International COVID-19 Megathread

[Middle-aged Europe]

Nevertheless it can't hurt to be careful.

[palandio]

The UK is generally doing much more genome sequencing than almost all other countries, so it's not surprising that a new strain would be detected there first. I wouldn't even be sure that the strain originally came from the UK. I think it's quite likely that it already spread under the radar significantly in other countries that are following a less systematic approach in sequencing. So while I think that discontinuing air traffic is certainly a justified immediate response until we know more, we should do our homework on the continent, determine how wide-spread the new variant already is compared to the UK, reevaluate travel restrictions and then eventually return to the rules from before.

[Mike88]

The EMA (European Medicines Agency) has finally approved the Pfizer vaccine.

[CumbrianLefty]

There are suspicions, though, that the government may have exaggerated the virulence of this "new" virus strain in order to provide cover for our PM's disastrous bumbling over (not) "saving Christmas".

The likes of Macron opportunistically taking advantage of this just makes it all the bleakly farcical.

[Cassius]

Yes, it appears as though Johnson, Hancock, Whitty et al are essentially lying about the nature of this new strain to provide political cover for this imbecilic u-turn. Won’t do them any good... I hope.

[Sir Mohamed]

The EMA (European Medicines Agency) has finally approved the Pfizer vaccine.

Interesting this applies to all EU members. But makes sense.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The EMA (European Medicines Agency) has finally approved the Pfizer vaccine.

Interesting this applies to all EU members. But makes sense.

That's why it probably also took so long (longer than US/UK/Canada/Switzerland anyway). But the delay probably doesn't matter considering "vaccine shortages" has become a hot topic in Germany recently.

[Mike88]

The EMA (European Medicines Agency) has finally approved the Pfizer vaccine.

Interesting this applies to all EU members. But makes sense.

That's why it probably also took so long (longer than US/UK/Canada/Switzerland anyway). But the delay probably doesn't matter considering "vaccine shortages" has become a hot topic in Germany recently.

Hmm.. didn't knew that Germany had "vaccine sortages" issues too. Here in Portugal, that's also a hot topic with many doubting that the Covid-19 vaccine plan will work well.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The EMA (European Medicines Agency) has finally approved the Pfizer vaccine.

Interesting this applies to all EU members. But makes sense.

That's why it probably also took so long (longer than US/UK/Canada/Switzerland anyway). But the delay probably doesn't matter considering "vaccine shortages" has become a hot topic in Germany recently.

Hmm.. didn't knew that Germany had "vaccine sortages" issues too. Here in Portugal, that's also a hot topic with many doubting that the Covid-19 vaccine plan will work well.

In the city of Berlin, only one of the six planned vaccination centers will become operational for now due to the lack of enough dosages. Federal government has recently reordered a couple of million additional dosages to close the gap.

[President Johnson]

Biontech, Pfizer's German partner, has begun testing their vaccine with the virus mutation. They expressed confidence in its effectiveness. First results are expected in about two weeks.

Meanwhile, German virologist Drosten has sort of corrected his expressions from yesterday by saying the mutation is very likely to be more transferable after a British scientist published new data.

[CumbrianLefty]

I see the EU brought the vaccination start date forward after all, then.

(after weeks of insisting that could not possibly happen)

[Blue3]

COVID-19 has now spread to the research bases on Antarctica, officially now on all continents
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/covid19-all-seven-continents-antarctica_n_5fe22531c5b6ff74797dc8f0

[Tender Branson]

Germany now has a higher 7-day incidence than Austria, with Saxony hardest-hit.

Germany had ca. 25.000 new cases yesterday and ca. 1.000 deaths.

Austria was at ca. 1.800 new cases yesterday and 105 new deaths.

Divided by 9, the per capita deaths here are about the same as in Germany (used to be higher here already), while the case numbers are lower now than in Germany.

[Meclazine for Israel]

The first vaccinations have been administered in the UK.

https://youtu.be/FRfpKtYlI4g

The reception from the populous appears to be quite positive.

[Tender Branson]

Austria to start vaccinating on Sunday, 9am, at the University of Vienna, for media purposes.

Followed by old people and docs/nurses in and around Vienna, Upper Austria and Tyrol.

[Tender Branson]

The number of (registered) active cases in Austria has fallen from a peak of 80.000 in early-to-mid-November to 25.000 now.

The numbers of hospitalisations are also down a lot, ICU as well (but lagging behind the fall in hospitalisations) and deaths are actually up and still high.

If people are behaving somewhat along the recommended guidelines around Christmas and it doesn't become a superspreader event, then the lockdown 3.0 which will last until January 18 could really lower the numbers much further to below 1k cases a day, maybe as low as 300-500 per day by the end of January/early February.

[CumbrianLefty]

The first vaccinations have been administered in the UK.

https://youtu.be/FRfpKtYlI4g

The reception from the populous appears to be quite positive.

Though it now appears there are concerns about if it can be done fast enough.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Saxony continues to be Germany's no. 1 plague state, followed by the other Eastern states, except Mecklenburg-Vorpommern which still has the lowest infection rate of all 16 German states. M-V's low numbers align well with Germany's other northern, non-eastern states though.

1. Saxony (average of 486 daily new infections in the past seven days)
2. Thuringia (321)
3. Brandenburg (288)
4. Saxony-Anhalt (250)
5. Berlin (234)
6. Bavaria (223)
...
15. Schleswig-Holstein (105)
16. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (98)

[President Johnson]

Germany now has a higher 7-day incidence than Austria, with Saxony hardest-hit.

Germany had ca. 25.000 new cases yesterday and ca. 1.000 deaths.

Austria was at ca. 1.800 new cases yesterday and 105 new deaths.

Divided by 9, the per capita deaths here are about the same as in Germany (used to be higher here already), while the case numbers are lower now than in Germany.

Both numbers are a total disaster. And I don't see any improvement, particulary with Christmas now on the way. We'll probably stay in a lockdown for the rest of January as well.

[Silent Hunter]

Until the vaccines start having an impact, I would say that's likely.

[President Johnson]

Another day, another 32.000 cases. And it's not even Christmas yet, so the worst is (likely) to come.

But to a degree, it's people's own fault because they don't reduce their in-person contacts by enough or don't care enough about keeping distance. Yesterday, I went to the supermarket and saw numerous children running through the store like it was a playground. Why can't parents just leave them at home or in the car? I don't get it.

[CumbrianLefty]

There is certainly a fair amount of "compliance fatigue" out there, though it has to be said that the often mixed messaging of several governments hasn't really helped.

[Tender Branson]

25 December updates:

Austria: 1.851 new cases yesterday, 38 new deaths
Germany: 25.533 new cases yesterday, 412 new deaths

[Tender Branson]

ICU levels are now at 420 here, down from a peak of 750 at the end of November and at the levels of 2 months ago again.

Meanwhile, skiing has started in Western Austria, with mandatory FFP2 mask-wearing in gondolas and huts/restaurants on top of the mountain closed except for sanitary/toilet reasons:

[Tender Branson]

By now, you get the impression that Austria finally got its act together by implementing a comprehensive test regime all over the country, which helps lower the strong 2nd wave.

These days, test centers are open in every Austrian district (in some districts there are more than one test center), where you can get free tests every day now.

Most doctors now also offer free tests.

There will also be another round of countrywide mass tests at the end end of Lockdown 3.0, which ends on January 17th.