International COVID-19 Megathread

[Mike88]

The media here in Portugal was reporting that a lot of people flocked to the beaches near Lisbon during the morning before the curfew:

https://twitter.com/tvi24pt/status/1327955879900172295

Carcavelos beach full on sunny morning before curfew

[Silent Hunter]

Lockdown 3.0 probably in March or April.

You might well be rolling out the vaccine then.

[palandio]

Austria seems to be headed for the partial herd immunity path against its will and without a plan. If they had wanted to stop the spread they should have installed their "Lockdown light" earlier than November 03. And now they are too impatient. Everybody knows that the effect of measures can be seen in the numbers only after ca. two weeks. The Austrian government decided that their original measures were insufficient after eleven days. The new measures are not measures that can be sustained for long. They are dreaming of Christmas with the family and skiing holidays afterwards. They don't know what they're doing.

This 3-week full lockdown is pretty good IMO.

The light version is not showing much of an effect yet, so it needs to be more stricter to lower the numbers significantly.

Also, we are quite depending on winter tourism.

So yeah, we indeed need to "save" Christmas and the winter tourism season.

Otherwise, a lot of companies would go bankrupt and a lot of revenues would be missing for 3 months.

If the numbers go down, we can open up the ski areas and everything else again.

The question is how long it will last until the numbers are exploding again.

Lockdown 3.0 probably in March or April.

Ok, I get that Austria as a whole and in particular areas like the alpine districts south of Salzburg are highly dependent on winter tourism.

But it should be obvious that sending skiing tourists to Austria is not a priority for other countries, certainly not if it comes at the price of another spike in infections and another hard lockdown.

[Tender Branson]

Austria seems to be headed for the partial herd immunity path against its will and without a plan. If they had wanted to stop the spread they should have installed their "Lockdown light" earlier than November 03. And now they are too impatient. Everybody knows that the effect of measures can be seen in the numbers only after ca. two weeks. The Austrian government decided that their original measures were insufficient after eleven days. The new measures are not measures that can be sustained for long. They are dreaming of Christmas with the family and skiing holidays afterwards. They don't know what they're doing.

This 3-week full lockdown is pretty good IMO.

The light version is not showing much of an effect yet, so it needs to be more stricter to lower the numbers significantly.

Also, we are quite depending on winter tourism.

So yeah, we indeed need to "save" Christmas and the winter tourism season.

Otherwise, a lot of companies would go bankrupt and a lot of revenues would be missing for 3 months.

If the numbers go down, we can open up the ski areas and everything else again.

The question is how long it will last until the numbers are exploding again.

Lockdown 3.0 probably in March or April.

Ok, I get that Austria as a whole and in particular areas like the alpine districts south of Salzburg are highly dependent on winter tourism.

But it should be obvious that sending skiing tourists to Austria is not a priority for other countries, certainly not if it comes at the price of another spike in infections and another hard lockdown.

These countries are not „sending“ the ski tourists, they will come on their own if the numbers by mid-December are down significantly.

And I guess we must take the risk, because a lot of jobs are dependent on it.

Just without the apres ski crap.

Skiing, snowboarding, ski-touring and tobogganing are outdoor sports with few personal contact and a lot of space in between.

And if really cold outside (-10 degrees), viruses are less likely to be spread and killed off.

There should be clear concepts though for consuming food (only on the outside, or very limited inside).

[Tender Branson]

+4.200 cases yesterday, down from 9.500 about a week ago.

The soft lockdown might show first results now and the hard lockdown in place starting tomorrow should rapidely reduce numbers heading into December.

Kurz also announced mass testing of the population after the hard lockdown is over, similar to Slovakia.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Situation in Germany is that things seem to be stabilizing a bit, although they're still far from great. The federal government is already pushing to enact further restrictions, but some state government are pushing back, saying that we should put that discussion on halt for at least another week.

[palandio]

[...]

These countries are not „sending“ the ski tourists, they will come on their own if the numbers by mid-December are down significantly.

[...]

Ok, "sending" may be the wrong term. The thing is that at the moment other countries are forbidding or at least highly discouraging tourism within their own countries, so they would not be too happy about people going on vacation somewhere else. For people returning from other countries there can be severe restrictions like mandatory quarantine, particularly for people returning from areas designated as "high-risk".

Austria is currently at over 600 new cases per 100k inhabitants in a week, much higher than any threshold typically used to determine "high risk", e.g. 50 new cases per 100k inhabitants in a week.

Austria's trajectory is currently 3-4 weeks behind other heavily hit countries like Czech Republic, Belgium or the Netherlands. None of these countries has even come close to divide their infection numbers by 12. So by mid-December it is unlikely that Austria will be anywhere near or below the threshold.

Finally even in the hypothetical case that Austria is not "high risk" anymore at some point, other countries can just discourage their inhabitants from going on skiing holidays in other countries, e.g. by mandatory quarantine, if they think that it could trigger a new spike in infections and a new hard lockdown. People that go on skiing holidays are a minority in most countries and if a new hard lockdown becomes necessary because a couple of upper middle class folk was allowed to go on a second/third holiday, it would be very unpopular.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

https://twitter.com/RegSprecher/status/1327612253080670210

Tender in 50 years tells the story of 2020 to someone else's children.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

https://twitter.com/MKuefner/status/1328262484420145152

[CumbrianLefty]

Claims today of another highly effective vaccine in the works. Things looking up in that regard at least.

[Tender Branson]

Tender in 50 years tells the story of 2020 to someone else's children.

Yes.

„The couch was our front.“

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Sweden also not looking good, daily cases are 3x what they were at the peak in the spring (caveat: testing is more widespread now than back then, but still), and deaths are also ticking up with a noticeable jump since October 20th.

Much harsher restrictions announced today compared to previous measures, but again, most of them are "binding recommendations" due to the whole legal structure thing. Universities, which are still doing a hybrid 50-50 online/in-person method of teaching, are reviewing whether to continue this.

[President Johnson]

Claims today of another highly effective vaccine in the works. Things looking up in that regard at least.

Yeah, and the Moderna one apparently has a 95% effective rate and seems to be better suited for distribution. The Pfizer-Biontec vaccine needs an extremely low temperate during transport.

However, vaccination will take a very long time, even in rich countries. I read that Germany could do roughly 60,000 people a day. That's not fast enough. They're currently planning on "vaccination centers" in stadiums etc.

[palandio]

[...]
However, vaccination will take a very long time, even in rich countries. I read that Germany could do roughly 60,000 people a day. That's not fast enough. They're currently planning on "vaccination centers" in stadiums etc.

I think that the number 60,000 is from some journalist that multiplied the number of 60 Impfzentren by "let's assume" 1,000 people per Impfzentrum.

As far a I understand the 60 Impfzentren are mostly for distribution and safe storage of the vaccine. (Biontech/Pfizer's vaccine seems to require storage at -80°C until a few days before vaccination.) Smaller Impfzentren will be set up in the single districts and mobile vaccination teams will go to nursing homes.

I was surprised by the number 60,000 because I think that the numbers for the flu vaccination that many people get every year are much higher. What is the limiting factor in the case of COVID-19 vaccines? Is it that the new RNA-based vaccines are more delicate than classical vaccines?

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

It seems like a #'s of cases have started to go down/slow down in EU (especially in France). France impose lockdowns on Oct 30th, thought they started to enforce some restriction in big Metropolises already at the middle of October. I expect though that deaths' #s will keep rising ~1-2 weeks in France.

[Tender Branson]

So, starting today we are in a hard lockdown again until December 6th.

Schools are apparently closed, but there's an opt-in for kids who have nobody at home to look after them.

In effect this means that a lot of schools are still full, because their parents have to work or they cannot go to their grandparents for safety reasons.

[Wake Me Up When The Hard Border Ends]

South Australia to go into a 6 day hard lockdown (no leaving the house for a walk even) after 23 local cases in 4 days.

As a fellow Australian, this is the right move in my opinion.

[Tender Branson]

109 deaths yesterday.

The worst number ever.

On a typical non-pandemic day, about 210 people are dead in Austria on average (76.000 per year).

[Tender Branson]

109 deaths yesterday.

The worst number ever.

On a typical non-pandemic day, about 210 people are dead in Austria on average (76.000 per year).

As can be expected, the virus is now mostly raging in care homes for the elderly:

https://kurier.at/chronik/oesterreich/massiver-anstieg-an-covid-toten-in-pflegeheimen/401102196

[CumbrianLefty]

Pfizer have claimed their anti-Covid vaccine is 95% effective.

[President Johnson]

Pfizer have claimed their anti-Covid vaccine is 95% effective.

No offense here at all, but many US media don't mention the Pfizer vaccine was actually developed in Germany, for the most part. This vaccine is a joint project between Pfizer and Biontech, a Mainz based firm.

[Omega21]

Pfizer have claimed their anti-Covid vaccine is 95% effective.

No offense here at all, but many US media don't mention the Pfizer vaccine was actually developed in Germany, for the most part. This vaccine is a joint project between Pfizer and Biontech, a Mainz based firm.

This is the narrative on most US media.

Would be kind of underwhelming to acknowledge a 4x smaller country with highly regulated healthcare did a lot/most of the work...

[parochial boy]

Founded by a Turkish immigrant too.

You know, just sayin....

[Del Tachi]

Pfizer have claimed their anti-Covid vaccine is 95% effective.

No offense here at all, but many US media don't mention the Pfizer vaccine was actually developed in Germany, for the most part. This vaccine is a joint project between Pfizer and Biontech, a Mainz based firm.

Yeah, too bad the only way Pfizer can even spend the money it does on vaccine development is by not having to deal with pesky drug price ceilings in the large American market, lol 

[urutzizu]

Founded by a Turkish immigrant too.

You know, just sayin....

One who got a "recommendation" at age 10 by his teacher (quasi-binding at the time in most of Germany) to go to Hauptschule, the lowest type of secondary school. Only after Intense Insistence by his Parents and an Intervention by his German Neighbors (because, you know, the Word of "proper" Germans is necessary to vouch) did the School eventually allow him to go to Gymnasium and later to university.

The fact remains, if you have difficulties with learning German at age 6-10 due to not speaking it at home, that's it for many teachers, you won't get a recommendation for Gymnasium. And that's essentially your educational life path and career molded. And even where it isn't binding, many Immigrant Parents (for Cultural Reasons chiefly) are unwilling to challenge it. Its pretty shocking how much potential our Country pours down the drain; many Turkish friends are very proud of right now, and rightly so.