NOTE: I think we could all use a few days off, so I’m going to skip these daily updates for the bulk of the Independence Day weekend. There will be an Update tomorrow (Friday), none on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. After that, posting will (Murphy the Trickster God willing) resume on Tuesday morning, July 6th.
I know America is awash with vaccines, but they literally have a few desks as soon as you hit the arrivals hall of LAX and a guy with a FREE COVID VACCINE sign for anyone who just landed and they’re jabbing away at people.
— Melissa Chan (@melissakchan) June 30, 2021
The vaccine tourism is on the rise, esp. from South America.
— Sheldon Chang (@sheldonchang) June 30, 2021
*Excellent* news!
Grand jury declines charges against Houston doctor accused of stealing COVID vaccine doses https://t.co/8bzDB0Ihx9
— St. John Barned-Smith ?? (@stjbs) June 30, 2021
Back in December, when every vaccine dose was liquid gold, Dr. Hasan Gokal scrambled to find nine more recipients before the last of a vial expired — with literally minutes to spare. Update per local station ABC-13:
A grand jury has declined to indict a Harris County doctor today who was accused of stealing nine doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The news comes after two days of testimony in the case of Dr. Hasan Gokal, who was a Harris County Public Health worker, and months after a judge dismissed the case due to a lack of probable cause…
Gokal was accused of taking a vial that contained nine doses while working at the county vaccination site at Lyndsay Lyons Park on Dec. 29.
A week later, Gokal told a fellow Harris County Public Health employee, who then reported him to supervisors. Mishandling a vaccine can result in a loss of government funding to the county, according to Harris County Public Health officials, who first investigated the matter resulting in Gokal’s termination…
In addition to the charges being dropped earlier this year, The Texas Medical Board had also dismissed its investigation in March in connection with the case, saying in a statement that Gokal, “appeared to have administered doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to patients that were properly consented, in the eligible patient category, and they were given doses that would have otherwise been wasted.”
In its decision, the medical board acknowledged “there were no established/written waste protocols or waiting list on December 29, 2020” for Gokal to follow.
President Joe Biden has come up well short on his goal of delivering 80 million doses of coronavirus vaccine to the rest of the world by the end of June. The White House blames logistical and regulatory hurdles, and says more vaccine will be sent soon. https://t.co/L8nURXhynd
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 1, 2021
If only it were as simple as saying Make it so…
… It’s not for lack of doses. All the American shots are ready to ship, the White House said. Rather, it’s taking more time than anticipated to sort through a complex web of legal requirements, health codes, customs clearances, cold-storage chains, language barriers and delivery programs. Complicating matters even further is that no two shipments are alike.
One country requires an act of its Cabinet to approve the vaccine donation, others require inspectors to conduct their own safety checks on the U.S. doses, and still others have yet to develop critical aspects of their vaccine distribution plans to ensure the doses can reach people’s arms before they spoil.
The White House declined to specify which nations were grappling with which local hurdles, saying it is working with recipient nations on an individual basis to remove obstacles to delivery…
Biden announced the 80 million target on May 17, saying, “This will be more vaccines than any country has actually shared to date — five times more than any other country — more than Russia and China.” Even while missing his goal, Biden has made the U.S. the largest global vaccine donor, delivering more doses than either Russia or China, who have at times sought to leverage their vaccines for geopolitical gain.
The 80 million doses are meant as a down payment on a far larger plan to purchase and donate 500 million vaccine doses for the world over the next year. That plan, relying on a purchase contract from Pfizer that will begin delivering doses in August, remains on track, officials said…
The U.S. recipients to date are Colombia (2.5 million Johnson & Johnson doses), Bangladesh (2.5 million Moderna), Peru (2 million Pfizer), Pakistan (2.5 million Moderna), Honduras (1.5 million Moderna), Brazil (3 million J&J), South Korea (1 million J&J), Taiwan (2.5 million Moderna), Canada (1 million Moderna, 1.5 million AstraZeneca) and Mexico (1.35 million J&J, 2.5 million AstraZeneca). All told, it’s enough vaccine to fully protect 15.9 million people…
2.5 million doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine will begin to ship to Bangladesh today, WH press sec Jen Psaki says.
— Kate Sullivan (@KateSullivanDC) June 29, 2021
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India seeks reciprocal vaccine pass for EU arrivals https://t.co/L0KhxhqBXf
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) July 1, 2021
Women in rural India hesitant to take Covid vaccines https://t.co/WQTdZzYEos
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) July 1, 2021
Indonesia announces Covid lockdown as cases surge https://t.co/STwo9Su8eU
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) July 1, 2021
Thousands of Indonesians lined up at a sports stadium to get a COVID-19 vaccine dose in a mass, one-day event that’s part of a push to dramatically scale up the nation’s virus fight as hospitals fill with sick patients. https://t.co/g5F1cJjL6c
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 1, 2021
Thousands of people blocked from entering vaccine centre in Java, Indonesia, after turning up without being registeredhttps://t.co/YT4vNsFQGz pic.twitter.com/QrYd8q5K6A
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) June 30, 2021
Parts of Indonesia are running out of hospital beds as delta variant surges. An expert w/ the Internat'l Federation of Red Cross/Red Crescent said: “Every day we are seeing this delta variant driving Indonesia closer to the edge of a Covid-19 catastrophe" https://t.co/D2rw6iFoSf
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) July 1, 2021
Thailand, for more than 12 months of the pandemic had total containment, but now with 10% 1st-dose vaccinated and ~30% Delta variant (https://t.co/nKnmp5OBZK) things have drastically changed@OurWorldInData pic.twitter.com/2nj0FryPlk
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) July 1, 2021
Thailand has opened the popular resort island of Phuket to fully vaccinated foreigners from lower-risk countries in an ambitious but risky plan that it hopes will breathe new life into a tourism industry devastated by the pandemic. https://t.co/0HP1X8oUkM
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 1, 2021
Japan likely to extend COVID-19 curbs in Tokyo as infections rise -sources https://t.co/eVu5KByW03 pic.twitter.com/r7LIjUkSuj
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 1, 2021
Australia's NSW state says Delta outbreak grows despite lockdown https://t.co/Ka1ZYMfU3e pic.twitter.com/weX8VRDhXt
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 1, 2021
⚡️ Russia on Thursday confirmed 23,543 new coronavirus cases and 672 deaths, an all-time case and mortality record for the country since the start of the pandemichttps://t.co/nACyWdiqiJ
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) July 1, 2021
⚡President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that he was vaccinated against the coronavirus with Russia’s Sputnik V jab, lifting the veil on a months-long secret that did little to quell Russians’ vaccine hesitancy.https://t.co/7kRRa9ObkJ
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) June 30, 2021
Delta variant watch in the UK and Israel
UK—99% Delta, significant spike in cases, relatively small increase in hospitalizations/deaths
Israel—45% Delta, small spike in cases by absolute N, Today: no change (290), 0 deaths again; little rise in hospitalizations, none in deaths pic.twitter.com/ZxQajmX3HR— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) June 30, 2021
Britain is starting to plan for a COVID-19 vaccine booster campaign starting later this year after top vaccine advisers said it might be necessary to give third shots to the elderly and most vulnerable from September https://t.co/GIqgN4F29q
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 1, 2021
Could be a momentary blip, or cases in France start to increase slowly. Guess we're about to find out pic.twitter.com/3eZYL6iVGR
— Björn Meyer (@_b_meyer) June 30, 2021
#Covid_19 in Germany:3728141 (+808) (13000 active) cases /90875 (+56) fatalities reported by @rki_de & @ProMED_mail as of 30 June; average CFR per state is 2.56 (1.76-3.52)%, nationwide CFR is 2.43%/ R value is 0.84 (0.79-0.90), approx. 3624200 (+1600) recoveries,45307672 vacc. pic.twitter.com/c1APiwoyY5
— thelonevirologist (@thelonevirologi) June 30, 2021
As the #DeltaVariant overwhelms one state after another in #SouthAfrica a new, 3rd wave of #COVID19 threatens to not only be the country's worst so far, but to reach devastating levels. And only 4.5% of So Africans are vaccinated, due to inequitable global access. https://t.co/mGvP6BNQ4x
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) June 30, 2021
Covid in Namibia: Mortuaries at capacity https://t.co/BHHN89OwEM
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) June 30, 2021
Researchers in #Brazil fear #COVID19 is spreading in contaminated buses and terminals… https://t.co/9zDdrC8RXV
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) June 30, 2021
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Covid infection changes blood cells over the long haul. The size & stiffness of red & white blood cells are affected—sometimes for months. This finding may help explain why some people continue to complain of symptoms long after active infection has waned https://t.co/cWu59rYKZc pic.twitter.com/4sermUW1VS
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) June 30, 2021
There are many lessons to be learned from the drive to design, test, produce & distribute #Covid19 vaccines during this pandemic. Some of them we keep not learning. (The need to test critical new vaccines in pregnant people.) https://t.co/fn4eib5GYD
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) June 30, 2021
SARSCoV2's #alpha variant—formerly known as B117— is associated with more severe disease in hospitalized women. The British study found that women infected w/ alpha variant were at elevated risk of ICU admission & death compared w/ their male counterparts https://t.co/Dmrk59emtM
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) June 30, 2021
"#LongCovid is our next public health disaster in the making" @NEJM
Estimated 15 million US cases are affected@StevePhillipsMD and @HarvardChanDean map out a 5-point approach and why this is such an urgent matterhttps://t.co/wlKLF3dSWp pic.twitter.com/LDCbsxrpQv— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) June 30, 2021
Scientists identify 160 drugs that can be repurposed to fight Covid https://t.co/gD35Q9bl4s via @medical_xpress pic.twitter.com/PAenqR2BCg
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) June 30, 2021
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100 million eligible Americans still haven't gotten vaccinated. This holdout group — ranging from vaccine opponents to people merely waiting for the shots to be fully approved — isn’t made up of a single demographic https://t.co/4i51OZjv1k
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) July 1, 2021
Masks again? Delta variant’s spread prompts reconsideration of precautions. Los Angeles County and the WHO warn that even immunized people should wear masks indoors. Some scientists agree, but urge a localized approach https://t.co/fKbLiOpwdm
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) June 30, 2021
California broadly reopened its economy barely two weeks ago and since then an especially contagious coronavirus variant has spread among the unvaccinated, a development that has health officials on edge. https://t.co/iZmZGC2Ys1
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 1, 2021
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Director-General of Heath Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 6,988 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 758,967 cases. He also reports 84 new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 5,254 deaths — 0.69% of the cumulative reported total, 0.76% of resolved cases.
There are currently 65,453 active and contagious cases; 917 are in ICU, 445 of them intubated. Meanwhile, 5,580 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 688,260 patients recovered – 90.68% of the cumulative reported total.
21 new clusters were reported today. Of the cumulative total of 2,865 clusters, 887 clusters are currently active; 1,978 clusters are now inactive.
6,983 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 2,883 local cases: 279 in clusters, 1,619 close-contact screenings, and 985 other screenings. Kuala Lumpur reports 988 cases: 467 in clusters, 331 close-contact screenings, and 190 other screenings.
Negeri Sembilan reports 692 cases: 254 in clusters, 265 close-contact screenings, and 173 other screenings.
Sarawak reports 542 local cases: 125 in clusters, 334 close-contact screenings, and 83 other screenings.
Melaka reports 311 cases: 183 in clusters, 98 close-contact screenings, and 30 other screenings.
Johor reports 269 local cases: 119 in clusters, 102 close-contact screenings, and 48 other screenings. Kedah reports 250 cases: 54 in clusters, 106 close-contact screenings, and 90 other screenings. Sabah reports 232 cases: 29 in clusters, 131 close-contact screenings, and 72 other screenings.
Pahang reports 195 cases: 106 in clusters, 70 close-contact screenings, and 19 other screenings. Penang reports 174 cases: 92 in clusters, 34 close-contact screenings, and 48 other screenings. Perak reports 149 cases: 98 in clusters, 35 close-contact screenings, and 16 other screenings. Labuan reports 129 cases: 46 in clusters, 47 close-contact screenings, and 36 other screenings. Kelantan reports 108 cases: 43 in clusters, 53 close-contact screenings, and 12 other screenings.
Terengganu reports 50 cases: 24 in clusters, 14 close-contact screenings, and 12 other screenings.. Putrajaya reports 10 cases: five close-contact screenings and five other screenings. Perlis reports one case, a close-contact screening.
Five new cases today are imported: two in Selangor, two in Sarawak, one in Johor.
Baud
I don’t know about “we all,” but you certainly do.
Baud
Good on Biden. There will always be hurdles and setbacks. The key is how you deal with them.
Spanky
I can foresee a new medical specialty in the making: MDs specializing in Long-Haul Covid.
tom
The prosecution of Dr. Gokal was completely idiotic and I’m glad intelligence prevailed in his case.
Rob
Thank you, Anne Laurie, for these daily Covid updates. They are an important source of news on this topic for me. Enjoy your weekend off!
Rob
@tom:
I agree
mrmoshpotato
Enjoy your weekend AL! And, as always, thanks so so much for these daily COVID-19 news posts! ?
Matt McIrvin
I suspect that at least 90% of the people who say they’re waiting for the shots to be fully FDA approved are lying. When it is, they’ll come up with some other justification or they’ll just go on calling the vaccines “experimental” like nothing happened.
That said, approval will make it possible to use more coercive measures on groups for whom that is warranted (soldiers, students, healthcare workers).
NorthLeft12
Annie, thanks again for this essential reading. And a happy Canada Day to Juicers everywhere.
This will be a sombre holiday this year as we continue to grapple with our past discriminatory/genocidal treatment of our indigenous citizens. We need to do better for them and our future generations. I personally feel that the recent events have woken up a lot of Canadians who were very comfortable ignoring these known events.
We are also still living with a number of COVID-19 public health restrictions, although this situation is improving very quickly and the restrictions look like they will stay in place until the vast majority of Canadians (+75%) are fully vaccinated.
Have a safe and good Independence Day weekend.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
A million doses of Pfizer, donated by the US, will arrive in Malaysia tomorrow. Thanks, Joe.
That’s on top of the million doses of AstraZeneca, donated by Japan, that arrived today, for which my people are equally grateful.
Wvng
Thank you Anne., for all you do to keep us informed on the global covid situation. You pull us out of our national bubble in a way no one else has managed.
Matt McIrvin
Eyeballing the daily case counts in Massachusetts, I suspect we’ve hit our minimum (at an average of something like 65 new cases and 3 deaths per day, statewide) and things will be getting worse from here on. I saw somewhere else that variant Delta has reached parity with Alpha in MA and is overtaking it now, which squares with that–the greater transmission rate among unvaccinated people means that a vaccination rate that was effective herd immunity for Alpha is no longer so.
But as always with exponential growth, it’ll be a little while before that is obvious to everyone. We have a sort of a low-key vacation in Northampton coming up in about a month and I really wouldn’t like to spend it holed up in isolation, but if that’s how it goes we roll with it. Maybe it won’t be too bad by then.
rivers
Whenever you take a day off (a rare occurrence) I’m reminded of what an amazing job you do day in, day out. I have followed your roundups of Covid news since the very beginning – back in the days when I blithely imagined it wouldn’t affect me. And I’m so grateful. Happy 4th!
mrmoshpotato
????? For want of controversy.
“America isn’t cranking out ships, tanks and planes fast enough” -June 1942*
*Not a real headline AFAIK
YY_Sima Qian
On 6/30 China reported 0 new domestic confirmed & 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Guangdong Province did not report any new domestic confirmed cases. As of 2 PM on 6/30, 129 positive cases from the 3 outbreaks in the province have recovered or been released from isolation, 61 positive cases remain under medical care or in isolation. 12 critical & 7 serious cases (none were fully vaccinated) have all improved to stable conditions.
Imported Cases
On 6/30, China reported 12 new imported confirmed cases, 19 imported asymptomatic cases:
Overall in China, 29 confirmed cases recovered, 22 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 4 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 2,633 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 438 active confirmed cases in the country (384 imported), 8 in serious condition (all imported), 474 asymptomatic cases (467 imported), no suspect cases. 12,959 traced contacts are currently under quarantine.
As of 6/30, 1,244.675M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 18.941M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 7/1, Hong Kong reported 4 new positive cases, all imported (2 from the UK & 1 each from Russia & Indonesia).
Matt McIrvin
@mrmoshpotato: It’s remarkably easy to make Joe Biden fail at things just by refusing to cooperate with him– and somehow it’s on him. Well, I guess that’s part of having a leadership role, but it seems like it’s mostly Democrats who get this treatment.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
That’s exactly how it’s done. It’s an aspect of “only Dems have agency.”
The Thin Black Duke
Here’s a brutal analysis of where we’re at, I’m afraid.
Soprano2
I seem to know more about Covid that about 90% of the people I know, and I’m sure that’s because I read these posts daily. Thanks, Anne Laurie, from the bottom of my heart for the hard work you do to bring us these posts every day. I’ll miss them for the weekend, but you deserve some time off from it! I can’t imagine how much you read about Covid that doesn’t get posted here; it’s gotta be hard to read about so much sickness and death, especially now that it’s preventable here in the U.S. I was telling a co-worker yesterday that I’m worried about my fellow co-workers who won’t get vaccinated, because I like them and care about them. It’s so frustrating to me to know that you can now keep from getting sick from Covid and yet so many people here in the epicenter of the U.S.’s largest current outbreak refuse to protect themselves, mostly because either a) they believe in crazy conspiracy theories surrounding Covid and the vaccines, or b) they want to prove “you aren’t the boss of me, you can’t make me take a lifesaving vaccine”. They act like toddlers.
I heard Dr. Hotez on a podcast yesterday. While I’ve generally appreciated his knowledge, he was extremely critical of the Biden administration not somehow being able to provide billions of doses of vaccine to the world right now! *sigh* It’s as if people don’t realize how many logistical hurdles there are to this – you can’t just ship vials of vaccine to other countries!
YY_Sima Qian
I have been informed by my community that I will be released from centralized quarantine tomorrow afternoon. I am going home! However, I will be entering into 14 days of home quarantine, and it will be strictly enforced. The community office & property management will install a monitor at the door, that gives alarm to the community office, property management & district pandemic control & prevention command whenever it is opened. I will have to video chat w/ the community workers every time I open the door to retrieve parcels or food deliveries, so they know I am not sneaking out.
I have the choice of quarantining in my bedroom w/ my family outside (in which case the monitor would be installed on the bedroom door), or all of us quarantining together in the apartment, or me quarantining alone in the apartment. After discussion w/ my wife, we decided that I should quarantine alone in the apartment, as she has to work during the day and will be taking my daughter to my in-laws, so I am alone during day time, anyway. She will continue to live w/ my daughter at my in-laws
fur the duration of my home quarantine.
I am told that when the Bao’ao District in Shenzhen is deemed low risk by Wuhan’s pandemic control & prevention command, I will be released from home quarantine early. There is still a residential compound at Bao’an District at Medium Risk in Shenzhen, so Wuhan authorities consider the entire district to be Medium Risk (which is why I was sent to centralized quarantine, due to my travel history there). The last positive case at the compound was reported on 6/22, & it takes 14 days of 0 cases for an area to be re-designated as Low Risk. That means the compound should be declared Low Risk on 7/6. Hopefully, Wuhan authorities will then also deem the Bao’an District as Low Risk soon after, my home quarantine can end & I can see my family, again!
mrmoshpotato
@Matt McIrvin:
Yup. It’s like the deficit only mattering when there’s a Democratic president.
mrmoshpotato
@YY_Sima Qian: Glad things are progressing well for you. Reading your updates has made all of the US-based whining about mask wearing, etc even more laughable and worthy of more than a few eye rolls.
Matt McIrvin
@mrmoshpotato: And the way Republicans can unilaterally make some bill or policy “partisan” by refusing to support it, then complain that it’s partisan.
Ohio Mom
I hope this thread is still going, if not I’ll try again tomorrow:
We’re planning a visit to family in another state. All the adults are vaccinated but not the one year old we’ll be visiting.
The mom is worried we will be carriers since we hardly wear masks anymore. We could have subclinical cases after all.
I’m thinking Ohio Family should be tested before hitting the road and I have lots of questions. I’ll have to check if our insurances will pay (each of the three of us have different coverage). But would negative test results really provide proof that we aren’t carriers?
The science on this subject doesn’t appear to exist yet.
Anyone have comments or ideas? I’m all ears.
Matt McIrvin
@Ohio Mom:
Not with absolute certainty, since you could become infected after the test or close enough to the test that the infection isn’t detectable. Would it help if you masked up for the visit (to the extent possible)?
The CDC’s guidelines, since well before they changed their mask advice, have been that it’s fine for vaccinated people to mingle with unvaccinated ones if they’re low-risk, and young children are relatively low-risk. But it’s a parent’s job to worry about these things, I suppose.
Sloane Ranger
@YY_Sima Qian: Congrats. Hope it all goes smoothly and you can soon be reunited with your family.
Thanks to AL for these posts. You will be starting posting updates again the day I end my self isolation period. In the meantime, enjoy your time off!
Now to Wednesday’s numbers here in the UK, where we had 26,068 new cases. This is an increase of 69.9% in the rolling 7-day average. New cases by nation,
England – 21,293 (up 4491)
Northern Ireland – 375 (up 97)
Scotland – 3887 (up 769)
Wales – 513 (up 232).
Deaths – There were 14 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. This is an increase of 11.9% in the rolling 7-day average. 11 deaths were in England and 3 in Scotland.
Testing – 881,805 tests were administered on Tuesday, 29 June. This is an increase of 5.8% in the rolling 7-day average. The PCR testing capacity reported by labs on this date was 584,576.
Hospitalisations – There were 1720 people in hospital and 283 people on ventilators on Tuesday, 29 June. The rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions is up by 6.4%.
Vaccinations – As of 29 June, 44,719,762 people had received 1 shot of a vaccine and 32,872,450 had received both. In percentage terms this means that 84.9% of all adults in the UK have had 1 shot and 62.4% were fully vaccinated by this date.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@mrmoshpotato: I think the closer WW2 analogy would be people refusing to comply with war time rationing because of FREEDUM! As it was there was some dumb controversy over the public was rationed to two pairs of shoes a year to save leather and production for the military and a lot of people thought this was most horrible thing ever.
Sloane Ranger
@Ohio Mom:
Is there any way you can get free tests from your local Public Health people? Here in Old England we can get free rapid lateral flow tests sent to our home address. Each packet contains 7 tests and you can order a new packet daily. No questions asked.
Sloane Ranger
@Ohio Mom:
Is there any way you can get free tests from your local Public Health people? Here in Old England we can get free rapid lateral flow tests sent to our home address. Each packet contains 7 tests and you can order a new packet daily. No questions asked
Sorry for double post, I got told the site wasn’t accessible so went back and clicked post again and abracadabra – double post!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Oh yes, I am surprised Anne missed this one, the British Health Secretary was caught literally, not metaphorically, fucking off on his job. Maybe Tony can fill us in.
I don’t know, I was depressed about this last winter that it’s clear that there will be whole countries like Brazil that are determined to be havens for the virus to mutate in. But the good news is the vaccines are working.
Also worth keeping in mind that COVID 19 is just the latest mutation of SARS. So it’s been this way for a while.
Robert Sneddon
Scotland — 4,234 new cases of COVID-19 reported, six new deaths reported. Test positivity rate is 10.5%.
Those are terrible new case numbers, more than twelve times what they were two months ago. The silver lining is that the hospitalisation and ICU bed occupancy figures remain low and well within the ability of the NHS to cope. What the future holds is something else of course.
Some of the blame for this big upsurge in numbers is being laid at the doorstep of football supporters. A few weeks ago thousands of Scotland team supporters (mostly young men, many of them unvaccinated) went down to London on 12-hour coach journeys to hang around in big crowds outside Wembley Stadium during the England vs. Scotland Euro 2021 match (since they weren’t allowed in to the ground without tickets). They then went on pub crawls and celebratory gatherings in central London when the Scottish team eked out a perilous 0-0 draw before they piled into the coaches for the return 12-hour journey to Scotland. Alcohol may have been imbibed which probably didn’t help.
A report published yesterday said that of 2,000 positive tests carried out recently 1900 came from football supporters involved in either this London trip or those who spent time at the Euro “fan zone” area in Glasgow.
Pretty much all new cases in the UK are of the Delta variant. This surge does not bode well for any other nation where the Delta variant is spreading rapidly and people are planning to hold large unregulated get-togethers in the very near future. July 4th, I’m looking at you.
There were 27,000 vaccinations carried out in Scotland yesterday, a bit down on the surge levels of 40,000-plus per diem in late May and much of June. First doses make up about 60% of all vaccinations given yesterday. There doesn’t seem to be a problem with vaccine supply so it may be we’re getting to the part of the population that’s less keen to get jabbed, or perhaps the system is starting to fail to arrange appointments for as-yet unvaccinated younger people.
Scotland reached a level of 85% first-vaccinations given yesterday, a good sign that PHS can actually achieve its aim of offering first vaccination to all adults by the end of August, two months away. We’ll see. The UK’s JCVI is making noises about a booster vaccination campaign to begin in September, starting with 70-year-olds and older who received their vaccinations more than six months ago plus medically-compromised people, carers etc. and then moving down into the over-50 clade. Younger people only three months or less from their first complete vaccination are not being considered (yet) for a booster shot.
The scientific evidence isn’t in yet of how much use a booster shot will actually be but right now the Government is leaning towards the idea that unless there is actual evidence of adverse effects from a booster then they are going to go ahead, hoping it will do some good as we head into winter and a probable fourth wave of increased infection numbers.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: There were actually incidents of that sort – there was a time early in the war where German U-boats were operating off the American coast and were able to torpedo merchant ships at night because there wasn’t anything resembling wartime blackout conditions – they could see the silhouettes of their targets occluding city lights.
Matt McIrvin
One small mercy of the Delta variant is that it’s wiped the “liberals who don’t want to leave lockdown” stories off the map.
FlyingToaster
@Matt McIrvin:
Well, I don’t know if you’ve been following the town reports, or the weekly vax report…
Northampton, you’re almost certainly okay. Franklin and Hampshire counties are both doing reasonably well on vaccinations, and the towns aren’t showing any upsurge in cases (either daily, 3-day or weekly).
The problem is Hampden and Bristol counties. Or more specifically, service workers in Springfield/Holyoke/Chicopee and New Bedford and Fall River.
For some reason, after a small surge in cases in April, cities like Lowell and Lawrence and Brockton got their asses in gear to vaccinate their people. And of course, the Cape-n-Islands have all the rest of us beat to hell.
So don’t stop in Springfield. You’ll be fine.
Matt McIrvin
@FlyingToaster: I really wanted to make a visit to Six Flags. If I’m outdoors most of the time AND vaxxed, probably not a huge risk? Guess I’ll play it by ear.
Fair Economist
@Ohio Mom: Negative test results are far from conclusive. The false negative rate for PCR is over 50% between time delays and non-nasal infection. Antibody tests don’t work for the most contagious part of infection. Screening tests have a part as a piece of society wide containment, but by themselves do not guarantee safety.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@tom: they acted like his offense was the same as the magat pharmacist from aurora health care* in wisconsin who deliberately spoiled vaccines.
*not surprised it was an aurora staffer. back in the 90s, my mother had an aurora er colleague who was propagating the climpton killlist.
randal m sexton
@The Thin Black Duke: I dont understand where the numbers in this article come from. ‘U.K. has 4 times as many cases as US’ ? ‘UK has higher per capita than the US’ ? The world data I look at does not agree with this.
Matt McIrvin
@FlyingToaster: …The other thing I wonder about is why the CDC’s numbers on vaccination coverage are so different from the state’s. Most extreme case is that the CDC thinks Berkshire County is only at 50% with 1+ shot; the state says it’s far higher. My best hypothesis is that the CDC is counting by where the vaccination happened and the state is tracking the address of the recipient, and a lot of people crossed county lines to get their shots (especially in the early days with the mass-vax sites).
Onkel Fritze
The American donation of the 2.5 milion J&J vaccine doses has arrived in Colombia last night.
https://www.elpais.com.co/colombia/vacunas-anticovid-donadas-por-estados-unidos-ya-estan-en-asi-seran-distribuidas.html