U.S. COVID update:
– New cases: 82,186
– Average: 108,680 (-3,865)
– States reporting: 23/50
– In hospital: 28,986 (+241)
– In ICU: 3,220 (+29)
– New deaths: 206
– Average: 296 (-4)More data: https://t.co/ohnVKtNdM3 pic.twitter.com/3T2TCa4SH0
— BNN Newsroom (@BNNUS) June 14, 2022
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China’s reliance on testing as providers come under regulator scrutiny is raising questions about the sustainability of its zero-covid policy. https://t.co/PdUPUbSES5
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 13, 2022
Victims of what could be one of China’s largest financial scandals found themselves unable to step outside to join planned protests because their health QR codes had turned red, reigniting fears that the large-scale data collected for contact tracing would be abused for other uses.
Since late May, hundreds of people have taken to the streets in China’s central Henan province, calling for authorities to ensure the return of their deposits that were frozen in four rural banks in the province…
Zhang, who owns a small factory [in] Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, had planned to travel to the Henan capital Zhengzhou to protest on Monday. On Saturday, he found his Zhengzhou health code – which is used to indicate Covid-19 exposure status – had turned red. At that point, he had not even stepped outside the city and returned a negative nucleic acid test result on Saturday.
He decided to go anyway. Upon arriving at Zhengzhou railway station on Monday, he scanned the local health code, and again it showed red. He was immediately taken by local police to a university library, joining about 10 other bank deposit holders…
An operator for Zhengzhou’s government service hotline did not address questions about protesters’ health codes turning red, but said that those with red health codes could try to change their status by following various prevention rules such as getting tested.
China’s health code, which indicates a person’s Covid-19 status via an app requiring real-name registration, follows a traffic-light system, with green declaring a person has not been exposed to potential cases or risky areas, while yellow and red codes ban the person from entering most venues or public transport.
Previously, there has been criticism that the health code was a mass surveillance tool that could be abused by authorities…
Even people who had not planned to go to protest have been affected. One man in Changzhou, Hebei province, said his health code turned red while he was sitting at home.
He called government offices for three days and the code returned to green on Tuesday, just as Chinese media reports started circulating about bank customers being hit with unexpected red health codes…
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"We explored the neurobiological effects of [mild] respiratory SARS-CoV-2 infection and found white-matter-selective microglial reactivity in mice and humans" Parallels to chemo-brainhttps://t.co/R8LoXsCDcO @michelle_monje @VirusesImmunity @ThisIsAnthonyFC @CellCellPress pic.twitter.com/Fq1QlopJiF
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) June 13, 2022
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… My research group studies the maintenance of immunity, and we’ve learned that the details matter. To fix dents in the armor of immunity, scientists need to understand what is still working, what has slipped, and why.
Following vaccination or recovery from an infection, the immune system leaves behind several layers of defense to counter any future virus exposures. One component of durable immunity is made of memory cells that patrol the body, looking for any signs of the virus. If such evidence is found, memory T cells can kill the infected cells while memory B cells rapidly produce antibodies, which are proteins that can stick to viruses and prevent them from infecting more cells…
While frequent boosters could restore some portion of the original vaccines’ levels of protection against the virus, given the lower uptake of boosters so far, scientists and stakeholders must also pursue longer-lasting solutions and new tools to stop infections.
Vaccines that are received up the nose or in the mouth position memory cells and antibodies near the sites of infection and offer potential ways to prevent symptoms and perhaps even infections altogether. Some of these types of vaccines are now in clinical trials and could become available soon.
Groups of researchers are also studying single vaccines that could work against all versions of the novel coronavirus. These vaccines, which aim to be variant-proof, make it difficult for the virus to outmatch the immune system. They have shown great promise in animal experiments. Some are entering clinical trials and could be available in the next few years.
These kinds of vaccines could buy us long-lasting protection against infections and disease. When combined together, our armamentarium for fighting Covid-19 is growing. This is not the end of the chess match. Our next moves are coming soon.
On The Road – Benw – Joshua Tree National Park
rikyrah
My sister in Minneapolis has COVID.
Fully vaxxed and boosted.
They put her on the pills.
Day 2 , no worsening symptoms
Baud
@rikyrah:
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
NYSDOH says 44 new cases (PCR tests only).
Monroe County has stopped printing daily case counts and is only reporting average weekly new cases now.
Deaths now at 1892, up 12 from last week. That’s not good.
My brother found out he couldn’t take Paxlovid because he’s on blood thinners, so they gave him a different anti-viral that seems to be working. He felt well enough to take a 4 mile hike the day after he started the anti-viral. Whether that hike was a mistake or not remains to be seen.
WereBear
@NeenerNeener: I would worry, since exertion while under viral attack is a generally bad idea.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: I’m sorry to hear that. Is that your sister who isn’t super healthy to begin with?
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 2,092 new Covid-19 cases yesterday, for a cumulative reported total of 4,528,390 cases. It also reported four deaths for an adjusted cumulative total of 35,716 deaths – 0.79% of the cumulative reported total, 0.79% of resolved cases.
There were 22,607 active cases yesterday, 212 more than the day before. 978 were in hospital. 24 confirmed cases were in ICU; of these patients, 12 confirmed cases cases were on ventilators. Meanwhile, 1,876 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 4,470,067 patients recovered – 98.7% of the cumulative reported total.
All 2,092 new cases reported yesterday were local infections. No new cases were imported.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 6,588 doses of vaccine on 13th June: 288 first doses, 5,085 second doses, and 1,215 booster doses. The cumulative total is 71,064,564 doses administered: 28,011,282 first doses, 27,148,640 second doses, and 16,119,272 booster doses. 85.7% of the population have received their first dose, 83.1% their second dose, and 49.4% their booster dose.
WereBear
@rikyrah: May that continue.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
Greece: sorry I’ve been lax. The new-infection curve kind of flattened over the last month or so, but in the last week, there’s been a slight upward trend in new cases. (An advisor to the Health Ministry claims “no cause for concern” according to Kathimerini.) Fewer people are dying – that trend line continues to drop. As of Sunday, there were 110 reported ICU patients intubated – down significantly from earlier in the year.
raven
@rikyrah: How’s she doing with the funny taste? I read all this horrible stuff and it really wasn’t that bed.
New Deal democrat
I’m on the road, so I will keep this very brief.
Covid cases remain at their 3.5 week plateau of 105-110,000 cases. Deaths (ex- the distorting NC data dump) are roughly 310 – again close to their 2 month average. Hospitalizations have continued to gradually increase, now just over 31,000, which is still low by historical pandemic standards. It appears that the Ba.2.12.1 wave is receding about as fast as the Ba.4/5 wave is building. Additionally, it may well be that recent infection by Ba.2 variants offers protection against reinfectioin by Ba.4/5.
So far, the fatality rate for this spring’s covid wave has been very low. Lagged by one month, deaths have been roughly 0.6% of all cases. But the bad news is, 2/3’s of those deaths have been among those age 75 and older. In short, covid remains a very threatening disease for older seniors.
Mousebumples
I’m back at work as of yesterday, and I’m probably going to sit in on tomorrow’s VRBPAC meeting to learn more about the under 5 year old COVID vaccine data.
Thanks to AL for this recap, as always.
@rikyrah – Best of luck to your sister. Glad we have Paxlovid!
YY_Sima Qian
On 6/13 Mainland China reported 60 new domestic confirmed (2 previously asymptomatic), 67 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 0 new domestic suspect cases, & 0 new deaths.
At Guangdong Province there currently are 3 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 did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 41 active domestic asymptomatic (40 at Fangchenggang & 1 at Chongzuo) cases remaining.
At Tianjin Municipality 2 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.
At Shandong Province 1 domestic asymptomatic case recovered. There currently are 9 active asymptomatic (all at Weihai) cases remaining.
Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region reported 15 new domestic confirmed (2 previously asymptomatic) & 9 domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 domestic asymptomatic case recovered. There currently are 287 active domestic confirmed & 255 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the region.
At Jiuquan in Gansu Province there currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case remaining.
At Hebei Province 3 active asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 3 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.
Liaoning Province reported 5 new domestic asymptomatic (all at Dandong) case. 15 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 27 active domestic confirmed & 87 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 residential compounds at Dandong are currently at Medium Risk.
Jilin Province reported 4 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 domestic confirmed & 10 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 42 new domestic confirmed (41 mild & 1 moderate) & 32 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 72 traced close contacts under centralized quarantine & 2 via community screening, all connected to the night club outbreak. 6 domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. The municipality is not publishing the count of active domestic positive cases there. 3 communities are currently at Medium Risk.
Shanghai Municipality reported 3 new domestic confirmed & 14 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 16 of the positive cases were already under centralized quarantine & 1 via community screening (at Baoshan District). There were 0 new deaths. 23 domestic confirmed & 224 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 155 active domestic confirmed (5 serious & 8 critical) in the city. The city is no longer publishing the number of active asymptomatic cases. 39 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
Jiangsu Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, at Nanjing, a person coming from Shanghai on 6/6 & under centralized quarantine since. There currently are 4 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.
Zhejiang Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, at Hangzhou, a person under centralized quarantine. 1 domestic confirmed & 8 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. The province is not publishing the count of active domestic positive cases there.
At Fujian Province there currently are 8 active domestic asymptomatic (5 at Zhangzhou & 3 at Fuzhou) cases remaining.
At Jiangxi Province 1 domestic asymptomatic case recovered. There currently are 7 active domestic asymptomatic cases (6 at Yichun & 1 at Shangrao) remaining.
At Henan Province 1 domestic confirmed & 7 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 1 active domestic confirmed & 5 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.
Sichuan Province reported 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases, both at Chengdu, both persons coming from elsewhere & under centralized quarantine. 3 domestic confirmed & 12 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. The province is not publishing the count of active domestic positive cases there.
Chongqing Municipality did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
Yunnan Province reported 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Menglian County in Pu’er. 1 domestic asymptomatic case recovered. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed & 16 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining. 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 6/13, Mainland China reported 35 new imported confirmed cases (5 previously asymptomatic), 68 imported asymptomatic cases, 0 imported suspect cases:
Overall in Mainland China, 62 confirmed cases recovered (26 imported), 362 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (86 imported) & 7 were reclassified as confirmed cases (5 imported), & 7,174 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 919 active confirmed cases in the country (205 imported), 14 in serious/critical condition (all domestic), 2,162 active asymptomatic cases (444 imported), 0 suspect cases. 115,758 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 6/13, 3,390.194M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 740K doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 6/14 Hong Kong reported 849 new positive cases, 97 imported & 752 domestic (348 via RT-PCR & 404 from rapid antigen tests), 1 death (79 y.o., fully vaccinated but un posted).
On 6/14, Taiwan reported 66,189 new positive cases, 70 imported & 66,119 domestic (including 285 moderate or serious). There were 123 new deaths (ages ranging from 40+ y.o. to 90+ y.o., actual dates of death range from 5/21 – 6/12, 119 having a range of underlying conditions, 44 fully vaccinated & boosted).
Kristine
@rikyrah: for your sister.
Kristine
Lake County IL. Still seeing masks, mostly on elderly, occasionally on younger. Maybe 1/4-1/3.
Every medical office–everyone is masked.
Really hoping the multivariant vaccines prove effective. Otherwise I don’t know when or how we pull out of this spiral. Seems like half the world is going to be dealing with Long Covid.
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
No, that’s the one that lives here. She is still far too active for my taste, but, she’s been K-95’ing it for months now.
This is my sister in Minneapolis. I am surprised that she hadn’t caught it before, mainly because her work has her interacting with ‘vulnerable’ populations. But, I guess her paranoia and cleansing protocols (spraying and wiping everything multiple times a day) along with masking, has helped her up until now.
rikyrah
@raven:
The taste thing hit her this morning – I just got off the phone with her. Doing my morning check in with her.
raven
@rikyrah: Tell her to hang in there, it sucks but the antiviral worked for me.
P Thomas
It isn’t possible to get a link to every tweet? Or am I missing something? The last little “tweet photo” isn’t even readable. Love the Covid updates, but not being able to get to the real info is frustrating.
YY_Sima Qian
I think the end of “Dynamic Zero COVID” in China will not be like a torrent of water breaching a collapsed dam, due to an even more transmissive variant, but instead will be rising frictions in execution of policies that the strategy requires, the rising expense of executing said policies, & the slow hemorrhaging of popular support & support of local governments:
Therefore, I expect that these frictions will slowly build, efficiency in execution of “Dynamic Zero COVID” policies slowly drop, abuses & scandals slowly mount, & popular support slowly erode. Beijing will be forced to slowly become less aggressive in pursuing “Dynamic Zero COVID” & ease the intense pressure placed on local governments. In the meantime, one hopes that China can get the vast majority of its most vulnerable population vaccinated (uptake has been creeping up, but still far too slowly), an even milder variant arrives on the scene, & more effective vaccines w/ good sterilizing properties are approved.
Tenar Arha
@rikyrah:
@NeenerNeener:
I hope your siblings get well soon without any troubles
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Wishing your sister all the best. She avoided catching it before there were better treatment protocols, so may the odds be in her favor. Please keep us posted. There has to be some benefit to having a bunch of randos on a blog wishing one the best outcome, no?
Original Lee
Number One Son tested positive this morning. He has had 3 Pfizer shots, but was resisting getting his 2d booster and also was getting lax with his mask wearing. Argh, he’s a young adult, so I can’t whack him upside the head for being stupid. We will see if it stays mild – keeping our fingers crossed. He started a new job last week and is not happy that he’s burning up his sick leave before he’s earned any, so maybe he’ll be wiser in the future.