming evident in the 1950’s (my assumption is cons elites didn’t actually question evolution, their other main anti-science thread, just used bible thumping as a political weapon.)

  5. 5.

    Matt McIrvin

    @NeenerNeener: I don’t know the origin but that was an early conspiracy theory from before the vaccines, way back around spring 2020. “What did all those people die of in New York City then” was the best comeback I could manage. There were people claiming that the IFR of COVID was flu-like and even if every single person in NYC had gotten COVID, too many people had died there to make it work.

  6. 6.

    Starfish

    Is anyone experiencing the thing where people are parsing the data so finely that it has become impossible to understand?

    For example, in NeenerNeener’s comment at the top, are those vaccination numbers percentages of the entire population or percentages of the eligible population? If it is a percentage of the eligible population, they could do better. If it is a percentage of the total population, what percentage of the local population is too young to get vaccinated?

  8. 8.

    Matt McIrvin

    @p.a.: The interesting thing about creationism was that it pretty much died out as a mainstream concern after the Scopes trial, and came back in a huge way in the 1980s. If you read Martin Gardner’s Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science from 1952, he has a chapter on “creation science” that describes it as this quaint extinct thing, with George McCready Price as the last major proponent. It was dismaying to read at a time when creationists were taking over school boards and getting biology textbooks censored.

  9. 9.

    Starfish

    @Matt McIrvin:

    It got worse than school boards and textbooks. One of my friends worked in a small college. Imagine what happens when you accidentally get a creationist as the dean of your biology department. After that, they had to come up with questions to ask people applying to join the department to weed out the creationists when they applied to join the biology department. ?

  10. 10.

    NeenerNeener

    @Starfish: I haven’t a clue if that percentage is for all of Monroe County or just folks over age 12; the reporting web site doesn’t say. At a guess tho I’d say it’s just eligible folks.

  12. 12.

    germy

    SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The NHL has suspended San Jose Sharks forward Evander Kane for 21 games for submitting a fake COVID-19 vaccination card.

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 19, 2021

    That’s a crime. Will he be facing charges?

  13. 13.

    Mousebumples

    Random covid fyi (reposted from yesterday’s afternoon covid thread) – per my MD appointment yesterday, if/when #TeamModerna boosters are authorized, sticking with Moderna seems like the way to go based on overall better efficacy for Moderna v. Pfizer.

    Certainly talk to your own providers, too, but that was her vote. ?‍♀️

    Now waiting for Thursday, so I can get that booster (hopefully) scheduled…

  15. 15.

    MomSense

    @NeenerNeener:

    Our office manager said the same thing to me and I think she is on Facebook all the time.  I had to explain to her that hospitals lost money because of COVID.

  17. 17.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Matt McIrvin: ​
      Anti-vaccination goes back to smallpox variolation in the 1700s (basically stabbing people in the arm with a lancet daubed in cowpox pus). There were organised anti-vaccination groups around in the Victorian era as the medical science improved and there was even an Anti-Masking League during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918-19. There was of course no influenza vaccine available at that time but if it had existed I’m sure there would have been vocal opposition to its use back then.

    Face it, there is a significant population of rage-filled irrational oppositionists to pretty much anything. The bad news with diseases like COVID-19 and the Spanish Flu is that the opposition by a vocal minority and their refusal to take precautions and vaccines causes the disease to spread even more widely.

  18. 18.

    MomSense

    @Mousebumples:

    Yup.  I’m hoping I can have my booster the week of the 25th because I’m taking it off from work.
    My mom was Pfizer but her booster was Moderna.  She got hers early after talking with her doctor because we wanted her to be boosterized before my kid went back to school and Moderna was the only thing available that week.

  20. 20.

    Starfish

    @Baud: Eventually. Nothing moves fast in academia.

    I lifted this paragraph from creation.com where they are trying to talk about how poor Dr. Bryson was persecuted. ???‍♀️

    Dr Nancy Bryson, who has a Ph.D. in chemistry, seems fully qualified for her position at the Mississippi University for Women (MUW), USA. She has never received any negative feedback as an administrator, she says. However, all that changed after she raised questions about evolution during her presentation at a school honors forum, 20 February 2003. Titled ‘Critical Thinking on Evolution,’ her presentation covered some of the most popular arguments against evolution, such as the lack of ‘transitional’ fossils and the profound lack of evidence for chemical evolution.

    After that, she moved on to Kennesaw State.

  21. 21.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 5,745 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, tfor a cumulative reported total of 2,401,866 cases. It also reports 72 deaths as of midnight, for an adjusted cumulative total of 27,993 deaths – 1.17% of the cumulative reported total, 1.21 % of resolved cases.

    Based on cases reported yesterday, Malaysia’s nationwide Rt is at 0.88.

    609 confirmed cases are in ICU, 280 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 8,933 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,287,888 patients recovered – 95.3% of the cumulative reported total.

    Eight new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 5,695 clusters. 634 clusters are currently active; 5,061 clusters are now inactive.

    5,733 new cases today are local infections. 12 new cases today are imported.

    The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 207,541 doses of vaccine on 18th October: 31,266 first doses, 167,136 second doses, and 9,139 booster doses. As of midnight yesterday, the cumulative total is 48,046,427 doses administered: 25,240,631 first doses, 22,934,377 second doses, and 30,756 booster doses. 77.3% of the population have received their first dose, while 70.2% are now fully vaccinated.

  23. 23.

    Ha

    @MomSense:

    Well, in a sense hospitals did get money for Covid patients in that the emergency bills gave hospitals money to survive. And,of course, to pay them for taking care of Covid patients.

  25. 25.

    debbie

    @Starfish:

    Yes. I watch the late-night news on two local stations (Fox@10, NBC@11). The info’s basically the same, but the graphics as well as how the numbers are presented are very different. New cases seem to rise as the week progresses, but while NBC has that stat up at the top of the column, Fox buries it lower and sometimes doesn’t even mention it.

  26. 26.

    debbie

    @Starfish:

    One thing that’s different now is that educators refuse to include other viewpoints. When I was a kid, we were taught all presidents, not just the ones the teacher liked, and teachers never injected their own views into their lesson plans.

  27. 27.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Robert Sneddon: But the interesting thing is the pattern of variations. E.g. why did antivax become a partisan issue in the mainland US, and a huge popular sentiment in Russia, but not in Puerto Rico or Portugal?

  28. 28.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    So why does anyone believe that lying sack of shit Denis Pragure when he claims to be un-vaccinated and has COVID?  Gona bet that Prague has a miracle recovery next week like Joe Rogan did.

  29. 29.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Always remember that even most unvaccinated people who get COVID eventually recover without long-term problems. And if they’re statistically ignorant, they will generalize that to a universal experience.

    If COVID killed a higher fraction of its victims it would probably have killed fewer people overall–but it’s in a sweet spot where it’s just too easy to dismiss.

  30. 30.

    Starfish

    @debbie: This varies by where you are. The number of presidents now is a lot. The only time we went through all Presidents (and there were fewer then than there are now when I was in school), all that we were learning about all Presidents were their names and time in office. That was not particularly memorable.

    To meaningfully spend time on Presidents, you have to dig deeper and that involves choices.

    Personally, I think students should spend a month on William Henry Harrison’s month in office and emphasize the importance of very short inauguration ceremonies.

  32. 32.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Matt McIrvin: Pragur is the type of lowlife to get vaccinated and then lie about it. A lot of conservatives who know him have claimed it’s all an act and Pragur doesn’t believe any of it.

  34. 34.

    Soprano2

    @NeenerNeener: Where did the idea that hospitals were getting paid for classifying deaths as COVID come from?

    Because initially Medicare was paying more for these patients. Here’s a USA Today article about it.  A quote from the article:

    The coronavirus relief legislation created a 20% premium, or add-on, for COVID-19 Medicare patients.
    There have been no public reports that hospitals are exaggerating COVID-19 numbers to receive higher Medicare payments.
    Jensen didn’t explicitly make that claim. He simply suggested there is an “avenue” to do so now that “plausible” COVID-19, not just laboratory-confirmed, cases can be greenlighted for Medicare payment and eligible for the 20% add-on allowed under the relief act.

    I’ve been hearing this from people since April 2020, and this is why.  It’s become an article of faith on the right that hospitals are profiting from saying everyone who died has Covid, which is why they say the death stats are fake.

  36. 36.

    Sloane Ranger

    Monday in the UK we had 49,156 new cases, leading to an increase of 16.2% in the rolling 7-day average. New cases by nation,

    England – 39,473 (up 930)

    Northern Ireland – 1091 (up 125)

    Scotland – 2194 (down 472)

    Wales – 6398 (up 3433). This is a massive rise but will include catching up with weekend cases as most offices are closed over the weekend and Wales does not report on Saturday at all.

    Deaths – There were 45 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. This will be an undercount as offices will be catching up after the weekend closures. The rolling 7-day average is up by 11.4%. 22 deaths were in England, 3 in Northern Ireland, 0 in Scotland and 20 in Wales.

    Testing – 980,528 tests took place on Sunday, 17 October. The rolling 7-day average is up by 0.4%. The PCR testing capacity reported by labs on the date was 873,173.

    Hospitalisations – As of Friday, 15 October, 7097 people were in hospital and 791 were on ventilators. As of 12 October, the rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions was up by 6.9%.

    Vaccinations – By Sunday, 17 October, 49,422,753 people had received 1 shot of a vaccine and 45,377,411 had received 2. In percentage terms this means that 85.9% of all UK residents aged 12+ have had 1 shot of a vaccine and 78.9% have had 2.

  37. 37.

    Ken

    @Baud: I wonder if Hallmark has a line of cards for this. “We’ll miss you” on the outside, then inside “Not really, you walking disease vector”.

  38. 38.

    lowtechcyclist

    According to CDC among 187 million vaccinated Americans there have been roughly 7,000 breakthrough deaths, with >6,000 over the age of 65, as compared to >700,000 COVID deaths among the unvaccinated.

    I get so tired of these bullshit apples-and-oranges comparisons. WHAT’S THE DENOMINATOR??? Most of those unvaccinated deaths happened either before anyone was getting vaxxed, or you had to be over 75 to get your shot. (Seriously, Worldometer says we crossed the 500,000-death mark on February 12, when my over-65 self couldn’t get a shot; I needed to be a decade older.) Of course practically every last one of those 500,000 were unvaxxed.

    Here’s how you’d get a valid denominator: vaxxed/unvaxxed over time. Let the X-axis be time in days, and let the Y-axis be the number of people. Have f(x) = number of people unvaxxed at each point in time, and g(x) = number of people vaxxed at each point in time.

    Take the integral of each function from February 2020 until now. There’s your denominators. Divide the 7000 by the integral of g(x), and divide the total Covid deaths minus the 7000 by the integral of f(x). Now you’ve got an accurate comparison.

    Now was that so hard? (And the people cried out with one voice, “Yes, it damn sure was!!”)

    Or one could just compare vaxxed v. unvaxxed Covid deaths starting in June, so at least the denominators would be reasonably comparable in size, and we could just compare the numbers without fussing with the math.

  39. 39.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Soprano2:

     

    I’ve been hearing this from people since April 2020, and this is why. It’s become an article of faith on the right that hospitals are profiting from saying everyone who died has Covid, which is why they say the death stats are fake.

    So, how do they explain the death stats from the UK and other European nations? Our hospitals aren’t directly funded by payments from “customers”. It’s true that governments in Europe have given more money to the NHS and it’s equivalents elsewhere to help them cope with the increased costs, but no government is going to spend money if it doesn’t think it has to.

    Oh sorry, I forgot!

    • If it’s not happening in the US, it doesn’t exist
    • governments using “Socialised” medicine to (insert conspiracy theory here).
  40. 40.

    Matt McIrvin

    @O. Felix Culpa: But they don’t have their own local Fox News, either. None of the local political parties decided that opposing vaccination programs would be a good way to score points and distinguish themselves.

    Are there deeper cultural reasons it happened in one place and not another? Or is it just luck?

  41. 41.

    rikyrah

    Quinerly,

     

    I hope that you saw the information about mixing and matching vaccines.

    How J and J did so much better with antibodies when getting a MODERNA BOOSTER..

    DON’T get a J and J booster.

     

    GET MODERNA!!

  44. 44.

    Ohio Mom

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I don’t doubt that Prager has Covid or that he received the evidence-based monoclonal antibodies treatment. Everything else he is saying is a complete lie.

    Nobody wrote him prescriptions for hydroxycholorquine or antibiotics, he didn’t take ivermectin.

    I have to say, for a moment there I thought I was starting tne day with a little good news, Dennis Praeger sick and in peril! Alas, not so. Medical Science saved him.

  45. 45.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    OK, I have what is probably best termed a First World Problem:

    I got vaccinated this past spring, with my second dose coming on May 4. That would theoretically put my third-dose eligibility at November 4, but because I’m resident in Greece but got my shots in New York, the Greek and EU systems don’t have me registered as having been vaccinated at all.

    In more general news, Greece’s cases have roughly stabilized, though the seven-day trend shows a slight climb in new cases. (There were 3147 new cases reported on Monday, though Monday numbers are generally higher than average, offsetting lower Sunday numbers.)

  46. 46.

    Scout211

    @rikyrah:

    I sent that information to my daughter and recommended that she get Moderna for her booster after the J&J. Her school district had a mass vaccine clinic early this year for district employees with the J&J shot. So the majority of teachers and staff in her district need boosters.

  47. 47.

    NotMax

    Globally, Azerbaijan now the 59th country to report more than 500k total cases.

    Meanwhile, more locally,

    Maui Mayor Michael Victorino tested negative for COVID-19 this weekend after meeting days earlier in-person with three unvaccinated Maui County residents opposed to state and county emergency public health rules. Two of the three residents later tested positive for COVID-19, according to a press release issued by the Mayor’s office this afternoon.

    Although the three residents had negative results for the virus prior to the meeting on Thursday, one of the attendees began experiencing symptoms and tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, according to the release. Another attendee also tested positive.

    Mayor Victorino said he learned of the exposure through a social media post late Saturday.

    “I am disappointed that no one reached out to my office to immediately let me know of the positive test,” Mayor Victorino said. “That was irresponsible, and could result in the spread of the disease by myself and several executive staff members. We only found out about the exposure because of a social media post.”… Source

  48. 48.

    Wvng

    @Matt McIrvin: “If COVID killed a higher fraction of its victims it would probably have killed fewer people overall–but it’s in a sweet spot where it’s just too easy to dismiss.”. Bingo.  Just like SARS1, which was readily controlled because it was so deadly and obvious.  Having 40%+ asymptomatic made SARS2 impossible to stop.

  49. 49.

    Betsy

    My friend is coming for a good long  stay. We’re both vaxed.

    Should we share space indoors without masks?

    It sure would be nice. How can we do that safely?

  50. 50.

    VOR

    @Matt McIrvin: He is now running for Governor of Minnesota as one of the Republican candidates.

    Hospitals had to cancel non-emergency or elective procedures due to COVID restrictions. I’m guessing that was a pretty significant financial strain.

  51. 51.

    Scout211

    @Betsy:

    My friend is coming for a good long  stay. We’re both vaxed.

    Should we share space indoors without masks?

    It sure would be nice. How can we do that safely?

    If it’s a good long stay, you could mask for the first 5 days to be extra safe.  You might also want to purchase an air purifier with a HEPA filter for the main area you would interact in.

  52. 52.

    Betty

    @Matt McIrvin: Here in the Eastern Caribbean, anti-vaxxers are loud and proud. All political parties are encouraging vaccination, but Fox is carried by the cable companies and Facebook conspiracy theories abound. There is an inherent mistrust of authority as well as some wellness/ just live right folks who oppose use of “chemicals” .

  53. 53.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 10/18 China reported 9 new domestic confirmed & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Xi’an in Shaanxi Province reported 5 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 5 members of the same tour group that had traveled through Ejina Banner in Inner Mongolia & Gansu Province, as well as a local tour guide from Xi’an. There currently are 7 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases there.

    Yinchuan in Ningxia “Autonomous” Region also reported 1 new domestic positive case on 10/18, a person who had traveled w/ the tour group w/ the positive cases at Xi’an through Inner Mongolia & Gansu.

    Xilingol League in Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases, both at Ejina Banner & both are workers at a restaurant, which the tour group reported by Xi’an had frequented. On 10/19, 3 more restaurant workers have tested positive, which will be included in tomorrow’s data dump. 2 more preliminarily positive cases are being re-tested. There currently are 7 active domestic confirmed cases in the region, 5 at Ejina Banner & 2 at Erenhot (unclear yet if the 2 clusters are related). Both areas are within 1.5 hrs. driving distance to a land border crossing w/ Mongolia. 2 communities at Erenhot have been elevated to Medium Risk.

    Changsha in Hunan Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, a person who had recently returned from Gansu & Ejina Banner in Inner Mongolia, who had also eaten at the same restaurant w/ the outbreak at Ejina Banner.

    It appears the new outbreaks originated from Ejina Banner in Inner Mongolia, possibly a specific restaurant serving tourists. The outbreak has spread to multiple parts of the country, w/ more cases reported on 10/19: Beijing Municipality reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, a person who had slept on adjacent bunk on a train ride as the confirmed case reported by Yinchuan in Ningxia; Zunyi in Guizhou Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, a tourist who had returned from Gansu; Lanzhou reported 4 new domestic confirmed & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all had eaten at the same restaurant in Ejina Banner, at the same time as the tour group that tested positive at Xi’an in Shaanxi. 2 residential compounds at Lanzhou have been elevated to Medium Risk.

    Late autumn is a popular season to travel to Ejina Banner to see the marvelously snarled desert Populus euphratica trees in their Fall foliage, against the background of golden sand dunes of the Gobi. Tourists will also visit the string of ancient garrison towns/trading posts in the Hexi Corridor (making up the eastern end of the ancient Silk Road) of Gansu Province as part of the itinerary. This is like the Zhangjiajie centered outbreak back in Jul., though thus far at a smaller scale.

    Dehong Prefecture in Yunnan Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, a traced close contacts at centralized quarantine facilities, at Longchuan County. 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 10 active domestic asymptomatic cases at the prefecture.

    At Fujian Province 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 36 active domestic confirmed cases remaining in the province.

    • At Putian there currently are 5 active domestic confirmed cases remaining.
    • At Xiamen 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 31 active domestic confirmed cases in the city.

    At Heilongjiang Province 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 6 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining in the province.

    • At Harbin 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 6 active domestic confirmed cases remaining in the city.
    • At Suihua there currently are 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

    At Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region 2 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the region.

    • At Ürumqi there currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case remaining.
    • At Yili Prefecture the 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation.

    At Henan Province there currently are 5 active domestic confirmed cases remaining, all at Shangqiu.

    Imported Cases

    On 10/18, China reported 16 new imported confirmed cases (4 previously asymptomatic), 17 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 imported suspect case:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 5 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Russia & 1 each from Equatorial Guinea (via Paris CdG) & Nigeria (via Germany), & a Bulgarian national coming from Bulgaria (via Vienna); 1 suspect case, no information released
    • Tengchong in Yunnan Province – 4 confirmed cases, no information released
    • Mengla County in Sipsong Panna Prefecture, Yunnan Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Malaysia & Singapore; 4 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Bangladesh, Japan, South Korea & Saudi Arabia
    • Dongguan in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), coming from Singapore, off a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 each coming from the Bahamas & the UAE, off flights that landed at Guangzhou 
    • Changsha in Hunan Province – 2 confirmed cases (both previously asymptomatic), no information released
    • Lanzhou in Lanzhou Province – 1 confirmed (previously asymptomatic) & 1 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Russia
    • Fuzhou in Fujian Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Brazil (via Amsterdam Schiphol); the case had arrived at Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province on 9/23, passed through the 14 days of centralized quarantine & tested negative multiple times, upon release from quarantine on 10/8 the case returned to Hangzhou via high speed rail on 10/9 & re-entered 7 days of centralized quarantine & continued to test negative, on 10/16 the case was released to home quarantine, testing positive on 10/18
    • Nanping in Fujian Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
    • Guangxi “Autonomous” Region (location not specified) – 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, both coming from Russia
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Cambodia
    • Beijing Municipality – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released

    Overall in China, 27 confirmed cases recovered (23 imported), 19 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (18 imported) & 4 was reclassified as confirmed case (all imported), & 752 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 514 active confirmed cases in the country (457 imported), 1 in serious condition (imported), 356 active asymptomatic cases (341 imported), 2 suspect cases (both imported). 20,976 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 10/18, 2,234.096M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 2.008M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 10/19 Hong Kong reported 2 new positive cases, both imported.

  55. 55.

    NYCMT

    Aunt Carmen update: forty-eight hours after the infusion, she is fever-free and can keep down food and water.

    What a relief.

  56. 56.

    Robert Sneddon

    Scotland — 2,459 new COVID-19 cases reported today. The test positivity rate is 12.4%. There were 24 new deaths reported (noting that Register Offices are generally closed at weekends). ICU bed occupancy numbers are 46, up two from yesterday while hospitalisations are 869, up 12.

    There were approximately 4,300 vaccinations carried out in Scotland yesterday (Monday) with about 60% of these being first vaccinations. 91.8% of 16+ adults are now vaccinated with their first dose and 85.3% are fully vaccinated. 74.1% of 16 and 17-year-olds have now received their first vaccination, up 0.1% from yesterday. 48.2% of 12-15 year olds have now received their first vaccination, up 0.8% from yesterday.

    There were about 23,000 booster vaccinations carried out in Scotland yesterday with a total of just under 344,000 boosters to date. The national campaign in the UK generally seems to be running at about the same pace of ca. 200,000 shots a day. This booster takeup is, of course, in people who have already completed their original vaccination course so they’re proven willing to accept treatment previously. There is still evidence of holdouts in the adult population who either don’t want to get vaccinated at all or who are not concerned enough about the disease to bother with it.

    A personal note — I was doing some part-time work stewarding at a small rugby match on Sunday. Like all the stewards present I was masked but virtually none of the thousand spectators were wearing masks. We have several international rugby matches coming up in the next six weeks with expected capacity crowds of 60,000-plus for all the games. The crowds will be using public transport, milling around the stadium grounds and spending time before and after the match in local pubs and restaurants. I can’t see any kind of masking rules being enforced. Proof of vaccination at the turnstiles will be required for entry to the match though. How this can be made to work is another matter given the large number of attendees for all the matches will be from abroad. I may decide to not work as a steward for these matches depending.

  57. 57.

    bluefoot

    @Betsy: ​
      Can you purchase some rapid tests at CVS or wherever? Then you could both test before your friend arrives and then periodically during their stay.
    I was more strict when I visited an immunocompromised sister a while back. I isolated for 7 days prior and got a PCR test the day before driving. All the adults were vaccinated, and my niece too young for the vax. We hung out unmasked and had a great time.

    A friend of mine has a breakthrough case. She’s been super careful through the entire pandemic, but after looking at case and vaccination rates in her county (she’s in MA), she decided two weeks ago to resume going to the gym. Not everyone there is masked. Three days after going to a class at the gym, she came down with symptoms and tested positive. She’s fully vaccinated (Moderna) though at the end of the 6 month window. That pretty much killed my plans to get back into the gym until my gym institutes mandates for masks and vaccination.

  58. 58.

    YY_Sima Qian

    I just realized that I forgot to update the case counts at Fujian, Heilongjiang & Xinjiang. The data in my post are still from 10/17. Below is the data from 10/18:

    At Fujian Province 4 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 32 active domestic confirmed cases remaining in the province.

    • At Putian there currently are 5 active domestic confirmed cases remaining.
    • At Xiamen 4 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 27 active domestic confirmed cases in the city.

    At Heilongjiang Province there currently are 6 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

    • At Harbin there currently are 6 active domestic confirmed cases remaining.
    • At Suihua there currently are 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

    At Ürumqi in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region there currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case remaining.

  60. 60.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Betty:

    Here in the Eastern Caribbean, anti-vaxxers are loud and proud. All political parties are encouraging vaccination, but Fox is carried by the cable companies and Facebook conspiracy theories abound.

    While everyone talks about the crazy theories circulating on social media, I believe their presence on ‘real’ television has a validating effect with their audience.  If it’s on FB, but a guest also said it on Fox News, a lot more people will give it credence than if it’s just on social media.  Anyone can be on FB, after all.

  61. 61.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Cameron:

    @Betsy: Maybe if you had a HEPA air filter?  Though I think even a  cheap portable is about $150.

    That’s specifically HEPA-15.  Our central air uses HEPA-13 filters, but they aren’t going to filter out any coronaviruses.

    ETA: I’d replace the HEPA-13 with a HEPA-15, but I have no idea to what extent that would put extra strain on the air handler.

  62. 62.

    Peale

    COVID Thoughts for Today

    Poland’s numbers are weird. Its like they totally forewent a Delta surge or spike. Vaccination rate is around 52%. Czech Republic is the same. But every country around them seems to have had at least a noticeable Delta bump.

    Concerned about the UK spike. I’m hoping its just related to universities starting in late September. But I wouldn’t be surprised if its going to be a new variant. The annual UK Christmas gift.

    Still waiting for cases to show signs of coming down. The perpetual plateau is in week. About 1/3 of the winter wave for the foreseeable future.

  63. 63.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Matt McIrvin:“What did all those people die of in New York City then” was the best comeback I could manage.

    By the end of 2020, the total number of deaths in the U.S. had jumped by 500,000 over 2019. (Normal year-to-year increase had been on the order of 35,000.)  And ‘only’ 345,000 deaths had been attributed to Covid thru 12/31.

    Yet funny how nobody’s out there doing an O.J. and looking for the real killer.

  64. 64.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Peale: There’s a report on the BBC website about AY.4.2, a SARS-nCoV-2 Variant Of Interest (VOI) that’s being detected in the UK at the moment. It’s an offshoot of the Delta variant which some people are calling “Delta Plus”.

    AY.4.2 is being found in only a small fraction of all COVID-19 virus samples being sequenced here in the UK and it doesn’t seem to be spreading as profusely as the classic Delta variant did. Immunity conferred by the current vaccines seems to deal with it but it’s being kept under observation just in case. If it becomes a Variant Of Concern (VOC) then would be the time to worry.

  65. 65.

    Cermet

    @germy: To a private company, that isn’t a crime unless one can related it to standard legal def. of a fraud (i.e. to get money for instance.) Fake resume’s aren’t illegal (something easy to prosecute relative to private companies and that even relates closer to the criminal intent of fraud.) So, I’d think it can’t be considered a criminal offense for a circuit court.

  67. 67.

    Cermet

    @Betsy: Depends on some factors; are you both in good health? Both under 65? Trust the person to be truthful? If answer yes to all, I wouldn’t be worried. Others have different levels of concern but for me, that’s more than enough.

  69. 69.

    Miss Bianca

    Damn it. Just learned that I have been exposed to COVID at a cast party we were giving at the end of the show. Sure, all the adults may have been vaccinated, but someone brought her 11 yo granddaughter to the party, and guess who tested positive this morning? Yep, the granddaughter. Damn! We’ve been so careful, everyone in the cast vaxxed, theater audience socially distanced and masked up, and then we got a little cocky and decided to frivol unwisely. And I’m supposed to be GETTING ON A PLANE  Friday morning. Damn it again!

    Oh, well, at least I will be able to score a rapid test from one of my friends. Take it before I go, and cross my fingers. Apparently the CDC thinks my level of exposure to a “positive” will still be safe enough for me to travel, but I am kicking myself. Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb…

  70. 70.

    J R in WV

    @Betsy: 

    My friend is coming for a good long stay. We’re both vaxed.

    Should we share space indoors without masks?

    It sure would be nice. How can we do that safely?

    You both could wear a mask for a couple of days, then get tested, or even just quit wearing masks together if neither of you is exposed by going out for an errand. If you do go out on an errand, wear a mask while out.

    My wife and I don’t wear masks in the house, but we both do if / while we’re out of the hermitage.

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