International COVID-19 Megathread

[Silent Hunter]

How long would final approval take?

[President Johnson]

How long would final approval take?

The German Paul-Ehrlich-Institute said early 2021 was possible for the final stamp of approval. There's also a Swedish vaccine candidate in the same phase as the one mentioned above right now, so that's definitely promising. Getting enough people vaccinated is a different story, though. I think Covid will be the dominating news through 2021 as well, even if an effective vaccine is approved in the first quarter next year. In the end, we'll probably end up with more than just one vaccine and which one you get depends on individual circumstances like age, pre-existing conditions or even gender.

[urutzizu]

4058 New Infections in Germany . Many Cities such as Berlin, Bremen, Frankfurt and large parts of NRW close to or past 50/100k threshold when which contact tracing abilities are said to begin to deteriorate. According to a mayor in the affected areas, the number of contacts that the local health authorities need to reach and isolate is now about ~80 per positive case compared to 3-5 in the first wave.

[Tender Branson]

4058 New Infections in Germany . Many Cities such as Berlin, Bremen, Frankfurt and large parts of NRW close to or past 50/100k threshold when which contact tracing abilities are said to begin to deteriorate. According to a mayor in the affected areas, the number of contacts that the local health authorities need to reach and isolate is now about ~80 per positive case compared to 3-5 in the first wave.

We had 1.200 new cases until 8am today.

3x your rate.

And 3 days in a row now with more than 1.000 new cases.

[palandio]

Meanwhile Germany's most prominent virologist Christian Drosten is saying that some restrictions might need to remain in place permanently. Good that someone like him is starting the debate. We can't carry on forever with narratives like "If people could just behave for another few weeks, everything would be fine." We need to discuss about our strategy for the future and about its costs.

[Tender Branson]

8 people are now dying again each day in Austria.

That's the number who died in 2-3 weeks in June ...

[CumbrianLefty]

Meanwhile Germany's most prominent virologist Christian Drosten is saying that some restrictions might need to remain in place permanently.

But that is perhaps also unviable in the longer term.

Which means in the absence of any reliable vaccine, we are screwed one way or another.

[President Johnson]

Over 4,000 infections yesterday. We're certainly heading into the wrong direction. One of our neighboring counties is now what's called a "high risk area", where you have more than 50 new infections per 100k people in one week. Our county is still around 21.

[Tender Branson]

4th day in a row with more than 1k new cases.

But we are testing 25k people per day now, compared to 5k per day in April.

So, it's all relative.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Italy has now broken hard 2,000 new cases per day. We have barely surpassed 36,000 total deaths. It's pretty sad. Well ok it's nowhere near as sad as March was actually.
I pray the curve does not explode again like it has done for example in France and Spain.

4,458 new cases yesterday. What can I say. It's been good guys.
Damn.

[FrancoAgo]

4,458 new cases yesterday. What can I say. It's been good guys.
Damn.

5,372 today

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

4,458 new cases yesterday. What can I say. It's been good guys.
Damn.

5,372 today

Ding ding ding

This is (probably) not going to end well.

[President Johnson]

Over 4,000 infections yesterday. We're certainly heading into the wrong direction. One of our neighboring counties is now what's called a "high risk area", where you have more than 50 new infections per 100k people in one week. Our county is still around 21.

Another day, another 4,500 new infections. Seems like this wasn't an outlier. Especially urban areas turn more and more into hotspots. Today, Merkel had a call with mayors of the largest cities to discuss a number of measures. Looks like private gatherings will be further restricted to 50 or 25 people and an alcohol ban in bars and restaurant late in the evening.

[Mike88]

Portugal is also seeing a surge in new cases. Today was the 2nd consecutive day of cases above 1,000, the first time this happens:

Total cases: 83,928 (+1,394)
Active cases: 29,702 (+735)
Deaths: 2,062 (+12)
Recoveries: 52,164 (+647)
Patients in ICU: 125 (+10)
Patients hospitalized: 811 (+10)

2,764,867 tests conducted since March 1st.

Also, health authorities said, today, that almost 70% of all reported cases are from weddings, christenings and dinner parties:

https://twitter.com/expresso/status/1314587877465100288

Weddings, christening and banquets? “67% of reported cases happen in these gatherings”, warns Graça Freitas

After many numbers, at the press conference to update the epidemiological situation in Portugal one of the questions was about social gatherings, called "BBB" there - weddings, christening and banquets. Are they responsible for the increase in cases, which reached a new peak this Friday in six months?

Graça Freitas, director-general of Health, started to smile at the question - “I didn't know the expression” -, but later she closed her face to say: “67% of the cases reported in Portugal happen in these gatherings, which lead to relaxation, which lead to to multiple contacts, which are often accompanied by meals ”. What she said afterwards is what has been heard most frequently at these press conferences. “If we are allowed to appeal to families, people, friends, it is that they try to fraternize less at this stage when the virus is very active in Europe. The countries around us have a lot of cases ”.

(...)

[Tender Branson]

Situation in Europe:

[CumbrianLefty]

No info from Switzerland - really?

[palandio]

The Swiss hole in maps of Europe has already become a timeless classic.

Interesting though that data are displayed for Norway, Iceland and the UK.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

No info from Switzerland - really?

The Swiss hole in maps of Europe has already become a timeless classic.

Interesting though that data are displayed for Norway, Iceland and the UK.

That's because Norway, Iceland and the UK (and Liechenstein which is also not in the EU) are all participants in the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, while Switzerland is not.

[Samof94]

Iceland was doing nearly as well as NZ, yet they seem to have lost that high ground.

[parochial boy]

No info from Switzerland - really?

The Swiss hole in maps of Europe has already become a timeless classic.

Interesting though that data are displayed for Norway, Iceland and the UK.

That's because Norway, Iceland and the UK (and Liechenstein which is also not in the EU) are all participants in the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, while Switzerland is not.

Specifically, because this happened. 😏

Get used to it Brits, this is your future.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

No info from Switzerland - really?

The Swiss hole in maps of Europe has already become a timeless classic.

Interesting though that data are displayed for Norway, Iceland and the UK.

That's because Norway, Iceland and the UK (and Liechenstein which is also not in the EU) are all participants in the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, while Switzerland is not.

Specifically, because this happened. 😏

Get used to it Brits, this is your future.

Ticino voting like the Germans grrr

Still, it was in 1992. No new one in sight? The United Kingdom had had a referendum on the CEE in 1975 (supportive).

[parochial boy]

No info from Switzerland - really?

The Swiss hole in maps of Europe has already become a timeless classic.

Interesting though that data are displayed for Norway, Iceland and the UK.

That's because Norway, Iceland and the UK (and Liechenstein which is also not in the EU) are all participants in the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, while Switzerland is not.

Specifically, because this happened. 😏

Get used to it Brits, this is your future.

Ticino voting like the Germans grrr

Still, it was in 1992. No new one in sight? The United Kingdom had had a referendum on the CEE in 1975 (supportive).

The Eurozone crisis basically killed off any mainstream desire to join, so basically zero chance in the near future. At the moment there's this big thing about the framework agreement that's supposed to roll all the bilaterals into one... But the SVP don't like it (duh) and the Socialists don't like it, and really no-one apart from the Liberals likes it, but the EU are basically saying they won't accept to change anything in the agreement and that the Swiss need to ratify it asap. So that'll be fun.

[President Johnson]

Over 5,000 new infections in Germany in the last 24 hours now. That's up a thousand from the previous days and more than twice as much as a week ago. Things are certainly heading into the wrong direction. Hospitalizations are also up, but not to a concerning level yet.

Despite some restrictions announced today, such as a ban for alcohol outside private facilities in hotspot areas, I think they don't go far enough in some areas. It's now well known private gatherings and celebrations are mainly responsible for the climbing numbers. I think private gatherings over 25 people should be restricted nationwide. Actually I'm kinda mad at these people being so ignorant and doing birthday parties or marriages with something like 100 people. We have entire counties that became a hotspot due to one single event.

Situation over there in France also seems to be pretty bad at this point.

[Mike88]

In Portugal, daily cases surpassed 2,000 today and PM António Costa announced that the country would enter the state of calamity by midnight tonight. He also sent a bill to Parliament to pass mandatory mask wearing on the streets and that the tracing covid app should also be mandatory. About the last part, the Data Protection Committee and some law professors say the government cannot mandate to install the tracing app as many people don't have iPhones and that no one can be forced to install it.

[FrancoAgo]

Today 7,332 new cases in Italy, new record, the last were 6,554 new cases the 21st March