If you thought the covid restrictions at the Summer Olympic Games were tough, the ones at the Winter Games may blow you away. Using a "closed-loop" bubble system, the Winter Games could be the most restricted large-scale sporting event since the pandemic began. The bubble will encompass: "All Games-related areas, including arrival and departure, transport, accommodation, catering, competitions, and the Opening and Closing Ceremonies." In other words, athletes (there will be about 3,000), officials, broadcasters, journalists, and volunteers--anyone having anything to do with the Games--will eat, sleep, work, and compete within a bubble they enter on arrival and leave only on departure. Every person must also be fully vaccinated or spend their first 21 days in Beijing in solitary quarantine. Spectators will be limited to people residing in mainland China. At the Summer Games, there was no vaccine mandate and no quarantine for the unvaccinated. People were asked but not required to stay in an Olympic bubble. This is going to be interesting.
Looking at US cases per 100,000 people in the last two weeks, the national toll fell by 25 percent. Three states--Alaska, Montana, and Wisconsin--had increases of over 20 percent in cases per capita; Montana's rate went up 36 percent. Four states--Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida--saw decreases of over 20 percent; Tennessee's rate declined 39 percent. The other states were scattered between a decrease of 19 percent and an increase of 19 percent.
An article on the CNN news feed reported that only 31 percent of "pregnant people" have been vaccinated. Pregnant people? Did I miss something in high school biology? The CDC is seriuously urging "pregnant Americans" (another CNN usage) and those who recently gave birth to get vaccinated. Pregnancy is on the CDC's list of health conditions that increase the risk of severe covid.
Quickies: Covid deaths and hospitalizations are projected to decrease over the next four weeks. The Pan American Health Organization is buying millions of vaccine doses from the Chinese company Sinovac. The organization will then sell these doses to Latin American and Caribbean countries. Finally, you may have heard that Broadway shows are back. Well, some of the returns were pretty short. "Aladdin" closed 30 minutes before curtain on its second day back. Covid-related? Of course!
1 comment:
The case rate locally is 953 per 100,000 and that's with 86% of over 16s vaccinated. Neither of those figures is a typo. I think that's as high a case rate as I've seen. The numbers are being driven by the "under 19s", rarher unhelpfully the age band doesn't split at the same point as the vaccination cut off here (16). I am hoping that we are at the point where numbers start to drop as everyone in school has had it. It shows that vaccination works but I still feel unsafe in crowds.
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