Coronavirus - worldwide breaking news, discussion, stats, updates and more

[William of Walworth]

I’m getting anxious again.

Personally I'm not, for no particularly rational reasons

But that Man in Shed (whose chats I tend to like in general, when I see them) offers some good and depressing perspective (see High Voltage 's post just above) about the extreme inequality of vaccination rates between poor and rich countries

 

[spring-peeper]

Toronto clinic administers record-breaking 26,000+ doses in one day

Toronto has achieved a significant milestone in its vaccine campaign after 25,000 doses were administered at the Scotiabank Arena clinic on Sunday.

toronto.ctvnews.ca

As of 5 p.m., the city said more than 17,004 doses have been administered at the event dubbed as “Our Winning Shot,” surpassing the shots jabbed in one day at a Texas clinic in April.

The temporary mass immunization clinic also broke the Canadian record for shots given in a single-day in one clinic.

While beating the national and North American record may be worth celebrating, the goal is to vaccinate 25,000 Ontarians, which would possibly set a new world record.

 

[Yossarian]

Hong Kong just declared Britain an "extremely high-risk" country and banned all arrivals - previously, arrivals from the UK had to spend 21 days in quarantine on arrival whether vaccinated or not.

Now, anybody who has spent more than 2 hours in Britain in the previous 21 days will be banned from boarding flights to HK.

 

[MrSki]

 

[Sue]

Was on a call with an Italian colleague yesterday. He's quarantining after visiting family there last week. He reckons numbers there are looking pretty low but says testing is also very low so what's actually going on is very unclear. (He's from the NE bit that was hit so badly initially.)

 

[Chilli.s]

My pals in Cape Town are under lockdown again, no booze on sale, risk of arrest if out without a good reason.

 

[LDC]

We now live in a post pandemic world... Except we don't. It's June and the world has already experienced more deaths from covid than we did in all of 2020--- IN JUNE

I think I might want that t-shirt a lot...

 

[Badgers]

I think I might want that t-shirt a lot...

Me too.

Plus this mask

 

[2hats]

Russian booster campaign begins already... booster doses recommended for vaccinated people every six months until at least 60% of the adult population is vaccinated. Any combination of Russian regulator approved vaccines is permitted.

Moscow begins booster vaccine campaign as cases surge

Health clinics in Moscow will begin offering booster vaccine shots against COVID-19 on Thursday, the city's mayor said, as Russian officials scramble to contain a surge blamed on the highly infectious Delta variant.

www.reuters.com

 

[TopCat]

Restaurants and bars forced to shut due to staff isolating

The industry wants a "test to release" system to solve worker shortages as cases rise.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Chairman Meow]

Perth comes out of its four day lockdown tonight. We still have another nine days of restrictions (masks etc) but fingers crossed we will be back to normal on July 12th. They are halving the caps on returning Australians to take the strain off the quarantine system, lots of stranded Aussies pissed off about that!

 

[sideboob]

The Governor(mayor?) of Tokyo was hospitalized for 10 days due to fatigue. Saw her on the news yesterday, coughing and looking like shit

 

[krtek a houby]

Anti-vaxxers pulling the plugs on vaccines in Japan

There is a fringe movement that seems to be trying to stop the vaccination rollout. It is led by anti-vaxxer and right-wing political candidate Masayuki Hiratsuka, who has campaigned on an anti-mask and COVID-denying platform well before he founded the Popular Sovereignty Party of Japan last year. His numerous Twitter and YouTube accounts have been terminated for posting false COVID-19 information. The platforms have also taken down sensational videos of him and his supporters boarding a train at Shibuya station, unmasked, in scheduled “cluster festivals.” Earlier this month, Hiratsuka, who is credited with starting the “pull-the-plug” campaign, posted an article reporting the loss of 158 vaccine doses due to an unplugged refrigerator unit in Oda city, writing: “Thanks! #pulltheplug.”

Who the Hell Keeps Unplugging the Vaccine Fridges Right Before the Olympics?

 

[2hats]

This week, at least 75 high school pupils were confirmed to have contracted the virus at a Tel Aviv end-of-year party, after a student was infected by a vaccinated relative. That relative contracted the virus from another vaccinated individual who had recently returned from London.

Officials to weigh reimposing some virus restrictions as Delta variant spreads

75 pupils contract COVID-19 from a vaccinated person at school party in Tel Aviv; former Health Ministry deputy director calls to bring back 'Green Pass' system

www.timesofisrael.com

 

[2hats]

Russian booster campaign begins already... booster doses recommended for vaccinated people every six months until at least 60% of the adult population is vaccinated. Any combination of Russian regulator approved vaccines is permitted.

Moscow begins booster vaccine campaign as cases surge

Health clinics in Moscow will begin offering booster vaccine shots against COVID-19 on Thursday, the city's mayor said, as Russian officials scramble to contain a surge blamed on the highly infectious Delta variant.

www.reuters.com

Worth noting that France is already offering (has been since April) third dose boosters to people with certain immune disorders, organ transplant recipients, kidney and liver diseases, rheumatological conditions, amongst others. In a number of cases those failed to exhibit signs of seroconversion after two doses do so after a third.

Should People With Immune Problems Get Third Vaccine Doses? (Published 2021)

France is handing out third shots of the two-dose vaccines to cancer patients and others with immune system impairments. In the United States, patients like these are on their own.

www.nytimes.com

 

[2hats]

This post, from the UK thread:

A cautionary tale apparently from the Ministry of Health in Israel: in recent weeks a dramatic decline in the effectiveness of the vaccine (Pfizer BNT162b2) against corona infection has been observed.

Before June protection against infection was around 94%. From 6 June, five days after restrictions were all abolished, to recent (limit of current data), the effectiveness of the vaccine to infection, and mild disease, had dropped to 64%. Effectiveness in preventing hospitalisation dropped from 98% to 93% over this same period.

Delta/B.1.617.2 currently appears to account for around 60% of infections in Israel, with alpha/B.1.1.7 around 38%.

פרסום ראשון: ירידה ביעילות החיסון בארץ, עדיין מונע תחלואה קשה ב-93%

לפי נתוני משרד הבריאות המעודכנים, יעילות החיסון מפני הדבקה צנחה ל-64% בחודש האחרון, על רקע התפשטות זן דלתא וביטול ההגבלות. עם זאת, ההגנה מפני מחלה קשה ואשפוז עדיין גבוהה מאוד. בכיר בצוות לטיפול במגיפות: "נתונים מטרידים". בדיון הצוות הלילה לא התקבלה החלטה בנוגע לחיסון שלישי

www.ynet.co.il

relevant here, but also in the light of it prompting consideration of third dose boosters in Israel.

 

[zahir]

Thread on the impact of delta in Vietnam

 

[Aladdin]

At least 180 infected after Dutch disco despite showing Covid-19 certificates

Suspected mass spreading event in city of Enschede brings scrutiny on 'test for entry' system

www.irishtimes.com

At least 180 infected after Dutch disco despite showing Covid-19 certificates​

Fully vaccinated people caught covid at a Dutch disco.
This is what I am mainly worried about.

 

[Chilli.s]

The freedom we're being sold aint the freedom that i want

 

[teuchter]

At least 180 infected after Dutch disco despite showing Covid-19 certificates

Suspected mass spreading event in city of Enschede brings scrutiny on 'test for entry' system

www.irishtimes.com

At least 180 infected after Dutch disco despite showing Covid-19 certificates​

Fully vaccinated people caught covid at a Dutch disco.
This is what I am mainly worried about.

No, that's not right - it doesn't say they were fully vaccinated.

It looks like a bunch of people, some of whom may have been partially vaccinated, caught covid.

All of them were supposed to be either fully vaccinated, or have a negative Covid test. But in fact many had either only just had their first jab, or they may have had faked "negative" tests (which are not reliable anyway).

 

[elbows]

The Netherlands is also one of the countries that wanted to behave quite like the UK at the start of the pandemic. Like the UK they quickly had to change that plan because it was doomed, but its no surprise that they are especially gung ho about dropping various restrictions now.

 

[Aladdin]

No, that's not right - it doesn't say they were fully vaccinated.

It looks like a bunch of people, some of whom may have been partially vaccinated, caught covid.

All of them were supposed to be either fully vaccinated, or have a negative Covid test. But in fact many had either only just had their first jab, or they may have had faked "negative" tests (which are not reliable anyway).

Dunno...

They all have covid passes.
Shouldn't have had those obviously if they were not fully vaccinated or tested negative for covid.

Something was not functioning properly. Either the covid tests were not fully accurate or there were individuals who had been vaccinated who also had covid.
Breakthrough covid is a thing...
Just shows that with many precautions in place this slippery fecker of a virus can still get it way.

 

[elbows]

This is why its a good idea to pay attention to what 2hats has been saying Israel have been noting recently. The limits of how much vacccination can achieve on its own when faced with the Delta variant. What sensible measures need to be considered again to help get the balance they seek in terms of keeping case numbers low.

Israel has long been a useful guide because they were ahead with their vaccination programme so some clues show up there first. But also they seem to care about keeping overall levels of infection down in a way the UK does not, or at least they will despair of rises more quickly than we do, and be less likely to balk at responding appropriately. So they might end up being a sensible guide to how to manage this situation without just sitting back and going 'well we've done vaccinations, cant be arsed to do much else, shrugs'.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Dunno...

They all have covid passes.
Shouldn't have had those obviously if they were not fully vaccinated or tested negative for covid.

Something was not functioning properly. Either the covid tests were not fully accurate or there were individuals who had been vaccinated who also had covid.
Breakthrough covid is a thing...
Just shows that with many precautions in place this slippery fecker of a virus can still get it way.

Clearly it wasn't functioning properly...

Mr Boxem also suggested that Covid certificates had been tampered with by customers, such as by sharing screenshots of negative tests. “There was cheating going on everywhere,” he said.

Local media have also reported that people have been issued with vaccination certificates within a day of receiving the one-shot Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccine, though the manufacturer advises that protection does not take full effect until about two weeks later.

No indication in that article that anyone was 'fully' protected by vaccines.

 

[Aladdin]

Clearly it wasn't functioning properly...





No indication in that article that anyone was 'fully' protected by vaccines.

Ah right.
I can only read half the article...

 

[cupid_stunt]

Ah right.
I can only read half the article...

I forgot the Irish Times is behind a paywall, I have the Bypass Paywalls extension for chrome installed on my laptop, works bloody well, although the bloody Times of London has recently updated their paywall, the bastards.

 

[Aladdin]

I forgot the Irish Times is behind a paywall, I have the Bypass Paywalls extension for chrome installed on my laptop, works bloody well, although the bloody Times of London has recently updated their paywall, the bastards.

That's handy.. thanks

 

[2hats]

A timely paper.

Following the first wave of SARS-CoV-2 infections in spring 2020, Europe experienced a resurgence of the virus starting in late summer 2020 that was deadlier and more difficult to contain. Relaxed intervention measures and summer travel have been implicated as drivers of the second wave. Here, we build a phylogeographic model to evaluate how newly introduced lineages, as opposed to the rekindling of persistent lineages, contributed to the COVID-19 resurgence in Europe. We inform this model using genomic, mobility and epidemiological data from 10 European countries and estimate that in many countries over half of the lineages circulating in late summer resulted from new introductions since June 15th. The success in onward transmission of newly introduced lineages was negatively associated with local COVID-19 incidence during this period. The pervasive spread of variants in summer 2020 highlights the threat of viral dissemination when restrictions are lifted, and this needs to be carefully considered by strategies to control the current spread of variants that are more transmissible and/or evade immunity. Our findings indicate that more effective and coordinated measures are required to contain spread through cross-border travel even as vaccination begins to reduce disease burden.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03754-2.

 

[teuchter]

A timely paper.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03754-2.

The success in onward transmission of newly introduced lineages was negatively associated with local COVID-19 incidence during this period.

Does that sentence mean that new variants have a better chance of taking hold when local prevalance of Covid generally is low?

 

[bimble]

i think it might be saying that, If there's a place where not much covid has happened at all yet, then that place is a great spreading ground for any new version because people's immune systems will be.. naive?
Nope i have no idea. Still confused.