The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 209 (709)

I saw another reference to the BA.2 variant, this time a more encouraging one. This reference reported that the studies showing how bad the BA.2 variant is were done on animals, and there is no similar evidence in humans. I'd like for that to be true but, as with so much about this virus, don't want to get my hopes up too high. BA.2 is now responsible for 88 percent of cases in Denmark. People infected with BA.1 can also get infected with BA.2, but it is supposedly rare.

All 7.4 million residents of Hong Kong must undergo three rounds of compulsory coronavirus testing in the month of March. Health workers from Mainland China are coming to help. Schools, gyms, bars, and beauty salons will be closed until late April. Flights from nine countries including the UK and US will remain banned. Interestingly, authorities say they have found covid in samples taken from  packaging of frozen beef form Brazil and frozen pork from Poland, and will increase inspections of imported food. No other country has reported finding such surface transmission; it would be interesting to know what identification technique the Hong Kong authorities used. As for doing somewhere in the neighborhood of 23 million tests in one month, I do wish them luck.

The UK's prime minister says it's time to "get our confidence back." Free mass testing will stop as of April 1. Education settings will no longer have to test participants. NHS and social care staff will no longer need to be tested, though care home residents will. Covid passports will no longer be needed domestically, though they may be needed elsewhere. The Office for National Statistics covid survey will be maintained in a slimmed-down form. Finally, ongoing studies on care homes and antivirals will continue, though it is not clear who will provide funding or conduct testing. 

Iran has returned over 800,000 Astra-Zeneca doses made in the wrong place(s). In 2020, Iran banned all covid vaccines manufactured in the UK or US. Uganda will fine and/or jail people who refuse to be vaccinated. A South Korean study found that people with Omicron are 75 percent less likely to develop serious illness than those with Delta.

I've said before that long covid scares me. Today I read about a woman who had covid five months ago. Her pulse, normally in the 70s, has been jumping to 160 or 170 or even as high as 210 even when she is at rest. All standard cardiac tests are normal. The president of the American Heart Association says, "We are expecting a tidal wave of cardiovascular events in the coming years from direct and indirect causes of covid." Just as it appears we may never vanquish covid entirely, we also may never know all the ways in which it can affect us.