The COVID-2019 Thread

[harrybarracuda]

The Thai Ministry of Public Health has predicted that there will be a maximum average of 50,000 COVID-19 cases a day after the Songkran holidays next week

Presumably because they are planning on doing 50,000 tests a day.

[harrybarracuda]

Well the chinky outbreak is at least telling us the ratio of symptomatic to asymptomatic: Currently running around 1:20.

Shanghai reports 22,609 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases, 1,015 symptomatic cases for April 8

Shanghai reports 22,609 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases, 1,015 symptomatic cases for April 8 | Reuters

[Buckaroo Banzai]

As Predicted.

Thailand Eases Testing Rules for Visitors to Boost Tourism
Covid panel agrees to scrap RT-PCR tests on arrival from May
Tourists may no longer need to book Covid tests, hotel rooms
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

[harrybarracuda]

As Predicted.

Thailand Eases Testing Rules for Visitors to Boost Tourism
Covid panel agrees to scrap RT-PCR tests on arrival from May
Tourists may no longer need to book Covid tests, hotel rooms
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

No, people were predicting that they'd actually do it.

However, this is about the third time they've said they'll change things IF the numbers look good, which obviously after a few days of Songkran with the associated travel is unlikely.

[Buckaroo Banzai]

No, people were predicting that they'd actually do it.

However, this is about the third time they've said they'll change things IF the numbers look good, which obviously after a few days of Songkran with the associated travel is unlikely.

Call me Nostradamus , but I was. with every other country doing so, if they wanted to maintain their fair share of the tourist market they had to. It was inevitable .
Of course as you said if the numbers head south they might have to make adjustments, any country would. but personally I don't think they will to a number significant enough for them to backtrack
Let's keep our fingers crossed.

[harrybarracuda]

Call me Nostradamus , but I was. with every other country doing so, if they wanted to maintain their fair share of the tourist market they had to. It was inevitable .
Of course as you said if the numbers head south they might have to make adjustments, any country would. but personally I don't think they will to a number significant enough for them to backtrack
Let's keep our fingers crossed.

The UK has let Omicron rip. At this point it's only 40% more lethal than Influenza, and we don't block borders for that.

They're just idiots. But they'll have to drop this shit sooner or later.

[hallelujah]

As Predicted.

Thailand Eases Testing Rules for Visitors to Boost Tourism
Covid panel agrees to scrap RT-PCR tests on arrival from May
Tourists may no longer need to book Covid tests, hotel rooms
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

But, from reading that, they're still gonna do the antigen tests on arrival at the airport?

So you could just end up being stuck in a quarantine hotel anyway.

[harrybarracuda]

But, from reading that, they're still gonna do the antigen tests on arrival at the airport?

So you could just end up being stuck in a quarantine hotel anyway.

Precisely. The fucking idiots think the price of a PCR test and a night in a hotel is what is putting people off coming.

[hallelujah]

Precisely. The fucking idiots think the price of a PCR test and a night in a hotel is what is putting people off coming.

Jaysus. And there was me thinking it was me missing my morning coffee that had me making a mistake there.

[Shutree]

I continue to point out the blindingly obvious that China's 'Zero Covid' policy is no longer fit for purpose and Xi continues to ignore my counsel.

Hong Kong mandated that every resident must, without fail, go for 3 Covid tests. Typical authoritarian, half thought out direction. A friend of mine is pretty sure he caught it in a three-hour queue for his first test. He stayed at home quietly and got over it. Then it all went a bit quiet, someone realised that HK did not have the lab capacity to check 21 million test results. So they changed course and sent everyone test kits. They have to test themselves and report the results if positive.
It has not escaped the attention of most HongKongers that reporting a positive result could mean transportation to the gulag at Penny's Bay, where you can immerse yourself in every variant and maybe create a new one. Unsurprisingly, everyone with any nous at all is testing negative.

The government sent me a helpful reminder. Not that hold a HK ID card these days, still it is nice to be included.



(Sideways again. Thanks TD.)

I have spoken a few times to my friend in Shanghai. The lockdown there was unexpected, to her, because she accepted all the government assurances that everything was fine and she made no preparations. She confirms that the government is having difficulty delivering food to 25 million people. That is in part because the delivery drivers are locked down. Another half thought out plan. People are marooned, especially older people who are not so well connected on social media and have no apps to order food. Anyone with a positive test is being dragged off to quarantine, children have been separated from parents. It really isn't going well. The natives are getting restless. Xi should listen to me.

[misskit]

Thailand’s COVID-19 death toll exceeds 100 for three consecutive days

The death toll from COVID-19 exceeded 100 for three days in a row on today (Tuesday), with people who are over 60, those suffering from certain underlying diseases and pregnant women, accounting for 97% of the fatalities, according to Disease Control Department Director-General Dr. Opart Karnkawinpong.


101 deaths and 19,982 confirmed COVID-19 infections were recorded today. Of the fatalities, 83 were over 60 and 15 were afflicted with underlying diseases and one was a three-month infant. 16 were found to be infected at the time of their deaths.


Dr. Opart noted that 94% of the deaths had not received booster vaccine jabs and fatalities among bed-ridden patients is rising.


He urged the elderly to get their booster shots at their nearest vaccination facility, reminding them that boosters will greatly reduce the risk of severe symptoms or death.


He also advised parents to bring their children, aged 12-17, to get booster jabs, either one full dose or half a dose of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine, before the start of the new school term, tentatively in mid-May.


The third vaccine shot should be administered 4-6 months after the second injection, he said.

Thailand's COVID-19 death toll exceeds 100 for three consecutive days | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

[Shutree]

The death toll from COVID-19 exceeded 100 for three days in a row on today (Tuesday), with people who are over 60, those suffering from certain underlying diseases and pregnant women, accounting for 97% of the fatalities, according to Disease Control Department Director-General Dr. Opart Karnkawinpong.

The number could be higher, I don't know exactly who records what.
A chap in the village died with Covid recently, just 60 and recently retired. He'd been treated for and was recovering from some sort of kidney ailment so I suppose that put him in the 'pre-exiisting condition' category. Anyway, the hospital didn't want to know. He passed away at home and the family were told to send him straight to the temple.

[HermantheGerman]

Xi should listen to me.

Explain please? You mean let the virus run off?
Or get some good western vaccination first and then open up?

I think Chinkystan is in pretty bad shape

[Shutree]

Explain please? You mean let the virus run off?
Or get some good western vaccination first and then open up?

They can't let it rip, the regime needs to be seen to be in control. They also can't keep Shanghai locked down forever, in my experience the Chinese will put up with a great deal so long as they are fed. People are not getting fed and that could turn nasty.
I mean they need to find an official path other than 'Zero Covid'. Booster vaccinations with a better vaccine would be a good start.

[harrybarracuda]

They can't let it rip, the regime needs to be seen to be in control. They also can't keep Shanghai locked down forever, in my experience the Chinese will put up with a great deal so long as they are fed. People are not getting fed and that could turn nasty.
I mean they need to find an official path other than 'Zero Covid'. Booster vaccinations with a better vaccine would be a good start.

I keep asking hoohoo what's happening with their mRNA knock off, but he doesn't like to talk about it.

[harrybarracuda]

The half billion is reached, but probably a lot more now that it's asymptomatic in 95% of cases.

The coronavirus is continuing to stalk the world at an astonishing clip, racing past a grim succession of pandemic milestones in 2022: totals of 300 million known cases around the world by early January, 400 million by early February and, as of Tuesday, half a billion.

There have almost certainly been far more infections than that among the global population of 7.9 billion, with many going undetected or unreported, and the reporting gap may only grow wider as some countries, including the United States, scale back official testing.

Covid News: World Exceeds 500 Million Known Virus Cases Amid Testing Concerns - The New York Times

[nidhogg]

They can't let it rip, the regime needs to be seen to be in control. They also can't keep Shanghai locked down forever, in my experience the Chinese will put up with a great deal so long as they are fed. People are not getting fed and that could turn nasty.
I mean they need to find an official path other than 'Zero Covid'. Booster vaccinations with a better vaccine would be a good start.

China has got itself in a mess. They have very high first vaccine shot coverage with a shitty vaccine, but very low second or third shot coverage. Studies suggest that three shots with their vaccine would provide sufficient protection.

As always, it is not the number of infections that is the problem - it is the number of hospitalizations that is the problem. If China opens up, their medical system will crash. They will have to keep a lid on and speed up their vaccinations to get out of this situation.

For Thailand also - the number of cases after Songkran will be less important than the number of hospitalizations in deciding how to proceed.

[hallelujah]

Dystopian hell:

[misskit]

^That is so eerie.

[Buckaroo Banzai]

^That is so eerie.

Indeed it is. any idea why? Is it frasturation, and the only way to vent? is it the only way people can express their fasturaion in anonymity without fear of recriminations?

on a sidebar, Yesterday we were exposed to a person for a couple of hours who later on tested positive for covid, so we are a bit nervous, we will give it a couple of days more and we will take a test. No symptoms yet other than a runny nose that could be because of all the pine pollen in the air,
Keeping our fingers crossed.

[misskit]

Like a lunatic asylum.

[misskit]

WHO says Covid still a global public health emergency even as deaths fall to lowest level in two years

The World Health Organization on Wednesday said Covid-19 remains a global public health emergency despite the fact that deaths from the virus have fallen to their lowest level since the early days of the pandemic.


The world recorded more than 22,000 deaths from Covid during the week ended April 10, the lowest level since March 30, 2020, according to WHO data. The organization first declared Covid a global health emergency on Jan. 30, 2020, just over a month after the virus emerged in Wuhan, China.


WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said declining Covid deaths is good news, but some countries are still experiencing a spike in cases. Tedros said a WHO committee this week unanimously agreed that Covid remains a public health emergency.


“Far from being the time to drop our guard, this is the moment to work even harder to save lives,” Tedros said during a press briefing in Geneva. “Specifically, this means investing so that Covid-19 tools are equitably distributed, and we simultaneously strengthen health systems.”


The WHO has called for world leaders to ensure all nations vaccinate 70% of their populations against Covid by the middle of the year. However, 75 countries have vaccinated less than 40% of their populations and 21 nations have vaccinated less than 10% of their people as of March, according to the group.

Every region is reporting declining cases and deaths, according to the WHO’s latest epidemiological update. The world recorded 7.3 million new infections for the week ended April 10, a 24% decrease from the previous week and the lowest level since late December when the highly contagious omicron variant was sweeping the world.


However, the even more contagious omicron BA.2 subvariant has fueled renewed outbreaks in Europe and China, and increasingly, in the U.S. While Europe has largely emerged from its BA.2 wave, China is fighting its worst outbreak since 2020. China has placed most of Shanghai, involving about 25 million people, under lockdown.


The U.S. reported more than 30,000 new infections on Monday, a 20% increase over the previous week, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, infections and hospitalizations are still more than 90% below the peak of the winter omicron wave in the U.S.


“It’s always easier to declare a pandemic than undeclare one,” said Dr. Didier Houssin, chairman of the WHO’s international health regulations emergency committee. The committee makes recommendations about whether the transmission of a virus constitutes a global emergency.


Houssin said the committee is working on criteria, including epidemiological data and the level of international assistance to contain the virus, to determine when the WHO can declare that the global health emergency is over.

Covid still a global health emergency even as deaths fall: WHO

[pickel]

any idea why

They have no food.

[helge]

They have no food.

Dangerous to an autocratic regime.

[Shutree]

Dangerous to an autocratic regime.

It certainly is.

It reminds me of Network: "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more."