Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

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

The revolution will be supervised.

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

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Republicans would impeach Biden if he bit into a whole Kit Kat rather than breaking the sections apart.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

In after Baud. Damn.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Second rate reporter says what?

A consequence of cucumbers

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

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

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

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Even though I know this is a bad idea, I’m off to do it anyway!

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Sunday / Monday, Feb. 27-28

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Sunday / Monday, Feb. 27-28

by | 32 Comments

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In a less fraught time, I’d give this article its own post. Take my word: Click over & the whole thing:

… We didn’t imagine the myriad ways, beyond its pathogenicity, that the virus could be disruptive: the economic shutdowns, school closures, lost livelihoods, lonely hospital deaths, drive-by funerals, anxiety, depression — all of it cascading upon us in ways that drove us apart politically and culturally. And this happened because of a virus, SARS-CoV-2, that was not terribly lethal compared with what might be lurking out there in an animal reservoir, waiting to jump into humans. That’s why some people have said we’ve been going through a “starter pandemic.” In that coldblooded formulation, this was just practice for the Big One…

Lesson 1: Past performance does not predict future results
“Maybe it won’t be so bad” was a rational thought early on. Previous experiences suggested this new virus might be containable. Another coronavirus, causing the disease SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), emerged in China in 2002 and reached several other countries, including Canada, killing nearly 1 in 10 people known to be infected. But SARS was not very transmissible and was snuffed out in 2003. The official global death toll: 774…

Or covid might have been like the 2009 influenza strain (“swine flu”) that briefly threw everyone into crisis mode when it threatened to generate a devastating pandemic. In fact, the virus did spread globally, but turned out to be fairly punchless. Non-disasters, particularly after lots of hype, have a lingering effect…

Lesson 2: Evolution is real, nature is inventive, and we live at the indulgence of things we cannot see
… SARS-CoV-2 is now among the most studied viruses. Global databases have tracked its evolution. Never before has the scientific community seen so vividly the way natural selection lures new, behaviorally distinct strains from a vast viral pool…

SARS-CoV-2 doesn’t mutate very fast, but when a virus begins spreading among millions of people, with each person functioning as a separate experiment in viral replication, the virus has abundant opportunity to improve itself and become more “fit.” Which this one did…

Lesson 5: Pandemics are political events
… The smart way for leaders to respond to a pandemic is to calculate the scope of the threat; communicate the dangers clearly to the general public; roll out tests to provide timely surveillance of the pathogen; track viral mutations through extensive genomic sequencing; share public health data seamlessly among local, state and federal agencies; find common strategies to contain the virus and mitigate the disease; and, finally, develop vaccines.

Well … we did develop vaccines…

Lesson 7: Pandemics end psychologically before they do biologically
A pandemic is caused by a pathogen but is experienced as a social, cultural, political and psychological event. As such it can intensify or wane somewhat independently of what the virus is doing…

Lesson 10: We are all in this together…

======

Vaccinating 70% of the population in every country in the world against COVID-19 by mid-2022 has been the World Health Organization’s (WHO) rallying cry to end the pandemic.

But recently, public health experts say that while boosting immunity globally remains essential, the figure is neither achievable nor meaningful.

It has always been ambitious: Currently, just 12% of people in low-income nations have had one shot, according to Our World In Data. Earlier targets set by WHO – to reach 10% by September 2021, for example – were also missed…

At a virtual briefing last week with WHO Africa, Aurelia Nguyen, managing director of COVAX within Gavi, said it was important to instead “meet the targets that countries have set for themselves, whether it’s in line with the 70% WHO target or a lower or a higher target.”

Reservations about the 70% target are a further sign that ending the pandemic globally may be a trickier, and longer, challenge than many had hoped.

Documents from a high-level internal UN meeting held earlier this month, reviewed by Reuters, showed eight countries that were extremely unlikely to reach the target by June 2022, and had been identified for “immediate focus”: Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Sudan.

A further 26, including Yemen, Uganda and Haiti, are also in need of “concerted support”, the document said…

Edward Kelley, former director of health services at WHO and now global health officer at ApiJect, said the 70% had been based on what science said was needed to manage transmission, which had been blown out of the water by Omicron.

“Of course we need to continue to raise immunity levels everywhere”, he said. “But the target is being kept at the moment because the international community does not have anything else to cling to.”

======

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Reader Interactions

32Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    The Hard Lessons We Learned — and Didn’t — From Two Years of Pandemic. And this may not even be the Big One. We must prepare for doomsday, act faster and respect evolution – Joel Achenbach, WaPo

    I thought Obama had left Trump with a pandemic playbook that Trump refused to follow.

  2. 2.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: You remember correctly.​
     

    ETA: The Trumpists treated everything associated with Obama as bad. Didn’t matter what.

    To a lesser extent, the same thing happened when the Bushies took over from Clinton. But the Trump crew didn’t make any distinctions; if the Obama Administration had done something, it must be bad, was their attitude. So yeah, they tossed the playbook, and America paid the price.

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    We must prepare for doomsday, act faster and respect evolution – Joel Achenbach

    Silly man, all is as God planned it. Do you think you can deny Him?

  4. 4.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY:

    49 new cases on 2/27. Since this is from the NYSDOH it doesn’t include home tests. Still, this is looking way better than a month ago.

  6. 6.

    eclare

    I am so sick of how we figure out how to lower numbers, like through mask or vaccine mandates, numbers do go down, and then we remove the mandates.  It’s like RBG wrote in a VRA case, you don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

    And are they seriously hinting that deciding when to get a fourth shot is going to be done on a case by case basis?  The classic “consult with your dr”?  In our fucked up health system that is a recipe for disaster.

    I think I have a case of the Mondays.  Coffee will help.

  8. 8.

    lowtechcyclist

    @eclare: Come sit over here. The coffee is ready.

    @JPL: I said last spring that I’ll probably be one of the last people to stop wearing a mask to the grocery store and whatnot.  (I was figuring it would be by last fall sometime, but we know how that worked out.)  I haven’t changed my POV.

    I figure when fewer people are getting killed by Covid than by cars for a sustained period, that’s when I’ll stop wearing a mask.  But probably not before.

  9. 9.

    bjacques

    @lowtechcyclist: As I recall, Obama had put together a pandemic response team after Ebola reached US shores (Dallas, anyway), and gave them a seat on the National Security Council. Bolton as Trump’s NatSec Advisor kicked them off and broke up the team. That’s yet another reason it irks me that BBC World have invited him to speak on the Uktaine crisis and war.

  10. 10.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 24,466 new Covid-19 cases yesterday in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 3,419,636 cases. It also reported 40 deaths for an adjusted cumulative total of 32,674 deaths – 0.96% of the cumulative reported total, 1.05% of resolved cases.

    Malaysia’s nationwide Rt stands at 1.05.

    146 confirmed cases are in ICU, 86 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 22,380 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 3,085,940 patients recovered – 90.2% of the cumulative reported total.

    Five     new clusters were reported yesterday, for a cumulative total of 6,779 clusters. 484 clusters are currently active; 6,295 clusters are now inactive.

    24,220 new cases reported yesterday were local infections. 246 new cases were imported.

    The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 101,136 doses of vaccine on 27th February: 42,144 first doses, 537 second doses, and 58,455 booster doses. The cumulative total is 67,089,834 doses administered: 26,969,588 first doses, 25,749,085 second doses, and 14,578,408 booster doses. 82.5% of the population have received their first dose, 78.8% their second dose, and 44.6% their booster dose.

  11. 11.

    Gvg

    @eclare: No. Read closer. Fauci thinks that 4th booster shots and after will be recommended based on classifications like immune compromised and age. Thus my older parents might need it at 6 months but I might not need another, or might not until 12 months, etc. Research will give us answers.

    I think we may also be on the verge of better vaccines anyway. We need one that prevents transmission, not just serious health effects in most cases. As I recall, polio had 3 vaccines, improvements. I had to get re vaccinated for I think measles when I returned to college because the earlier version I had received had turned out to not be sufficient and a stronger version was now required.

  12. 12.

    eclare

    @lowtechcyclist:   I don’t see an end anytime soon to my wearing a mask.  I was pleased in my experience yesterday grocery shopping.  I got there around 7:15 AM, and I’d say probably 75-80% of the people there were masked, and it was pretty empty.  At that time the crowd skews older, so fewer risk takers, I guess.  It just doesn’t bother me to wear a mask.

    It does bother me that I don’t see me going to a gym again, ever.  If just one gym here had either a mask or vaccine mandate, I’d go.  But no, and I miss it for both health and social reasons.  Don’t know what to do about that.

  14. 14.

    eclare

    @Gvg:  I’ll go with your interpretation, it’s better!  I just saw “case by case basis” and thought the worst.

  15. 15.

    opiejeanne

    There were already two deaths in Santa Clara County, California earlier in February, but they were only identified later as such. The first identified death of Covid 19 occurred on February 28th in Washington State, so when he flashed that statistic on the screen it was incorrect.

    Lying Sean Hannity.

  18. 18.

    opiejeanne

    @Baud: Yes.  And when you look at it the right way, most of the current deaths are still the responsibility of Trump’s administration, hoarding equipment and testing materials, disinformation, etc.

    He and his not only caused more deaths during his term in office, their cavalier behavior about masking and forcing schools to reopen led directly to the later excessive deaths in red states like Florida and Texas.

  22. 22.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 2/27 Mainland China reported 87 new domestic confirmed (none previously asymptomatic) & 53 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Guangdong Province reported 40 new domestic confirmed & 25 new domestic asymptomatic cases. As the province does not breakdown recoveries between domestic & imported cases, I cannot track the count of active cases in parts of the province.

    • Dongguan reported 10 new domestic confirmed (all mild) & 18 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at  the epicenter Dalang Township, 14 are traces close contacts already under centralized quarantine & 14 from mass screening of all residents in areas under movement restrictions. The outbreak is of the Omicron BA.2 Variant. 1 factory compound is currently at High Risk.
    • Shenzhen reported 30 new domestic confirmed & 6 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 27 are traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine, 8 are found from mass screening in areas under movement restrictions, & 1 from screening of persons deemed at risk of exposure. 2 residential buildings have been elevated to Medium Risk. 3 residential buildings, 1 office building, 1 factory & a shopping center are currently at Medium Risk.
    • Guangzhou reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, an international freight handler at the airport, found via delay screening, has been living in closed loop.

    Guangxi “Autonomous” Region reported 11 new domestic confirmed cases (all mild), all at Fangchenggang, 5 are traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine & 6 from mass screening of all residents in areas under movement restrictions. The outbreak at Fangchenggang is of Omicron BA.2 Variant. 11 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 197 active domestic confirmed cases in the province (162 at Baise, 34 at Fangchenggang & 1 at Nanning). 1 zone at Fangchenggang is currently at Medium Risk.

    At Shaoyang in Hunan Province there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city, part of the transmission chain spreading from Shenzhen in Guangdong.

    Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region reported 11 new domestic confirmed cases. 14 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 352 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.

    • Manzhouli in Hulun Buir did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 7 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. 1 sub-district Is currently at Medium Risk.
    • At Bayan Nur there currently are 3 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
    • Baotou did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There are currently 21 active domestic confirmed cases (7 mild & 14 moderate) in the city (all presumed Delta). 1 zone has been elevated to Medium Risk. 1 zone, 5 residential compounds & 2 villages are currently at Medium Risk.
    • Hohhot reported 11 new domestic cases. 13 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 321 active domestic confirmed cases in the city (all presumed Delta). 2 communities & 4 villages are currently at High Risk. 71 communities, 18 villages, 6 residential compound, 1 shopping center & a plantation are currently at Medium Risk.

    Tianjin Municipality reported 9 new domestic confirmed (6 mild & 3 moderate) & 1 new domestic positive cases, all are traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine. There currently are 13 active domestic confirmed (7 mild & 6 moderate) & 2 active domestic asymptomatic case in the city. 1 massage parlor has been elevated to High Risk.

    Liaoning Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case. There currently are 197 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Huludao reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (mild), a traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine. There currently are 197 active domestic confirmed cases in the city (all presumed Delta). 1 village at Suizhong County is currently at High Risk.
    • At Shenyang there currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case in the city.

    At Qingdao in Shandong Province there currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases remaining, part of the transmission chain spread from Wuhan in Hubei.

    Shanxi Province reported 4 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 15 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining in the province, all part of the transmission chain spreading from Hohhot in Inner Mongolia.

    • Jinzhong reported 2 new domestic confirmed (2 moderate) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine. There currently are 10 active domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
    • Taiyuan reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases (both mild), both traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine since 2/24. There currently are 4 active domestic confirmed cases in the city.
    • At Xizhou there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city.

    At Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province there currently is 1 active asymptomatic case remaining.

    Heilongjiang Province reported 4 new domestic confirmed & 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 12 active domestic confirmed& 27 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Suifenhe in Mudanjiang reported 3 new domestic confirmed cases, 1 from voluntary screening & 2 are traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 6 active domestic confirmed & 6 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
    • Heihe reported 1 new domestic confirmed & 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine. 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 1 active domestic confirmed & 14 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city (all presumed Omicron BA.2).
    • Jidong County in Jixi did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 5 active domestic confirmed & 5 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 2 residential compounds & a hospital are currently at Medium Risk.
    • At Baiquan County in Qiqihar 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

    At Chengmai County in Hainan Province there currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case remaining, part of the transmission chain spreading from Jixi in Heilongjiang.

    Shanghai Municipality reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, a quarantine hotel worker, found via daily screening, has been living in closed loop since 2/16. There currently are 7 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.

    Hubei Province reported 5 new domestic confirmed cases (call mild), 1 from fever clinic, 3 are traced close contacts & 1 from screening of all residents in areas under movement restrictions. There currently are 26 active domestic confirmed (21 mild & 5 moderate, all at Wuhan) & 7 active domestic asymptomatic (6 at Wuhan & 1 at Huanggang) cases in the province. 4 residential buildings & 1 hotel at Wuhan are currently at Medium Risk.

    Jiangsu Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 104 active domestic confirmed & 37 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • At Suzhou 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 101 active domestic confirmed & 29 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 1 Medium Risk residential building has been re-designated to Low Risk. 2 residential compound, 48 residential buildings, a dormitory, a factory, 2 businesses & a tea house are currently at Medium Risk.
    • At Wuxi 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 3 active domestic confirmed & 8 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, all part of the transmission chain spreading from Suzhou.

    Sichuan Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case. There currently are 31 active domestic confirmed & 13 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Chengdu did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 30 active domestic confirmed & 4 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city (all presumed Omicron). 14 residential compounds are currently at Medium Risk.
    • Mianyang reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, a traced close contact already under centralized quarantine since 2/24. There currently are 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, part of the transmission chain spreading from Chengdu.
    • Meizhou did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city, part of the transmission chain spreading from Chengdu.
    • At Deyang there currently are 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, part of the transmission chain spreading from Chengdu.
    • At Luzhou there currently are 4 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.

    At Xiamen in Fujian Province there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city, a person who entered centralized quarantine to care for in under aged child arriving from overseas.

    At Henan Province 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 4 active domestic confirmed cases remaining. 

    Yunnan Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed & 21 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 39 active domestic confirmed & 87 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining in the province.

    • Honghe Prefecture reported 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Hekou County, 1 is a traced close contact already under centralized quarantine & 2 from mass screening. There currently are 15 active domestic confirmed & 12 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city (all presumed Omicron BA.2), all at Hekou County. 1 residential compound & 1 plantation are currently at Medium Risk.
    • Lincang reported 2 new domestic confirmed & 17 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Zhenkang County, all are traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine.  There currently are 9 active domestic confirmed & 51 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 1 zone has been is currently at Medium Risk.
    • Ruili in Dehong Prefecture reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, found via regular screening of persons in high risk occupations. There currently are 10 active domestic confirmed & 7 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city (all presumed Omicron BA.2).
    • At Wenshan Prefecture there currently are 3 active domestic confirmed & 15 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the prefecture, all at Malipo County.
    • At Sipsongpanna Prefecture 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the prefecture.

    Imported Cases

    On 2/27, Mainland China reported 147 new imported confirmed cases (13 previously asymptomatic, 10 in Guangdong), 63 imported asymptomatic cases, 5 imported suspect cases:

    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 31 confirmed cases, all Mainland Chinese residents returning from Hong Kong; 16 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Japan & South Korea, & 14 Mainland Chinese residents returning from Hong Kong
    • Dongguan in Guangdong Province – 7 confirmed cases, all coming from Hong Kong; 1 asymptomatic cases, coming from the Philippines, off a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Zhuhai in Guangdong Province – 6 confirmed & 2 asymptomatic cases, all Hong Kong residents coming from Hong Kong
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Kuwait & New Zealand; 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the DRC (via Nairobi)
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 each coming from Malaysia & South Korea
    • Huizhou in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, both coming from Hong Kong
    • Shanwei in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed & 3 asymptomatic cases, coming from Hong Kong
    • Zhongshan in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed & 4 asymptomatic case, coming from Hong Kong
    • Jiangmen in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed & 1 asymptomatic cases, both coming from Hong Kong
    • Shanghai Municipality – 45 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from the US & 1 each from Tanzania (via Amsterdam Schiphol) & the UAE, 35 Mainland Chinese residents returning from Hong Kong, 2 Taiwanese residents coming from Taiwan & 1 from Hong Kong, an Israeli national coming Israel, a South Korean national coming from South Korea, & a Swiss national coming from Singapore; 10 symptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Japan & the UK (via Copenhagen), & 7 Mainland Chinese residents returning from Hong Kong & 1 from Taiwan; 5 suspect cases, no information released
    • Beijing Municipality – 20 confirmed cases, a Chinese national returning from Sweden, 7 Mainland Chinese & 7 Hong Kong residents returning from Hong Kong, & 5 South Korean nationals coming from South Korea; 4 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Chongzuo in Guangxi “Autonomous” Region – 10 confirmed & 11 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Fangchenggang in Guangxi “Autonomous” Region – 1 confirmed case, no information released
    • Qingdao in Shandong Province – 4 confirmed cases, all Chineses national returning from South Korea
    • Jinan in Shandong Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, both coming from Germany
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 4 confirmed cases,
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 3 confirmed cases (all previously asymptomatic), 2 Mainland Chinese residents & 1 Hong Kong returning from Hong Kong; 2 asymptomatic cases, a Chinese national returning from Cambodia & a Mainland Chinese resident returning from Hong Kong
    • Harbin in Heilongjiang Province – 3 confirmed cases, all coming from South Korea
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 2 confirmed cases, no information released
    • Yunnan Province (location not specified) – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese nationals returning from Myanmar; 2 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Laos; all via land border crossings
    • Suzhou in Jiangsu Province – 1 confirmed cases, a Mainland Chinese resident returning from Hong Kong, off a flight that landed at Shanghai

    Overall in Mainland China, 68 confirmed cases recovered (26 imported), 19 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (16 imported) & 13 were reclassified as confirmed cases (all imported), & 2,601 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 2,754 active confirmed cases in the country (1,525 imported), 21 in serious condition (1 imported), 1,006 active asymptomatic cases (765 imported), 6 suspect cases (all imported). 75,068 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 2/27, 3,124.118M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 4.454M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 2/28, Hong Kong reported 34,466 new positive cases, 87 deaths. There are outbreaks in 580 retirement homes, 2,900 retirees & 865 staff. Of the 636 deaths (median age 84) from the Omicron wave to date, 91% have not been fully vaccinated. Among the > 80 y.o. demographic, case fatality rate of the fully vaccinated cohort is 0.27%, but 4.34% for the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

    On 2/28, Taiwan reported 56 new positive cases, 37 imported & 9 domestic.

  23. 23.

    eclare

    @Baud:   His entire presidency was based on division among Americans.  Unfortunately that division now gets applied to everything, public health measures, vaccines, etc.  I never thought a product with a description that read “Here is some free shit that can save your life, takes fifteen minutes” would be divisive, but here we are.

  24. 24.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I can’t help but think the next one will be far worse. Anti-vaxx is now a mainstream position on the Right. Any infection mitigation will immediately be portrayed as an assault on civil liberties and there will be millions and millions more “doing their own research” immediately, before any real information even has a chance to get out. If there’s a GOP President I think we could see no government intervention of any kind. Imagine if it’s DeSantis. He’ll prefer to deny anyone is hospitalized before he’ll shore up hospitals. The only people who will get any kind of protections or support will be people who can afford to isolate and/or treat the illness with no government support. It’ll be every person for themselves, and we know what that means- it means it sorts for education level, power and financial security. That group survive.

  25. 25.

    opiejeanne

    @Barbara: Oh, I know. But we’ve known for a very long time, since at least W’s terms in office, that Bolton is a warmonger and a terrible person. I’m saying that even if he hadn’t done that there is still no good reason on God’s Green Earth to invite him to speak about the Ukraine crisis.

  26. 26.

    New Deal democrat

    91-Divoc once again failed to update, and since yesterday was Sunday most States failed to report, so this will be very brief.

    Cases declined slightly to 65,300, and deaths also declined slightly to 1856. Both are at levels near their worst from the period of March through October 2020. In the last few weeks the Tuesday updates have featured substantial declines. We’ll see tomorrow.

  27. 27.

    Liminal Owl

    @opiejeanne: And I know of one death in Alameda County (California) that followed exactly the Covid trajectory—in January 2020. Tested for numerous pathogens, but it wasn’t anything known at the time.  Early, yes, but last year Red Cross blood supplies from that area, donated December 2019-January 2020, were tested and showed that a small percentage were infected then.

  29. 29.

    dmsilev

    Q: When will we need a 4th COVID vaccination? Dr. Fauci: It has to be put into the context of whom you are talking about.. that could be based on age or underlying conditions. I don’t think you’ll be hearing recs that are across the board for everyone

    My parents got their 4th shots this weekend, based on their doctor’s recommendations. Age and immune-system issues. I’m expecting an eventual recommendation for an annual booster (like the flu shot, more or less) for the general population.

  30. 30.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    @Baud: ​

    It goes to show how misleading that stat is by the MAGAs comparing Trump deaths in 2020 with Biden deaths in 2021.

    Exactly.

    The thing that bugs me most about that comparison is that Jan. 2021 was the worst month for infections in deaths under the Trump administration, and the worst month in 2021 as well.

    On top of that, pandemic cases and deaths in the first three weeks of the Bush administration all pretty much started while Trump was still President, so all those cases and deaths (up to mid-Feb. 2021) should rightly be attributed to Trump.

    So that bogus statistic is basically just blame-shifting some of the worst of the pandemic from Trump, to whom it rightly belongs, to Biden.

    Makes me furious every time I hear it.

  31. 31.

    Brantl

    I wonder if we could crowd-source the funds to ambush Fox, OANN and NewsMax personalities with their quotes about how Covid would be nothing, how they are vaccinated (by order of their hypocritical network), and how they feel about all the dead, many at least partially due to their misleading the American people? I think these SOBs should be confronted every day, and this stuff should go up on twitter and facebook, until these pinheads are afraid to leave their homes in the morning.

  32. 32.

    J R in WV

    I tried to get a 4th shot at the Health Dept, they refused, I’m not fragile enough at 71. But I didn’t think of getting a prescription from my family doc — he wouldn’t hesitate to write them for Wife and I.
    We saw him last Friday, a shame I didn’t think of another booster then!!​

    ETA: I wonder if I could get him to phone in a ‘script to a site doing vaccinations? That would be so convenient. . . .

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