International COVID-19 Megathread

[Tender Branson]

As of today, Vienna has overtaken Tyrol as the state with the most cases ever tested positive.

But Vienna has almost 2 million people, Tyrol only 0.75 million - so it's all relative, per capita.

[Helsinkian]

Finland ends the state of emergency.

[Silent Hunter]

While much of Europe has fully opened its borders.

[urutzizu]

Germany's Contact Tracing App starts today, officially called the "Corona-Warn-App".

I am not particularly optimistic about it though. First, what we have seen in other Countries that have rolled them out is not encouraging. Australia or France for instance (in the former case there is only literally one known case of it helping), and even in a Country like Singapore where the population might be expected to have a greater sense of social responsibility to use the App (and Government expected to be more competent) it has been a total failure. Add to that the fact that Germans are unmatched globally in our absolute paranoia about anything re personal data and you have zero chance of something like this working imo. It was partly the reason why Germany went for the decentralized model (meaning personal data is not stored on some central government server, as opposed to most others, but on the phones themselves) but just anecdotally I really doubt that that is a distinction most people here understand or make. You try and sell them anything even resembling something that might be understood as a location tracker; no chance.

The only Contact Tracing App that to my knowledge has worked in any meaningful way is the Alipay Health Code system in China. But ultimately that is a concept that is extremely invasive and would be unacceptable in any western society. Having a green health code (no contact to known cases) must be proven for essentially any movements in public places, Shops, malls, trains etc. and has expanded the authorities digital control over citizens even further than the already dystopian levels. That is a price most Chinese are willing to pay no questions asked to eradicate Covid-19 it seems, there has been little dissent against it.

Ultimately if the App fails, it won't be a very tragic thing. Germany's conventional Contact Tracing system is working relatively well, and seems to be able to keep up with most symptomatic cases. And if you are not trying to go for complete elimination, as imo the German Health Authorities are not, then that will do the job perfectly well.

---

China has also seen a second outbreak in Beijing in what appears to apparently be a mutated strain of the Virus. There have been 79 new local cases since Thursday, all of which are linked to the huge Xinfadi wholesale market in the Sw district of Fengtai. Three Cases in Hebei and two in Liaoning and Sichuan province each have been linked to the cluster. The Virus was apparently found on a cutting board for salmon, possibly Imported. In any event the Beijing authorities are taking no chances and have imposed a total lockdown on 21 residential estates in Fengtai and the northern district of Haidian, which is also home to a big food market. Arrivals from Beijing must isolate in neighboring provinces. Mass Testing is underway. Lots of luck involved with finding it and acting so early, since this is a market visited by about 100000 people per week, and of course the Beijing Authorities handling contrasts very favourably with how a certain other Chinese city and in fact many other parts of the world reacted to outbreaks when in their infancy.

[Helsinkian]

Norway actually ordered their tracking app to be deleted along with all the data due to privacy concerns.

[Pulaski]

GAME CHANGER: Dexamethasone can save lives of people seriously ill with coronavirus, is cheap and widely available.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53061281

[CumbrianLefty]

Assuming the trial results can be repeated, one of the best bits of news since this all started.

[Tender Branson]

Sadly, 2 new infections in Salzburg state reported today.

4 active cases now.

Carinthia even reported 4 new cases yesterday (5 active now) and Styria 2 (3 active).

So, Burgenland (3 active) now has the best cards to be Coronavirus-free first ...

The early virus hotspot Tyrol („Ischgl ski resort“) is down to just 6 active cases.

Meanwhile, a mass outbreak at a Vienna care home has killed 6 residents there and several others were infected and quarantined.

[President Johnson]

Germany's Contact Tracing App starts today, officially called the "Corona-Warn-App".

I am not particularly optimistic about it though. First, what we have seen in other Countries that have rolled them out is not encouraging. Australia or France for instance (in the former case there is only literally one known case of it helping), and even in a Country like Singapore where the population might be expected to have a greater sense of social responsibility to use the App (and Government expected to be more competent) it has been a total failure. Add to that the fact that Germans are unmatched globally in our absolute paranoia about anything re personal data and you have zero chance of something like this working imo. It was partly the reason why Germany went for the decentralized model (meaning personal data is not stored on some central government server, as opposed to most others, but on the phones themselves) but just anecdotally I really doubt that that is a distinction most people here understand or make. You try and sell them anything even resembling something that might be understood as a location tracker; no chance.

The only Contact Tracing App that to my knowledge has worked in any meaningful way is the Alipay Health Code system in China. But ultimately that is a concept that is extremely invasive and would be unacceptable in any western society. Having a green health code (no contact to known cases) must be proven for essentially any movements in public places, Shops, malls, trains etc. and has expanded the authorities digital control over citizens even further than the already dystopian levels. That is a price most Chinese are willing to pay no questions asked to eradicate Covid-19 it seems, there has been little dissent against it.

Ultimately if the App fails, it won't be a very tragic thing. Germany's conventional Contact Tracing system is working relatively well, and seems to be able to keep up with most symptomatic cases. And if you are not trying to go for complete elimination, as imo the German Health Authorities are not, then that will do the job perfectly well.

The most ridiculous thing about this, aside from the months long delay, is that it's not compatible with any IPhone prior to 7. I still have IPhone 5, bought in 2014 and working just fine, but couldn't use the app if I wanted to. I wasn't sure whether to download or not, but the question has answered itsself now.

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/16/878316880/after-weeks-of-no-new-cases-of-covid-19-in-new-zealand-2-cases-arrive-from-u-k

After 24 days with no new cases of the coronavirus, New Zealand now has two. Both are women in the same family and traveled from the U.K. via Australia.

[Silent Hunter]

What we are likely to get going forward in many countries over the next few months are "mini-spikes" ie. localised outbreaks often tied to one location. The authorities are getting better at containing them, which is a good thing.

[palandio]

And there we have the next "mini-spike" in a meat factory in Rheda-Wiedenbrück (county of Gütersloh, Eastern Westfalia):

400 positive tests out of 500, with another 500 still missing.

There are further localised outbreaks in Berlin, Göttingen and other cities, often linked to "extended families" and overcrowded apartments where local authorities have difficulties because not all inhabitants are registered at their respective addresses.

[urutzizu]

Laschet is now blaming the "Romanians and Bulgarians who brought the Virus with them" for the outbreak and says it has nothing to do with him reopening faster than other states.

What an Idiot. His approval is already sliding badly, and he is showing that his political Instincts are closer to Trump or Boris than Merkel. Her supporters are (by and large) supporting him in the CDU leadership race because of Ideological reasons, but personality wise Söder (and most of the other state premiers) have shown themselves in this Crisis to have much more of her humility and statesmanship that Laschet desperately lacks.

[Tender Branson]

3 more people from that Vienna nursing home have died, but otherwise they seem to have this cluster outbreak under control now.

9 people have died in the past 2 weeks there, most of them between 80 and 100 years and with previous illnesses.

In other news, Norbert Hofer (FPÖ-leader) has been charged with incitement of hatred and vilification of religious beliefs, after he told an audience in Vienna (elections in October !) that he thinks the Koran is more dangerous than Corona ...

https://wien.orf.at/stories/3053629

[President Johnson]

Laschet is now blaming the "Romanians and Bulgarians who brought the Virus with them" for the outbreak and says it has nothing to do with him reopening faster than other states.

What an Idiot. His approval is already sliding badly, and he is showing that his political Instincts are closer to Trump or Boris than Merkel. Her supporters are (by and large) supporting him in the CDU leadership race because of Ideological reasons, but personality wise Söder (and most of the other state premiers) have shown themselves in this Crisis to have much more of her humility and statesmanship that Laschet desperately lacks.

I used to like him, but he has acted like fool in recent weeks. He will never be chancellor if he continues with this kind of stuff. Apparently he never heard of Igschl, from where tourists originally brought in the virus. That's also a factor in the low death rate, since most of these tourists were not much older than late 40s.

Also, if the Romanians and Bulgarians weren't working in meat factories with poor hygiene standards for a few nickels an hour, there might not be another outbreak as reported today (600+ people infected and over 7,000 under mandatory quarantine).

[Silent Hunter]

What is going to contain this more than anything else is good hygiene.

[palandio]

Laschet is now blaming the "Romanians and Bulgarians who brought the Virus with them" for the outbreak and says it has nothing to do with him reopening faster than other states.

What an Idiot. His approval is already sliding badly, and he is showing that his political Instincts are closer to Trump or Boris than Merkel. Her supporters are (by and large) supporting him in the CDU leadership race because of Ideological reasons, but personality wise Söder (and most of the other state premiers) have shown themselves in this Crisis to have much more of her humility and statesmanship that Laschet desperately lacks.

I used to like him, but he has acted like fool in recent weeks. He will never be chancellor if he continues with this kind of stuff. Apparently he never heard of Igschl, from where tourists originally brought in the virus. That's also a factor in the low death rate, since most of these tourists were not much older than late 40s.

Also, if the Romanians and Bulgarians weren't working in meat factories with poor hygiene standards for a few nickels an hour, there might not be another outbreak as reported today (600+ people infected and over 7,000 under mandatory quarantine).

His first sentence about Romanians and Bulgarians bringing the virus with them is of course idiotic.

The rest of his statement seems to be spot on. He is exactly saying that the main problem is the working and living conditions of the workers.

Local outbreaks are occurring everywhere (although at a decreasing rate), even in the Holy Land of Saint Söder. The outbreaks are mostly in environments where a lockdown doesn't make any difference. Söder is for the most part an opportunistic populist who instrumentalizes people's fears and postures as Mr Lockdown despite the Bavarian situation not being better than the rest of Germany. (I know that many people that are now applauding him are not his fans, which makes the whole thing even more regretable.)

[President Johnson]

Today, there are reports about a British study that shows blood type is apparently connected to heavily course of Covid19. The reason is yet unknown. According to the study, blood type A has a 50% higher risk for heavy symptoms, while blood type 0 has the lowest risk. Link to a report

It's kinda interesting because I remember a conversation at lunch with my boss from February and March and I said to him that I believe more unknown factors determine how bad the disease could get. One suggestion I raised was blood type. I didn't read anything like that at the time and I have no deeper knowledge of medical issues in general, I was just guessing.

[Mike88]

Portugal: Government furious after some EU countries banned the entry of Portuguese citizens now threatens to answer in the same way:

https://twitter.com/ECO_PT/status/1273724754818719754

Government threatens to retaliate against countries that prevent entry of Portuguese citizens

Countries like Denmark and Austria prevent the Portuguese from entering their territory because of the pandemic. The Government criticizes this position and admits reciprocity in that decision.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirmed this Thursday that the decision of some member states of the European Union to prohibit the entry of Portuguese was taken "contrary to the decisions taken by the European Union", arguing that Portugal has more cases for having carried out " much more tests than most European countries ”. The Government's threat is to apply the “principle of reciprocity”, that is, to prohibit the citizens of these countries from entering national territory.

This reaction comes after more EU countries are forbidding the entry of Portuguese citizens:

https://twitter.com/Publico/status/1273678302956474368

Covid-19: Portuguese banned from entering or restricted entry in ten European countries

[Silent Hunter]

Yep, these things tend to be reciprocal. The French only imposed their quarantine on the UK after the UK decided to impose one on France. Hopefully that ends soon.

[Middle-aged Europe]

COVID-19-denying Russian priest backed by Cossack fighters has seized control of Sredneuralsk convent, vows he will only be removed by force:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/18/russian-priest-who-called-coronavirus-a-pseudo-pandemic-seizes-convent

[Beet]

Is it just me, or are more and more cases being reported recently? It seems to be accelerating, although it should be dropping by this point. Yikes.

[Silent Hunter]

It's very varied by country or even region; the virus is in decline across most of Europe and Asia, but still very much active in the Americas, including Texas.

[CumbrianLefty]

It's very varied by country or even region; the virus is in decline across most of Europe and Asia, but still very much active in the Americas, including Texas.

Though that doesn't exclude local flare-ups, as is to be expected.

[Tender Branson]

This virus is certainly nasty and won’t go completely away ...

Here in Salzburg City, a new small cluster emerged yesterday with 5 active cases after contact tracing. Therefore, Salzburg state now has 8 active cases again (the other 3 cases are in the suburbs. No active cases in the 3 mountain districts).

There is also a new cluster in Styria, where a Chechen family spread the virus from Vienna to the state. Therefore, active cases in Styria are up from 2 to more than 30 as of today.

On the other hand, Tyrol is down to 3 cases. It would be hilarious if Tyrol would be declared virus-free as the first state in Austria, after their initial record outbreak.