Long read for the weekend!
America’s most famous doctor talks mitigating covid, giving your adversaries the benefit of the doubt and working way too much. https://t.co/cMoJRAJ4p9
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 29, 2022
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday recommended COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers change the design of their booster shots beginning this fall to include components tailored to combat the currently dominant Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the coronavirus.
If authorized, the changes would mark the first major retooling of COVID vaccines, but also could slow their rollout as the FDA has recommended a design somewhat different from what the companies had already tested and started producing.
The FDA will not require new studies testing the BA.4/BA.5 shots in humans to be completed for authorization, a top agency official told Reuters, similar to how annual changes to flu vaccines are handled…
BA.4 and BA.5 are estimated to account for more than 50% of U.S. infections, according the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and have also become dominant elsewhere.
The FDA said on Thursday that it hoped the modified vaccines could be used in early to mid-fall.
Scientists have suggested redesigned boosters could spur a broader range of immune responses that might also protect against future variants that may emerge.
“Predicting the future with COVID-19 in particular is hazardous, because COVID has faked us out on a number of occasions,” Schaffner said…
Pfizer/BioNTech, which on Wednesday announced a $3.2 billion contract to supply more COVID vaccine doses to the United States, said they would have a substantial amount of BA.4/BA.5 vaccine ready for distribution by the first week of October.
Moderna said it would be late October or early November before its modified vaccine is ready…
Timesaver:
Another excellent (long weekend) read:
… Here in the U.S., vaccine enthusiasm has a pretty dire prognosis. Fewer than half of the vaccinated Americans eligible for a first booster have opted for one; an even paltrier fraction of those who could get second and third boosters are currently up to date on their shots. Among high-income countries, the U.S. ranks embarrassingly low on the immunity scale—for a nation with the funds and means to holster shots in spades, far too many of its residents remain vulnerable to the variants sweeping the globe, and the others that will inevitably come.
Those numbers are unlikely to budge in future inoculation rounds, unless “we do something very dramatically different,” says Kevin Schulman, a physician and economist at Stanford University. The next round of vaccines could start its rollout by early October, depending on its contents, making this autumn the first COVID-shot update of the rest of our lives—and marking one of the ways we’ll have to permanently incorporate SARS-CoV-2 into our thinking. The round of shots rolled out this fall, then, won’t just be a sequel to the injections of the past year and a half; it will be a chance for a true cultural reboot. By year’s end, America will likely set a vaccine precedent, either breaking its pattern of injection attrition or further solidifying it, and letting the virus once again lap us…
The shots have also become much harder to get. Mass vaccination sites have closed, especially affecting low-income and rural regions, where there’s a dearth of medical centers and pharmacies. Pandemic funds have dried up, imperiling shot supply. Ever-changing recommendations have also created an impossible-to-navigate matrix of eligibility. Since the booster rollout began, recommendations on when to boost and how many times have shifted so often that many people haven’t realized the shots were actually available to them, or were mistakenly turned away from vaccination sites that couldn’t parse the complex criteria dictating who was allowed an extra dose. Pile onto that the persistent problems that have stymied initial vaccinations—a lack of paid sick leave, fears of side effects, the hassles and costs of scheduling and traveling to a shot—and it sends a message: The shots can’t be so necessary if they’re this cumbersome to get…
“People just aren’t as concerned,” says Mysheika Roberts, the health commissioner of Columbus, Ohio. “The fear of the virus has changed a lot.” Of the 230,000 vaccines Roberts’s team has delivered to her community since December 2020, only 16,000 have been boosters. In an atmosphere of mass relaxation, the urgency of more vaccines—a reminder of the pandemic’s persistent toll—simply doesn’t register. Compared with the pandemic’s early days, we’re now “fighting complacency and fatigue” that wasn’t bogging us down before, says Angela Shen, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Immunization ennui has created cracks into which anti-vaccine misinformation has quickly seeped. “It allowed the dominance of the negative messages,” Schulman told me, with a fervor that pro-vaccine messages have yet to match…
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… WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said cases were on the rise in 110 countries, mostly driven by the omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5.
“This pandemic is changing, but it’s not over,” Tedros said this week during a press briefing. He said the ability to track COVID-19′s genetic evolution was “under threat” as countries relaxed surveillance and genetic sequencing efforts, warning that would make it more difficult to catch emerging and potentially dangerous new variants.
He called for countries to immunize their most vulnerable populations, including health workers and people over 60, saying that hundreds of millions remain unvaccinated and at risk of severe disease and death…
Tedros said that while more than 1.2 billion COVID-19 vaccines have been administered globally, the average immunization rate in poor countries is about 13%.
“If rich countries are vaccinating children from as young as 6 months old and planning to do further rounds of vaccination, it is incomprehensible to suggest that lower-income countries should not vaccinate and boost their most at risk (people),” he said.
According to figures compiled by Oxfam and the People’s Vaccine Alliance, fewer than half of the 2.1 billion vaccines promised to poorer countries by the Group of Seven large economies have been delivered…
I think we would do what "the rest of the world" is doing if we wanted the same outcomes as the "rest of the world". This is not the case. mRNA vaccinations won't do much about Long-COVID so would not affect the Zero-COVID policy.https://t.co/qHVtAJo0M6https://t.co/swAfp0OhdJ pic.twitter.com/2JSFFWjrvR
— Naomi Wu 机械妖姬 (@RealSexyCyborg) June 30, 2022
… Announcing results of an investigation, the North ordered people to “vigilantly deal with alien things coming by wind and other climate phenomena and balloons in the areas along the demarcation line and borders,” the official KCNA news agency said.
The agency did not directly mention South Korea, but North Korean defectors and activists have for decades flown balloons from the South across the heavily fortified border, carrying leaflets and humanitarian aid.
South Korea’s unification ministry, handling inter-Korean affairs, said there was “no possibility” of the virus entering the North through leaflets sent across the border…
The North’s first admission of a COVID outbreak came months after it eased border lockdowns enforced since early in 2020 to resume freight train operations with China.
But it would have been difficult for Pyongyang to point fingers at China, said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University.
“If they concluded the virus was from China, they would have had to tighten quarantine measures on the border area in a further setback to North Korea-China trade,” Lim said.
The North has claimed the COVID wave has shown signs of subsiding, although experts suspect under-reporting in the figures released through government-controlled media…
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In today's @washingtonpost, I describe why it's prudent to remain careful despite the fall in hospitalizations & deaths in recent months.
It's all about Long Covid – both prolonged symptoms & the elevated long-term risk of MI, stroke, diabetes, & more. https://t.co/wypEQ2TJCJ— Bob Wachter (@Bob_Wachter) June 29, 2022
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But it seems like the poor cat caught it from her people:
… The feline finding, published in Emerging Infectious Diseases on 6 June, came about by accident, says co-author Sarunyou Chusri, an infectious-disease researcher and physician at Prince of Songkla University in Hat Yai, southern Thailand. In August, a father and son who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 were transferred to an isolation ward at the university’s hospital. Their ten-year-old cat was also swabbed and tested positive. While being swabbed, the cat sneezed in the face of a veterinary surgeon, who was wearing a mask and gloves but no eye protection.
Three days later, the vet developed a fever, sniffles and a cough, and later tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, but none of her close contacts developed COVID-19, suggesting that she had been infected by the cat. Genetic analysis also confirmed that the vet was infected with the same variant as the cat and its owners, and the viral genomic sequences were identical…
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The @washingtonpost Editl Bd
"Mr. #Trump embraced a wrongheaded policy that appealed to his hope the virus would go away…How wrong was Dr. Atlas? He said that the virus might cause abt 10,000 deaths. In the end, it directly caused at least 1 million…"https://t.co/1YoKhWb9zZ— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) June 30, 2022
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Blue state, losing patience…
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On The Road – Elma – Traveling Among the Saints: Part 3
Reader Interactions
19Comments
Comments are closed.
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
NYSDOH says 121 new cases for 6/29/22
94 new cases for 6/30/22
(PCR tests only).
Not good, although not as bad as it has been. I still won’t go anywhere unmasked.
Matt McIrvin
BA.4/BA.5 seem to have basically stopped the decline of the spring COVID mini-wave in New England. As the fraction of these variants increases I’d expect cases to increase again, but maybe not in a gigantic spike.
We’ve renewed our family gym membership and have been going back there again, but will be watching local case rates to try to gauge what our risk level is. Doing cardio in an N95 mask is not tremendously practical.
germy shoemangler
My local news zeroing in on what they feel is the important part of the story: “Why did she need a vaccine card?”
Here she is:
Angel Isaac has opened up a larger, expanded location of The Pretty Hot Mess at 152 Warren St. in Glens Falls. Previously a nurse practitioner, Isaac said she felt pressure when she was in that field to overprescribe pharmaceutical remedies without a holistic approach.
Steeplejack
‘@Anne Laurie:
I see you are putting a short-version link under some of the Twitter items that are just screen-captured. This works really well, if it’s not too much of a hassle for you. Much appreciated.
YY_Sima Qian
On 6/30 Mainland China reported 12 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic), 151 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 0 new domestic suspect cases, & 0 new deaths.
Guangdong Province reported 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases, both at Shenzhen, both traced close contact under centralized quarantine. There currently are 12 active domestic confirmed (2 at Guangzhou & 10 at Shenzhen) & 28 active domestic asymptomatic (all at Shenzhen) cases in the province.
At Fangchenggang in Guangxi “Autonomous” Region 2 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 34 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
Wuhan in Hubei Province reported 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases, both workers at the airport handling imported freights, both living in “closed loop” & found via regular screening.
At Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region 15 domestic confirmed & 12 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 30 active domestic confirmed (24 at Xilingol League & 6 at Chifeng) & 22 active domestic asymptomatic (21 at Xilingol League & 1 at Chifeng) cases in the region.
Qingdao in Shandong Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed & 11 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all workers at a imported frozen food processing facility (same company as the facility w/ a recent outbreak at Jilin City in Jilin), all found via regular screening of persons in high risk occupations.
At Hebei Province there currently are 1 active domestic confirmed & 5 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 7 new domestic asymptomatic (all at Dandong) cases. 1 domestic confirmed & 4 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 58 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. 10 sites at Dandong are currently at High Risk, & 14 sites at Medium Risk.
At Jilin Province 2 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered.
Beijing Municipality did not report any new domestic positive cases. 5 domestic confirmed & 5 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. The municipality is not publishing the count of active domestic positive cases there. 1 residential compound is currently at High Risk.
Tianjin Municipality reported 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases, a Customs worker & an airport ground crew servicing international flights, both living in “closed loop” & found via regular screening. There currently are 15 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
At Shanghai Municipality 2 domestic confirmed & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There were 0 new deaths. There currently are 29 active domestic confirmed (none serious) in the city. The city is no longer publishing the number of active asymptomatic cases. 3 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
Anhui Province reported 9 new domestic confirmed & 98 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 9 active domestic confirmed & 135 active domestic asymptomatic (32 at Suzhou, 2 at Huaibei, & 3 at Hefei) cases in the province.
Jiangsu Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed & 25 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 8 active domestic (6 at Nanjing & 1 at Wuxi) & 38 active domestic asymptomatic (8 at Wuxi, 3 at Nanjing &) cases in the province. The clusters in the province are all seeded by the outbreak at Suzhou in Anhui.
Zhejiang Province reported 2 new domestic asymptomatic (1 each at Jinhua & Jiaxing) cases. The case at Jiaxing came from out of province & under centralized quarantine since arrival. The case at Jinhua came from out of province & was found via community screening. 48 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. As the province does not break down recoveries by imported & domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases there.
Ji’an in Jiangxi Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, a person coming from out of province.
At Fujian Province 2 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 4 active domestic asymptomatic (1 at Zhangzhou & 3 at Fuzhou) cases remaining.
Sichuan Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, at Bazhong, a person coming from out of province & under centralized quarantine since arrival. As the province does not break down recoveries by imported & domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases there.
Yunnan Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 2 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 6 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 6/30, Mainland China reported 25 new imported confirmed cases (3 previously asymptomatic), 57 imported asymptomatic cases, 0 imported suspect cases:
Overall in Mainland China, 43 confirmed cases recovered (20 imported), 150 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (70 imported) & 3 were reclassified as confirmed cases (all imported), & 15,111 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 426 active confirmed cases in the country (303 imported), none in serious/critical condition, 887 active asymptomatic cases (451 imported), 0 suspect cases. 70,287 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 6/30, 3,402.622M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 765K doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 6/30 Macau reported 66 positive case, 35 are traced close contacts under centralized quarantine & 31 via community screening. Cumulatively 638 positive cases have been reported from the current outbreak.
On 6/30 Hong Kong added 2,318 new positive cases, 153 imported & 2,165 domestic (761 via RT-PCR & 1,404 from rapid antigen tests), 1 death (88 y.o.).
On 6/30, Taiwan added 35,800 new positive cases, 101 imported & 35,699 domestic (including 114 moderate & 107 serious). There were 121 new deaths (ages ranging from 10+ y.o. to 90+ y.o., actual dates of death range from 5/11 – 6/28, 116 having a range of underlying conditions, 38 fully vaccinated & boosted).
YY_Sima Qian
I for one am very glad that China is moving forward w/ approval for the ArCOV mRNA vaccine. I will gladly take it as a booster. Hopefully, having a domestic mRNA vaccine approved means the BioNTech vaccine will be approved shortly after.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 2,867 new Covid-19 cases yesterday, for a cumulative reported total of 4,566,055 cases. It also reported two deaths for an adjusted cumulative total of 35,765 deaths – 0.78% of the cumulative reported total, 0.79% of resolved cases.
There were 29,434 active cases yesterday, 720 more than the day before. 1,249 were in hospital. 43 confirmed cases were in ICU; of these patients, 25 confirmed cases were on ventilators. Meanwhile, 2,145 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 4,500,856 patients recovered – 98.6% of the cumulative reported total.
2,863 new cases reported yesterday were local infections. Four new cases were imported.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 5,188 doses of vaccine on 30h June: 536 first doses, 3,130 second doses, and 1,522 booster doses. The cumulative total is 71,244,391 doses administered: 28,039,326 first doses, 27,276,391 second doses, and 16,143,753 booster doses. 85.8% of the population have received their first dose, 83.5% their second dose, and 49.4% their booster dose.
Jesse
The US military, in the guise of the Walter Reed hospital, was also working on a universal vaccine. (Surely there are others?) Their work was very much under the radar, only popping up from time to time. I thought they were even pushing for large-scale tests. I’m not sure what its status is now. Anyway, fingers crossed for the Pfizer universal vaccine.
Jesse
Info about the Walter Reed pan-coronavirus vaccine (codename SpFN) here. Looks like studies are underway (looks like the most recent round started in April this year).
David_C
Tony unleashed. Love it! I hope people get some insight on how much respect he gets in the scientific community.
Matt McIrvin
While I appreciate the warnings that the pandemic isn’t over, and I take more precautions than probably 95% of the people around me, I do wonder if the people urging everything to remain shut down realize that this is forever–that there isn’t going to be some time when all is clear and we can relax, and that no matter what, the more likely end is that we find some level of risk that most people will collectively accept.
I’ve said before that if I lived alone I’d probably become a hermit and just shut down my public life forever when it comes to indoor activities. But it wouldn’t be great for my health.
JaneE
Does Thomas realize just how bad it looks to use lies and misinformation in a dissent? Or that showing off his ignorance of the case looks any better? No one expects him to be a biochemist, but not knowing that mRNA vaccines are a brand new approach to immunization?
At least the whole court did the right thing this time.
Maybe not this year, but by next year I hope to see get your flu-covid vaccine ads in the fall they way they do for flu vaccines now. Once Kaiser gets their flu vaccines in, every provider you see for months will offer you one if you have not had it yet. October-November is perfect timing, for the flu shot season and adding a covid one or combining the vaccines if possible would be a good thing.
New Deal democrat
Cases are generally flat at 107,900. Hospitalizations continue to rise, up about 13% in the past week to 35,600. Deaths declined to 304. This appears to be due to a data dump from WV one week ago moving out of the average.
Despite the above, test positivity has increased to over 10%, the highest since the original Omicron wave last winter. Cases are increasing in NY, NJ, RI, MA, NH, IL, MN, AK, ID, MD, NM, OR, AL, AR, LA, MS, MO, OK, SC, TN, TX, and VA. The decline today appears to be driven by CA, CO, and CT, and may just be one-day noise.
According to Biobot, through last week wastewater samples show declines in the South and West, and an increase in the Northeast. The Midwest is flat.
The BA.4&5 wave is here according to test positivity, hospitalizations, and rising case rates primarily in the South, but also beginning in the Northeast. But it is not showing up in confirmed cases and deaths nationwide just yet.
With lots of travel, family get-together and some packed venues, I suspect the next two weeks will be interesting, not in a good way.
Redshift
@Matt McIrvin: Who is urging “everything to remain shut down” outside of China? I see “we should still be wearing masks in indoor spaces” and improving ventilation.
Yes, it’s not going to completely go away, but there are still several hundred people a day dying from it, in part because we’d rather “get back to normal” than take easy steps to further reduce community transmission.
Fair Economist
@Matt McIrvin: There’s no need to be a hermit. Just wear a mask when indoors around other people. It’s not really a big deal for anything other than the restaurant industry.
The Moar You Know
Take that fence around the Supreme Court down.
Chris T.
I am eligible for a second booster, but while I’m old enough, I’m in the young category of old enough, and also low-risk enough, that this is my own plan. I’ll just get yearly flu-and-covid shots.
YY_Sima Qian
On 7/1 Mainland China reported 38 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic), 145 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 0 new domestic suspect cases, & 0 new deaths.
Guangdong Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, at Shenzhen, traced close contact under centralized quarantine. 1 domestic asymptomatic case recovered. There currently are 12 active domestic confirmed (2 at Guangzhou & 10 at Shenzhen) & 28 active domestic asymptomatic (all at Shenzhen) cases in the province.
At Fangchenggang in Guangxi “Autonomous” Region 2 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 32 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
Wuhan in Hubei Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
At Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region 3 domestic confirmed & 5 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 27 active domestic confirmed (22 at Xilingol League & 5 at Chifeng) & 17 active domestic asymptomatic (16 at Xilingol League & 1 at Chifeng) cases in the region.
Qingdao in Shandong Province reported 3 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic) & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all new positive cases are traced close contacts under centralized quarantine. There currently are 5 active domestic confirmed & 12 domestic asymptomatic cases.
At Hebei Province 1 domestic asymptomatic case recovered. There currently are 1 active domestic confirmed & 4 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 8 new domestic asymptomatic (all at Dandong) cases, all via community screening or at fever clinic, including 6 from hitherto Low Risk areas. 3 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 63 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. 10 sites at Dandong are currently at High Risk, & 14 sites at Medium Risk.
At Jilin Province 2 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered.
At Beijing Municipality 5 domestic confirmed & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. The municipality is not publishing the count of active domestic positive cases there. 1 residential compound is currently at High Risk.
Tianjin Municipality did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 15 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
At Shanghai Municipality 6 domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There were 0 new deaths. There currently are 23 active domestic confirmed (none serious) in the city. The city is no longer publishing the number of active asymptomatic cases. 2 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
Anhui Province reported 34 new domestic confirmed (all mild) & 101 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 43 active domestic confirmed & 236 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Jiangsu Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed & 19 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 9 active domestic & 67 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. The clusters in the province are all seeded by the outbreak at Suzhou in Anhui.
Zhejiang Province reported 3 new domestic asymptomatic (2 at Hangzhou & 1 at Jinhua) cases. The cases at Hangzhou were were found via community screening. The case at Jinhua came from out of province & under centralized quarantine. 1 domestic asymptomatic case recovered. As the province does not break down recoveries by imported & domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases there.
Ji’an in Jiangxi Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case in the city.
At Fujian Province 1 domestic asymptomatic case recovered. There currently are 4 active domestic asymptomatic (1 at Zhangzhou & 2 at Fuzhou) cases remaining.
Sichuan Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, at Bazhong, a person coming from out of province & under centralized quarantine since arrival. As the province does not break down recoveries by imported & domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases there.
At Yunnan Province 1 domestic asymptomatic case recovered. There currently are 5 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 7/1, Mainland China reported 34 new imported confirmed cases (4 previously asymptomatic), 51 imported asymptomatic cases, 0 imported suspect cases:
Overall in Mainland China, 52 confirmed cases recovered (38 imported), 90 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (69 imported) & 5 were reclassified as confirmed cases (4 imported), & 12,101 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 446 active confirmed cases in the country (299 imported), none in serious/critical condition, 988 active asymptomatic cases (429 imported), 0 suspect cases. 62,546 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 7/1, 3,403.201M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 579K doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 7/1 Macau reported 56 positive case, 23 are traced close contacts under centralized quarantine & 33 via community screening. Cumulatively 694 positive cases have been reported from the current outbreak.
On 7/1 Hong Kong added 2,227 new positive cases, 143 imported & 2,084 domestic (714 via RT-PCR & 1,370 from rapid antigen tests), 3 deaths.
On 7/1, Taiwan added 34,827 new positive cases, 79 imported & 34,748 domestic (including 333 moderate or serious). There were 96 new deaths (ages ranging from 40+ y.o. to 90+ y.o., actual dates of death range from 6/15 – 6/29, 90 having a range of underlying conditions, 35 fully vaccinated & boosted).
YY_Sima Qian
On 7/2 Mainland China reported 75 new domestic confirmed (2 previously asymptomatic), 310 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 0 new domestic suspect cases, & 0 new deaths.
Guangdong Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic asymptomatic case recovered. There currently are 12 active domestic confirmed (2 at Guangzhou & 10 at Shenzhen) & 27 active domestic asymptomatic (all at Shenzhen) cases in the province.
At Fangchenggang in Guangxi “Autonomous” Region 3 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 29 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
At Wuhan in Hubei Province there currently are 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
At Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region 6 domestic confirmed & 5 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 21 active domestic confirmed (18 at Xilingol League & 3 at Chifeng) & 12 active domestic asymptomatic (11 at Xilingol League & 1 at Chifeng) cases in the region.
Xi’an in Shaanxi Province reported 3 new domestic confirmed (2 mild & 1 moderate) & 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 1 found via screening of persons deemed at risk of exposure & 5 traced close contacts. 1 site is currently at High Risk, & 3 at Medium Risk.
Qingdao in Shandong Province reported 6 new domestic confirmed (2 previously asymptomatic) & 10 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all new positive cases are traced close contacts under centralized quarantine. There currently are 11 active domestic confirmed & 20 domestic asymptomatic cases.
At Hebei Province 2 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 1 active domestic confirmed & 2 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 7 new domestic asymptomatic (all at Dandong) cases. 8 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 62 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. 10 sites at Dandong are currently at High Risk, & 14 sites at Medium Risk.
At Jilin Province 5 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered.
At Beijing Municipality 5 domestic confirmed cases recovered. The municipality is not publishing the count of active domestic positive cases there. 1 residential compound is currently at High Risk.
At Tianjin Municipality there currently are 15 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.
Shanghai Municipality reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases, both grounds staff servicing international flights at Pudong Airport, both found via regular screening. 1 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There were 0 new deaths. There currently are 24 active domestic confirmed (none serious) in the city. The city is no longer publishing the number of active asymptomatic cases. 2 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
Anhui Province reported 61 new domestic confirmed (all mild) & 231 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 104 active domestic confirmed & 467 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Jiangsu Province reported 3 new domestic confirmed & 56 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 12 active domestic & 123 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. The clusters in the province are all seeded by the outbreak at Suzhou in Anhui.
Zhejiang Province reported 3 new domestic asymptomatic (1 at Hangzhou & 2 at Jinhua) cases, all persons under centralized quarantine. As the province does not break down recoveries by imported & domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases there.
At Ji’an in Jiangxi Province there currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case in the city.
At Fujian Province 1 domestic asymptomatic case recovered. There currently are 2 active domestic asymptomatic (both at Fuzhou) cases remaining.
Sichuan Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. As the province does not break down recoveries by imported & domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases there.
At Yunnan Province there currently are 5 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 7/2, Mainland China reported 29 new imported confirmed cases (4 previously asymptomatic), 59 imported asymptomatic cases, 0 imported suspect cases:
Overall in Mainland China, 40 confirmed cases recovered (28 imported), 102 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (75 imported) & 6 were reclassified as confirmed cases (4 imported), & 5,590 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 510 active confirmed cases in the country (300 imported), none in serious/critical condition, 1,249 active asymptomatic cases (409 imported), 0 suspect cases. 61,256 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 7/2, 3,403.643M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 442K doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 7/2 Macau reported 90 positive case, 30 are traced close contacts under centralized quarantine & 60 via community screening.
On 7/2 Hong Kong added 1,828 new positive cases, 147 imported & 1,681 domestic (437 via RT-PCR & 1,244 from rapid antigen tests), 0 deaths.
On 7/2, Taiwan added 32,681 new positive cases, 114 imported & 32,567 domestic (including 198 moderate or serious). There were 88 new deaths (ages ranging from 20+ y.o. to 90+ y.o., actual dates of death range from 6/23 – 6/30, 85 having a range of underlying conditions, 31 fully vaccinated & boosted).