South Africa's state-owned rail company is going to run a "vaccine train" to get vaccines to people in outlying areas, small towns, and poorer regions. Only 14 percent of South Africans are fully vaccinated. The train will spend three months traveling through the Eastern Cape province spending two weeks of time in each of seven different stations. The train can carry up to 108,000 doses and has nine coaches including accommodation coaches, kitchen and dining areas, a vaccination area, and consulting rooms.
El Salvador will be giving boosters to people over the age of 60, frontline health staff, teachers, military, police, firefighters, and people with pre-existing health problems. Panama, Ecuador, and Chile are also giving boosters to at-risk populations. Israel continues to offer boosters to anyone over the age of 12.
Meanwhile, other areas are lifting or loosening restrictions. The Netherlands has had social distancing measures in effect for 18 months; people had to stay 1.5 meters away from each other. This has now been replaced with a health pass plan. Everyone over the age of 13 must show a health pass to enter bars, cafes, restaurants, and cultural venues including theaters. They must show full vaccination, a recent negative test, or a recent recover y from covid. The health minister said the pass requirement would be "as temporary as possible." Norway also no longer requires social distancing. Nightclubs can reopen and restaurants can return to capacity. Nepal will restart issuing tourist visas for vaccinated travelers. Tunisia is lifting a nightly curfew that has been in pace for over a year.
Is loosening or ending restrictions a good idea? Possibly, but consider the case of the Canadian province of Alberta. Alberta dropped covid restrictions in June and even publicized the slogan "Best Summer Ever, Alberta 2021." Since then, the premier has twice re-imposed different restrictions and has appointed a new health minister. The province is flying patients to hospitals thousands of miles away because there is not room to treat them in Alberta. The nationwide rate for full vaccination in Canada is 69.7 percent. The rate in Alberta is 61.9 percent. It's not the lowest rate in the country, though; that belongs to Saskatchewan.
Finally, I found reference to a country, Peru, that jumped on the ivermectin bandwagon in May 2020, even including it in treatment guidelines. Some evanagelical groups touted it as being equivalent to vaccine. I'm actually surprised it took so long for the idea to travel north to the US, especially given the power of the interwebs.
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