International COVID-19 Megathread

[Tender Branson]

In Switzerland, a recently Biontec vaccinated person has died.

https://www.20min.ch/story/geimpfte-person-stirbt-zusammenhang-mit-vakzin-unklar-867760173148

[CumbrianLefty]

Meanwhile, Great Britain has approved AstraZeneca vaccine.

Good news as far as it goes, but this is maybe a somewhat less effective vaccine than the others - so it might be used for "low risk" groups once the more vulnerable categories have been done?

[2952-0-0]

Happy one-year corona-versary, everyone!

[parochial boy]

In Switzerland, a recently Biontec vaccinated person has died.

https://www.20min.ch/story/geimpfte-person-stirbt-zusammenhang-mit-vakzin-unklar-867760173148

A 91 year old with several very serious underlying conditions, it's not surprising that if you are prioritising these sorts of people, some will die shortly after the injection. The official word now is that it was not related to the vaccine. or

The full available information indicates a natural cause of death. This was also listed as such on the death certificate

Of course, probably too late for the bad publicity and fuel for vaccine sceptics

[Tender Branson]

Israel has already vaxxed about 10% of the population.

Austria only 6.000 (0.07%) and Germany 60.000 (0.07%) ...

[Mike88]

Israel has already vaxxed about 10% of the population.

Austria only 6.000 (0.07%) and Germany 60.000 (0.07%) ...

Here in Portugal, as of yesterday, 16,701 (0.16%) had already received the first dose of the vaccine, all of them NHS staff. More updates are expected.

[GenerationTerrorist]

50k+ cases for the second day in a row here. A massive 981 deaths, the highest since mid-April.

Despite all the joyous news of vaccines, I fear this is going to be a very long, dark, miserable few months ahead.

[2952-0-0]

In Canada, the death count has been about 100 per day for the past two weeks. The Conservative Party are both griping about a vaccine rollout that is slower than the US, while its own caucus members have been tweeting anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories. Several politicians have been found to be on holiday in the Caribbean. By the end of today, about 85,000 Canadians will have been vaccinated.

[Silent Hunter]

The UK's headline death numbers are those reported on that day and can include a considerable time lag, sometimes over a month. Based on date of death, it's been around 400-500 per day since the second wave began, which of course is still not good.

[Mike88]

Here in Portugal, as of yesterday, 16,701 (0.16%) had already received the first dose of the vaccine, all of them NHS staff. More updates are expected.

Numbers from today: 26,850 (0.26%) already vaccined with the first dose, more 10,149 than yesterday.

[Tender Branson]

The number of new daily cases in Austria is rising again.

It's back up to 2.500-3.000 new cases per day, from 1.500 during the Christmas week.

Obviously, more tests are being performed again, but Christmas and the shopping week before that were superspreader events.

[CumbrianLefty]

The UK's headline death numbers are those reported on that day and can include a considerable time lag, sometimes over a month. Based on date of death, it's been around 400-500 per day since the second wave began, which of course is still not good.

Given that the Scilly Isles are now the only part of England not in Tiers 3/4, isn't it about time this figleaf was discarded and a proper nationwide lockdown introduced?

Ah yes, two problems there - in a typical moment of hubristic boosterism our PM said another full scale lockdown would "never" happen, and ending the pretence would mean Sunak and the general collection of sociopaths at the Treasury having to do more than the bare minimum.

[Mike88]

Worst day till date in terms of new cases in Portugal: 7,623 new cases. 76 new deaths and 3,260 recovered. However, hospitalizations dropped to 2,840, minus 56, and patients in ICUs also dropped to 482, minus 5.

This may be, IMO, more a statistical issue as many tests were made in the days before Christmas and now the results are being reported.

[Meclazine for Israel]

8 cases confirmed in Melbourne over the last week with zero new cases overnight.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-01/no-new-covid-cases-overnight-in-victoria/13025750

But Sydney looks like it may be in trouble as we enter 2021.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-31/covid-19-nsw-10-cases-three-linked-to-croydon-cluster/13022394

10 new cases in Croydon recorded yesterday.

Authorities fear that people meeting at Christmas may have picked up the virus and been most infectious 7 days later at New Years Eve celebrations.

Bring on the vaccine.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Alright, a couple of graphs to end 2020.

First up, top 25 and lowest 25 countries in the world for infection rate from 2020 data were selected. Their respective infection rate was plotted as a function of:

1. GDP per Capita


COVID-19 Infection Rate as a function of GDP (2018)

I took out Lichtenstein on the plotted points as people there are extra-ordinarily wealthy and it skews all the poor countries together in the bottom left corner too much.

2. Latitude of Country


COVID-19 Infection Rate as a function of Latitude

It's a bit macabre to plot the death rate. So the only stat worth sharing was that the mortality rate of the wealthy countries was 316 times greater as a percentage of the population when compared to the poor equatorial countries.

[President Johnson]

German federal government is under a little fire for not ordering enough of Pfizer/Biontech vaccine soon enough. At this point, over 238,000 vaccinations took place.

Meanwhile, reports coming out the shutdown will be extended beyond January 10. Presumably to the end of January. Official decision expected next week.

[Silent Hunter]

Which ones did the Germans order then?

[palandio]

The same as the rest of the EU.

A litte bit of this, a little bit of that. Some Pfizer/Biontech. Very little Moderna. Some Sanofi which is still far from market-ready. A sizeable amount of AstraZeneca which the EU is very reluctant to approve.



If international cooperation means ordering too little of everything, but together (with higher orders Pfizer could have ramped up production capacity), then no surprise that the EU is so unpopular. Honestly it's not really the fault of the EU, but of the national governments that didn't get their act together, but unfortunately the EU has become an incubator for spreading national incompetence internationally.

[Tender Branson]

Which ones did the Germans order then?

EU-member states didn’t order vaccines on their own.

The EU ordered it for them, to avoid competition between the countries.

[Tender Branson]

The Austrian ÖVP-Green government unveiled some "testing makes you free"-law around Christmas, which would have meant that everyone taking part at the mass tests from Jan. 15-17 could end their personal lockdown one week earlier than everyone else and go shopping again, check into hotels, go into cinemas etc.

The opposition (SPÖ, FPÖ, NEOS) called this proposal a joke and vowed to block it in the 2nd chamber, the Bundesrat, where they have a 31-30 majority.

Under the ÖVP-Green proposal, one could check in at a hotel with a week old test result ...

So, today, ÖVP-Greens announced the end of "testing makes you free" and announced a general extension of the lockdown 3.5 until January 24th.

https://orf.at/stories/3195951

[Tender Branson]

Daily deaths have dropped from a high of 100-150 to around 20-40 now.

[CumbrianLefty]

Full lockdown reportedly coming in England very soon.

[Torrain]

Full lockdown reportedly coming in England very soon.

Stay-at-home order has just been announced for Scotland through the end of January.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/uk-news/coronavirus-scotland-nicola-sturgeon-announces-full-lockdown-midnight-3084645

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-scotland-55533377

[urutzizu]

In Germany all Measures to be extended through January. In Addition the Prohibitions on Gatherings of more than of 5 Persons from 2 Households is tightened to 2 People from 2 Households, the same rule we had in late March. And where Incidence is over 200 per 100k all nonessential Movements outside of 15km radius from Home banned. Plus Travel into Germany from almost anywhere only allowed with negative Test before arrival (in addition to the already mandatory Quarantine and Test after 5 Days).

Truly becoming like Gillette razor blades. This was already supposed to be a hard lockdown, so what is this, ultrahard Lockdown?
The Motivation is understandable, there is still alot of Household mixing going on and there have been big problems in the last few days of large amounts of people from Urban Areas flooding rural areas such as Winterberg or the Alps, much to the (justified) anger of the Locals.  

But this increasingly seems like just throwing the Kitchen sink. What difference is, beyond cosmetics, going from 5 from 2 Households to 2 from 2 supposed to make? What is the 15km limitation supposed to achieve when the Areas where the Day-tourists are coming from (Munich, Rhein/Ruhr) are not going to be affected, as their Incidence is not above 200?

One good thing Merkel pledged was more genome sequencing, which has been lacking in almost all European Countries except UK and Denmark. Because of this it is very difficult to ascertain the extent of the spread of the British Variant. It does seem that it is overall nowhere near as common as in the UK yet, one of the few reliable estimations that I have read is that in Ireland they say it is found only in about 5-17% of new Cases. It can be expected to be less on the Continent due to the fact that Ireland is one of the Countries with the highest amount of Interaction with the UK.

[President Johnson]

In Germany all Measures to be extended through January. In Addition the Prohibitions on Gatherings of more than of 5 Persons from 2 Households is tightened to 2 People from 2 Households, the same rule we had in late March. And where Incidence is over 200 per 100k all nonessential Movements outside of 15km radius from Home banned. Plus Travel into Germany from almost anywhere only allowed with negative Test before arrival (in addition to the already mandatory Quarantine and Test after 5 Days).

Truly becoming like Gillette razor blades. This was already supposed to be a hard lockdown, so what is this, ultrahard Lockdown?
The Motivation is understandable, there is still alot of Household mixing going on and there have been big problems in the last few days of large amounts of people from Urban Areas flooding rural areas such as Winterberg or the Alps, much to the (justified) anger of the Locals.  

But this increasingly seems like just throwing the Kitchen sink. What difference is, beyond cosmetics, going from 5 from 2 Households to 2 from 2 supposed to make? What is the 15km limitation supposed to achieve when the Areas where the Day-tourists are coming from (Munich, Rhein/Ruhr) are not going to be affected, as their Incidence is not above 200?

One good thing Merkel pledged was more genome sequencing, which has been lacking in almost all European Countries except UK and Denmark. Because of this it is very difficult to ascertain the extent of the spread of the British Variant. It does seem that it is overall nowhere near as common as in the UK yet, one of the few reliable estimations that I have read is that in Ireland they say it is found only in about 5-17% of new Cases. It can be expected to be less on the Continent due to the fact that Ireland is one of the Countries with the highest amount of Interaction with the UK.

Fortunately Baden-Württemberg only has few counties above the critical 200 mark (mine is "only" at 100 as of today). One of them is Pforzheim/Enzkreis, where my parents live. So I can visit them, but they can't vise versa because of the 15km radius (and theoretically only alone).

Two from two households instead of five perhaps makes sense. Generally, the less contacts the better. Whether this particular rule will make a difference, nobody knows. Enforcement is another story anyway; the police won't raid private homes unless there is an apparent violation such as crowded parties going on.

One of the biggest problems is the fact that there is still not enough sufficient data where a lot of infections occur, particularly the role of schools. Different studies contradict themselves on the question whether schools are superspreader events or not. As a result of lacking data/studies, a several political decisions are precautionary measures where we don't knowabout effectivness in advance. Some of these are certainly problematic since basic civil liberties are heavily restricted. And that makes the role of courts even more important, who already ruled some restrictions invalid in recent months.