Moderna plans to submit an application to the U.S. health regulator for emergency use authorization (EUA) of its COVID-19 vaccine among kids between the ages of six months to five years by end of the month, a company spokesperson said on Wednesday. https://t.co/DOEPbHLyMu
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) April 21, 2022
U.S. Justice Department appeals transportation mask ruling https://t.co/HvdiyGGkZ7 pic.twitter.com/AVenEztu1l
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 21, 2022
======
With hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 cases in Shanghai, Chinese health authorities reported only 25 coronavirus deaths. An @AP study of the death toll sheds light on how the figures have been obscured by the way Chinese officials tally virus statistics. https://t.co/KXfoiBjmun
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 21, 2022
Lu Muying died on April 1 in a government quarantine facility in Shanghai, with her family on the phone as doctors tried to resuscitate her. She had tested positive for COVID-19 in late March and was moved there in line with government policy that all coronavirus cases be centrally isolated.
But the 99-year-old, who was just two weeks shy of her 100th birthday, was not counted as a COVID-19 death in Shanghai’s official tally. In fact, the city of more than 25 million has only reported 25 coronavirus deaths despite an outbreak that has spanned nearly two months and infected hundreds of thousands of people in the world’s third-largest city.
Lu’s death underscores how the true extent of the virus toll in Shanghai has been obscured by Chinese authorities. Doctors told Lu’s relatives she died because COVID-19 exacerbated her underlying heart disease and high blood pressure, yet she still was not counted…
The result is a blurred portrait of an outbreak that has sweeping ramifications for both the people of Shanghai and the rest of the world, given the city’s place as an economic, manufacturing and shipping hub.
An Associated Press examination of the death toll sheds light on how the numbers have been clouded by the way Chinese health authorities tally COVID-19 statistics, applying a much narrower, less transparent, and at times inconsistent standard than the rest of the world.
In most countries, including the United States, guidelines stipulate that any death where COVID-19 is a factor or contributor is counted as a COVID-related death.
But in China, health authorities count only those who died directly from COVID-19, excluding those, like Lu, whose underlying conditions were worsened by the virus, said Zhang Zuo-Feng, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles…
Both Jin and Zhang said this has been China’s practice since the beginning of the pandemic and is not proof of a deliberate attempt to underreport the death count.
However, Shanghai authorities have quietly changed other standards behind the scenes, in ways that have violated China’s own regulations and muddied the virus’ true toll.
During this outbreak, Shanghai health authorities have only considered virus cases where lung scans show a patient with evidence of pneumonia as “symptomatic,” three people, including a Chinese public health official, told the AP. All other patients are considered “asymptomatic” even if they test positive and have other typical COVID-19 symptoms like sneezing, coughing or headaches…
In response to questions about Shanghai’s COVID-19 figures, China’s top medical authority, the National Health Commission, said in a fax that there is “no basis to suspect the accuracy of China’s epidemic data and statistics.” Shanghai’s city government did not respond to a faxed request for comment.
Statements from the authorities are little comfort to the relatives of the dead. Chinese internet users, doubting the official figures, have built a virtual archive of the deaths that have occurred since Shanghai’s lockdown based on firsthand information posted online. They have recorded 170 deaths so far…
Shanghai to keep COVID curbs as infections outside quarantine rise again https://t.co/CNXSEU1Wth pic.twitter.com/uARhoeVA22
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 21, 2022
Shanghai authorities said on Thursday tough restrictions would remain in place for now even in districts which managed to cut COVID-19 transmission to zero, as the number of cases outside quarantined areas across the city rose again.
That sober assessment came after health officials earlier in the week had fuelled hopes of some return to normal by saying that trends in recent days showed Shanghai had “effectively curbed transmissions”…
Shanghai reported 15,861 new local asymptomatic coronavirus cases on Wednesday, down from 16,407 a day earlier. Symptomatic cases stood at 2,634, up from 2,494.
There were 441 new cases outside quarantined areas, up from 390 a day earlier…
Eight people with COVID-19 died in Shanghai on Wednesday, authorities said, bringing the death toll of the current outbreak to 25 – all recorded in the past four days.
Many residents have said, however, that a family member had died after catching COVID-19 since early March, but cases had not been included in official statistics, raising doubts over their accuracy…
Businesses are beginning to reopen, though they have to operate under “closed loop management”, which entails living on site, daily testing and rigorous disinfection.
U.S. electric carmaker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) is among 666 companies allowed to resume operations, and its reopening was given generous airtime on state media this week. Economists and industry bodies caution, however, that factories face logistical nightmares and are far from resuming full production…
To prepare the 3,000-plus orders of vegetables, meat and essentials her Carrefour supermarket sends out every day to locked-in Shanghai residents, manager Zhang Wei wakes at 5 a.m. after a night in a sleeping bag on her office floor https://t.co/O2iu6JRdnj pic.twitter.com/rcK6nnD8Yh
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 20, 2022
======
“None of the study participants had been vaccinated against shingles or the coronavirus.”
?@NEJM
The large Evusheld (1-dose, intramuscular, combination monoclonal antibody) randomized, placebo-controlled Covid prevention trial
77% reduction of symptomatic infection; ⬆️83% at 6 months; all 7 severe cases/deaths in placebo group; works vs BA.2https://t.co/uwDl99TyYi pic.twitter.com/nLT3yKqIgH— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) April 20, 2022
This report represents a major advance.
How does a single injection of these antibodies have late, durable protection at 6 months and beyond?https://t.co/eVoGVvQSc6 @ScienceTM
Levels of these neutralizing antibodies remain high for 9 months pic.twitter.com/0pd9VJtkf9— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) April 21, 2022
Woman caught Covid twice within record 20 days https://t.co/wMdI0nL9PX
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) April 21, 2022
Sharing is caring:
for @slate, I wrote about why delaying infection is still a good idea. you might feel out of place for masking when few others are doing it but it still makes sense to not get COVID. the new normal doesn't have to be mass infection. https://t.co/XX5nSp3abz
— abdullah elementary school of public health (@AShihipar) April 19, 2022
… I might someday get COVID—that’s reality. If you’ve gotten COVID already, you may, despite even your best efforts, get it again. But delaying infection as much as possible allows us to better mitigate the consequences of an infection through whatever new treatments and preventative tools may be available. Every week, as much as there is terrifying news about the virus, there is promising news about new treatments and vaccines. A new antiviral nasal spray has shown promise in mice and does better than current antibody treatments. Researchers at Walter Reed have developed a vaccine that is variant-resistant and are currently testing it. Perhaps, in the near future, there will be a vaccine that completely stops transmission or treatments that prevent long COVID. And scientists are trying to untangle whether Paxlovid or other therapies can reduce the risk of long COVID.
Doing your best to delay infection not only has benefits for yourself; wearing a mask or declining plans that seem too risky also reminds people that we are in a pandemic, as annoying as that fact may be. Those reminders keep the pressure on to develop better therapeutics and vaccines and get them out to people. Maybe they’ll also encourage those around you to be a little more diligent about masking up, or to stay home when they’re sick. It might feel small, but consider the alternative: If we collectively accepted the reality of mass infection, why do anything at all to mitigate its impacts?
======
Analysis: Coronavirus case counts have never been a perfect tally, but the numbers are becoming even less reliable. https://t.co/sH1nmQ96Gy
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 20, 2022
Not so fast, Karen:
… Atlanta-based Delta told Reuters it will restore passengers “only after each case is reviewed and each customer demonstrates an understanding of their expected behavior when flying with us. Any further disregard for the policies that keep us all safe will result in placement on Delta’s permanent no-fly list.”
The change will not impact Delta’s separate list of about 1,000 people “who demonstrated egregious behavior and are already on the permanent no-fly list.”
Delta’s announcement follows a similar decision by United Airlines (UAL.O) on Tuesday to allow some of the roughly 1,000 people who have been banned for not wearing masks to return to flights on a “case by case basis.” Chicago-based United said those people would be allowed to return to flights “after ensuring their commitment to follow all crewmember instructions on board.”…
The Federal Aviation Administration said separately on Wednesday that it plans to make a zero tolerance policy for unruly passengers adopted in January 2021 permanent.
“These two cases were first spotted by Seamus Hughes, the deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, who shared them with VICE News.” https://t.co/xaagRagP9U
— Seamus Hughes (@SeamusHughes) April 20, 2022
On The Road – Captain C – Atlanta November 2019 Part 4: The National Center for Civil and Human Rights
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
672 new cases. This is PCR and home tests. No sign of a drop off from peak yet.
New Deal democrat
The BA.2.12.1 wave is well underway. Cases in the US have risen to 42,800, an increase of nearly 30% week over week. Hospital admissions rose to 11,300, the highest level in three weeks. Deaths declined to 397, the lowest level since the onset of the pandemic except for late June and July of last year.
All regions except for the South are rising. In the Midwest, cases are rising sharply in IL, MN, and MI. Cases are also rising in all the West Coast States. Cases are also rising in MD, DE, and DC in the South.
The best news is that cases are only up 4% week over week in NJ, and only 2% in RI. Both may have peaked 2-4 days ago. Cases are up under 20% week over week in NY, but the rate of increase is decelerating. In the ground Zero of Central NYS, cases have peaked in 8 of 14 counties. Cases may also have peaked on Long Island and the northern NYC suburban counties.
In NJ, RI, and Central NY, it took five weeks from trough to peak. Cases rose about 2.5x in NJ and RI, and 3x in Central NY. This gives us an estimate of the BA.2.12.1 wave peaking in the US in about 3-5 weeks at about 75,000-90,000 cases. If lethality does not change for this variant, deaths could rise to over 1000/day.
germy
rikyrah
24%….
Lower than the crazyfication Number???
germy
rikyrah
@germy:
That was phucking ridiculous?
Baud
@rikyrah:
As I said yesterday, poll numbers that don’t translate into votes don’t matter.
NotMax
Locally,
Elsewhere, wearying the workforce with a 72 hour week.
Baud
@NotMax:
Musk couldn’t deal with California’s regulations but ain’t going to say anything about China.
debbie
@germy:
Didn’t Lord of the Flies begin the same way?
NotMax
@Baud
Plus if anything, becoming increasingly exhausted and stressed lowers resistance to infection.
Scout211
The CDC Advisory panel is weighing in on the recommendation for a second booster for people over 50, after the CDC already recommended it. Source.
This is getting confusing. Mr. Scout and I got our second booster last week and many others have as well. It’s frustrating to get so many mixed messages. Should we have waited? Will a new, targeted booster for us in the fall now be less effective?
Kay
@germy:
There’s that great customer service again!
I knew they wouldn’t behave better when the mandates were lifted. The mandates had nothing to do with it. They just want permission to be rude assholes towards people they perceive as “weaker” and Alaska Airlines is apparently more than willing to give them that.
New Deal democrat
I dissent from the “you can’t rely on the case count” takes. While the absolute numbers may be off, the *trend* is almost certainly reliable.
Why? Because people didn’t just start at-home testing and self-diagnosis a couple of weeks ago. This has been going on at least since the Omicron peak of 3 months ago, when the “official” case count was over 800,000/day. Compared with 6 months or a year ago, the confirmed case count is probably lower than it would otherwise be. But the trend, if not the absolute number, is reliable since Omicron.
Hospitalizations, which are objective, confirm the reliability of the trend in cases. Cases declined 96% from peak, and hospitalizations – declined 94%.
sab
Lt Col Dunn’s position is kind of amazing. He is a paid professional in a US military service, and yet he has religious objections to “rendering fealty to Caesar.”
Kay
@germy:
Have to love too how they once again get them on the plane, trapped, before unrolling the “jeer at the masked people” party.
NotMax
@germy
Not that I fly all that much but not at all surprising. Have had nothing but horrible (and demeaning) experiences on Alaska Air, and refused to give them any further business well before COVID.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 6,968 new Covid-19 cases yesterday in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 4,409,202 cases. It also reported 16 deaths for an adjusted cumulative total of 35,465 deaths – 0.80% of the cumulative reported total, 0.82% of resolved cases.
Malaysia’s nationwide Rt stands at 0.84.
59 confirmed cases and 39 suspected cases are in ICU; of these patients, 38 confirmed cases and 25 suspected cases are on ventilators. Meanwhile, 8,267 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 4,283,013 patients recovered – 97.1% of the cumulative reported total.
Four new clusters were reported yesterday, for a cumulative total of 6,999 clusters. 106 clusters are currently active; 6,893 clusters are now inactive.
6,936 new cases reported yesterday were local infections. 32 new cases were imported.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 60,923 doses of vaccine on 20th April: 11,308 first doses, 44,100 second doses, and 5,515 booster doses. The cumulative total is 69,808,665 doses administered: 27,655,471 first doses, 26,374,351 second doses, and 15,991,811 booster doses. 84.7% of the population have received their first dose, 80.8% their second dose, and 49.0% their booster dose.
Steeplejack
I took a COVID test yesterday (Abbott BinaxNow); it was negative. I’ve been feeling slightly off this week, with the main symptom a dry, crackling cough that wouldn’t go away. Finally it dawned on me that the Sighthound Hall mob went to New York last week on spring break and I picked them up Friday at Union Station and drove them home, then spent some time hanging out with them. No report of illness from them, just better to be on the safe side. I don’t think I have allergies, but we are getting into that season when there’s a lot of crud in the air.
I’m noticing that even here in blue NoVA people are loosening up on mask-wearing. On Saturday I went to Micro Center (giant computer mart), and the majority of the customers and staff were maskless. That’s a marked change from the past. Micro Center stayed open all through the pandemic, because people really needed computer stuff, especially in the transition to working from home, but they were rigorous about masking, sanitizing (when surface contamination was a worry) and limiting the number of customers in the store at one time. And they had a geezer shopping hour a day or two a week, which I appreciated. They were very responsible, in other words, so seeing that they have loosened up is a bellwether.
I have to admit that I don’t go any one place often enough to accurately monitor the transition. I just see what I see when I am out and about. I still wear a mask when I go in a store.
sab
@debbie: But Lord of the Flies started with an airplane crash, so that’s different.
rikyrah
Crossing the fingers for Moderna.
May we soon be able to protect the babies ??
rikyrah
@NotMax:
Would never buy a Tesla
rikyrah
@Scout211:
The President got his second booster. The rest of us should too. And , it should be everyone. Period
Matt McIrvin
@germy: If flight crews are doing this with any frequency, sooner or later this is going to make the news in the form of an “unruly passenger incident” where the miscreant is a mask wearer who had enough of an entire planeful of people bullying them in an inescapable sealed cabin with the encouragement of the cabin crew and flight attendants. And then things will get interesting.
I am phrasing the above as carefully and generically as I can…
rikyrah
@Kay:
Yep. You see it too ??
YY_Sima Qian
On 4/20 Mainland China reported 2,830 new domestic confirmed (500 previously asymptomatic), 16,552 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 0 domestic suspect cases, & 8 new deaths.
Guangdong Province reported 8 new domestic confirmed (2 previously asymptomatic) & 4 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 8 domestic confirmed & 12 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 269 active domestic confirmed & 137 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.
Guangxi “Autonomous” Region reported 6 new domestic asymptomatic (5 at Fangchenggang & 1 at Nanning) cases. 2 domestic confirmed & 89 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 6 active domestic confirmed (4 at Baise & 1 each at Qinzhou & Yulin) & 577 active domestic asymptomatic cases (402 at Fangchenggang, 43 at Baise, 11 at Chongzuo, 20 at Qinzhou, & 1 at Nanning) in the province.
Hunan Province reported 3 new domestic confirmed cases (1 mild & 2 moderate), all at Shaoyang, all found via community screening. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 13 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. 2 sub-districts are now at Medium Risk.
Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, at Ergun in Hulun Buir, a person returning from Shanghai on 4/18 & under centralized quarantine since. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 7 active domestic confirmed (3 at Chifeng, 2 at Hinggan League, & 1 each at Bayan Nur & Hulun Buir) & 10 active domestic asymptomatic (8 at Hinggan League & 1 each at Hohhot & Wuhai) cases in the province. 1 residential compound at Chifeng is currently at Medium Risk.
At Tianjin Municipality there currently are 1 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.
Shandong Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed (previously asymptomatic) & 20 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 14 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 71 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 87 active domestic confirmed cases & 618 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.
Shanxi Province reported 5 new domestic confirmed (all mild, all at Taiyuan) & 26 new domestic asymptomatic (all at Taiyuan) cases, 30 traced close contacts under centralized quarantine & 1 via screening of residents under lockdown. 1 domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 66 active domestic confirmed (50 at Taiyuan, 12 at Shuozhou, 2 at Jinzhong, & 1 each at Xinzhou & Yangquan) & 232 active domestic asymptomatic (227 at Taiyuan, 3 at Shuozhou, & 1 each at Jinzhong & Yangquan) cases remaining. 1 site at Taiyuan is currently at Medium Risk.
Hebei Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed & 93 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 2 domestic confirmed & 67 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 21 active domestic confirmed & 829 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 6 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 23 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 18 active domestic confirmed & 311 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 42 new domestic confirmed & 23 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 2 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 272 active domestic confirmed & 170 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Jilin Province reported 95 new domestic confirmed (32 previously asymptomatic, 93 mild & 1 moderate & 1 serious) & 261 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 929 domestic confirmed & 1,493 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. 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 traced close contact under centralized quarantine. As the city does not break down recoveries by imported vs. domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases there. 1 site is currently at Medium Risk.
Shanghai Municipality reported 2,634 new domestic confirmed (459 previously asymptomatic) & 15,861 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 17,595 of the new domestic positive cases were already under quarantine, & 441 screening of persons deemed at risk of exposure (effectively meaning from the community). There were 8 deaths (avg. 77.5 y.o. & oldest at 93 y.o., all w/ a range of underlying conditions, 2 vaccinated). 1,173 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 19,124 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 23,973 active domestic confirmed (139 serious & 20 critical) & 216,536 active domestic asymptomatic cases & 1 active domestic suspect case in the city. 13 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
Shaanxi Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 3 domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 26 active domestic confirmed & 13 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. 3 sites at Xi’an are currently at Medium Risk.
Hubei Province reported 3 new domestic asymptomatic (2 at Yichang, & 1 at Xiaogan) cases, all recent arrivals from Shanghai. 15 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 4 active domestic confirmed (4 mild & 1 moderate, 2 at Wuhan & 1 each at Huanggang & Yichang) & 294 active domestic asymptomatic (17 at Suizhou, 120 at Wuhan, 87 at Ezhou, 4 each at Huangshi & Yichang, 6 at Enshi Prefecture, 50 at Huanggang, 3 at Shiyan, 2 at Jingmen, & 1 at Xiaogan) cases in the province.
Jiangsu Province reported 8 new domestic confirmed & 111 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 7 domestic confirmed & 52 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. The currently are 89 active domestic confirmed & 998 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 each administrative division, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Anhui Province reported 30 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 23 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 10 active confirmed & 607 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Zhejiang Province reported 6 new domestic confirmed (5 previously asymptomatic) & 31 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 there.
At Gansu Province 7 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 7 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province no longer breaks down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in the administrative divisions.
Fujian Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed (previously asymptomatic) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 13 domestic confirmed case recovered & 44 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 81 active domestic confirmed & 254 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.
Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, at Shuanghe, a traced close contact under centralized quarantine. 1 domestic asymptomatic case recovered. There currently are 13 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the region (4 each at Shuanghe & Wusu, 3 at Ürumqi, & 2 at Bayingol Prefecture).
At Guizhou Province 1 domestic asymptomatic case recovered. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed (1 each at Guiyang & Xingyi in Qianxinan Prefecture) & 1 active domestic asymptomatic (at Xingyi in Qianxinan Prefecture) cases.
Jiangxi Province reported 14 new domestic confirmed & 31 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 domestic asymptomatic case recovered. There currently are 56 active domestic confirmed & 162 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 1 new domestic confirmed (mild, at Luohe) & 25 new domestic asymptomatic (14 at Zhengzhou, 9 at Anyang, & 1 each at Shangqiu & Hebi) cases. 13 of the cases at Zhengzhou are traced close contacts under centralized quarantine & 1 via community screening. Then cases at Luohe & Hebi are traced close contacts under centralized quarantine. The case at Shangqiu returned from elsewhere & under centralized quarantine since arrival. 5 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 22 active domestic confirmed & 226 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. 2 sites at Zhoukou, as well as 1 at Luohe & 2 at Shangqiu, are currently at Medium Risk.
Sichuan Province reported 4 new domestic confirmed (2 each at Guang’an & Bazhong) & 4 new domestic asymptomatic (3 at Guang’an & 1 at Bazhong) cases, all person coming from areas w/ active outbreaks & tested positive upon entry.
At Chongqing Municipality there currently are 1 active domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
Qinghai Province reported 4 new domestic confirmed & 9 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Xining. 1 domestic confirmed & 4 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 28 active domestic confirmed & 34 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Yunnan Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed (at Hekou County in Honghe Prefecture) & 6 new domestic asymptomatic cases (5 at Maguan County in Wenshan Prefecture & 1 at Jinping County in Honghe Prefecture). 6 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 18 active domestic confirmed & 229 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 4/20, Mainland China reported 11 new imported confirmed cases (2 previously asymptomatic, 0 in Guangdong), 65 imported asymptomatic cases, 0 imported suspect cases:
Overall in Mainland China, 2,183 confirmed cases recovered (14 imported), 21,143 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (68 imported) & 502 were reclassified as confirmed cases (2 imported), & 71,085 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 31,421 active confirmed cases in the country (233 imported), 223 in serious condition (all domestic), 261,262 active asymptomatic cases (745 imported), 2 suspect cases (both imported). 425,756 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 4/20, 3,322.488M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 2.938M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 4/21, Hong Kong reported 628 new positive cases, 25 imported & 603 domestic (292 via RT-PCR & 311 from rapid antigen tests), 18 deaths (6 fully vaccinated) + 8 backlogged deaths.
On 4/21, Taiwan reported 3,058 new positive cases, 89 imported & 2,969 domestic (1,549 asymptomatic). Symptom onset for the domestic cases date from 3/13 to 4/18.
NotMax
@rikyrah
Friend of mine (otherwise a rock solid liberal) leased one last month. A disappointment but I choose to diplomatically keep mum.
Matt McIrvin
… anyway, if that Alaska Airlines incident really happened I do hope it gets in the media because I want to hear corroboration and figure out how common and systemic this is. There must have been hundreds of witnesses. Will they all hold the line? Is someone going to get this kind of thing on video?
Steeplejack
Had to laugh at Air Force Lt. Col. Jonathan Dunn’s complaint about “rendering fealty to Caesar.” That’s rich coming from the modern equivalent of a Roman centurion.
Scout211
@Steeplejack:
Yes, and sadly, those in the military who are filing these lawsuits against the current Caesar would likely be fine with paying fealty to the former Caesar. ?
Soprano2
I will never understand why people feel the need to be such assholes. It makes no difference to me whether you wear a mask or not, it harms no one. I guess they hate the reminder that something is different now. I guess Republicans are proud to wear that title now.
Soprano2
@New Deal democrat: Also, “case counts” have NEVER been accurate, because of asymptomatic cases. Every time a whole group of people has to be tested regularly, many asymptomatic cases are found. Someday someone will crunch the numbers and make an estimate of how many people actually had Covid, and it’s going to be a huge number.
Soprano2
I actually think wastewater surveillance for Covid will become more important as official testing declines. Most people use the sewer (some have septic tanks), and it picks up the true prevalence of Covid including asymptomatic cases.
Percysowner
I got my second booster last Saturday because the increase in cases is worrying. I still don’t go to crowded stores, or eat indoors, or go to movies. I can’t WAIT for the 6 month to 5 year vaccine to be approved. I have a 4 year old granddaughter and my daughter is pregnant, so I want both of those kids protected as soon as possible.
Steeplejack
@Scout211:
Sad but true.
YY_Sima Qian
The announcements of Shanghai health authorities wrt the recent COVID deaths seem to contradict AP’s reporting (not saying AP’s reporting is wrong). The proximate causes of all of the deaths were determined to be the underlying conditions, COVID worsened the underlying conditions in some of the cases, did not have an impact in others, but all were counted as COVID deaths. Same for 2 COVID deaths reported by Changchun in Jilin in Mar. More likely Shanghai is simply working through some of the backlogs. The city supposedly added > 100 serious/critical cases yesterday per the daily data dump, I highly doubt their conditions had all worsened w/in the past 24 hrs. However, if a patient died before having had a chance to test positive, the case would not be counted as a COVID death (happened a lot in Wuhan & Hubei during the 1st wave, unlikely to be a significant factor in Shanghai). If a patient tested positive but died before being diagnosed by a doctor, the case is probably not counted as a COVID deaths (more likely to happen in Shanghai). The city is capturing a much higher percentage of infections via is repeated mass screenings than anywhere else in the world, so CFR comparisons are not valid.
The delay between positive tests & diagnoses also likely explains almost all of the discrepancies between HealthCloud data & official database. Everywhere in China, a person testing positive will immediately be tested again. A single positive test result is logged onto the HealthCloud, but only a repeated positive test result (to rule out false-positives) is logged as a positive case into the local CDC system. Furthermore, one must wait for a doctor’s diagnosis to be classified as confirmed or asymptomatic case, & only diagnosed cases are included in the local & national data dumps. In places where incidence/prevalence is very low, local authorities will publish summaries of positive cases (w/ repeated positive result) immediately, before diagnosis, so people can see if they have crossed paths & need to be tested & self-isolate. In Shanghai, OTOH, the system has been so overwhelmed by the case load that some people who test positive on rapid antigen test are not tested by RT-PCR until days later, some people whose batch tested positive during mass screening campaigns were not tested individually until days later, sometimes there was delay between the initial test & the repeat test. Even after the repeat test, some people were not sent to hospitals (temporary or regular), where they would receive a diagnosis, until days later. The system was breaking down, & at least some of the data out of Shanghai for the past week are likely to be catch up.
Kay
@rikyrah:
I don’t fly that much but I worked through the entire pandemic in person, in a mask, every day. Unlike the airline whiners, who were all “remote”. It’s interesting that the biggest mask complainers actually had to wear one the least.
Nicole
I saw that Alaska airlines thing last night and I’m so mad about it. Likewise Delta caving so quickly on allowing mask refusniks back on flights (because I have no doubt the “process” will be them clicking boxes on a website agreeing to follow all rules, blah blah blah).
Ugh.
My husband met a friend for drinks two nights ago and the very next day the friend’s wife tested positive (friend is still negative). My kid has a lengthy medical appointment next week and so now I’m anxious because if he gets Covid and has to miss it we won’t be able to get in again until late summer. Having to be on constant guard for an abrupt change in scheduled plans is freaking exhausting, two years in. It’s better than being worried about serious illness, but it’s still a lot.
(Yes, I know kid is perfectly capable of picking Covid up anywhere; it’s just it seems like any attempt at socializing ends up with finding out someone is positive and then there are waves of potential collateral damage from that. I’m so tired. On the bright side, kid’s school has re-instituted masks, so there’s that.)
Starfish
@Matt McIrvin: Between stuff like this and Delta unbanning the assholes, I think that people are going to start canceling their summer travel plans because they don’t want to be 30,000 ft in the air with some assholes.
Steeplejack
@Soprano2:
I am surprised at how few areas do wastewater testing. Virginia didn’t start “wastewater surveillance” until last September and samples only 25 treatment plants (out of more than 1,200 in the state). But the Virginia Department of Health says the samples cover more than a third of the state’s population. What seems to be lacking is localization of the data. Maybe that’s not considered useful?
Starfish
@YY_Sima Qian: What the AP is complaining about here is exactly how the women in the US got the count of COVID-19 deaths in children reduced. It had to do with people dying “with” and “of,” and some of you may decide all cases count as COVID deaths.
However, if a piano falls on my head, and I go to the hospital, and they test me for COVID and I die of a brain bleed, the piano on my head probably caused the death and not COVID.
sab
@Steeplejack: Ohio is doing wastewater testing. More good things carried over from Amy Acton. DeWine seems to being willing to keep good stuff going as long as nobody on his side notices or complains.
YY_Sima Qian
@Starfish: I understand what you & AP are saying. What I am saying is that, at least according to the official communication from the Shanghai health authorities, none of the recent official COVID deaths in the city had COVID symptoms as the proximate cause, at most contributing factors. AP’s reporting suggests that the Shanghai authorities might be classifying such cases as non-COVID to suppress the death count, but official data include such cases as COVID deaths. Given the range of serious underlying conditions that the recent deaths had, the judgement may not be clear cut, either.
The authorities have likely missed other COVID deaths, due to the delay factors I described (not necessarily intentionally). The Donghai Elderly Care Hospital is suspicious, though, it is likely at least a portion of the reported dozens of deaths there in recent weeks were COVID related.
H.E.Wolf
Please forgive the question, but is there a typo/predictive-text error in the sentence above? I haven’t read elsewhere that women were the proximate cause of misleading COVID statistics; though I certainly could have missed something. :)
Starfish
@YY_Sima Qian: The thing that the AP is accusing Shanghai authorities of doing is also happening here in the US. There is some contention around how to do it correctly, and accusing Shanghai authorities of doing it incorrectly for bad reasons seems like poor framing.
Starfish
@H.E.Wolf: I did not explain it well. There was some issue with the COVID statistics. There were two women saying that the number of childhood deaths attributed to COVID here in the US were too high. I thought that they were involved in having the numbers revised, and then various people accused the women of being Republican-connected anti-vaxxers.
From Yahoo News:
This happened around the time that a larger news story said that a third of childhood deaths happened in the omicron wave.
Because all the search engines are biased for things that are recent, I am having the worst time searching for information on this thing that happened a month ago.
YY_Sima Qian
@Starfish: Well, that is pretty much the default framing western MSMs employ when discussing Chinese statistics. I mean there are ample reasons to be skeptical of Chinese statics, & they should be analyzed critically. However, accusations of malpractice, especially when imputing nefarious motives, should be supported by critical analysis.
Instead, reporters/analysts, & even some academics, have a tendency of citing whatever Chinese statistic that support their theses, while discarding the rest as junk.
Matt McIrvin
@Starfish: was one of them Monica Gandhi? Not an antivaxxer but she’s always leaned toward the “effects on children are overblown, we need to open up schools” side.
Starfish
@H.E.Wolf: I finally found someone reporting the story in detail! Here is the story.
Jessica Hockett seems to definitely be a Republican crazy person.
That other mom? I am not so sure.
Matt McIrvin
@Nicole: The Alaska Airlines story just pushes every berserk button I have. I have to fly home in a couple of days and I don’t know what I’m going to do if it’s that kind of environment. I honestly can’t guarantee I won’t go off in some way.
Starfish
@Matt McIrvin: I really wish that pandemics did not lead to so much polarization, and we had better stories about why the statistics changed.
In our area, there were both masked and unmasked schools. The unmasked schools had about 50-100% more cases than the masked schools.
What did any of this mean when it came to deaths?
Drug and alcohol related deaths in young people were up during this time too. Was it that people were dying due to not having their peer group support them, or was this a longer trend of more availability of synthetic opioids?
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: Made me look…
Here’s the BioBot.io data for Arlington County. It looks like they list 6 Virginia localities – dunno where the data for the others are hanging out.
Alexandria and Arlington have kinda vertical graphs. :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Starfish
You know who is feeling annoyed by anti-mask pilots? Trump’s former Surgeon General.
Chris T.
@Scout211:
This part is not a quote. It’s some reporter’s rephrasal of a technical idea that not only obscures reality, but also implies something false.
As a better analogy, imagine you’re training for a boxing match, or a sprint or marathon, or something. You start out as your usual out-of-shape self. Exercise and training is hard! You feel crappy. But—let’s go with “sprint” here—your timing improves! A week later, you run the distance in literally half the time! Instead of 60 seconds, you do it in 30!
Another week later, after more training, you only shave off 3 seconds, a measly ~10% improvement. What went wrong? You train diligently (and without overtraining) and your time improves from the original 60 seconds to 22 seconds. What’s wrong?
Nothing is wrong! You’re now running this sprint at 22 mph, which isn’t Olympic record-breaking but is way better than an average athlete. You’re never going to run the sprint at 100 mph. You’ve stopped getting benefits from training, right?
(Well, no, not really: if you stop training, you’ll regress to your 60-second time. But this is an analogy, and therefore full of holes.)
(There is a theory that the immune system can get “tired” but that’s not what the original quote refers to.)
Suzanne
There’s a piece in Politico today indicating that the FDA won’t approve the Moderna shot for under-5s until Pfizer’s data is also in. Further pushing back the timeline.
This is absolute bullshit and I am livid. Absolutely enraged.
smith
@Chris T.: Thank you! That idea seemed rather flaky to me.
GoBlueInOak
@Matt McIrvin: We already bailed on a summer family trip that involved flying. Switching to old fashioned family road trip instead.
GoBlueInOak
@germy: Unfortunately, he’s deleted that tweet thread for some reason.
smith
He didn’t want to be swarmed by orcs who hate to be reminded that ant-masker = asshole.
Scout211
@Chris T.:
Thank you for this explanation. It makes so much sense.
Why do reporters print controversial drive-by statements that have no basis in fact and only stir up needless concern and worry?*
*Not intended to be an actual question.
H.E.Wolf
@Starfish: Many thanks for your 2 follow-ups – much appreciated! Sorry to be so tardy with my response; I’ve been offline.
(…you think you have search-engine troubles? My mom asked me this morning to try finding a 1940s obituary of someone whose name she didn’t remember. :) Needless to say, I struck out completely!)