International COVID-19 Megathread

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1382306013613862916


What

[politicallefty]

UK has the Issue too (79 blood-clotting cases, 19 Deaths). But compared to rest of Europe is much less per AZ dose, correct, because UK (very rightly in my view) has a strict age based rollout with only very limited exceptions. That + very high vaccine acceptance means that in UK practically everyone over 50 has gotten a dose, but only few people below. On the other hand In US most states have opened to all age groups, or here in Germany for instance (and in most mainland European countries I know) certain essential workers were also vaccinated very early. That, plus the fact that AZ was not used for +65 in Germany for a long time, meant that most people who got AZ intitially here were Teachers, Medical/Senior home staff etc., i.e. Groups that are disproportionately young and female. So we vaccinated AZ right into the groups most at risk of blood clots, while UK did the opposite, hence in Germany people started panicking. Maybe also the fact that there was distrust in AZ already before contributed to finding/reporting more blood clots in Europe in the initial phase.

The UK has vaccinated a large portion of its population. Its priority was to vaccinate large numbers before administering second doses. I've heard of many people under 50 getting vaccines in the UK. If there's even a small issue, it seems to be related to the adenovirus vaccines. That would include AZ, J&J, and Sputnik V.

[President Johnson]

Looks like India is experiencing a major spike these days. Today, over 200k cases were reported in just 24 hours.

Numbers in Germany also continue to climb; over 29k new infections today. The death toll is nearing 80k.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

This death from blood clots thing seems to be a, quite literally, million to one chance?

Not for the first time, one wishes that society generally was better at assessing risk.

Especially since covid has a 39 in a million chance of blood clots.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

[President Johnson]

Merkel today got her shot from AstraZeneca:

https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1383053144586862593

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-southkorea-sputnik/south-korean-consortium-to-produce-100-million-doses-a-month-of-russias-sputnik-v-vaccine-idINKBN2C308U
Second South Korean deal to produce Russia's Sputnik V

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s Huons Global Co Ltd will lead a consortium to produce 100 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine per month, as Moscow seeks to increase production globally to meet rising demand.

The deal to produce Sputnik V - for export rather than domestic use - is the second in South Korea and comes after biotech firm GL Rapha signed a deal late last year to make more than 150 million doses of the vaccine per year.

From 🇷🇺 with ❤️

[Mike88]

Portugal update:

- The 3rd phase of the reopening of the country is to start next Monday, with restaurants, shops, and others to be able to fully reopen. However, some municipalities will not reopen as they have cases above the red line defined by the government, 120 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. One of those municipalities is Portimão, Algarve, and the mayor of the city is furious with the government, accusing them of "punishing" the city. Other city, the city of Moura, is also furious as it only has 17 active cases and it cannot reopen;

- The Azores regional government and the National government are clashing because of vaccines. The Azores government wanted to buy vaccines from the US by using the "Lajes agreement" between Portugal and the US. The Government refused the Azores suggestion, and the the regional government will lobby US Azorean descendants, many with high ranking political offices, to give or arrange vaccines for the Azores. However, the National government could reject the entry of those vaccines;

- Another controversy about vaccines is the possibility that Sputnik V could be produced in Portugal. The mayor of Cascais said he has been in talks with Russian officials and that they have interest in producing the vaccine in Portugal. But this is creating tensions in the government as only the Economy minister was aware of the possible deal and the Health minister was kept in the dark. Despite this lack of communication within the government, the media reports that PM Costa likes the idea;

[President Johnson]

https://twitter.com/dw_politics/status/1384866171296665604

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

https://twitter.com/dw_politics/status/1385184425043009540

[Tender Branson]

Weekly overall mortality by calendar week, since 2000:



The data was updated today with mortality until calendar week 14 (ending April 11).

CW 14 was lower than last year, but ca. 2% above the 2016-20 average for that week.

https://www.statistik.at/web_en/press/125846.html

[President Johnson]

Finally the vaccination campaign in Germany is gaining steam. Millions of Biontech/Pfizer doses are expected to be distributed within the next few weeks and Johnson & Johnson is finally going to start very soon as well.

https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1385193030903345154

[Biden his time]

The rise of COVID-19 in India is very frightening.

330,000+ cases in one day and in fact it has surpassed the USA in per capita COVID-19 new cases per day.

Exponential growth! 20% Positivity Rate! 😬😬😬





Best of wishes to the people in India who are suffering from this disease.

[Tender Branson]

Austria will open up almost completely again in mid-May, including hotels:

https://orf.at/stories/3210330

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Italy will have a big round of reopenings, most significantly of schools, starting overmorrow on April 26th.
Our cases per day have been clearly declining and our deaths per day as well. Our vaccination campaign keeps speeding up although little by little. The "third wave" in Italy was pretty mild in the end at least compared to its starting point, fortunately.

[President Johnson]

Cases in India keep rapidly surging with the apparent "double mutant". Germany has imposed a travel ban today.

https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1385904348769759232

[Meclazine for Israel]

350,000 new cases in India alone today.

That will continue to climb, and they will have > 10M per month infected.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Plague Inc didn't lie - poor countries do have less ability to stop the spread of epidemics.
India is in for a hard time over the coming months.

[CumbrianLefty]

But certain actions (and inactions) from the Indian government certainly haven't helped.

[Mike88]

Second day, since the pandemic began in March 2020, with no new deaths in Portugal. 196 new cases, 326 recoveries, 91 patients in ICU (-7) and 365 hospitalized (+17).

[Mike88]

The State of Emergency will end this Friday evening in Portugal. The government also announced that by September, all population above 30 years old will probably have the first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine.

[Tender Branson]

60% of 85+ year olds in Austria are now fully immunized with 2 injections.

45% of 65+ year olds as well.

For all age groups below, it's still in single digits ...

[President Johnson]

Germany for the first time has administered more than one million shots a day now.

More good news from the vaccine front: Biontech/Pfizer plan to submit a formal approval recquest for the vaccine for under 16 year olds to the EMA next week. Studies have shown their vaccine being essentially 100% effective with kids.

[Mike88]

The State of Emergency will end this Friday evening in Portugal.

More details of the post State of Emergency were revealed, this evening, by Costa: the Spanish/Portuguese border will reopen; restaurants and cafes can stay open until 10:30pm on weekends; Shops and others can also open during the whole day on weekends. However, some municipalities will stay with the rules of the State of Emergency because of high rate of infections in those areas.

[Adam Griffin]

Obviously the accuracy of stats reported and when/where the zenith of cases will appear can affect such a comparison, but over the past few days, the reported data doesn't suggest there is some mass number of deaths in India (yet) relative to the US.

US Population: 23.91% of India
US Deaths, Past 3 Days: 25.57% of India
US Cases, Past 3 Days: 14.49% of India