Jumping from country to country internationally, the Philippines just saw its biggest single-day spike in deaths since April 9. That would be 287 deaths. Russia says that it has had 164,881 covid deaths, but records show 463,000 excess deaths since April 2020. Thailand had fewer than 5,000 covid cases in all of 2020 but has had over 700,000 cases so far in 2021. Saturday saw a daily record number of new cases, 22,000, not to mention 212 deaths. Canada will reopen its border to fully vaccinated US residents tomorrow. The US has yet to open its border in reverse. Finally, over 230,000 people protested in cities across France yesterday. It was the largest protest in four consecutive weekends of protest.
Somewhat internationally, there were 22 new cases tied to the Olympics Saturday, putting the total number of cases over 400. No athletes were in the 22 new cases. They administered over 600,000 tests during the course of the Games. Organizers are now in talks with national teams and Japanese officials to develop a follow-up system for the coming weeks.
One of the infectious disease specialists at the local university's hospital tweeted that he was receiving job offers with local certifications handled, free housing, and set-your-own-hours scheduling if he could start immediately. All of the offers were from hospitals in, where else, Florida. Pediatric intensive care units there are overwhelmed, so they may be looking for pediatricians, too.
Over 1,000 US cases have been identified as the Lambda variant using genomic sequencing. WHO considers Lambda a "variant of interest." Early studies suggest that it is more transmissible that the original virus, but so far, existing vaccines appear effective against it.
The US is averaging over 100,000 new cases daily, the highest in almost six months. The last time the daily average was this high was February 11. The low point for the case average was 11,299 on June 22. On the good side, 50.1 percent of the US population is now fully vaccinated, a percentage that rises to 59 percent for people ages 12 and over, 61 percent for people ages 18 and over, and 80 percent for people 65 and over.
Austin, Texas sent an alert via text, phone call, email, social media, and other channels reporting that "the Covid-19 situation in Austin is dire. Healthcare facilities are open but resources are limited due to a surge in cases." The governor of Texas has banned mask and vaccine mandates; the city may sue the state over the mask mandate. Friday was one of the worst days since the pandemic began in 2020. The ICUs are near capacity with 102 patients on ventilators.
Kindergarten enrollment during the last school year was about one million kids lower than expected. Many schools saw 20 percent fewer kids than expected. These children will now be starting first grade without the basics learned in kindergarten. The largest declines were in neighborhoods below or just above the poverty line, the kids from which may be most in need of those kindergarten skills.
Public health experts say that there is no evidence that migrants are driving the surge in covid cases. Many major outbreaks are happening in states that do not border Mexico, including Arkansas and Missouri. One expert pointed out that the coronavirus is not a border issue nor is it a migrant issue. It is a national issue. It is actually an international one, but I'll let an expert call it a national issue here.
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