As coronavirus infections rise in parts of the world, experts are watching for a potential new surge in the U.S. Recent developments have experts worried about how long a new surge will take to detect. https://t.co/PrJBeQ8MT3
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 26, 2022
What does BA.2’s surge in Europe and elsewhere portend for the United States? COVID-19 experts weigh in. https://t.co/a8j3zSyeBp
— Harvard Medical School (@harvardmed) March 25, 2022
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China reports 1,254 new COVID cases on March 26 vs 1,335 day earlier https://t.co/vkmY1KxrXP pic.twitter.com/Esl4lKNvoW
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 27, 2022
Shanghai reports new daily record for asymptomatic COVID cases https://t.co/nae0k1zzhf pic.twitter.com/LI6fcQHaoE
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 27, 2022
Covid-19: 8 charts show how Hong Kong is coping with its worst outbreak yet https://t.co/gESlsVjEF8 pic.twitter.com/rwECEd1ni0
— Hong Kong Free Press HKFP (@hkfp) March 27, 2022
Chief Exec. Carrie Lam said she was "very saddened" by the 7,000+ Covid-19 deaths but did not respond to questions about who should bear responsibility, and if fatalities were avoidable.
Lam hailed mainland medical advice and said the the elderly are now the focus of treatment. pic.twitter.com/QV7tBA8Jzu
— Hong Kong Free Press HKFP (@hkfp) March 27, 2022
1 in 5 South Koreans have had Covid as the latest wave fueled by #Omicron subvariant—BA.2 —causes deaths to surge. Latest wave has pushed the country's total infections past 10M since the pandemic began & mortuaries are struggling to keep up w/ the deaths https://t.co/A0NbRkLyJE pic.twitter.com/LghL4JNcAe
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 26, 2022
European countries that are now battling Covid's BA.2 variant, lifted precautions, such as masking and social distancing, way too soon, according to the World Health Organization. The new surge is a tough fight https://t.co/I55b6poozV
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 26, 2022
Abstract: Sweden was well equipped to prevent the pandemic of COVID-19 from becoming serious. Over 280 years of collaboration between political bodies, authorities, and the scientific community had yielded many successes in preventive medicine. Sweden’s population is literate and has a high level of trust in authorities and those in power. During 2020, however, Sweden had ten times higher COVID-19 death rates compared with neighbouring Norway. In this report, we try to understand why, using a narrative approach to evaluate the Swedish COVID-19 policy and the role of scientific evidence and integrity. We argue that that scientific methodology was not followed by the major figures in the acting authorities—or the responsible politicians—with alternative narratives being considered as valid, resulting in arbitrary policy decisions. In 2014, the Public Health Agency merged with the Institute for Infectious Disease Control; the first decision by its new head (Johan Carlson) was to dismiss and move the authority’s six professors to Karolinska Institute. With this setup, the authority lacked expertise and could disregard scientific facts. The Swedish pandemic strategy seemed targeted towards “natural” herd-immunity and avoiding a societal shutdown. The Public Health Agency labelled advice from national scientists and international authorities as extreme positions, resulting in media and political bodies to accept their own policy instead. The Swedish people were kept in ignorance of basic facts such as the airborne SARS-CoV-2 transmission, that asymptomatic individuals can be contagious and that face masks protect both the carrier and others. Mandatory legislation was seldom used; recommendations relying upon personal responsibility and without any sanctions were the norm. Many elderly people were administered morphine instead of oxygen despite available supplies, effectively ending their lives. If Sweden wants to do better in future pandemics, the scientific method must be re-established, not least within the Public Health Agency. It would likely make a large difference if a separate, independent Institute for Infectious Disease Control is recreated. We recommend Sweden begins a self-critical process about its political culture and the lack of accountability of decision-makers to avoid future failures, as occurred with the COVID-19 pandemic.
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anyway this piece on long Covid denialism is very good and I recommend reading and understanding it if you're interested in being less ignorant and on the right side of history during the coming decadehttps://t.co/FSzsznXBgz
— Karl Bode (@KarlBode) March 26, 2022
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This is not going to end well.
“Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest testing companies in the country, told ABC News that patients who are not on Medicare, Medicaid or a private health plan will now be charged $125 when using one of its…PCR tests.” https://t.co/A4C4dnX05H
— Oni Blackstock MD MHS (@oni_blackstock) March 26, 2022
Thread:
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
112 new cases yesterday, from the NYSDOH website.
Baud
Now I’m curious how many rich kids gave their parents covid for the inheritance.
It’s the perfect crime.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 20,923 new Covid-19 cases yesterday in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 4,122,004 cases. It also reported 34 deaths for an adjusted cumulative total of 34,751 deaths – 0.84% of the cumulative reported total, 0.90% of resolved cases.
Malaysia’s nationwide Rt stands at 0.93.
141 confirmed cases are in ICU, 94 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 25,467 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 3,844,766 patients recovered – 93.3% of the cumulative reported total.
Three new clusters were reported yesterday, for a cumulative total of 6,926 clusters. 232 clusters are currently active; 6,694 clusters are now inactive.
20,695 new cases reported yesterday were local infections. 228 new cases were imported.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 31,595 doses of vaccine on 26th March: 13,054 first doses, 890 second doses, and 17,651 booster doses. The cumulative total is 68,675,263 doses administered: 27,475,903 first doses, 25,796,634 second doses, and 15,613,982 booster doses. 84.1% of the population have received their first dose, 79.0% their second dose, and 47.8% their booster dose.
NotMax
Small potatoes in the big picture, but noted.
New Deal democrat
Few States reported yesterday. Cases in the US remained in their past two week range at 31,100. Deaths declined under 800 to 795, the lowest since the middle of last August, and lower than 18 of the last 24 months.
Of the States that did report, there are big increases in NY (up 70% in the past week) and TX (up 80%), and a big decrease in CA (down 25%). It is safe to say some major BA.2 increases are underway. The 10 worst States are KY, at 28 per 100,000, followed by CO, VT, AK, TX, RI, NY, MO, ID, and ME at 12. The bottom 10 States, primarily in the Great Plains, are between 2 and 4 cases per 100,000.
In Europe, cases held steady in the UK, continued to decline in Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, and Greece, and continued to increase in France and Cyprus.
Australia is also a very interesting case. After holding COVID at bay for nearly two years, it has had an absolutely huge outbreak of BA.1 and now BA.2, with 15% of the entire population having a confirmed case in the past 3 months. Cases peaked at 4,250 per 1,000,000 per day two months ago. Over 80% of its population is fully vaccinated. BUT … deaths are below 1 in 1,000,000 daily, after a peak of 3.3 per million about 2 months ago. Compare that with the initial outbreak 2 years ago without vaccinations, where there was a similar 1 per 1,000,000 deaths, from an outbreak that peaked at 8 per 1,000,000 per day. In short, Australia is a case study of both breakthrough infections in an antibody-naive population, and the tremendous efficacy of vaccinations in preventing bad outcomes.
HeartlandLiberal
I read most of the Nature article at the link given, and came away with the distinct feeling that a bunch of Trump MAGAts in 2020 had taken control of the public health agencies, dismissed the scientists, and were enjoying their freedumbs and ignoring the legal options they had to mitigate the pandemic. A searing indictment, indeed.
Baud
@HeartlandLiberal:
So Republicans acting like Republicans then.
New Deal democrat
About the new scariant BA.2.2: from the linked article, it is a hybrid of BA.1 and BA.2. Although it is allegedly behind new outbreaks in Hong Kong and the UK, in the former cases have continued to decline, and in the latter cases have held steady for the last 5 days, and for the last 11 days if a data dump is excluded.
Deltacron is rare. There is no evidence at this point it has started any new wave anywhere.
NotMax
@Baud
Quoth the scorpion, “It’s my nature.”
P Thomas
Why aren;t the links to the twitter threads posted? The photo about Denmark is simply too hard to read. Why isn’ t there a link to that twitter post?
germy
I’m ready for my second booster
germy
@P Thomas:
Baud
@germy:
You are an amazing and valuable commenter.
Anne Laurie
Link is included in the Abstract / extract immediately below that tweet. Which is why I included the extract!
germy
@Baud:
I’m being recognized more and more
But I told the police I won’t answer any more questions without a lawyer present
YY_Sima Qian
On 3/26 Mainland China reported 1,217 new domestic confirmed (124 previously asymptomatic), 4,333 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 0 domestic suspect cases.
Guangdong Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed & 8 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Guangxi “Autonomous” Region reported 11 new domestic asymptomatic cases (8 at Fangchenggang, 1 at Baise, & 2 at Chongzuo). 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 5 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 56 active domestic confirmed (30 at Fangchenggang, 3 each at Baise & Nanning, 19 at Qinzhou, & 1 at Guilin) & 262 active domestic asymptomatic cases (87 at Fangchenggang, 8 at Baise, 70 at Chongzuo, 82 at Qinzhou, 5 at Liuzhou, 3 at Beihai, 4 at Guilin, 2 at Guigang, & 1 at Nanning) in the province. 1 zone at Fangchenggang are currently at Medium Risk. 5 sites at Qinzhou are currently at Medium Risk.
Hunan Province reported 4 new domestic confirmed cases (all mild), 2 each at Changsha & Huaihua, a traced close contact under centralized quarantine. The cases at Huaihua are traced close contacts under centralized quarantine, & the cases at Changsha were found via community screening (1 was an F2 close contact who had passed through 7 days of centralized quarantine, tested positive during follow up 7 days of at home health monitoring, the other is a close contact). There currently are 49 active domestic confirmed cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks. 11 sites at Huaihua are currently at Medium Risk, as are 4 sites at Changsha & 1 zone at Shaoyang.
Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region reported 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 11 active domestic confirmed & 29 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Tianjin Municipality reported 16 new domestic confirmed (6 previously asymptomatic, 14 mild & 2 moderate) & 30 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 38 of the 40 new domestic positive cases are traced close contacts already under quarantine, 1 via screening of residents in areas under movement control, & a recent arrival from elsewhere. 19 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 387 active domestic confirmed & 201 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 8 sites are currently at High Risk. 7 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
Shandong Province reported 5 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic) & 64 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 135 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 72 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 844 active domestic confirmed cases & 2,393 active asymptomatic cases in the province. As not all of the administrative divisions in the province provide data on recoveries, I cannot track the count of active cases in all of the administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
At Jinzhong in Shanxi Province here currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case remaining.
Hebei Province reported 10 new domestic confirmed (6 previously asymptomatic) & 142 domestic asymptomatic cases. 15 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 24 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 350 active domestic confirmed & 3,240 active asymptomatic case in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Liaoning Province reported 28 new domestic confirmed (4 previously asymptomatic) & 82 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 16 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 7 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 480 active domestic confirmed & 1,293 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Heilongjiang Province reported 8 new domestic confirmed (all mild) & 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 4 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 241 active domestic confirmed & 251 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Jilin Province reported 1,071 new domestic confirmed (113 previously asymptomatic, 1,042 mild, 25 moderate & 3 serious) & 1,007 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 583 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 74 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. As the province does not consistently break down recoveries by confirmed & asymptomatic cases or by jurisdictions, I can no longer track the count of active case counts in the different jurisdictions.
Beijing Municipality reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (mild), a truck driver arriving from out of province. 1 village & 1 community are currently at Medium Risk.
Shanghai Municipality reported 45 new domestic confirmed & 2,631 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 2,400 of the new domestic positive cases are traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine, & the rest from screening of persons deemed at risk of exposure. 17 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 210 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 252 active domestic confirmed & 11,095 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 17 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
Shaanxi Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed (mild) & 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 36 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 220 active domestic confirmed & 9 active asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
At Hubei Province there currently are 2 active domestic confirmed (both moderate, 1 each at Wuhan & Shiyan) & 2 active domestic asymptomatic (at Xianning) cases in the province..
Jiangsu Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed & 16 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 11 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 24 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 59 active domestic confirmed & 395 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As not all of the jurisdictions in the province track recoveries, I cannot track the count of active cases in all of the administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Anhui Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed (both mild, both at Wuhu) & 16 new domestic asymptomatic (10 at Tongling, 4 at Wuhu, & 1 each at Bengbu & Hefei) cases. 7 of the cases at Tongling are tracked close contacts under centralized quarantine & 3 via screening of residents in areas under movement control, the cases at Wuhu are traced close contacts under centralized quarantine or residents under movement control, the cases at Bengbu & Hefei are recent arrivals from out of province. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered & 9 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 9 active confirmed (2 at Ma’anshan, 4 at Wuhu, & 3 at Tongling) & 140 active domestic asymptomatic (23 at Ma’anshan, 9 each at Haozhou & Wuhu, 5 at Bengbu, 84 at Tongling, 3 at Suzhou, 4 at Hefei, 2 at Anqing, & 1 at Chuzhou) cases in the province. 3 sites at Ma’anshan & 4 at Tongling are currently at Medium Risk.
Zhejiang Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed & 4 new domestic asymptomatic case. As the province does not break down recoveries by imported versus domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases in the province.
Gansu Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed (previously asymptomatic) & 14 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 7 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 10 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 172 active domestic confirmed & 321 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Fujian Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed (3 previously asymptomatic) & 264 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 3 domestic confirmed case recovered & 4 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 1,079 active domestic confirmed & 1,431 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
At Xining in Qinghai Province there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city.
At Guizhou Province 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 6 active domestic confirmed (5 at Zunyi & 1 at Qiandongnan Prefecture) & 2 active domestic asymptomatic (both at Zunyi) cases in the city.
Jiangxi Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic) both mild) & 11 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 6 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 62 active domestic confirmed & 327 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Henan Province reported 14 new domestic confirmed (13 at Zhoukou & 1 at Luoyang) & 10 new domestic asymptomatic cases (5 at Jiaozuo, 3 at Zhoukou & 2 at Zhengzhou). 4 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases were from isolation. There currently are 55 active domestic confirmed & 48 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. The cases at Jiaozuo & Luoyang are traced close contacts under centralized quarantine, the cases at Zhengzhou are truck drivers coming from Shanghai. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks. 2 sites at Zhoukou, as well as 3 at Luohe & 13 at Jiaozuo, are currently at Medium Risk.
Chongqing Municipality reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, via screening of persons deemed at risk of exposure. 7 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently is 33 active domestic confirmed & 9 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 3 dormitory buildings are currently at Medium Risk.
Yunnan Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed & 12 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 4 domestic confirmed case recovered & 29 new domestic asymptomatic were released from isolation. There currently are 60 active domestic confirmed & 335 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Imported Cases
On 3/26, Mainland China reported 37 new imported confirmed cases (15 previously asymptomatic, 1 in Guangdong), 115 imported asymptomatic cases, 0 imported suspect case:
Overall in Mainland China, 999 confirmed cases recovered (136 imported), 651 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (169 imported) & 139 were reclassified as confirmed cases (15 imported), & 24,643 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 27,567 active confirmed cases in the country (996 imported), 53 in serious condition (1 imported), 34,508 active asymptomatic cases (1,388 imported), 13 suspect cases (all imported). 382,398 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 3/26, 3,247.624M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 3.788M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 3/27, Hong Kong reported 8,037 new positive cases, 2 imported & 8,035 domestic (3,553 via RT-PCR & 4,482 from rapid antigen tests), 130 deaths + 21 backlogged deaths.
On 3/27, Taiwan reported 203 new positive cases, 120 imported & 83 domestic (including 52 at a construction site in Taoyuan & 19 from a cluster among police officers at Keelung).
YY_Sima Qian
Here is an article from Shanghai’s local state media explaining why the city has not gone into city-wide lock down:
Why Shanghai has not imposed a citywide lockdown
Apparently one of the fears is that a city-wide lock down will shut down the port, which is by far the largest in the world in terms of container volume (17% higher than 2nd place Singapore in 2020, > 50% larger than the 3rd place Ningbo-Zhoushan), will have economic reverberations across the country & the world. OTOH, Shenzhen managed to conduct its 1 wk lock down while keeping the Yantian Port (which ranks 4th in the world) operating.
The city has handed out free rapid antigen tests to most of the 24M residents the city to help alleviate the pressure on RT-PCR testing & uncover cases more quickly. It is true that 85% of the new cases are traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine, & the local authorities claim that no community cases have been reported in the “non-key” areas of the city for the past several days. (“Key” areas are those under various levels of movement control, typically zones that surround Medium Risk areas & areas where positive cases & F1 close contacts have traveled.) However, given the number of persons coming from Shanghai continue to test positive across China, I am not so sanguine that the Shanghainese authorities has kept a lid on the outbreak there.
In the meantime, Jilin City & Changchun in Jilin Province are the other major sources of positive cases in the rest of the country, often truck drivers carrying goods to & from the areas (just like Shanghai). Apparently another source are construction workers from across the country who were contracted to build temporary hospitals in those 2 cities, & now some of them are testing positive upon returning home.
YY_Sima Qian
Here is an on the ground look at how Hong Kong ended up getting crushed by Omicron BA.2, in the New Yorker Magazine.
How COVID Exploded in Hong Kong
Unique uid
I’ve been reading Katelyn Jetelina/”Your Local Epidemiologist” Substack for about a year now. Generally useful info. Here’s a recent one:
https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/state-of-affairs-march-21?s=r
It mentions Dr. Jason Salemi (Univ of S Florida). I’m not familiar with him, but he recreates (or finds buried on CDC site) the older CDC Transmission Map. Remember, the county one with all the red and yellow, as opposed to the new “Community Level Map” which is almost all green. Here is a link that has both maps available :
https://covid19florida.mystrikingly.com/national-community-profile
It defaults to the new map, you need to pulldown the “Select CDC Measure” menu at upper right, and choose Community Transmission for the old map. It is only updated about once a week.
delk
I had the Evusheld injections. Two shots in the butt and bp, temperature, and O2 checked every 10 minutes for about an hour and a half. No injection soreness or any side effects.
BellyCat
@Baud: Could be a solid strategy for Dems hailing from RWNJ families to hold voter majority:
1. Be vaxxed and boosted.
2. Seek out COVID.
3. Attend as many RWNJ family functions as possible!
//snark?
Bill Arnold
@HeartlandLiberal:
Yeah, that was a unusually searing Nature article [about Sweden’s COVID-19 pandemic response].
It was mainly three people though:
“primarily Anders Tegnell, Johan Giesecke and Johan Carlson at the Public Health Agency”
They are extremely egotistical and arrogant, and they killed a lot of people, and not just in Sweden; they strongly boosted the anti-public-health (or properly, anti-NPIs-response) narratives in other parts of the world.
Dopey-o
Jeezus, you’re an evil mofo! Let’s go have a few beers and talk this over. I’m buying!
Paul T
@Anne Laurie: Thanks…I’ll read more carefully, I promise!
greenergood
Sorry , don’t know how to link to twitter: Rachel Clarke@doctor_oxford. Covid has gone up 40% in the UK in the past week. Not as many deaths, but many, many hospitalisations, and National Health Service staff on their knees, struggling to keep Covid positive patients separate from non-Covid positive patients, while there is also huge absenteeism due to Covid infection in staff, who dont’w ant to infect colleagues and, especially, immuno-compromised and elderly patients. So they stay off work without compensation. UK gov’t is completely uninterested – all masks and restrictions are now lifted: the economy is king! Bear in mind that the UK Tory gov’t is lusting after the privatisation of the National Health Service, selling to US companies like Empire, United, etc. After this month, NHS staff will be responsible for paying for their own Covid testing, at a minimum of £50 a month, while their salaries are frozen. Scotland NHS is resisting, but as more and more of England’s NHS is privatised, Scotland loses more of its (paltry) share from the UK tax revenues for the NHS, yet another reason to go for independence.