International COVID-19 Megathread

[Middle-aged Europe]

Berlin has a seven-day incidence of 1,200 now. Mitte is Berlin's borough, and coincidentally also the county-equivalent region in the entirety of Germany, with the highest incidence: 2,300.

Bus routes have already been scaled down due to too many bus drivers being quarantined. Subway and tram are expected to follow soon.

Berlin Police currently reports 654 infected officers, and an additional 376 have been quarantined as contact persons. That's about 15% of the city's entire police force, although they estimate that a rate of 30% to 40% will be reached sometime in February (even if there were a lockdown, who would enforce it??)

State government is determined to keep the schools open, although in some classes nearly half the students are reportedly quarantined.

State government is also discussing to discontinue contact tracing, because what's the point anymore?

At my own workplace, we had three positive Corona cases in our department alone this month. Entire department consists of 19 people, I think... which equals a (known) infection rate of 16%. Neither of the three people had met each other recently due to work-from-home practices.

Everybody is just waiting to finally get it and be done with it.

[Meclazine for Israel]

And stay out....

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-21/wa-border-opening-delayed-what-happens-now-explainer/100772052



The entire population of non-West Australian's are now viewed as Extreme Risk.



As such, Mark McGowan is no longer opening the borders. Above, Mark is shown surveying the situation from an average West Australian's perspective.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Bavarian minister-president Markus Söder (CSU), who usually had a reputation as a lockdown hardliner, has said that despite the exploding infection rate he opposes a further tightening of COVID restrictions. Instead he proposes to raise the attendence limits for cultural and sports events again, citing the more "harmless" status of the Omicron variant.

This makes it seem unlikely that tighter COVID rules will come out of the next meeting of the minister-presdents next week. Only federal health minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) is occassionally giving interviews in favour of tighter rules, citing concern for unvaxxed people over 60. Given that Scholz, the FDP, and most of the minister-presidents including Söder see that a bit dfferently, Lauterbach seems to have been sidelined on the issue... which is a development that comes without any surprise for me, considering that Scholz and the SPD seemed unusually reluctant to make him health minister in the first place.

Söder on other hand is the flip-flopping opportunist who's turning his flag in the wind he alwas was. In 2020, and early 2021, public opinion was in favour of lockdowns, but public opinion has changed since then. Yesterday, a poll showed a quarter of the country in favour of tighter restrictions and another quarter of the country in favour of looser restrictions (and support for the status quo: 45%).

[Mike88]

Portugal update:

Cases continue to surge in Portugal, even though hospitalizations, ICUs and deaths remain relatively stable, compared with January 2020. The biggest focus of worry now is the massive increase of infections in children. Just today, 10,053 cases out of more than 58,000, are from children between the ages of 0 and 9.

I actually have a lot of friends isolated because their kids have Covid.

[Drew]

WHO says it’s time to lift COVID-19 restrictions calling travel bans “ineffective”

[Middle-aged Europe]

Next COVID meeting of the Chancellor and the minister-presidents of Germany is tomorrow. Drafts that have been leaked show that not much will come out of it. Current level of measures will be continued for the time being, but given the increasing infection numbers contact tracing and PCR tests will be restricted to certain priority groups.

[Frodo]

They are already preparing to treat COVID as endemic once the Omicron variant burns out:

Europe could be headed for pandemic 'endgame': WHO

[Meclazine for Israel]

Exasperated Hong Kong residents hide their hampsters as the 'great covid cull' continues unabated:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-21/hong-kong-warns-people-covid-hamster-cull/100774262


2 y.o. Henry has been suffering anxiety in his Hong Kong apartment

The government has warned residents not to 'harbour' the cute mammals as they need to be exterminated.

Harbouring 'fugitive hampsters' will result in criminal prosecution.

[Farmlands]

WHO says it’s time to lift COVID-19 restrictions calling travel bans “ineffective”

Thank God. Flying is already enough of a hassle, but it has been a nightmare with all these restrictions and rules that vary wildly between each country and ended up consuming half my budget in my last trip to Croatia.

[SnowLabrador]

WHO says it’s time to lift COVID-19 restrictions calling travel bans “ineffective”

I think that should be up to each individual country. Some may never reopen their borders, and that's okay.

[Pericles]

WHO says it’s time to lift COVID-19 restrictions calling travel bans “ineffective”

Trying to have it halfways is, but closing the border and having a hotel quarantine system has absolutely been the lesser evil for some countries. So the question instead is whether they are still necessary, and I think for NZ we can live with looser measures very soon.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Seven-day incidence continues to reach new record highs in Germany, is close to 1,300 nationally now, with the two city-states (and largest cities) Berlin and Hamburg still leading the pack.

Meanwhile, Bremen has joined the calls from Bavaria to lift COVID restrictions, and Berlin is considering to allow COVID-positive personnel of the critical infrastructure to go to work.

[MATTROSE94]

WHO says it’s time to lift COVID-19 restrictions calling travel bans “ineffective”

I think that should be up to each individual country. Some may never reopen their borders, and that's okay.

I doubt that Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Austria will fully lift their COVID restrictions and border restrictions until COVID cases drop to zero worldwide.

[Pericles]

WHO says it’s time to lift COVID-19 restrictions calling travel bans “ineffective”

I think that should be up to each individual country. Some may never reopen their borders, and that's okay.

I doubt that Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Austria will fully lift their COVID restrictions and border restrictions until COVID cases drop to zero worldwide.

That is a very uninformed take. None of these countries are pursuing an elimination strategy. Australia met its vaccination targets and then let cases rise to some of the highest per capita levels in the world. While mistakes were made, because of the very high vaccination rates, Australia could push through it without overwhelming its healthcare system. The same basic choice has been made in New Zealand. The reason we still have a closed border is because it wouldn't be smart to let Omicron in before we have to, and it's still an easy way to reduce cases. It will not be permanently closed.

[Former President tack50]

WHO says it’s time to lift COVID-19 restrictions calling travel bans “ineffective”

I think that should be up to each individual country. Some may never reopen their borders, and that's okay.

I doubt that Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Austria will fully lift their COVID restrictions and border restrictions until COVID cases drop to zero worldwide.

Considering our dependency on tourism, that would be equal to economic suicide,so I am confident we will drop pandemic restrictions at some point

[Middle-aged Europe]

WHO says it’s time to lift COVID-19 restrictions calling travel bans “ineffective”

I think that should be up to each individual country. Some may never reopen their borders, and that's okay.

I doubt that Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Austria will fully lift their COVID restrictions and border restrictions until COVID cases drop to zero worldwide.

Um, COVID cases will never drop to zero, although one day they will certainly stop counting them. As soon as the latter happens I expect all remaining COVID restrictions to be lifted.

I don't know that the COVID stategy is where you come from, but where I live the purpose of vaccinations is that you'll be able to withstand a COVID infection without dying or suffering any other serious short-term or long-term health issues. But as Christian Drosten, probably the most prominent member of the Corona Experts' Council of the German government and advisor to the German Conference of the Federal and State Governments on COVID, doesn't hesitate to point out, the infection of the entire the population (after it has been fully vaccinated) will be necessary to build up a sufficiently permanent immune reaction to COVID. You wouldn't need to create a permanent immune reaction in the population if the goal ist to eradicate the virus altogether one day. Eradicating the virus altogether is an impossibility though, or at least that's what the virologists are telling the governments.

[MATTROSE94]

WHO says it’s time to lift COVID-19 restrictions calling travel bans “ineffective”

I think that should be up to each individual country. Some may never reopen their borders, and that's okay.

I doubt that Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Austria will fully lift their COVID restrictions and border restrictions until COVID cases drop to zero worldwide.

That is a very uninformed take. None of these countries are pursuing an elimination strategy. Australia met its vaccination targets and then let cases rise to some of the highest per capita levels in the world. While mistakes were made, because of the very high vaccination rates, Australia could push through it without overwhelming its healthcare system. The same basic choice has been made in New Zealand. The reason we still have a closed border is because it wouldn't be smart to let Omicron in before we have to, and it's still an easy way to reduce cases. It will not be permanently closed.

Interesting. I was always under the impression that those countries were pursuing an elimination strategy. BTW, I do not support an elimination strategy due to the fact that it is impossible to eliminate a disease such as COVID considering that it is now in animal reservoirs. The best approach is to roll back restrictions and push for universal vaccinations worldwide.

[Middle-aged Europe]

WHO says it’s time to lift COVID-19 restrictions calling travel bans “ineffective”

I think that should be up to each individual country. Some may never reopen their borders, and that's okay.

I doubt that Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Austria will fully lift their COVID restrictions and border restrictions until COVID cases drop to zero worldwide.

That is a very uninformed take. None of these countries are pursuing an elimination strategy. Australia met its vaccination targets and then let cases rise to some of the highest per capita levels in the world. While mistakes were made, because of the very high vaccination rates, Australia could push through it without overwhelming its healthcare system. The same basic choice has been made in New Zealand. The reason we still have a closed border is because it wouldn't be smart to let Omicron in before we have to, and it's still an easy way to reduce cases. It will not be permanently closed.

Interesting. I was always under the impression that those countries were pursuing an elimination strategy. BTW, I do not support an elimination strategy due to the fact that it is impossible to eliminate a disease such as COVID considering that it is now in animal reservoirs. The best approach is to roll back restrictions and push for universal vaccinations worldwide.

Well, Australia and New Zealand did, I think. As far as all the others are concerned the strategy has always been to prevent a collapse of the hospitals and curtail the number of COVID deaths until everybody is vaccinated. The vaccination campaigns didn't progress very well in some cases, especially in Germany and Austria, which led to most COVID restrictions being directed against the unvaxxed there.

[MATTROSE94]

WHO says it’s time to lift COVID-19 restrictions calling travel bans “ineffective”

I think that should be up to each individual country. Some may never reopen their borders, and that's okay.

I doubt that Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Austria will fully lift their COVID restrictions and border restrictions until COVID cases drop to zero worldwide.

That is a very uninformed take. None of these countries are pursuing an elimination strategy. Australia met its vaccination targets and then let cases rise to some of the highest per capita levels in the world. While mistakes were made, because of the very high vaccination rates, Australia could push through it without overwhelming its healthcare system. The same basic choice has been made in New Zealand. The reason we still have a closed border is because it wouldn't be smart to let Omicron in before we have to, and it's still an easy way to reduce cases. It will not be permanently closed.

Interesting. I was always under the impression that those countries were pursuing an elimination strategy. BTW, I do not support an elimination strategy due to the fact that it is impossible to eliminate a disease such as COVID considering that it is now in animal reservoirs. The best approach is to roll back restrictions and push for universal vaccinations worldwide.

Well, Australia and New Zealand did, I think. As far as all the others are concerned the strategy has always been to prevent a collapse of the hospitals and curtail the number of COVID deaths until everybody is vaccinated. The vaccination campaigns didn't progress very well in some cases, especially in Germany and Austria, which led to most COVID restrictions being directed against the unvaxxed there.

I read that a lot of the heavily Catholic countries of Europe with the exceptions of Spain, Portugal, and Ireland have progressed very poorly with the vaccination campaign. Maybe that is why Germany, France, and Austria implemented strong COVID restrictions as of late.

[Middle-aged Europe]

WHO says it’s time to lift COVID-19 restrictions calling travel bans “ineffective”

I think that should be up to each individual country. Some may never reopen their borders, and that's okay.

I doubt that Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Austria will fully lift their COVID restrictions and border restrictions until COVID cases drop to zero worldwide.

That is a very uninformed take. None of these countries are pursuing an elimination strategy. Australia met its vaccination targets and then let cases rise to some of the highest per capita levels in the world. While mistakes were made, because of the very high vaccination rates, Australia could push through it without overwhelming its healthcare system. The same basic choice has been made in New Zealand. The reason we still have a closed border is because it wouldn't be smart to let Omicron in before we have to, and it's still an easy way to reduce cases. It will not be permanently closed.

Interesting. I was always under the impression that those countries were pursuing an elimination strategy. BTW, I do not support an elimination strategy due to the fact that it is impossible to eliminate a disease such as COVID considering that it is now in animal reservoirs. The best approach is to roll back restrictions and push for universal vaccinations worldwide.

Well, Australia and New Zealand did, I think. As far as all the others are concerned the strategy has always been to prevent a collapse of the hospitals and curtail the number of COVID deaths until everybody is vaccinated. The vaccination campaigns didn't progress very well in some cases, especially in Germany and Austria, which led to most COVID restrictions being directed against the unvaxxed there.

I read that a lot of the heavily Catholic countries of Europe with the exceptions of Spain, Portugal, and Ireland have progressed very poorly with the vaccination campaign. Maybe that is why Germany, France, and Austria implemented strong COVID restrictions as of late.

I wouldn't really describe Germany as "heavily Catholic" and in the case of the German-speaking countries the  low vaccination rates are often attributed to the teachings of Rudolf Steiner and Samuel Hahnemann.

Restrictions here are not really that strong compared to one year ago, as long as you are boostered (or for some reason exempted from it). Since I am, I admittedly tend to file the misgivings of the unvaxxed under "not my problem".

[SnowLabrador]

WHO says it’s time to lift COVID-19 restrictions calling travel bans “ineffective”

I think that should be up to each individual country. Some may never reopen their borders, and that's okay.

I doubt that Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Austria will fully lift their COVID restrictions and border restrictions until COVID cases drop to zero worldwide.

Considering our dependency on tourism, that would be equal to economic suicide,so I am confident we will drop pandemic restrictions at some point

No country depends on tourism. As much as I used to love traveling, I'm willing to give it up for good if that's what it takes to end the pandemic and prevent future ones. Plus it contributes to climate change; I feel guilty every time I get on a plane.

[CumbrianLefty]

No country (save possibly a handful of microstates) depends *entirely* on tourism.

But that is not the same thing.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Corona restrictions support in Germany (Infratest dimap, Feb. 3)


Corona measures are...
going too far 31% (+6)
appropriate 44% (+2)
going not far enough 22% (-9)

Support for general vaccine mandate
For all adults 53%
Only for adults of 50 years or older 12%
Against a vaccine mandate in all forms 33%

[Lurker]

Seems like Scandinavia (alongside Britain) is a world of its own nowadays. All restrictions either gone in all countries or set to disappear in about a week.

Whereas other parts of Europe and the US are still discussing things like outside (!) mask mandates, which would seem totally crazy to most people here. The idea of small kids having to wear masks in school or even kindergarten was never really even up for discussion, at least in Norway.

Has there been any reaction or discussion of the Scandinavian examples in your countries?

[Middle-aged Europe]

Seems like Scandinavia (alongside Britain) is a world of its own nowadays. All restrictions either gone in all countries or set to disappear in about a week.

Whereas other parts of Europe and the US are still discussing things like outside (!) mask mandates, which would seem totally crazy to most people here. The idea of small kids having to wear masks in school or even kindergarten was never really even up for discussion, at least in Norway.

Has there been any reaction or discussion of the Scandinavian examples in your countries?

Somewhat curiously, outdoor mask mandates weren't never much of a thing in Germany - except for large-scale events like political demonstrations or briefly for certain periods at a number of specifically designated places. In the case of the latter, most people - including your humble narrator - tended to ignore them though. Sometimes unwittingly, because those specifically designated places were really few in number and consequently it was not really widespread public knowledge when you happened to enter one. On the other hand, general outdoor mask mandates were about the only restriction that got re-introduced in Spain when the Omicron wave first hit in December. Governments are weird.

But back to the topic. The "when are we gonna follow the UK's and Denmark's lead on ending restrictions?" debate has picking up steam in Germany recently and is by now certainly in full swing. Among the governing parties the FDP obviously supports ending the restrictions, while SPD and Greens are more hesistant.... which usally amounts to a stalemate where restrictions are neither tightened nor loosened. It's maybe worth pointing out that some major center-left newspapers and magazines, specifically Süddeutsche Zeitung and Der Spiegel have started to publish editorials arguing to end restrictions. On the state-level, the governments of Bavaria and Bremen have at least advocated loosening them a bit.