Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Come on, man.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

This fight is for everything.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Nov. 29-30

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Nov. 29-30

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… The concern in South Africa was prompted in part by a sudden increase in the country’s test positivity rate, which rose to nearly 10 percent from 1 percent, according to data released by South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

The increase largely stems from cases in Gauteng Province, a densely populated economic hub that is home to Johannesburg, said Michelle Groome, head of public health surveillance and response at the institute. But based on the data, the number of new recorded cases is still lower in South Africa, relative to its population, than in many European countries.

The country’s administrative capital, Pretoria, where 219 people are hospitalized with Covid, is at the center of the new wave, according to data from the institute. But scientists do not yet know how many of these hospitalizations were a direct result of Omicron.

While new hospital admissions are still relatively low, there has been a “steep rise” over the past two weeks, said Waasila Jassat, a public health specialist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

The rate of fatalities has not increased, Ms. Jassat said. While new cases were highest among people under 35, hospitalizations were more common among people over 65 and very young children.

Existing coronavirus treatments seemed to be effective against Omicron, Mr. Karim said, though there was not enough data yet on the efficacy of monoclonal antibodies, which are rarely used to treat Covid-19 in South Africa.

It is also still too early to know whether the potency of the variant warrants tightened precautions like travel bans, scientists said…

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Big ‘divorced dad who shows up (when it’s not too much trouble) to be indulgent during weekend visits’ versus ‘mean custodial mommy who makes you eat vegetables and do homework’ energy from the GOP Death Cultists:

… Driving the news: Florida, Iowa, Kansas and Tennessee have changed their unemployment insurance rules to allow workers who are fired or quit over vaccine mandates to receive benefits.

The big picture: Extending unemployment benefits to the unvaccinated is just the latest in a series of proposals aligning the GOP with people who won’t get a COVID shot.

– Republicans see a prime opportunity to rally their base ahead of the midterms. No matter how successful their individual efforts, the campaign is a powerful messaging weapon.

Details: Nine GOP-controlled states have passed laws requiring exemptions for the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate, or banning private companies from requiring vaccination altogether, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy…

Reader Interactions

55Comments

  1. 1.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 11/29 China reported 21 new domestic confirmed (2 previously asymptomatic) & 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region reported 21 new domestic confirmed cases (2 previously asymptomatic). There currently are 41 active domestic confirmed cases in the region. 

    • Manzhouli in Hulun Buir reported 19 new domestic confirmed cases (2 previously asymptomatic). All of the 17 new domestic positive cases are found via city-wide from mass screening. There currently are 39 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. 1 sub-district has been elevated to High Risk & 1 sub-district has been elevated to Medium Risk.
    • Tongliao reported 2 new active domestic confirmed cases, both traced close contacts of positive cases at Manzhouli & already under centralized quarantine since 11/28, the 1st case returned to Tongliao on 11/24 & the other is a family member of the 1st. 1 village has been elevated to Medium Risk.

    Heilongjiang Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 43 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Qiqihar did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case in the city.
    • At Heihe 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 43 active domestic confirmed cases remaining.

    Shanghai Municipality did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 3 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 3 residential compounds are currently at Medium Risk.

    Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case in the city, a traced close contact of the party at Shanghai (having shared a meal w/ the party from Shanghai while at Suzhou on 11/20, returning to Xuzhou on 11/21).

    Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, both traced close contacts of the party at Shanghai (having shared a meal w/ the party from Shanghai while at Suzhou on 11/20, returning to Hangzhou on 11/22).

    Dalian in Liaoning Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 6 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 146 active domestic confirmed & 20 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 1 Medium Risk site was re-designated to Low Risk. 4 sites remain at Medium Risk.

    At Hebei Province 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 23 active confirmed (6 at Shijiazhuang & 17 at Xinji) & 1 active domestic asymptomatic (at Shijiazhuang) cases in the province.

    At Rizhao in Shandong Province there currently are 3 active domestic confirmed & 5 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.

    At Sichuan Province 5 confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 6 active domestic confirmed cases remaining (5 at Chengdu & 1 at Zigong).

    Chongqing Municipality there currently are 5 active domestic confirmed & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

    At Henan Province 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 63 active domestic confirmed cases remaining (47 at Zhengzhou & 16 at Zhoukou).

    Dehong Prefecture in Yunnan Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Ruili (1 via screening of persons under centralized quarantine & 2 via screening of persons living in restricted movement zones). 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 35 active domestic confirmed & 30 active domestic asymptomatic cases at the prefecture. 1 zone & 1 village at Ruili remain at Medium Risk.

    Imported Cases

    On 11/29, China reported 18 new imported confirmed cases (2 previously asymptomatic), 22 imported asymptomatic cases, 0 imported suspect cases:

    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 8 confirmed cases (2 previously asymptomatic), 4 Chinese nationals returning from Vietnam, 2 from the US & 1 each from Ethiopia & Saudi Arabia; 5 asymptomatic cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Laos & 1 each from Vietnam, Chile & the US
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, coming from Malaysia, off a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Dongguan in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, coming from Iran, off a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Guangxi “Autonomous” Region (location not specified) – 4 confirmed & 3 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Yunnan Province (location not specified) – 2 confirmed cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Myanmar; 9 asymptomatic cases, 7 Chinese nationals returning from Laos & 2 from Myanmar; all via land border crossings
    • Kunming in Yunnan Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a foreign national coming from Pakistan
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 confirmed case, no information released, yet
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the UK (via Amsterdam Schiphol)
    • Qingdao in Shandong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from South Korea
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 3 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese national returning from Algeria

    Overall in China, 36 confirmed cases recovered (16 imported), 12 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (10 imported) & 4 were reclassified as confirmed cases (2 imported), & 2,290 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 790 active confirmed cases in the country (407 imported), 7 in serious condition (3 imported), 462 active asymptomatic cases (395 imported), 3 suspect cases (all imported). 32,997 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 11/29, 2,499.813M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 7.772M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 11/30, Hong Kong reported 6 new positive cases, all imported.

  2. 2.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 4,879 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 2,632,782 cases. It also reports 61 deaths as of midnight, for an adjusted cumulative total of 30,370 deaths – 1.15% of the cumulative reported total, 1.18% of resolved cases.

    Based on cases reported yesterday, Malaysia’s nationwide Rt is at 0.95.

    394 confirmed cases are in ICU, 172 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 5,168 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,537,204 patients recovered – 96.4% of the cumulative reported total.

    Nine new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 5,947 clusters. 231 clusters are currently active; 5,716 clusters are now inactive.

    4,855 new cases today are local infections. 24 new cases today are imported.

    The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 109,139 doses of vaccine on 29th November: 4,538 first doses, 6,711 second doses, and 97,890 booster doses. As of midnight, the cumulative total is 53,345,233 doses administered: 25,830,221 first doses, 25,370,746 second doses, and 2,332,750 booster doses. 79.1% of the population have received their first dose, while 77.7% are now fully vaccinated.

  4. 4.

    Spanky

    I think YY_Sima Qian and Amir were waiting to jump on this post. :*)

    And I must thank you both for constructing day by day accounts of the pandemic in your respective countries. I hope it can be useful in the future.

  6. 6.

    lowtechcyclist

    Man who went to a *Covid party* to build his immunity dies from the virus.

    It worked, he’s permanently immune.

    Habershaw had been facing an uncertain future

    All uncertainties concerning his future have been resolved.

  7. 7.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Amir Khalid: We’ll probably be seeing the disruptive effects of the Thanksgiving break on US data reporting for another day or two (and then there will be a huge spike in everything from the data backlog, which will be hard to distinguish from the actual virus-spreading effect of holiday gatherings).

  8. 8.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Spanky: He was fully vaccinated, though I’m guessing not boosted, since that was before the booster recommendation–fatal breakthrough infections are uncommon, though not unheard of.

  9. 9.

    lowtechcyclist

    Republican officials around the country are testing a new mechanism to build loyalty with unvaccinated Americans while undermining Biden administration mandates: unemployment benefits.

    But wouldn’t these be the same states that have basically gutted their unemployment benefits to begin with?

  11. 11.

    mrmoshpotato

    Driving the news: Florida, Iowa, Kansas and Tennessee have changed their unemployment insurance rules to allow workers who are fired or quit over vaccine mandates to receive benefits.

    Benefits into the Sun.

  12. 12.

    terben

    In Australia today, there were 9 Covid related deaths. This brings the total to 2006. The first Covid death occurred on March 1st 2020, the 1000th on August 30th 2021 and the 2000th only three months later.

    The outbreaks continue in Victoria and NSW, which account for the majority of cases and deaths.

    The positive news, such as it is, is that the vaccination program is well under way, with the oldest segments of the population given priority early in the program and younger cohorts gradually included. At this time, vaccines are not approved for children under 12, but the single dose rates for the 12+ population are 91.5% and double dosed, 85.8%.
    The last cohort to be approved for vaccination, the 12-15yo, are 76/66% (1st/2nd dose)

  14. 14.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    Greece: new cases remain at the uncomfortably high plateau, with 6,677 new cases reported last night, 104 dead, and intubations increasing to 657.

    The Greek government is now going to make it mandatory for every Greek over 60 years of age to be vaccinated – imposing a fine of 100 euro on any violator. (I assume that there will be medical exemptions granted for those who are physiologically unable to handle the vaccines. The Greek Orthodox Church has already categorically rejected the concept of religious exemptions from vaccination.)

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    Merriam-Webster chooses vaccine as the 2021 word of the year
    [snip]
    The selection follows “vax” as word of the year from the folks who publish the Oxford English Dictionary. And it comes after Merriam-Webster chose “pandemic” as tops in lookups last year on its online site. Source

  16. 16.

    New Deal democrat

    The holiday backlog of tests in the US is finally being reported, but we probably still won’t have a full picture for another day or two. What is interesting is that over the Thanksgiving holiday, cases dropped much more this year vs. last year both nationwide (25% vs. 10%) and specifically in the Midwest, where last year Thanksgiving was the peak of the wave (30% vs. 20%). That may just be even less reporting this year than last, or it might be something more.

    Meanwhile, Dr. Jorge Caballero found similar testing signatures in Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, UK, and the State of Minnesota during either late summer or earlier in autumn to the results in South Africa during the past several weeks:

    https://mobile.twitter.com/DataDrivenMD/status/1465392204365500418

    He concludes:

    “Based on the data I’ve seen so far, and that I’ve highlighted here, I’m more inclined to believe that Omicron began somewhere in Europe in mid-to-late Summer. It then made its way to South Africa, not the other way around….

    “What I’m seeing in the data suggests that Omicron has flown under the radar for several months. We didn’t realize it was there b/c our testing + sequencing systems are biased toward symptomatic disease, which may be different or less common for Omicron vs. Delta.”

    He did get some serious pushback in the comments, to the effect of how could so many countries’ assays miss the same thing?

    He followed up with this:

    https://mobile.twitter.com/DataDrivenMD/status/1465458930620895232

    “Among nations w/ multiple Omicron cases: the mutation that is being used to screen for the variant is most commonly found in the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. South Africa ranks last on this list. Note: the mutation is also found in Alpha variant, but the point stands.”

    And includes a graph showing that the relevant mutation has been found in over 40% of all samples in the Netherlands and Germany, and only 1% in South Africa.

    Again, there has been some serious pushback in the comments. But if he’s right, either Omicron has been around for a long time, or else many of the “positives” for Omicron are actually finding a variant of Alpha.

  19. 19.

    Elizabelle

    re RI principal.  Per the article, he was fully vaccinated.  Maybe not boostered, but …

    Also sounds like he might have been placed on leave for the stunt with not observing COVID protocols at the dance.  There was an “acting principal” in the mix.

    Those students got a good closeup lesson on biology and statistics. They will not forget it.  Thanks, Mr. Habershaw.

    Habershaw, 57, who had been fully vaccinated, died Saturday of complications from COVID, said his younger brother David Habershaw.

    “He started feeling ill a couple of days after the dance,” David Habershaw said, “but he was getting better” — though sleeping about 20 hours a day.

    Gerald Habershaw had not been hospitalized and was convalescing at home in North Kingstown, his brother said. He died Saturday after a rescue rushed him to a hospital after he began suffering chest pains, said David Habershaw.

    Get and use those pulse oximeters, people.  Sleeping 20 hours a day?

  20. 20.

    Elizabelle

    @p.a.:   Yes. Heart attack sounded like a possibility too.

    I would guess either heart trouble or your lungs filling up, unbeknownst to the patient, might keep you sleeping 20 hours a day.

    Could be both.  To be continued.

  21. 21.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Spanky: I did not have to take care of my daughter tonight, nor did I have to prepare for con calls w/ US based team. I did post daily China updates through the Thanksgiving long weekend, to the last A.L. roundup before the holiday, if only for record keeping.

  22. 22.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    The unemployment checks for the unvacconated is another sign the Right is all for socialism, just for only for the right kind of people, much like the Nazis.

  23. 23.

    Mousebumples

    So happy about the expansion of the CDC booster recommendation to cover all adults. I’ve now convinced my otherwise healthy just to get his booster and have him scheduled for Saturday.

    Now just waiting to vaccinate my 2 year old…

  24. 24.

    BellyCat

    Big ‘divorced dad who shows up (when it’s not too much trouble) to be indulgent during weekend visits’ versus ‘mean custodial mommy who makes you eat vegetables and do homework’

    Whoa… With respect, this is an offensive stereotype. When courts start giving equal custodial rights to fathers, this type of statement can be rolled out again (and ‘dad’ should be replaced with ‘parent’). I expect the year to be somewheres about 2357 , but that’s probably optimistic.

  25. 25.

    Matt McIrvin

    @New Deal democrat: There have been other people arguing that that mutation isn’t a reliable indicator of Omicron outside of the situation in southern Africa, and that the earlier appearances were non-Omicron variants.

  28. 28.

    Ken

    Man who went to COVID party to build immunity dies from the virus.

    There is a zen koan about a student who meditates and practices for decades, and at last triumphantly shows his teacher that he can now cross a river by walking on the water. The teacher responds, “Oh my student, you have wasted thirty years of your life learning this trick, when there is a ferry boat just half a mile from here.”

    Re-read, replacing meditation with a COVID party, and ferry boat with vaccine.  The part about wasting thirty years of life can stay….

  29. 29.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY:

    The Monroe County website says 2643 new cases last week.
    Deaths now at 1492, up 7 from the previous week.
    There are 429 patients hospitalized with COVID, and 104 are in the ICU.
    Vaccinations at 64.5%. This doesn’t seem to have moved at all.

  30. 30.

    Soprano2

    Y’all should read the story about that dance in RI – it was outside, although they did have food inside. The principal was fully vaccinated, so I can understand why he would feel comfortable attending without wearing a face mask. If you think fully vaccinated people are going to wear face masks everywhere forever, including to events that are held outside, well that’s not going to happen. It also says he had chest pains when he was rushed to the hospital, so his death could be from a combination of factors. He wasn’t even in the hospital! He might have died even if he did everything right – masks are not a magical talisman, after all, they’re just another level of protection. I’m not saying that what they did was great, but the level of seeming to celebrate his death here is disconcerting. People are imperfect beings – he was vaccinated, so he had an expectation of protection from severe illness and death even if he did get Covid. The kids, OTOH, had no such expectation if they weren’t vaccinated, and I didn’t see any information in the article about that.

  31. 31.

    Robert Sneddon

    @New Deal democrat: The Omicron variant is massively different from any other widespread variant of COVID-19 and it’s pretty much impossible to miss it in gene sequencing compared to anything previously found. This MedCram video shows the phylogeny tree of COVID-19 variants derived from GSAID at about time 0:40 and details the massive number of differences in the Omicron variant and other widespread variants starting around 5:00.

     

    The Netherlands has found Omicron gene signatures in a couple of older samples taken around the middle of November, even before its existence was announced by the South African authorities but that’s as far back as it goes. I think DataDrivenMD is making great leaps in the dark if he’s claiming that the Omicron variant has been around for months and hundreds of gene sequencing labs worldwide have missed its standout existence until now while identifying many new lesser Variants Of Interest and thousands of slight variants from known precursors over the same period.

    The Netherlands has updated their numbers on the passengers from the two aircraft from South Africa that arrived at Schiphol on Friday, with another positive case of Omicron variant COVID-19 taking the total to 14. Scotland’s reported cases of Omicron variant COVID-19 has been increased to 9 with all cases seemingly mild and being treated at home while isolated.

  33. 33.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Soprano2: Delta’s latency period is only a few days, much shorter than the variants of COVID involved in earlier waves, so it’s possible that the effects will be visible sooner than that. Some people who caught it over Thanksgiving will already be sick.

  35. 35.

    Reboot

    Would love it if the genderizing of the two political parties could fade away. Getting tagged with the ‘mean mommy’ or ‘nurturing mommy’ labels seem like yet another obstacle the Democratic Party has to deal with. Thanks, George Lakoff! (Not.) In a world more in touch with reality, being perceived as ‘mom’ would be a compliment, but this is not that world.

  36. 36.

    jonas

    @Matt McIrvin: ​
      fatal breakthrough infections are uncommon, though not unheard of.

    The only ones that have been reported, to my knowledge, in my county are among the very elderly, nursing home patients, etc., who had other frailties.

  37. 37.

    Fair Economist

    Flu report for week ending 11/20, delayed due to holiday:

    Positivity and cases continue to increase. Positivity increased from 0.7% to 1.0%. At least it’s not currently exponential. Cases reported for the previous week increased from 257 to 415. Increases continue to be entirely in H3N2, demonstrating immunological escape for this particular seasonal strain.

    Unfortunately flu is still totally swamped by COVID in frequency so the usual symptomatic reporting to identify flu outbreak locations is totally swamped. I poked around in a few states and I’m not seeing a way to combine them into a coherent report, entirely aside from the hassle of looking at 50 different reports. Casually, it looks like the new H3N2 is spreading nationwide with states like NM and OH reporting large percentage jumps from very low prior rates, while MI (the locus of the current outbreak) reports decreases.  PA is reporting a large outbreak, roughly tying for worst of last few years, but those cases are not being reported to the national registry; trying to figure that one out.

    @New Deal democrat cites:

    “What I’m seeing in the data suggests that Omicron has flown under the radar for several months. We didn’t realize it was there b/c our testing + sequencing systems are biased toward symptomatic disease, which may be different or less common for Omicron vs. Delta.”

    The guy you are citing doesn’t understand sequencing. Most industrialized countries are doing a fair amount of full sequencing (not just looking for dropouts on a PCR test) and that’s going to definitively catch any Omicron. They’re not there; nothing on the global phylogeny trees until this month. While this doesn’t rule out an occasional case that didn’t get sequenced, it does rule out any large outbreak; and based on the S. Africa expansion, there’s no way it was rattling around in Europe for 2 months *without* causing a major outbreak that would have been caught.

    This guy is confusing a particular PCR dropout, indicating there have been *any* mutations in one small area of the virus, which the actual Omicron sequence. That particular dropout also happens for the Alpha variant, as well as any number of minor variants.

  38. 38.

    Cameron

    @lowtechcyclist: That’s certainly true in Florida.  When Nosferatu was governor, he made sure one had to jump through a million hoops to collect.  Then the current guv decided not to extend benefits for all the shiftess moochers.  And now he’s recruiting his zombie army for 2024.

  39. 39.

    jonas

    @NeenerNeener: Yep. Upstate NY is a mess right now. Low vaccination rates, healthcare worker shortage, and so on. Not as many people dying as last winter, but similar numbers filling up ERs and ICUs. Virtually everyone under 50 in the hospital with Covid right now in my county is unvaxxed. Idiots.

  41. 41.

    smith

    @Reboot: The “mommy” label is particularly inapt right now, when the leader of our party is pretty much the embodiment of the caring dad/granddad. I’d be happy if the Dems were recognized as the nurturing, supportive parents vs the narcissist/abusive parents in the other party, though.

  42. 42.

    Sloane Ranger

    Pleased to report that I had my booster today. Just went round the corner and it was done and dusted in 20 minutes, including 15 minutes hanging around in case I had a bad reaction. Can I now claim membership of House Moderna based on my booster, or do I have to stay in House AstraZeneca?

    Anyway, here are yesterday’s (Monday’s) numbers from the UK, where we had 42,583 new cases. The rolling 7-day average is up by 3.7%. Please bear in mind that Monday’s and Tuesday’s figures always include an element of catch-up from the weekend when admin offices were, in the main, closed. New cases by nation,

    England – 34,906 (up 2770)

    Northern Ireland – 1464 (up 59)

    Scotland – 2244 (up 67)

    Wales – 3969 (up 1706, but there is no reporting at all from Wales on Saturdays).

    Deaths – There were 35 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. The rolling 7-day average is down by 18.4%. 21 deaths were in England, 4 in Northern Ireland, 10 in Wales and none in Scotland.

    Testing – 1,019,456 tests took place on Sunday, 28th. The rolling 7-day average is up by 4.7%. The PCR testing capacity reported by labs on that date was 716,982.

    Hospitalisations – As of Friday, 26 November, 7530 people were in hospital and 925 were on ventilators. The rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions was down by 11.2% as of 23rd November.

    Vaccinations – As of Sunday, 28th, 50,941,327 people had had 1 shot of a vaccine, 46,341,057 had had 2 and 17,896,864 had had a 3rd shot/booster. 88.6% of all UK residents aged 12+ had had 1 shot by that date, 80.6% had had 2 and 31.1% had had a 3rd shot/booster.

  43. 43.

    dc

    Where the anti-vaxers, anti-maskers, assorted crazies, right-wing grifters, anti-humans and close to two years of pandemic have left me. I read that the anti-mask, pandemic spreading principal died of Covid, and the word “good” played immediately in my head.

  45. 45.

    New Deal democrat

    @Fair Economist: Thanks. That’s why, given the big pushback in the comments, which made sense, I cited his argument as interesting, but was in no position to endorse it.

  46. 46.

    Brachiator

    The big picture: Extending unemployment benefits to the unvaccinated is just the latest in a series of proposals aligning the GOP with people who won’t get a COVID shot.

    The GOP will probably offer free health insurance next.

  47. 47.

    dc

    @dc: I’ll reply to myself. If he was fully vaxed and the event was outside (I need to read the article before commenting), his decision was not crazy, even if against the rules. It doesn’t change my point about how hardened I’ve become because of these last years (I include the entire Trump years with the pandemic to top it off).

  49. 49.

    oatler

    Then there’s the Austrian anti-vaxxer who tried to immunize himself by injecting bleach, and as Brian Ferry sang, “Dim the lights, you can guess the rest”.

  53. 53.

    Nobody in particular

    @lowtechcyclist:

     

    That’s very Marxian, as in Groucho.

    Yeah, herd immunity is achieved in two ways. Vaccination Mandates or just letting the disease run rampant and the quip indicates the efficacy of the latter. I’m antifascist, not anti-authoritarian. A mandate is authoritarian and I’d already have done it.

  54. 54.

    Nobody in particular

    @Soprano2:

    The vector is airborne. Masking indoors and distancing is the first and best line of defense until vaccinated. I stopped gloves and disinfectant after I was fully vaccinated but it is mainly airborne and you can never be too cautious.

  55. 55.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    @mrmoshpotato: ​

    @Matt McIrvin: Ummmm.

    RI principal let students attend homecoming dance maskless earlier this month – just like him.

    Playing with fire there.

    Not anymore. He’s dead.

Comments are closed.