Covid And The Rest of Us

[Aladora]

BTW, have you seen my great niece's Christmas wayward/backlog gift?

I have not.

 

[disneyholic family]

actually, now that i think about it, the best use of moderna would be to go around to the house bound people who can't get to the vaccination centers...
maybe they'll do that...
.

turns out this is exactly what we're going to use the moderna vaccines for...
the prime minister made the announcement today:
"The first shipment of Moderna vaccines is due to arrive in Israel tomorrow. We will give these vaccines to people who cannot go to their HMO, whether they are isolated at home or cannot go to the inoculation sites for any other reason."

 

[ronandannette]

 

[NFLDERS]

 

[Karin1984]

Yesterday on the first day we could vaccinate in NL, over 6.000 medical personnel got their vaccinations, mainly those who work on ICUs and on ambulances. Beginning next week all of this group who work in close contact with infected patients should have had their first shot.

 

[elphaba91]

The outbreak in Melbourne that was first detected on New Years Eve seems to have been brought under control. There were a total of 27 cases in the cluster and all could be directly linked to either the Thai restaurant or another positive case.

There was a separate new case 3 days ago that is a bit of a concern as it isn’t linked to the others and they’re not sure where he caught it. Genomic testing has shown it is from the Sydney outbreak (which is good news) and he had had contact with someone from NSW on Christmas Eve, although they never reported any symptoms, so that is a definite possibility. However, he also went to the biggest shopping mall on Boxing Day, the busiest day of the year, and then went to the MCG to watch the cricket with 30,000 others the following day. He wouldn’t have been infectious then, but authorities are concerned whether he acquired it at one of those locations. So far no other cases have turned up though and we have had 2 days of zero cases.

At the moment the situation in Sydney seems okay - they’ve had mainly low single digits each day. Our Premier has indicated that we may reopen the border as early as next week.

Unfortunately there is now a case in Brisbane in a quarantine worker and it is confirmed to be the more infectious UK strain. Brisbane has instantly gone into a 3 day lockdown so that they can perform all necessary testing and contact tracing and many states have shut borders.

Our National Cabinet (the Prime Minister and state leaders) met today and have made some changes to international arrivals. Now people must have a negative test before boarding a flight, masks will be compulsory for everyone over 12 on all flights, airline crew must have tests every 7 days or on arrival to Australia and must quarantine for 14 days or until departure (shockingly, this was not required in most states!) and all quarantine workers must have daily tests. This will hopefully plug up some of the obvious holes in the quarantine system and prevent future leaks.

 

[BadPinkTink]

Updates from Ireland

Schools and all education facilities are closed until at least January 31. The Government had first announced that exam year secondary / highschool students would have in person classes 3 times a week but the teachers union threatened to strike. So now the government said everyone at home for online learning.

Construction except essential construction such as road maintenance has to close today. They were one of the few sectors still allowed to open, but now they have to close, so we are basically back to the same as March 2020.

There are talks to limit the sale of alcohol from grocery stores and liquor stores, which the public wont like.

Retail which had been doing click and collect / curbside pick up have either to close completely or have delivery only.

The latest figures Thursday 7 January for the previous 24 hour period
6521 new cases
10 deaths
1,043 patients are hospitalised, of which 96 are in ICU. There have been 99 additional hospitalisations

33% are over 45 with a significant portion of those over 65. The reproduction rate for the disease now stands between 2.4-3.

 

[ronandannette]

The outbreak in Melbourne that was first detected on New Years Eve seems to have been brought under control. There were a total of 27 cases in the cluster and all could be directly linked to either the Thai restaurant or another positive case.

There was a separate new case 3 days ago that is a bit of a concern as it isn’t linked to the others and they’re not sure where he caught it. Genomic testing has shown it is from the Sydney outbreak (which is good news) and he had had contact with someone from NSW on Christmas Eve, although they never reported any symptoms, so that is a definite possibility. However, he also went to the biggest shopping mall on Boxing Day, the busiest day of the year, and then went to the MCG to watch the cricket with 30,000 others the following day. He wouldn’t have been infectious then, but authorities are concerned whether he acquired it at one of those locations. So far no other cases have turned up though and we have had 2 days of zero cases.

At the moment the situation in Sydney seems okay - they’ve had mainly low single digits each day. Our Premier has indicated that we may reopen the border as early as next week.

Unfortunately there is now a case in Brisbane in a quarantine worker and it is confirmed to be the more infectious UK strain. Brisbane has instantly gone into a 3 day lockdown so that they can perform all necessary testing and contact tracing and many states have shut borders.

Our National Cabinet (the Prime Minister and state leaders) met today and have made some changes to international arrivals. Now people must have a negative test before boarding a flight, masks will be compulsory for everyone over 12 on all flights, airline crew must have tests every 7 days or on arrival to Australia and must quarantine for 14 days or until departure (shockingly, this was not required in most states!) and all quarantine workers must have daily tests. This will hopefully plug up some of the obvious holes in the quarantine system and prevent future leaks.

Good Morning! Thanks for this - I was wondering how it was going. Regarding Brisbane, what is the mood towards repeated on-again-off-again lock-downs announced at a moment’s notice? What all does it entail? I’m thinking specifically about businesses - it would seem very difficult to be on a hamster wheel of opening and closing.

Updates from Ireland

Schools and all education facilities are closed until at least January 31. The Government had first announced that exam year secondary / highschool students would have in person classes 3 times a week but the teachers union threatened to strike. So now the government said everyone at home for online learning.

Construction except essential construction such as road maintenance has to close today. They were one of the few sectors still allowed to open, but now they have to close, so we are basically back to the same as March 2020.

There are talks to limit the sale of alcohol from grocery stores and liquor stores, which the public wont like.

Retail which had been doing click and collect / curbside pick up have either to close completely or have delivery only.

The latest figures Thursday 7 January for the previous 24 hour period
6521 new cases
10 deaths
1,043 patients are hospitalised, of which 96 are in ICU. There have been 99 additional hospitalisations

33% are over 45 with a significant portion of those over 65. The reproduction rate for the disease now stands between 2.4-3.

Good Morning to you too! Not good news and I shudder when I hear accounts such as yours regarding further lock-down measures. Have you viewed any of Ivor Cummings (introduced to me here by @MommyinHonduras) statistical analysis of Europe’s Covid curves and if so, what are your thoughts?

 

[BadPinkTink]

Good Morning to you too! Not good news and I shudder when I hear accounts such as yours regarding further lock-down measures. Have you viewed any of Ivor Cummings (introduced to me here by @MommyinHonduras) statistical analysis of Europe’s Covid curves and if so, what are your thoughts?

No I haven't viewed any of Ivor Cumming's statistical analysis of Europe’s Covid curves. I have no interest in theoretical analysis and armchair epidemiology.

 

[ronandannette]

No I haven't viewed any of Ivor Cumming's statistical analysis of Europe’s Covid curves. I have no interest in theoretical analysis and armchair epidemiology.

Fair enough. He is an engineer and it's just strictly plotting numbers on graphs. I find them interesting since they compare objective results between countries that we here aren't constantly aware of and between other parts of the world where Covid responses have been quite different than our own.

 

[Karin1984]

Let's do some Dutch news again:
- We have the right needles where we can get an extra dose out of one bottle. Something to do with the amount of residu that is left after each shot. Belgium has the same, and will be able to get 70..000 shots more out of their current supply.
- Pregnant women might get the advice to get vaccinated, depending on underlying causes, or if they are medical personnel.
- We have both the more contagious British and South African mutations already
- 12-16 year olds seem more susceptible to spread the virus than we thought this summer (so letting the highschoolers go back was a mistake)
- People have antibodies in their blood might be the last to get their vaccinations, but that''s just a plan that's on the table now.
- A university are developing an app for people who are scared of needles. The principle is that you are playing a game on your phone, while the camera scans your face for signals of stress or angst which is reflected on the app after the game. Apparently getting biofeedback helps you to control it. Interesting
- Some military medical staff is used to help taking care of non-covid patients to free up medical personnel to take care of covid patients.

And the daily figures, 8.169 new infections, 89 deaths, and 37 new people on the ICU. But in total more people left the hospital than yesterday.
75% of the medical personnel has made their appointments in the first 5 days and all spots for January have been taken. Those who haven't been able to make their appointment, has to wait a few weeks. If they want to get vaccinated, of course.

In the last week of 2020 1700 people died, this is about 40% more than normal. This is about those with chronic illnesses, vulnerable elderly people, in nursing homes and those with several physical or mental disabilities. Within the rest of the Netherlands the death rate is like normal.

 

[ronandannette]

Let's do some Dutch news again:
...In the last week of 2020 1700 people died, this is about 40% more than normal. This is about those with chronic illnesses, vulnerable elderly people, in nursing homes and those with several physical or mental disabilities. Within the rest of the Netherlands the death rate is like normal.

Yes, there are data-sets available for many countries that discuss the concept of "excess mortality" since Covid compared to previous years, taking into account the age and condition of the victims. It is a sad but true fact that a certain number of them would have died during the period anyway, given statistical life-expectancy. (THIS IS NOT TO DOWNPLAY THE TRAGEDY OF COVID MORTALITIES - JUST COMMENTING ON THE INFORMATION KARIN HAS PRESENTED.)

 

[Karin1984]

Yes, there are data-sets available for many countries that discuss the concept of "excess mortality" since Covid compared to previous years, taking into account the age and condition of the victims. It is a sad but true fact that a certain number of them would have died during the period anyway, given statistical life-expectancy.

I just checked, we've got a news article about the entire year. The excess mortality hasn't been this high since WW 2. About 13.000 people more than normal, this is about 10%. Covid and a heatwave are the causes.

 

[prairie_girl]

Well, it's been announced that Manitoba is going to stay under red level restrictions for another two weeks. So, no meeting with anyone outside of your direct household. Bars, restaurants, movie theatres, ect will continue to be closed for pickup and delivery only. Our numbers are starting to go up a little bit so this might be the Christmas spike starting.

 

[ronandannette]

Well, it's been announced that Manitoba is going to stay under red level restrictions for another two weeks. So, no meeting with anyone outside of your direct household. Bars, restaurants, movie theatres, ect will continue to be closed for pickup and delivery only. Our numbers are starting to go up a little bit so this might be the Christmas spike starting.

Alberta too - restrictions aren't even going to be reviewed again until Jan. 21. Nobody is too disappointed though, we weren't expecting anything different although there was hope that personal services would be allowed to re-open (physio-therapy, therapeutic massage and salons). School is back in session on Monday though for K-12. DS will start the new semester at university still 100% on-line which he hates.

 

[prairie_girl]

Alberta too - restrictions aren't even going to be reviewed again until Jan. 21. Nobody is too disappointed though, we weren't expecting anything different although there was hope that personal services would be allowed to re-open (physio-therapy, therapeutic massage and salons). School is back in session on Monday though for K-12. DS will start the new semester at university still 100% on-line which he hates.

Our schools are open, but only from K-4 I believe. Our salons etc are closed but physiotherapy and such places are allowed to be open, with strict rules. I did have an eye appointment booked for a few weeks ago but rescheduled because I just didn't have the oomph to go.

 

[NFLDERS]

I just checked, we've got a news article about the entire year. The excess mortality hasn't been this high since WW 2. About 13.000 people more than normal, this is about 10%. Covid and a heatwave are the causes.

This conclusion has been stated by Britian's PM with a stark reminder to Brits regarding how relaxing the practice of covid advisements has lead to these horrid upticks, and Hospital Crisis everywhere.

 

[ronandannette]

Our schools are open, but only from K-4 I believe. Our salons etc are closed but physiotherapy and such places are allowed to be open, with strict rules. I did have an eye appointment booked for a few weeks ago but rescheduled because I just didn't have the oomph to go.

My mistake - what I meant to say is chiropractors. I think physios, in clinical settings, are still permitted to practice.

In other news, a further 1,000 jobs lost in the airline industry yesterday in addition apparently 63,000 nation-wide across all sectors in December due to every province increasing their restrictions.
WestJet puts 1,000 workers on leave, citing government's 'incoherent' policy (msn.com)

 

[bcwife76]

Current restrictions here in BC will continue until at least Feb 5th. We were starting to bend the curve back down before Christmas but it's now on it's way back up again. Schools are still open, gatherings of any size are strictly forbidden, you are not to have anyone in your house who does not live there, if going to restaurants you must dine with only your household members. Sports, movie theatres, etc also continue to be no bueno.

 

[NFLDERS]

Alberta too - restrictions aren't even going to be reviewed again until Jan. 21. Nobody is too disappointed though, we weren't expecting anything different although there was hope that personal services would be allowed to re-open (physio-therapy, therapeutic massage and salons). School is back in session on Monday though for K-12. DS will start the new semester at university still 100% on-line which he hates.

Your numbers in Alberta are showing good improvement.