Skip to main content

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS COVID-19 PANDEMIC


From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

          DAY  USA  WORLD    Brazil    India    South Africa

2020
June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82
July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572
Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130
Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82
Oct     21      1225      6849         571        703       85
Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118
Dec    30       3880    14748       1224       299      465
2021
Jan     14       4142      15512       1151         189     712
Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398
Mar      2       1989     9490        1726       110      194
April     6        906    11787         4211       631       37
May     4        853     13667        3025      3786     59 
June    1        287    10637         2346      3205      95
 July    7         251      8440        1595        817      411
Aug     4         656    10120        1118        532      423 
Sept   22      2228      9326          839       279     124
Oct      6       2102      8255          543       315       59
Nov    3        1436      7830         186        458       23
Dec     1       1633      8475          266        477       28
2022
Jan     7        2025      6729         148         285     140
Feb     2        2990   12012          946        991      175
Mar     2        1778     7756          335         173       28 
Apr     1          439      4056         290          52       12
May    5          225      2404         151            ?        64
June    2         216      1413         130           10        31
July    6          316      1627         335           35       12 
Aug    4          311       2138         258          70         ?
Sep    1           272       1732         174            ?         ?
Oct     6          281       1305         119            9         ?
Nov    3          167         980           16            ?         ?
        25            88         985           71             3        ?  
Dec    3          149       1029         131            3         ?
          8          194       1320         104             6       86
        15           147       1295         124             4         ?
        22          289       1637         165             9         ? 
        28          296       1768         337            2         ?
2023
Jan    4           346      1534         207             ?         ?
Feb   1            221       1261         126             ?         ?
Mar   1           119         618           81              1         ? 
Apr    5          121         371              ?             ?         ? 
May   3           37         414            48           20        ?

Summary:
  • Clearly, this pandemic is showing signs of phasing down.
  • For this week, I'll only look at weekly trends.
    • Total cases this past week (in parentheses, weekly cases/million population)
      • #1  S. Korea  93,998  (1832)
      • #2  Japan  68,711  (624)
      • #3  India  41,260  (29)...of course, how good is their reporting???
      • #4  Brazil  38,553  (179)
      • #5  Russia  38,337  (264)
      • #6  USA  34,337  (102)
      • #7  France  32,078  (489)
      • #8  Vietnam  15,107  (153)
      • #9  Australia  13,126  (506)
      • #10  Indonesia  11,257  (40.3)
      • World  481,350  (60)
      • South Korea is the worst by far, three times higher than #2 Japan.  And Japan is more than 10 times worse than the World.
      • The USA is a comfortable 102 new cases for the week/million population, but almost double that of the World average.
    • Deaths in the last 7 days per million population.
      • #1  San Marino  59
      • #2  Denmark  6
      • #3  New Zealand  6
      • #4  Croatia  6
      • #5  Guadeloupe  6
      • #6  Germany  4
      • #7  Hong Kong  4
      • #8  France  3
      • #21  USA  1
      • #46  Thailand  0.1
  • So how is China doing?
    • Declared victory over COVID-19 on February 16.
    • No new subvariants.
    • The Chinese new year period from January 21 to 27 did not exacerbate the covid problem.
    • Approved two new domestic anti-COVID vaccines.
    • Admitted that 80% of their population caught this virus.  The U.S. percentage is 32%, and that of the World is 9%.
    • Removed PCR test requirements on April 29.  Still need to take an antigen test within 48 hours of boarding.  Self-testing okay.
    • Will no longer need to show test certificate for vaccinations.
    • Masks no longer required for public transportation.
    • Has resumed issuing visas to foreigners.
    • CBS News reported this week that:
      • During the 5-day May Day public holiday period, 240 million took a trip, beating pre-pandemic figures for these days.
      • Many top tourist attractions are sold out.
      • International travel remains low.
      • Revenge spending saw retail and food service companies 21% higher on the first week of golden week than the previous year.
Here are some interesting factoids about this covid pandemic:
  • 11 surprising facts about COVID-19.   
    • One of them is that asymptomatic people were serious spreaders because the affected individual did it unintentionally, and victims took fewer precautions because of that.  According to a 2021 JAMA Network Open modeling study, 60% of all transmission is caused by the asymptomatic.   It should be far higher today because of vaccinations and herd immunity.  During one surge in Shanghai, the asymptomatic rate was 97%!!!
    • People with type A blood may be more susceptible to infection.  Worse, these individuals showed a higher risk of developing respiratory failure.  Those with type O blood were more resistant.
    • Vaccines have been shown to be very efficient in preventing serious illness and death.
  • 13 things to know about Pfizer's Paxlovid.  If you are infected and can take the pill within 5 days, there is an 89% reduction in the risk of for severe symptoms.
  • 9 things to know about Merch's Molnupiravir.  However, the risk reduction for severe symptoms is only around 30%.
President Joe Biden terminated the national covid emergency a few weeks ago.  Way back in February China declared the coronavirus pandemic is over.  No word yet from the World Health Organization.
-

 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases.  Very few are aware that a new one,   BA.4.6,  is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples .  However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6.  Here is a  reference  as to what this means.  A series of two injections is involved.  Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab  co-packaged with  cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on  subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicio...
Post a Comment
Read more

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics.  Thursday was my pandemic day for years.  Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments.  All these  subvariants  derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms.  One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell.  From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant,  BA.2.86,  also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to  lose hair  for...
Post a Comment
Read more

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota.  Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north.  Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge.  If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic.  Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing.  The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University.  Caught a bus. Was called the  Century 21 Exposition .  Also the Seattle World's Fair.  10 million joined me on a six-month run.  My first. These a...
Post a Comment
Read more