International COVID-19 Megathread

[Meclazine for Israel]

Speaking of racially related things, my city has just had a COVID outbreak and it is apparently centered on the Dominican community.*

I don't know who's more stupid between those who think that mentioning this at all is xenophobic and those who have actual xenophobic takes about it.

*for reference it's the largest immigrant community present in La Spezia.

That is nothing. Pauline Hanson blamed the COVID-19 outbreak in Melbourne on "unemployed drug addicts who cannot speak English" on national TV.

https://www.mamamia.com.au/what-did-pauline-hanson-say/

[palandio]

The government here having been making themselves look like tools (as usual) but does anyone here feel that the anti-lockdown people undermine their own arguments? They have some good points but its ruined by either a) Ridiculous hyperbole that this is the greatest invasion of civil liberties and human rights in recorded history or b) Responding to people's legitimate concerns about the safety of their loved ones with "Better start digging granny's grave! Here's the shovel!" No wonder that the general population is also in favour of whatever 'we need to do something, this is something, therefore we shall do this' crap the government have pulled out of their arse this time if the only other argument being given is that.

Exactly. There is a compelling case to be made that at this time more restrictions is not the way to go, and a more nuanced approach is needed, but most of the anti-lockdown folks are have zero nuance to their ideas and would oppose minor restrictions even if necessary.

Well, I heard that "greatest invasion of civil liberties ever!" point in Germany, too. And hearing this in Germany of all places is of course pretty ironic and makes you think that people were absent during their history lessons. The point remains of course that widescale lockdowns, contact bans, travel bans, closure of economic activities, etc. are an invasion of civil liberties of a degree that until some months ago for me personally was difficult to immagine in a democratic liberal society. And yes, under a pandemic emergency the government is entitled to do a lot of things and most measures were/are justified. But being justified doesn't change the fact that many of the measures are severe and have to be checked for proportionality.

In fact my impression is that most politicians, at least in Germany, are now going for a middle-of-the-road approach and "no new lockdown" has become a common slogan among many leading politicians who are probably not what you mean by "anti-lockdown people". There is of course a minority of people, often outright Covid denialists, who still pretend that we are experiencing the establishment of a dictatorship. But on the other side there seems to be a minority that is probably even bigger and which has developed an unhealthy fetishism for strict measures and a love for collective action a individual shaming.

Maybe by "anti-lockdown people" you mean other people than me who is just annoyed by the lockdown fetishists but who otherwise thinks that we should remain cautious and do the necessary.

[Silent Hunter]

At the end of the day, this is a disease with a IFR rate of probably 0.5% and falling. We need to find a healthy balance in our response, lest we end up killing more than we save through economic and social damage, not mention delaying other healthcare procedures.

[Mike88]

Portugal: Mass volunteering, to conduct serologic tests for Covid-19, crashes website and telephone lines:

I wasn't able to volunteer, as my age group was already full. But my parents were able to register to volunteer.

The government will reveal tomorrow new measures for the new state of contingency, to start next week for the whole country. The measures will probably be the same that are currently in place just in the Lisbon area: Masks, on the street, will probably not be mandatory, gatherings will be reduced to just 10 people and shops will have to close at 8pm, while supermarkets could stay open until 10pm.

Also, a poll revealed that 94% of people now use masks when they leave their houses. That figure is probably exaggerated, however, I've been noticing more and more people using masks on the streets, maybe 60-70% using one.

[CumbrianLefty]

Speaking of racially related things, my city has just had a COVID outbreak and it is apparently centered on the Dominican community.*

I don't know who's more stupid between those who think that mentioning this at all is xenophobic and those who have actual xenophobic takes about it.

*for reference it's the largest immigrant community present in La Spezia.

That is nothing. Pauline Hanson blamed the COVID-19 outbreak in Melbourne on "unemployed drug addicts who cannot speak English" on national TV.

https://www.mamamia.com.au/what-did-pauline-hanson-say/

Why does this failure at literally everything still get the oxygen of publicity?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Today the United States have overtaken Italy for number of deaths in proportion to the total population (something that likely will never come back) and as an Italian who engages with a lot of American news, it makes me feel strange.

[Mike88]

Portugal: New restrictions approved to start on September 15th.

In the 2nd worst day in terms of new cases since mid April, 585 new cases, PM António Costa announced a series of restrictions in a new phase called "State of Contingency". After 15 September, the restrictions are the following:

- Gatherings limited to 10 people;
- Shops cannot open before 10am, and closures between 8 and 11pm, dependent on municipal decision;
- Limit of groups of 4 people in restaurants;
- Sale of alcohol in shops forbidden after 8pm;
- Alcohol consumption forbidden in the street;
- Night clubs will remain closed;
- Bars and restaurants up to 300 meters close to schools, groups are limited to 4 people;
- District teams to help contain outbreaks in nursing homes;
- No audiences in sport events;
- In Lisbon and Porto metro areas, workers can rotate between telework and face-to-face work; Mandatory working hours shifts;

[Tender Branson]

Cases here are rising significantly in the last days.

Up to 1.000 new cases per day (but "only" 463 yesterday).

That's up from +10 to 20 cases per day in early June.

The interesting thing is that ICU levels are remaining at record lows (~40 in ICU all over the country).

During April, with comparable increases per day, there were 300 in ICUs.

Which suggests that the virus might have mutated and became less deadly. Or that younger people are now affected. Or better treatment.

[CumbrianLefty]

Which suggests that the virus might have mutated and became less deadly. Or that younger people are now affected. Or better treatment.

Quite possibly, all those things.

[President Johnson]

Which suggests that the virus might have mutated and became less deadly. Or that younger people are now affected. Or better treatment.

Quite possibly, all those things.

Definitely. Despite experiencing 1,000 to 2,000 new infections a day for a couple of weeks now, Germany has a very low number of patients in intensive care. Back in June and July, we had less than 500 new infections in 24 hours.

Becoming less deadly actually makes somewhat sense for a virus. Its primary goal is to spread as wide as possible. That can't be done if too much patients are dying.

[Crumpets]

https://twitter.com/khaleejtimes/status/1305718501315940352

[President Johnson]

Germany reporting 2,200 infections in the past 24 hours. That's the biggest number since April. However, fatalities are staying relatively stable for several weeks new.

After some back and forth, the National soccer league is set to resume, but without a live audience. There were discussions about having 20% of seats in a stadium filled, but was ultimately decided against.

[Tender Branson]

Germany reporting 2,200 infections in the past 24 hours. That's the biggest number since April. However, fatalities are staying relatively stable for several weeks new.

After some back and forth, the National soccer league is set to resume, but without a live audience. There were discussions about having 20% of seats in a stadium filled, but was ultimately decided against.

We had 960 today.

Germany has put the city of Vienna on the travel blacklist.

[palandio]

Numbers are rising across most of Europe:
France, Spain, UK, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Hungary, Austria, etc.

Numbers in Italy seem to have stabilized.

Numbers in Germany are still better than in most other countries. In Baden-Württemberg and to some degree Bavaria a significant part of new cases can still be explained with imported cases from summer holidays. The discomforting message is that in most other German Länder numbers are not falling. Instead new clusters are popping up.

The question is what will be the trajectory from now on. What measures will be taken to halt the spread of the virus? Can health authorities keep it under control by testing, tracing and isolating? Can vulnerable environments (in particular nursing homes and hospitals) be protected? Will public health care withstand the pandemic? Is this just a burn-through of the virus into segments of society that are susceptible but have so far not been reached by the pandemic? Will geography and social inhomogeneities constrain the spread of the virus? (In Spain the spread of the virus seems to already have left the exponential trajectory.)

[CumbrianLefty]

Two weeks ago the UK government was demanding (not least through its tame media proxies) that it was now ESSENTIAL that ALL office employees should commute to their workplace EVERY DAY.

The wisdom of this "advice", given subsequent developments, is left as an exercise for the reader.

[Silent Hunter]

A lot of people didn't exactly follow it anyway.

[CumbrianLefty]

True, but also not really the point

[Sir Mohamed]

So, we're expected to hit the mark of 1 million deaths very soon? Good lord...

[TheTide]

So, we're expected to hit the mark of 1 million deaths very soon? Good lord...

I wonder where that puts it in the global league table of death causes this year.

[President Johnson]

So, we're expected to hit the mark of 1 million deaths very soon? Good lord...

I wonder where that puts it in the global league table of death causes this year.

I guess not all too high. Germany alone has between 800k and 900k deaths a year, and over 30% are caused by Cardiovascular disease. According to Wikipedia, this causes about 18 million deaths a year.

Aside from that, we don't know whether all Covid related deaths are actually caused by the virus itsself. Some might not. If I'm not mistaken, everyone dying with SARS II is considered a Covid death (at least here). That being said, every single one death is already one too much.

[Silent Hunter]

So, we're expected to hit the mark of 1 million deaths very soon? Good lord...

I was expecting that; bearing in mind "Hong Kong flu" of 1968-70 killed up to four million in a world with half the population.

[Tender Branson]

We are in the midst of a 2nd wave here.

More than 800 new cases again and people in ICU have increased 10-fold since June and 3x in the past few months.

Deaths are also picking up again somewhat.

It is mostly in and around Vienna, but also in the touristy West such as Tyrol and Voarlberg.

Salzburg, where I live, is not heavily impacted yet (2nd lowest infection rates after Carinthia).

[Tender Branson]

Maybe we need to have a preventive 3-week lockdown again in November like Israel, before the Winter ski tourism season starts.

I cannot imagine the cases exploding in the next months and then a regular ski season ...

If the 3-week lockdown can bring down the numbers in late November, we could have a somewhat "normal" ski season (where cases will likely explode again) and then another lockdown in March or something as a result.

[Silent Hunter]

We seem to be considering something like that - although not a 'stay at home' order - in the UK. It's being dubbed a "circuit breaker".

Unfortunately, a circuit breaker masks other problems with the wiring.

[Cassius]

The issue with the ‘circuit breaker’ concept is, in the absence of a vaccine or some other deus ex machina like mass testing, herd immunity or the virus ‘losing potency’, the case level will immediately begin to creep back up again once these restrictions are lifted, meaning we could be back where we are now in December.