Songkran will be the catalyst for the Covid pandemic in Thailand.
Songkran will be the catalyst for the Covid pandemic in Thailand.
Kevin Rudd is none too impressed with Morrison's competence on the vaccine roll out.
Australia’s vaccination rollout strategy has been an epic fail. Now Scott Morrison is trying to gaslight us | Vaccines and immunisation | The GuardianFive months after Morrison announced Australians were “at the front of the queue” for vaccination, our rollout is presently ranked 104th in the world – sandwiched between Lebanon and Bangladesh – based on the latest seven-day average vaccination rate. This is a national disgrace.
This time is looking different. The recent Bangkok cases have spread rapidly around the country as all the working girls find their bars closed and run for home. After a year of nothing in this remote province we had one Bangkok returnee admitted to hospital here last week and then another was found yesterday in the next village to me. Local people are concerned now.
The news isn't encouraging either. This from the Bangkok Post:
More than 28,000 people could be infected by Covid-19 per day over the next month if no disease control measures are put in place during the current spike, which is thought to be more severe than the previous two rounds, a senior public health official warned on Sunday.
The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) reported 967 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, the most ever diagnosed in 24 hours in the kingdom.
Grim warning amid surge
Sadly, welcome to the world of COVID as most of us have been enjoying it. Hopefully it doesn't get too bad and the vaccine roll out gets handled well there.
^ was there any need to point out one of my many failures.
I might have missed it, I was interested to know if others have downloaded the "MorChana" app?
It is highly intrusive, it knows where you are and where you have been and when. On the basis that I live a blameless existence I thought I'd get it anyway.
It uses some power, your location and Bluetooth are always on.
If you can live with those issues then the app will alert you if you are in known high risk areas and it could be useful to those trying to track and trace contacts.
Well there's a thing, i don't predict a bright future for Mr Gao
Chinese official says local vaccines 'don't have high protection rates'
China's top disease control official has said the efficacy of the country's Covid vaccines is low, in a rare admission of weakness.
In a press conference, Gao Fu added that China was considering mixing vaccines as a way of boosting efficacy.
China has developed four different vaccines approved for public use, though some trials abroad had suggested efficacy as low as 50%.
Mr Gao later said his comments had been misinterpreted.
More than 100 million people in China have received at least one shot of the vaccine.
Beijing has insisted the jabs are effective and said in March that obtaining visas would be easier for foreigners who have received a Chinese vaccine.
What did Mr Gao say?
Gao Fu, head of the Chinese Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, on Saturday said at a conference the current vaccines "don't have very high rates of protection".
He suggested that the China was considering mixing Covid-19 vaccines, as a way of boosting efficacy.
Mr Gao explained that steps to "optimise" the vaccine process could include changing the number of doses and the length of time. He also suggested combining different vaccines for the immunisation process.
But he later appeared to backtrack on his comments, telling state media Global Times that "protection rates of all vaccines in the world are sometimes high, and sometimes low".
"How to improve their efficacy is a question that needs to be considered by scientists around the world," he told the paper.
He added that his earlier admission that Chinese vaccines had a low protection rate were a "complete misunderstanding".
- What do we know about China's Covid-19 vaccines?
- Covid-19: The disinformation tactics used by China
- Coronavirus - what's gone wrong in Brazil?
Mr Gao's original and later comments have been largely unreported by Chinese media.
His original comments however, attracted some criticism on social media
More here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-56713663
Covid-19 transmissions in Hua Hin have showcased the threat the virus poses: a single case can multiply into an exponentially expanding outbreak, forcing people across the country to scramble for tests and beds in hospitals.
Prachuap Khiri Khan has registered 193 infections since the beginning of this month -- 142 of them in Hua Hin district -- and the outbreak is belived to have started with one individual.
The 26-year-old woman, who told health officials that she worked as a public relations officer at Krystal Club, left Bangkok with her boyfriend to visit to her mother in the resort city on March 30. Showing no symptoms, she did not realise she was carrying the coronavirus with her.
The night of her arrival in Hua Hin, she and seven friends and relatives went to Maya Exclusive Pub. The following day, March 31, she developed a high fever.
After she was told on April 1 that her friends at the high-end workplace in Thong Lor had tested positive, the PR representative went to a private hospital in Hua Hin to be tested. On April 3, she was confirmed to have contracted Covid-19.
The following day, April 4, the woman was admitted to Hua Hin Hospital -- but by that time, health investigators said, the virus was on the rampage. A total of 141 people, including her boyfriend, were infected in Hua Hin and 52 more southward throughout the province: Pran Buri, Sam Roi Yot, Kui Buri, Muang Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thap Sakae and Bang Saphan districts.
A chart shown by the Public Health Ministry on Monday indicated the superspreading event was the woman's visit to Maya on the night of March 30.
Hua Hin hotspot highlights Covid's club explosion
What's up with the editor today?
It's trashing quotes and inserting HTML.
Maybe the chinkies censoring my post.
NHS patients in England are to receive the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine from Tuesday, officials have confirmed.
Professor Stephen Powis medical director for NHS England, said the move “marks another milestone” in the Covid-19 vaccination programme.
It is the third vaccine to be added to the NHS “armoury”, alongside the Covid-19 vaccines from Oxford/AstraZeneca and Pfizer.
Moderna coronavirus jab rolled out in England | Evening Standard
China brings out its censors over vaccine critique
By Angela Dewan, CNN
Updated 1216 GMT (2016 HKT) April 12, 2021
(CNN)China's top disease control official made a rare public admission about the relatively low efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccines developed in the country, adding that authorities are weighing options to bolster protection, including mixing different shots and increasing the number of doses.
"The protection rates of existing vaccines are not high," Gao Fu, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said Saturday. "It is time to formally consider whether we should use vaccines developed from different technologies to boost immunization," he said, adding that China must not overlook mRNA vaccines.
The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots used widely in the United States and several other countries use mRNA technology, a new type of vaccine that sends messages to cells in the body to produce a protein that provides protection against Covid-19. The two most commonly used Covid-19 vaccines in China -- the locally developed Sinovac and Sinopharm -- are based on inactivated viruses.
But Gao's remarks were controversial in China and, as his comments gained traction on social media and international news platforms, Chinese censors quickly scrubbed discussions online. State media swiftly put out an interview with Gao to walk back his comments.
Global Times, a state-run nationalist tabloid, quoted Gao as saying reports about his admission were "a complete misunderstanding," and published new, toned-down remarks from Gao.
China brings out its censors over vaccine critique - CNN
Tests on a new COVID vaccine in the UK have so far shown it produces a "strong immune response", Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said.
The Valneva COVID-19 vaccine is being developed in Livingston, Scotland, and data from an early-stage phase one/two study involving 153 people showed promising results for the jab, paving the way for a phase three clinical trial.
The vaccine was safe and generally well tolerated, with no safety concerns identified by an independent data safety monitoring board.
The company said the results showed the vaccine was "highly immunogenic with more than 90% of all study participants developing significant levels of antibodies" to the COVID virus spike protein.
The vaccine also induced T-cell responses, which help the body fend off a virus and play a role in long-lasting immunity.
COVID-19: UK-made Valneva coronavirus vaccine produces 'strong immune response' in early trials, says Matt Hancock | UK News | Sky News
Today:
"The use of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine is put on hold in the United States, reports the New York Times.
The decision was made by the US Food and Drug Administration.
The New York Times reports that the stop is due to six women suffering from blood clots after being vaccinated and now it is to be investigated as a possible side effect of the vaccine."
PHNOM PENH: The Phnom Penh municipality announced on Tuesday that it will extend the curfew in the capital for another two weeks, as the number of its Covid-19 cases is still growing and has not shown any sign of slowing down.
On April 1, the Phnom Penh municipal administration imposed a two-week-long curfew from 8pm to 5am, in a move to contribute to cutting off the transmission chain of Covid-19.
According to the statement signed by Phnom Penh governor Khoung Sreng and obtained by the Khmer Times on Tuesday, the curfew will continue from Thursday to April 28.
Travelling within the Phnom Penh geographical area is banned during curfew for two weeks, except for emergency health and family reasons, medical staff, fire fighters, armed personnel, factory workers, and so on. It also covers eateries, coffee shops, restaurants, except takeaways, as well as gatherings, except among family members in the same house, funerals, and gatherings of health staff and competent authorities on duty.
Phnom Penh to extend curfew for another two weeks
This ought to shake a few people up.
Ratchasee Jitasa Facebook page on Sunday recommended 12 items people should take with them during treatment at a field hospital.
They are:
1. Power strip
2. Personal items, such as toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, soap, towel and hairdryer.
3. Power bank
4. Wet tissue
5. Items to help relieve loneliness (No skidmark, you can't take your blow up doll).
6. Pillow, blanket and mattress
7. Eyeband
8. Food supplements, such as Vitamin C
9. Thermos bottle
10. Snacks
11. One set of clothes to be worn before returning home
12. Underwear for 14 days
The page also advised people to drive to the field hospital by themselves because it would take officials time to reach their homes.
"Staying at the field hospital is not scary as everyone thinks, but some facilities may not meet the people's demands," the page added.
A study looking at whether people can receive doses from two different COVID-19 vaccines has been expanded to include the jabs developed by Moderna and Novavax.
The Com-COV trial by researchers from the University of Oxford had until now only included the jabs developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca/Oxford University — both approved by British authorities in December.
The Moderna vaccine has since also been authorised for use while the Novavax jab is currently under review by the UK Medicines Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
The aim of the study is to assess how well people's immune systems respond when their second "boost" dose is a different type of vaccine to their first "prime" dose.
Researchers from the Oxford Vaccine Group believe that this "mix and match" approach could create a more flexible and faster vaccination campaign
Mix and match COVID vaccine study expanded to include Moderna, Novavax | Euronews
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