International COVID-19 Megathread

[SnowLabrador]

Have you guys heard about the Delta Plus variant in India?

[Silent Hunter]

Have you guys heard about the Delta Plus variant in India? It's likely resistant to vaccines.

Who is saying that it is resistant? It's too early to tell.

[It’s so Joever]

Each day I find myself liking Duterte more and more...

https://wgntv.com/news/ill-inject-the-vaccine-in-your-butt-philippines-president-threatens-to-arrest-those-who-refuse-vaccination/

[CumbrianLefty]

Have you guys heard about the Delta Plus variant in India? It's likely resistant to vaccines.

Who is saying that it is resistant? It's too early to tell.

There is little doubt that some are "saying" that, people "say" all kinds of weird and wonderful things.

Whether there is any actual convincing evidence, however......

[Mike88]

Portugal update:

The government just announced that the lockdown easing plan will stop in the whole country, thus not advacing to the next phase. In the Lisbon metro area, a number of restrictions will be taken: supermarkets will close at 7pm on weekends, restaurants have to close at 3:30pm also on weekends. Travel restriction from and to the Lisbon metro area will also continue during the weekends.

Today, 24 June, there were 1,556 new cases, 1,049 in the Lisbon area alone.

[SnowLabrador]

With regards to Duterte's suggestion...even a broken clock is right twice a day. If Trump supporters won't get their vaccines, we should try something like that here.

[President Johnson]

Yet another revealation: It's plain obvious the Chinese Communist Party was engaged in a coverup in the early days of the pandemic.

https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1408447391494193154

[It’s so Joever]

Yet another revealation: It's plain obvious the Chinese Communist Party was engaged in a coverup in the early days of the pandemic.

https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1408447391494193154

While it is pretty likely/established that Hebei government officials did engage in a coverup of the spread of this virus in late December/January, I don’t find it so likely this coverup began right at the start of the virus in humans.
Think about it: It is a novel virus which we don’t know to scan for during a season known for high prevalence of respiratory infections. Even had this began in your great Germany, such a virus could spread undetected for months. This is literally searching for something that has never existed before, it’s not going to be done quickly, especially given the context.
Fwiw, Hebei did engage in a coverup and that’s well founded (whether they were operating under higher orders is an important question not proven just yet) and it’s certainly possible they still are engaging in one regarding the spread of the virus in their borders.
But your article really doesn’t prove a thing, it just confirms common sense.

[It’s so Joever]

Interpret this as you will.
https://fortune.com/2021/06/25/covid-delta-variant-in-israel-vaccinated-adults/

[Mike88]

Portugal update:

1,746 new cases and 6 new deaths, today, the worst day since 19 February 2021. The Delta variant is now frequent in 55.6% of all new cases in Portugal and it's dominant mainly in the South of Portugal: 94% in Alentejo, 76% in Lisbon and 74% in the Algarve. The Center Region also has 83%. The North region only has 13% and the UK variant is still dominant in this region, 63%.

Because of this surge in new cases, the number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants is currently at 124.05, the worst in the whole EU.

At the same time, 8,489,596 jabs of Covid-19 vaccines have been already given, with 52.82% of the population having at least one dose of the vaccine and 30.44% being fully vaccinated. Next week, people above 18 years old will start to be called to receive a jab.

[LabourJersey]

Interpret this as you will.
https://fortune.com/2021/06/25/covid-delta-variant-in-israel-vaccinated-adults/

"Some" is doing A LOT of work there.

It reminds me of news articles a couple months ago of "1000 AMERICANS WHO ARE FULLY VACCINATED ARE IN THE HOSPITAL OR DEAD FROM COVID"

1000 out of...65 million Americans fully vaccinated (at that time, this was maybe 2 months ago).

Articles like this really do prove that one of the most concerning biases in this day and age in media is a bias towards pessimism/hyping up the bad part of news

[Crumpets]

We've officially crossed 3 billion vaccine doses administered worldwide, per the NYT tracker. About 1.85 billion of those are in China, the US, and India.

[Crumpets]

https://twitter.com/IntelDoge/status/1410005418177437697

[LabourJersey]

We've officially crossed 3 billion vaccine doses administered worldwide, per the NYT tracker. About 1.85 billion of those are in China, the US, and India.

Taking a step back, this is a truly remarkable accomplishment.

[urutzizu]

Spread of delta variant in Germany week by week:



In the week 14.06.2021 - 20.06.2021 the delta variant made up 37% of new infections, more than doubling week on week. So it is almost certainly the dominant variant now and means that the trajectory is following the UK by about 4 week delay. That does not necessarily have to be a problem, because the Vaccination program should be just as advanced by then, but it is a bigger problem with other European countries that have much higher vaccine hesitancy, especially in Eastern Europe (such as Romania, where less than 25% of the population have had the first dose but nobody can be found anymore to take the vaccine) but also France.

[President Johnson]

Spread of delta variant in Germany week by week:



In the week 14.06.2021 - 20.06.2021 the delta variant made up 37% of new infections, more than doubling week on week. So it is almost certainly the dominant variant now and means that the trajectory is following the UK by about 4 week delay. That does not necessarily have to be a problem, because the Vaccination program should be just as advanced by then, but it is a bigger problem with other European countries that have much higher vaccine hesitancy, especially in Eastern Europe (such as Romania, where less than 25% of the population have had the first dose but nobody can be found anymore to take the vaccine) but also France.

It's going to be 100% by the end of July with that pace. We may prevent another larger wave since numbers are currently way down and have not increased despite Delta increasing its share very rapidly. It's important people get their full vacination to keep it under control.

[Meclazine for Israel]

In the Australian winter, we have 3 or 4 capital cities in lockdown with:

1. Zero deaths in 2021 from COVID-19 in Australia.
2. 2 Million people in Perth locked down - 4 active cases

https://www.wa.gov.au/government/announcements/4-day-lockdown-introduced-perth-and-peel

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-01/no-new-perth-covid-cases-on-third-day-of-lockdown-in-wa/100258664

3. 4 Million people in QLD locked down - 22 active cases

https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19/current-status/public-health-directions/restrictions-impacted-areas

4. 6 Million people + in NSW locked down - ~75 cases

https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/rules/greater-sydney

With winter, we finally have some infection in Sydney.

Our total immunisation rate is 4.6%

I get my first Pfizer shot in September.

[Mike88]

Government decrees curfews in 45 municipalities:

https://twitter.com/RTPNoticias/status/1410668274468093953

Circulation restrictions on public roads from 11 pm in more than forty municipalities.

It is one of the measures announced this afternoon by the Minister of the Presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva, after the meeting of the Council of Ministers.

Thus, there are high and very high risk councils with circulation limitations on public roads after 11 pm.

There are currently 19 municipalities, the majority in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML), which are at very high risk of infection and 26 are now the municipalities that have reached the high risk.

Today, Portugal had 2,449 new cases and 5 new deaths. 1,234 recovered, plus 509 hospitalizes (+5) and 113 in ICUs (-7).

[harpercanuck]

*an actual post from reddit*

R/ottawa
Wear your mask! We aren’t the US. We have our own science and we aren’t as open as they are. Put your mask on or go home!

I’ve had 4 customers this morning refusing to wear masks because “I’ve had both doses”. The US based their advice in early June that allows fully vaccinated people to go masksless based on their own science and their own targets of 20% fully vaccinated rate. We aren’t them and we have our own science. We are also behind them on vaccines so we have to wait.

Be smart! “I’ve had both doses” isn’t reason to start walking around like covid is over.

we have our own ScIeNcE! Justin trudeaus base folks!

[OSR stands with Israel]

SHows you nobody really cares about the "science". They just use it when its a convenient point to argue for the policies they want

[harpercanuck]

SHows you nobody really cares about the "science". They just use it when its a convenient point to argue for the policies they want

ALl the comments underneath are Business owners can restrict anyone they want and im like really? Can that asian womans beauty salon reject a self identified man from having to shave his crotch? what about that baker and gay cake? personally im pro gay marriage and pro choice but i mean if were doin the whole "business owners get to pick routine"

[DabbingSanta]

Anyone else concerned about the massive spike in reported cases in the United Kingdom?  Over 25,000 cases in one day despite 50% fully vaxxed.  Weekly average 20,000. Here in Canada they would freak out and shut down over that.  Seems like we are stuck in a perpetual cycle.

[Pericles]

Anyone else concerned about the massive spike in reported cases in the United Kingdom?  Over 25,000 cases in one day despite 50% fully vaxxed.  Weekly average 20,000. Here in Canada they would freak out and shut down over that.  Seems like we are stuck in a perpetual cycle.

A bit, the Delta variant is unhelpful, but with the vulnerable being double-jabbed it looks like vaccines have broken the link between infection and serious illness/death. That's the most important thing, so hopefully Covid is just a normal disease now and the UK can return to normal on 19 July. They did expect cases would surge as they reopened, so the lack of a spike in hospitalisations is a great sign.

[DabbingSanta]

Anyone else concerned about the massive spike in reported cases in the United Kingdom?  Over 25,000 cases in one day despite 50% fully vaxxed.  Weekly average 20,000. Here in Canada they would freak out and shut down over that.  Seems like we are stuck in a perpetual cycle.

A bit, the Delta variant is unhelpful, but with the vulnerable being double-jabbed it looks like vaccines have broken the link between infection and serious illness/death. That's the most important thing, so hopefully Covid is just a normal disease now and the UK can return to normal on 19 July. They did expect cases would surge as they reopened, so the lack of a spike in hospitalisations is a great sign.

That's great news.  Hopefully common sense prevails on this side of the pond, and our country opens up soon, even if we see a "fourth wave".  We have very high vaccination rates, probably reach 70% fully vaxxed by end of summer, and COVID cases are down over 90%!  Time to return to full normal.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

The rates of cases, vaccines et cetera in Italy keep proceeding in the right direction so I have little to say there, but a significant update is that since last Monday masks are not required anymore in any open space (although they still officially are indoors).