Average daily COVID-19 cases and hospitalization are continuing to fall in the U.S.
Total confirmed cases reported Saturday barely exceeded 100,000, a sharp downturn from around 800,850 on Jan. 16, according to Johns Hopkins University data. https://t.co/ON7H92qE9P
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 21, 2022
Due credit to the anime fans (including the HVAC versions):
An anime convention held in Manhattan last November was not a superspreader event, a new CDC study found. Good air filtration, widespread vaccination and masks indoors prevented the 53,000-person event from causing a major Covid outbreak, the agency said. https://t.co/IT2ZIZVXgk
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 17, 2022
The verdict is in: The #omicron surge accounts for more deaths than the #delta wave. Downplaying the impact of omicron as "mild" is foolhardy ↓ https://t.co/mMtz30tSaU
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 21, 2022
4 health experts on the covid travel precautions we should keep https://t.co/IIbQ9HEasE
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 20, 2022
======
Beijing 2022 Olympics organiser reports zero new COVID-19 cases on Feb 20 https://t.co/iyz8Wn9oF0 pic.twitter.com/Lgguw0wlnf
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 21, 2022
Hong Kong set to report 7,533 new COVID-19 cases, new record -TVB https://t.co/Io1NVExYnk pic.twitter.com/vzyBCABDFb
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 21, 2022
Hong Kong rushed to build isolation facilities to house thousands of coronavirus patients as construction crews from mainland China worked in the rain and chilly weather https://t.co/NfcjMHOzpN pic.twitter.com/pfwPVnUm6F
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 21, 2022
In Hong Kong, health officials are still in a pitched battle against #OmicronVariant w/ 6k new cases in 24 hrs. So many people are infected, they're being treated on sidewalks. Health officials plan to build isolation units for 10,000 patients https://t.co/Toc7TSGHPw pic.twitter.com/Q4YmFx0qjP
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 21, 2022
Analysis: Hong Kong's 'zero-COVID' success now worsens strains of Omicron spike https://t.co/dsN8mbpHX0 pic.twitter.com/k8LwgbeKaA
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 20, 2022
… A 60-fold spike in daily infections this month prompted the government recently to modify its COVID-eradication policies, but the authorities continue aiming to wipe out the virus. The impact of zero tolerance will remain for some time, epidemiologists say.
Hong Kong’s strict pandemic policies have limited coronavirus infections to around 40,000 with 259 deaths, far fewer than in other major cities. Asian rival Singapore, with 5.7 million people, has reported more than half a million cases and some 900 deaths.
Under zero-COVID, Hong Kong authorities essentially closed the border and hospitalised even asymptomatic coronavirus-positive people and isolated close contacts with infected people. A person showing little or no symptoms could spend weeks in hospital, then move to an isolation facility for several more weeks before being allowed to return to normal life.
In return, most people in the global financial hub could go about their work and social lives with few restrictions…
Tracing, testing, treatment and quarantine resources still target every infection instead of prioritising high-risk groups, such as the elderly, causing widespread frustration.
Zero-COVID messaging, some epidemiologists fear, may encourage complacency and false hopes among the largely unvaccinated elderly that the city may again become virus-free and stay that way. More than 60% of residents over age 80 have not been vaccinated, although some 85% of the entire population has had at least one shot…
But some health experts forecast daily infections rocketing to as much as 30,000 by the end of March from 3,629 on Friday, far outpacing efforts to increase capacity.
Epidemiologists at the University of Hong Kong have warned that only a costly, months-long, full lockdown would eliminate infections. And while that would return the city to where it was in December, Omicron could strike again, causing renewed chaos, they say…
By me: Hong Kong Departures Climb to Pandemic High as Residents Flee https://t.co/8yRT2QLWEb via @bpolitics
— Danny Lee ? 李嘉洪: x3? (@JournoDannyAero) February 21, 2022
Majority of Japanese unhappy with progress of booster shots – survey https://t.co/cRrW6wquZ3 pic.twitter.com/TVvi8gYofh
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 21, 2022
‘Welcome back world!’: After nearly two years of closures, Australia fully reopened its international borders to travelers vaccinated against the coronavirus https://t.co/D3woGMr4BV pic.twitter.com/0ZtaFngdBx
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 21, 2022
New Zealand's Ardern signals mandates will ease after Omicron peaks https://t.co/OSAhh7I6EI pic.twitter.com/LvPL9UmW95
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 21, 2022
Russia reported 152,337 new Covid-19 infections and 735 deaths over the last 24 hourshttps://t.co/sHQ93oeqkW
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) February 21, 2022
Italy reports 42,081 new coronavirus cases on Sunday https://t.co/yQZrePkjNW pic.twitter.com/Vfp4TtPIFT
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 20, 2022
Italy recommends fourth COVID vaccine dose for immunocompromised https://t.co/n8kF5gwqIO pic.twitter.com/HflCRtMcNO
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 20, 2022
Staff shortage concerns challenge Germany's vaccine mandate https://t.co/6FGYVSQM16 pic.twitter.com/KnyCHpA6F2
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 21, 2022
Boris Johnson set to scrap Britain's COVID restrictions https://t.co/dXemGKXMH0 pic.twitter.com/OHx23vPmC0
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 21, 2022
… As Hong Kong builds isolation units and Europe retains social distancing and vaccine rules, Johnson will announce the repeal of any pandemic requirements that impinge on personal freedoms, a day after Queen Elizabeth tested positive for the virus.
Under the plans, which have been in the works for weeks, Britain will become the first major European country to allow people who know they are infected with COVID-19 to freely use shops, public transport and go to work.
Johnson said on Sunday he did not want people to “throw caution to the wind” and there was no case for complacency, but the vaccine rollout meant the government wanted to move from state mandation to encouraging personal responsibility.
Among adults, 81% have been boosted in England…
Britain’s toll of more than 160,000 fatalities within 28 days of infection is the second-highest in Europe after Russia’s, and it reported an average of around 43,000 cases and 144 deaths a day in the last week.
Medical leaders have urged Johnson not to be “gung-ho” with the nation’s health, and government advisers have said dropping restrictions could lead to rapid epidemic growth as people change their behaviour more swiftly than at previous times in the pandemic…
The "Living with COVID" plan will apply only to England since the other parts of the U.K. set their own public health rules. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to give more details about the plan in Parliament on Monday. https://t.co/tV0J3BoKR2
— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) February 20, 2022
UK COVID cases down 25.5% in last week https://t.co/uhqpwgtoTU pic.twitter.com/27pKGIKQ7m
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 20, 2022
Is England ready for its last remaining Covid rule to be ditched? https://t.co/TOjzTljoQV
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) February 21, 2022
Valneva receives 12.5 mln pound COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing grant in Scotland https://t.co/6iNXwvAfvS pic.twitter.com/sD47WweEGg
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 21, 2022
A half dozen African countries are receiving the technology to produce their own mRNA vaccines as part of a WHO technology transfer program https://t.co/wxnLE6gRqH https://t.co/XU7TZURmgH pic.twitter.com/PXxkryAbGp
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 21, 2022
Throughout the pandemic, Canadians survived far better than Americans, in part because of a substantially improved vaccination and booster rate pic.twitter.com/cwNNf8AQib
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) February 20, 2022
======
How #LongCovid exhausts the body. A picture is emerging of the toll long Covid takes on the body. It's largely viewed as a chronic illness w/ a wide variety of symptoms, many of which are not explainable using conventional lab tests https://t.co/q38OBapoT0
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 20, 2022
First cases of co-infection with #delta & #omicron identified during local co-circulation of both SARSCoV2 variants. Scientists in Australia define the phenomenon in a pre-publication study https://t.co/spFHtzr9Ec pic.twitter.com/UuPURLVr95
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 21, 2022
The following are disease prevention & control measures:
• Free & widely available testing
• Free & widely available treatment
• Free & widely available vaccines
• Public health guidance on risk-reduction behaviours (eg masks, ventilation, hand washing, stay home if unwell)— Meaghan Kall (@kallmemeg) February 19, 2022
======
National Guard fills in as nursing assistants amid healthcare worker shortage https://t.co/9Hhn1Om9yc pic.twitter.com/AFu4FDyrU3
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 21, 2022
Just to repeat once again: masks are popular and the movement to end them is really fringe — it just happens to be extremely overrepresented in the media https://t.co/IJALAT7mno
— Josh (@jr_foust) February 20, 2022
It’s been two years since the largest free festival and showcase of Louisiana music, food and culture has taken place in New Orleans’ French Quarter.
That changes this April, when the French Quarter Festival returns. https://t.co/ASMxMndO2n
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 20, 2022
YY_Sima Qian
On 2/20 Mainland China reported 71 new domestic confirmed (5 previously asymptomatic) & 15 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Guangdong Province reported 6 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases. As the province does not breakdown recoveries between domestic & imported cases, I cannot track the count of active cases in parts of the province.
At Guangxi “Autonomous” Region 7 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 228 active domestic confirmed cases in the province (227 at Baise & 1 at Nanning). 1 village in Baise is currently at High Risk, & 6 villages, 2 residential compounds, a business & a hotel there are currently at Medium Risk.
At Shaoyang in Hunan Province there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city, part of the transmission chain spreading from Shenzhen in Guangdong.
Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region reported 32 new domestic confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic). There currently are 175 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
At Tianjin Municipality 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases remaining.
Liaoning Province reported 7 new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 145 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
At Shandong Province there currently are 1 active domestic confirmed (at Jinan) & 1 active domestic asymptomatic (at Liaocheng) cases in the province, all part of the transmission chain from the cold storage warehouses outbreak at Fengtai District in Beijing.
Shanxi Province reported 5 new domestic confirmed cases, all at Jinzhong, a family that returned from Hohhot in Inner Mongolia on 2/17. There currently are 6 active domestic confirmed case remaining in the province (5 at Jinzhong & 1 at Datong).
At Hebei Province there currently are 7 active domestic confirmed cases (2 at Xiong’an, 4 at Hengshui & 1 at Langfang) remaining in the province, all part of the transmission chain from the cold storage warehouses outbreak in Fengtai District in Beijing.
Heilongjiang Province reported 2 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Jidong County in Jixi, 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 10 active domestic confirmed (8 at Mudanjiang & 33 at Jixi) & 31 active domestic asymptomatic (13 at Heihe, 15 at Mudanjiang, 3 at Qiqihar, & 2 at Jixi) cases in the province. 3 residential buildings at Heihe remain at Medium Risk.
Chengmai County in Hainan Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case there, a person recently arriving from Jixi in Heilongjiang.
Shanghai Municipality reported 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases, both traced close contacts of the imported asymptomatic case reported on 2/17, & have been under centralized quarantine since then. There currently are 1 active domestic confirmed & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
At Huanggang in Hubei Province there currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case in the city, part of the transmission chain from Hangzhou in Zhejiang.
Jiangsu Province reported 11 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic) & 6 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently is 93 active domestic confirmed & 35 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city, a person who traveled from out of province.
At Tongren in Guizhou Province there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city, part of the transmission chain spreading from Huludao in Liaoning.
Sichuan Province reported 4 new domestic confirmed (mild) & 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Chengdu, the index case is found at fever clinic & the others are traced close contacts. There currently are 4 active domestic confirmed (all at Chengdu) & 5 active domestic asymptomatic (3 at Chengdu & 2 at Luzhou) cases in the province. 6 residential compounds in Chengdu have been elevated to Medium Risk.
At Henan Province 6 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 29 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
Yunnan Province reported 4 new domestic confirmed (3 previously asymptomatic) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 18 active domestic confirmed & 24 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining in the province.
Imported Cases
On 2/20, Mainland China reported 73 new imported confirmed cases (7 previously asymptomatic), 23 imported asymptomatic cases, 3 imported suspect cases:
Overall in Mainland China, 42 confirmed cases recovered (19 imported), 27 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (26 imported) & 12 were reclassified as confirmed cases (7 imported), & 1,039 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,724 active confirmed cases in the country (883 imported), 10 in serious condition (1 imported), 686 active asymptomatic cases (572 imported), 3 suspect cases (all imported). 36,791 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 2/20, 3,084.712M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 3.924M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 2/21, Hong Kong reported 7,533 new positive cases, 12 imported & 6,055 domestic. There are another 6,892 whoa re preliminarily positive awaiting confirmation.
On 2/21, Taiwan reported 49 new positive cases, 4 imported & 45 domestic (all already under quarantine).
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
NYSDOH:
There were 89 new cases of COVID-19 reported on 2/20.
These probably don’t include home test results.
satby
Huh, how about that third tweet?
Baud
@satby:
Same news as yesterday’s tweet.
Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan
I heard from my lawn guy on Friday. He got Covid, “recovered” but with scarring on his lungs, he is shutting down his business. Docs told him that IF the treatment plan is successful, he may get close normal function back in eighteen MONTHS.
He’s the first person in my circle to have gotten sick with long-term effects (that I am aware of), and it’s scary as all hell.
satby
@Baud: c’mon, you know that’s not what I’m referring to. On the other hand, it is the FNYT.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 26,832 new Covid-19 cases yesterday in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 3,221,680 cases. It also reports 37 deaths for an adjusted cumulative total of 32,347 deaths – 1.00% of the cumulative reported total, 1.09% of resolved cases.
Malaysia’s nationwide Rt standss at 1.21.
98 confirmed cases are in ICU, 61 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 18,459 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,937,655 patients recovered – 91.2% of the cumulative reported total.
15 new clusters were reported yesterday, for a cumulative total of 6,719 clusters. 500 clusters are currently active; 6,219 clusters are now inactive.
26,764 new cases reported yesterday were local infections. 68 new cases were imported.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 128,153 doses of vaccine on 20th February: 61,230 first doses, 464 second doses, and 66,459 booster doses. The cumulative total is 66,148,498 doses administered: 26,619,990 first doses, 25,742,964 second doses, and 13,992,391 booster doses. 81.5% of the population have received their first dose, 78.8% their second dose, and 42.8% their booster dose.
Baud
@satby:
The one thing I’ll say is that the stat seems kind of meaningless, since Omicron overtook Delta. It’s not as if we could test the lethality of each variant independently.
YY_Sima Qian
Correction on the Hong Kong data. The breakdown of imported versus domestic cases are from yesterday’s summary, the city’s authorities did not provide a breakdown for today’s summary, but it is safe to assume the vast majority is domestic.
OzarkHillbilly
Conservatives think “personal responsibility” is what others must exercise.
Cermet
@Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan: Lung scarring from Covid might be extremely common even in teens; that said, in most such cases it has no noticeable impact upon the person. This study was done in the first year of the original Covid wave. Maybe its less or maybe more with Omicron but MD’s don’t really look for it/care as along as no one is making issues out of it. Unfortunately for your Lawn care guy, his case was atypical. Getting Covid, even for healthy people, can be a roll of the dice.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Well, they’re also in favor of mandates as long as they are imposed on other people, so they are consistent in their hypocrisy.
Cermet
@Baud: You mean “those” people. Not white racist scum, like them.
OzarkHillbilly
Good thing I’m going in March.
rikyrah
@satby:
Cousin Omicron was never a joke ??
satby
@Baud: ahh, you’re too fixated on variants when it’s all still covid-19, with all the potential risks of that disease regardless of variant. I think that’s why we’re seeing this differently. But whatevs. Fini.
rikyrah
I assure you….that festival in New Orleans will DEFINITELY be a Super Spreader event ??
NotMax
Oh crap. Fixy.
FYI.
Two’s company, three’s an infraction.
rikyrah
We are going to have to have a Come to Jesus moment over the damage that long-term COVID has done to MILLIONS and what that means to us as a country.
New Deal democrat
No update this morning from 91-Divoc, so no US State information (and most don’t report over the weekend anyway). Our World in Data shows US cases down to 103,000, a decline of 40% from one week ago. If this continues for one more week, we will finally be back down to our 2020 range. Deaths are down about 15% from peak at 2160. With cases down over 87% down from their peak, if deaths do wind up following cases’ pattern, that would put deaths at maybe 350 one month from now.
Neverthess deaths in the US have shown a more extended peaking process in the US compared with cases. There is evidence of the same pattern in other countries. Deaths in the UK had a similar long peak compared with cases, before falling in lockstep, now down about 50%. Portugal is also showing a similar long peak in deaths, but since cases only peaked 3 weeks ago, more cannot be said. Same with Israel Ireland’s data is too noisy to tell. In Canada deaths looked slightly, elongated, but are now down over 50%, following the pattern in cases.
A couple of other items of interest. This looks important from Dr. Eric Topol, based on 6 separate reports all showing the same thing:
https://mobile.twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1495545191444336641
The totality of evidence now supports: “Fully vaccinated” = 3-shots or Natural Immunity + 1-shot“
Second, on whether BA.2 is more lethal than original Omicron.
https://mobile.twitter.com/alexbolze/status/1492667766037381128
Eric Bolze says that “BA.2 is dominant in: India, Denmark, Sweden, Singapore, Austria, South Africa & Philippines” as of about a week ago, relying on the following excellent site showing variant prevalence by countries graphically:
https://covariants.org/per-country
A respondent noted that Guam also shows BA.2 as the dominant strain.
As you probably know, an animal study out of Japan last week indicated BA.2 may be more lethal.
Deaths in South Africa have been skyrocketing in the past 10 days, so that is consistent with more lethality. In Denmark deaths have also been rising, but since cases just finishished a very extended peaking process -also possibly due to BA.2, the evidence is equivocal. There does not seem to be any evidence of more lethality in any of the other countries.
Also, Guam looks very similar to Hawaii. It was hit later, and had a later peak. The peak was much more gradual, over a three week period. While the data is very noisy, perhaps due to Guam’s small population of about 160,000, deaths appear to be rolling over slowly as well.
In any event, with the possible exception of South Africa, there doesn’t appear to be any empirical evidence yet supporting more lethality.
Ken
I kind of like the one where passengers who don’t obey the flight attendants are duct-taped to their seats and put on a lifetime no-fly list.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@YY_Sima Qian: I’m rarely awake early enough for these threads but today I happen to be & I have to ask, how are shopping centers, factories & tea houses at “medium risk”? That means lockdown except for food runs & medical testing, right? So why wouldn’t anything other than residential housing (village, hotel, etc) just be closed & every one sent to quarantine at home?
Brit in Chicago
@rikyrah: If you mean that the anti-vaxxers and Covid-deniers are going to realize they were wrong all along…. Well wouldn’t it be pretty to think so? But not plausible.
What we need is a come-to-science-and-common-sense moment, but we’re not going to get that either.
Marmot
Hi and good morning!
Just curious, but how come the coronavirus update always includes so much about China and the zero Covid policy? It always seems a little strange to me to have the high death rates of other regions getting less space, but I assume there’s a reason.
Thanks for doing these every every morning for (nearly) years, AL! I read it every day.
debbie
@Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan:
I’ve applied for an extension to keep working from home. My doctor sent me a copy of the form she’d completed. The diagnosis included the word “death.” Yikes. It’s not like that’s news, but seeing it on the printed page is something very different. I feel for and like your lawn guy and am glad he’s taking steps to get past it.
debbie
@Baud:
I read satby’s remark as a counterpoint to everyone around her (and us) how so many people were dismissing the risk of Omicron. “Live with it, libtards.”
Bruce K in ATH-GR
As I understand it, Omicron is milder than Delta in the same way that taking a bullet in the gut is milder than getting shot through the skull.
Kalakal
Mrs kalakal has now been off the prednisone for 3 days so she should now have her immune system back. I have been terrified of getting covid at work ( Florida, unmasked public everywhere at work) and infecting her for the last 10 days. OT, I can heavily recommend knee replacements, it’s only been a month and still painfull/awkward but the improvement for her so far is wonderful
Anne Laurie
I share what I can find in a daily three-hour twitter search, within the limits of what one WP post can bear (about 35 ‘items’). Right now, there’s a lot of stories coming out of Hong Kong, plus the Olympics in China. Other weeks, there will be more about here in the US… or in Britain / Europe… or science/tech stories.
I count on (and am VERY grateful for!) commentors to update the rest of us on their local conditions.
And, believe me, I look forward to the day when I can cut back to doing this post every few days, or even once a week!
Wvng
@rikyrah:
Covid’s long term disability issues (severe cognitive decline, diabetes, cardiac complications, respiratory) are actually a far greater societal problem than mass death, affecting far more people. That’s what made the following tweet feel like getting hit In the head with a hammer. And it’s not just the West, Russia and really every nation in the old Soviet sphere has handled this terribly.
“While the West wrecks its countries long term with mass death and long term disability, Asia protects its citizens and will reap the rewards.”
Fair Economist
@New Deal democrat: With increasingly widespread home testing and probably just ignoring symptoms US cases are not down as much as the headline numbers, so don’t expect similar decline in deaths. I expect our results will be similar to the UK, with the decline initially much slower. After a while the fraction of reported cases will stabilize at a lower number and matching will resume but at a higher CFR.
The other issue is what is going to be the new steady state. The UK and some better managed states like CA had cases post Delta level off at distinctly non-trivial levels. Presumably Omicron will have higher steady state levels from being more contagious, although we will have to see. South Africa has nearly leveled off, at rates several times their post Delta levels.
Robert Sneddon
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: The Omicron “variant” is substantially different in physical structure to Delta or previous SARS-nCoV-2 viruses. Some epidemiologists consider Omicron to be a Gen 2 version of the disease, not simply a slightly evolved version of the original Wuhan virus or its first-generation progeny like Alpha and Delta. One commentator went so far as to call it “COVID-21”.
I’m still waiting to see any news about any Omicron-specific vaccines reaching the point of being distributed — my hope is that such a vaccine would work better than existing authorised COVID-19 vaccines and especially on any new Omicron-based variant that might appear in the near future.
Ohio Mom
@Anne Laurie: I for one appreciate the international focus. I check my local stats every morning and sometimes look at the NYT’s U.S. map but I depend on you (and the other commentators) to inform me about the rest of the world.
There certainly isn’t such wide coverage in any of my local news sources. That said, I also look forward to the day you feel comfortable in reducing the number of Covid posts you feel necessary — won’t that great!
jonas
Tweets like Delthia Ricks’, and related headlines, are really annoying. Nobody I’m aware of has dismissed the scale or seriousness of the omicron wave. Saying omicron, on average, has caused less acute illness in most cases, however, particularly among the vaccinated, is not controversial. The death toll was higher because so many more people contracted it compared to previous waves. If omicron were anywhere near as deadly as delta, we’d be looking at hundreds of thousands more deaths.
Guac
South Carolina will apparently stop reporting covid case numbers in March. They’ll just report hospitalizations and deaths, once a week. Will also be closing state-run testing sites in early March. I know some other states are planning this reporting scale-back too…
Is CDC on board with this?? Obviously cases were never a perfectly accurate measure, but they gave us some sense of trend lines. I worry that when our next spike starts up, SC simply won’t know about it for weeks?
Sloane Ranger
Johnson’s plan to end all restrictions early is driven solely by his need to shore up his support among Tory backbenchers. There is no support for it among public health experts. Not only is he intending to end the isolation mandate, but the height of insanity is that, according to the reports, he plans to end the distribution of free COVID testing kits, so, even if you have symptoms and are socially responsible enough to want to test to see if it’s a cold, allergies or COVID, you won’t be able to.
Apparently the Cabinet meeting to brief Ministers on the plans details has been delayed due to some issues around this, such as the devolved administrations wanting to retain the availability of free testing for another few months, plus some debate in Health and Social Services about retaining it for vulnerable groups (and if so, which ones).
Now, the stats.
There were 25,696 new cases reported in the UK on Sunday. The rolling 7-day average is down by 25.5%. These figures will not be accurate due to weekend office closures, Wales and Scotland not reporting at all. New cases by nation,
England – 23,831
Northern Ireland -1865
Scotland – Did not report
Wales – Did not report.
Deaths – There were 74 deaths within 28 days of a positive test reported yesterday. The rolling 7-day average is down by 19.3%. These figures will also not be accurate for the same reasons as for case numbers. 69 deaths were in England and 5 in Northern Ireland. Scotland and Wales did not report.
Testing – Not updated at weekends.
Hospitalisations – Not updated at weekends.
Vaccinations – As of 19th February, 91.4% of all UK residents aged 12+ had had 1 shot, 85% had had 2, and 66.1% had had a 3rd shot/booster. The vaccination programme is almost stalled with numbers going up by 0.1% a week on average.
Ben Cisco, MSCIS Padawan
@debbie: If I had the option, I’d still be working from home too. Most of my job can be done remotely, but the bosses wanted us back. I will say that if we feel ill in any way, we go home, no questions asked. But it shouldn’t come to that.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby: I hear ya. It was foolhardy and misleading to the general populace to call omicron “mild,” which, like it or not, led to more casual behavior and a lot more deaths.
germy
I just stopped into a pharmacy to see if they had any n95 masks.
I figured they’d tell me they were out, or that they’d sell me one or two and then give me forms to fill out for my insurance co.
Instead they pointed to a big bin behind me, full of n95s. The sign said “Limit 3 per customer” but they told me I could take as many as I wanted, as long as I didn’t try to fill a bag or anything.
Apparently a guy had been in earlier, trying to fill up a bag full. Maybe his goal was to sell them online or something.
Anyway, now I have about fifteen good masks.
O. Felix Culpa
@germy: Which pharmacy was that? A big chain like CVS or Walgreens? I could use some new masks and am going into town today, so would love to be able to pick up a few.
germy
@O. Felix Culpa:
rite aid
germy
@O. Felix Culpa:
The weird thing is, I remember reading somewhere what a hassle it was trying to get the free masks. We were supposed to mail the bar code to our insurance companies or something.
Now I wonder if the person writing that was simply trying to discourage people or make Biden’s plans look bad.
YY_Sima Qian
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: It means anyone who has frequented these establishment from a certain date will have a yellow health code & need to be tested ASAP, & possibly placed under home or centralized quarantine
Workers in many/most Chinese factories also live in dormitories, often on site. If a factory compound is at Medium Risk, then the dormitories are under lock down.
O. Felix Culpa
@germy: Alas, no Rite Aids in my neck of the
woodshigh desert, but I’ll check the other biggies just in case.germy
@O. Felix Culpa:
I bet the other biggies are stocked as well.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@satby: that might be counting deaths because patients had something else, but couldn’t get into ICU or had to forgo treatment because the hospitals were overwhelmed.
Scout211
@O. Felix Culpa:
Here’s the CDC list of federal pharmacies with the free masks. Scroll down for listing by state.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Wvng: Heck, even with normal Covid it takes like a month and half to get over the effects. It’s not “a little cold” like that Brazilian idiot things.
germy
@Scout211:
Thank you for that link
Brachiator
I wonder if anti-vaxx idiots will whine that they are second class citizens because they cannot go to Australia.
Peale
@Guac: That’s the goal. They believe that reporting the case counts makes people realize that maybe they should stay home. So next time, we won’t have the information necessary to determine whether community spread is too high and we should voluntarily stay in. Nope. Next up, anyone who is found not drinking in a bar on Saturday and sitting in a pew on Sunday will be fined.
J R in WV
@O. Felix Culpa:
The last time I was at the Kroger’s Pharmacy they had a display full of N95 masks, the sign said they were provided by the Federal Government, so many per person, 6 IIRC.
I took that many for me and for Wife.
Her home health PT just left after working her through a gentle set of exercises intended to improve her mobility. A nice guy. So far all of the home health folks have been really nice, thankfully.
I have a bunch of N95 masks I bought at Home Depot. There and Lowe’s is a good place for that level of protection, intended for use while sanding, spraying paint, woodwork, cleaning in a dusty environment, etc.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@YY_Sima Qian: Thanks! That explains it
Marmot
@Anne Laurie:
That’s the rest of us too!