So why oh why has it taken so long and so many needless deaths for such a message to slowly start to emerge?

Belief in Sky Fairy?

Not enough for King Donald yet.

Odd you should bring that up, I was just doing a little research.

December 7th, 1941, 2,403 Americans were killed
June 6th, 1944, 2,501 Americans died
September 11th, 2001, 2,977 deaths

December 4th, 2020, weekly average of more than 2,000 Covid-19 deaths every day

December 9th, 2020, 3,261 Covid-19 deaths
December 10th, 2020, 3,098 Covid-19 deaths
December 11th, 2020, 3,019 Covid-19 deaths (so far, 22:00 EST)

Even though several numbers still need to come in the last reporting period saw the world set a new daily case record of over 703,000 taking that total past 71,420,000 along with over 1,600,400 deaths. :-(

In the case race South Korea (91st), Luxembourg (92nd) and Montenegro (93rd) are all back together again in their own personal race as they now chase down El Salvador while Lithuania has replaced China in 78th as Slovakia shoved Oman out of 59th and Armenia kicked out of 53rd.

Georgia disposed of the U.A.E. to take 43rd, Serbia trampled over Jordan to claim 38th as Canada stomped over the Philippines to take over 27th and Czechia threw Chile out of 23rd while Indonesia became the 19th country to pass 600,000 cases quickly followed by Belgium, but both now have a long way to go before they get to do any more passing moves (if they can).

Meanwhile even though the U.K. is moving away from Italy again in the case race Italy still looks determined to knock the U.K. out of 5th place in the death race, but what can 1 say about the U.S. as they put in a 246,530 case day to take them past 16,295,400 which puts them just 367,881 behind the combined case totals of both India and Brazil now while adding another 3000+ daily death count to take that total to an incredible 302,750. :-O

Well that's enough for today, we'll just have to wait to see what happens tomorrow.

Covid pandemic: South Korea sees record rise in daily cases

Where 'record' is a relative term:

South Korea has recorded a new high in the number of coronavirus cases, with 950 infections announced on Saturday.

Now that the weekend is history on this side of the world the last reporting period saw the world's case tally pass 72.6 million while deaths passed 1,618,500. :-(

Now to the case race update. Australia will hang onto 97th place for 1 more day (maybe 2) while South Korea passed El Salvador to claim 90th with a record breaking 1,030 day, but we'll have to wait for El Salvador's numbers for that day to see whether Luxembourg and Montenegro have completed their passes or not, Lithuania leapt over Bahrain, Libya, Kenya and Algeria to land in 74th while Bosnia/Herzegovina became the 71st country to pass 100,000 infections, Slovenia slipped past Paraguay into 72nd, Myanmar slipped past Venezuela as Palestine slipped past Myanmar and Denmark jumped the lot of them to take over 67th.

Moldova removed Oman from 60th, Slovakia kicked Guatemala out of 58th as Lebanon took 54th from Kuwait, Armenia replaced Bolivia in 52nd, Czechia dumped Iraq out of 22nd and the Netherlands swept Belgium out of 20th while becoming the 21st country to pass 300,000 cases.

Meanwhile the U.S. is now less than 50,000 away from equaling India's and Brazil's combined totals as they pass 16,737,000 cases (while passing 306,400 deaths), but they should complete that unbelievable feat during this current reporting period, and who would've though that a supposed 1st world country could do that against the 2 developing countries that occupy 2nd and 3rd places especially when 1 of them has a population of well over 1 billion more people? :-O

[edit] After Turkey's huge correction North America has reclaimed 2nd spot in the regional case race.

Italy has also claimed 5th spot in the death race from the U.K..

Anyhow most of the rest of the weekend numbers will be in tomorrow.

Hmm...
Meanwhile...
Merry Xmas London

Hmm...
Meanwhile...
Merry Xmas London

That new variant might be like the variant that caused the explosion of cases in Italy, Europe and the New York, that was different from the initial variant in China and East Asia, faster spreading. Or affect the various age ranges differently.

Time for the bean counters to wake up

But in the end it was the cold, hard science that really made the difference.
"I think science has been the exit strategy for this pandemic and vaccines are at the heart of that scientific endeavour," says Farrar. "It's been remarkable, there's never been a year of progress scientifically like this in my lifetime."

Too many selfish out there...

I have a low opinion of the government's handling of this pandemic - some terrible decisions have been taken. And when it comes to test and trace the lack of public engagement has not been helped by the likes of Dominic Cummings, Stanley Johnson and Margaret Ferrier. But the public has a huge role to play in making this work.

Unfortunately, that is too common a view.

Now that most of the rest of the weekend's numbers are in the last reporting period saw the world's case total go well past 73.1 million while deaths passed 1,627,400. :-(

Now for the case race update. Latvia took Cameroon out of 99th place while Luxembourg did remove El Salvador from 91st, but Montenegro couldn't, Lithuania passed Paraguay to claim 73rd as Denmark took over 66th from Tunisia, Lebanon replaced Bolivia in 53rd and Azerbaijan knocked Croatia out of 47th. Switzerland swept Saudi Arabia out of 31st as Morocco became the 30th country to pass 400,000 cases while the Ukraine became the 17th to pass 900,000 and Turkey shoved Italy out of 7th spot.

Meanwhile the U.S. did in fact surpass India's and Brazil's combined case totals. :-O

Anyhow the usual after weekend catch ups will start during this reporting period, but I must comment on those countries that use those ridiculously short restrictions and that is that they just don't work.

Well the world passed 73,790,600 cases and 1,640,600 deaths at the end of the last reporting period. :-(

Now for the case race update. Uganda took 97th place from Australia (but we should hang onto 98th for a few days), Montenegro displaced El Salvador from 92nd, Albania removed Afghanistan from 88th while passing 50,000 infections, Palestine passed Tunisia to claim 67th as Denmark took 65th from Honduras and Lebanon replaced Bolivia in 53rd.

Azerbaijan kicked Japan out of 46th spot while Israel displaced Saudi Arabia from 32nd and Turkey swept the U.K. out of 6th place.

In the death race Germany displaced South Africa from 14th.

Anyhow that's it for today.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/army-develops-spray-to-kill-coronavirus

A novel disinfectant spray developed by the Army that can eliminate 99.99% of the Covid-19 virus will now be made available to the public and used by military personnel on the frontline as they support the battle against the virus.

The British Army has pioneered a Covid disinfectant spray which has proved so successful it will be sold to the general public.

The Virusend disinfectant formula has been found to kill all coronavirus strains in less than a minute and was proven to kill SARS-CoV-2 in 99.99 per cent of cases.

Now more than 50,000 bottles of the handheld Virusend disinfectant are being deployed to military personnel across the country who are working alongside the NHS at coronavirus testing stations as part of the military's ongoing support to civil authorities.

It is already being used at testing sites in Medway and Preston and can be purchased online for £7.99.

It uses compressed air instead of VOC flammable gasses and is fully recyclable and fully re-useable.

It produces a much higher density spray than anything currently on the market and allows the holder to use the bottle in any direction, even if it is upside down.

It can be purchased from https://virusend.co.uk/ , but at the moment I am timed out, so I guess they might be having a lot of traffic after the story was released in the Telegraph about 5 hours ago.

So no discount for bulk buying. The cost of their x12 is 12x the single cost of £7.49 (refill) or £7.99(Spray + trigger system).
They're going to make a killing.
I trust they will use it on their production lines.

Edit: Anyone know how long will a 365ml spray last?

At the end of the last reporting period saw the world's daily case count hit a record breaking of over 714,900 (with Sweden yet to add to that) as well as a record breaking daily death count of over 13,440 which takes those totals past 74.5 million and 1,654,300 respectively. :-O

The case race saw North Macedonia claim 83rd from Uzbekistan as Malaysia knock China out of 79th while Slovenia become the 72nd country to pass 100,000 cases and Palestine replaced Honduras in 66th. Denmark slapped Ethiopia out of 64th while Greece took 61st from Oman as Lebanon slipped past Armenia to take up 52nd spot, Azerbaijan booted Bulgaria out of 45th and now has the U.A.E. well within its sights as the Netherlands trampled over Indonesia to claim 19th.

Poland took 19th place in the death race from South Africa.

Meanwhile the U.S. has set itself another P.B. in daily deaths recording 3,486 as their total case numbers pass 17,392,600 along with well over 314,500 deaths. I wonder if they plan on actually passing the combined totals of not only India and Brazil (which they've already done) but Russia's as well.

Meanwhile here in Australia it looks like international airline crews will now also be put into 2 weeks of quarantine on arrival here as we've now recently had 2 infection leaks coming from them causing local transmissions.

Well the last reporting saw a new daily case record of over 721,700 (with the usual culprits yet to add their numbers) taking that total past 75.3 million along with over 1,667,400 deaths. :-(

In the case race Latvia put in 2 record breaking days to displace Australia from 98th place, El Salvador hasn't put their numbers in as yet so I can't give a passing move to Norway, Nigeria removed Uzbekistan from 84th and now have their sights set on North Macedonia while Lithuania became the 73rd country to pass 100,000infections as they knocked Slovenia out of 72nd and Tunisia dumped Honduras out of 67th.

Denmark blew Egypt out of 63rd, Moldova slipped past Guatemala to claim 59th, as Slovakia swept Qatar out of 57th and is now eyeing off Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan kicked the U.A.E. out of 44th while Georgia became the 42nd country to pass 400,000 cases quickly followed by Panama who stole 42nd place from Georgia.

Sweden may have passed Saudi Arabia, but seeing as they can't put their case numbers in in a timely fashion that will have to wait, though Portugal did claim 33rd from Saudi Arabia while Czechia became the 22nd country to pass 600,000 infections as both Germany and the U.K. set new daily case records.

Meanwhile here in Australia it looks like the new Sydney northern beaches outbreak is the result of another flight crew member breaking quarantine restrictions with a genome type that came into the country from the U.S. on the 10th of this month and attended an event that night, that cluster now numbers 28 infections so far.

Anyhow that's it for now.

The last reporting saw another daily case count of over 700,000 taking that tally to over 75,991,000 while deaths past 1,680,200. :-(

In the case race El Salvador must be having some sort of problem with testing as for 2 days in a row now they have not added any new case counts, though they have been putting their daily death counts in, and cases were on the rise there so I still can not confirm Norway's 93rd spot.

Anyhow Malaysia claimed 78th place from Bahrain while Lithuania leapt over both Slovenia and Bosnia/Herzegovina to land in 71st, Palestine brushed Ethiopia out of 65th as Denmark deposed Oman from 62nd, Moldova has taken 59th from Guatemala and Slovakia blew Kazakhstan out of 56th.

Croatia nudged Japan from 46th spot, Panama claimed 41st from Ecuador, while Sweden did displace Saudi Arabia and has now passed Portugal to take over 33rd before going into their long weekend blackout, Switzerland became the 31st country to record 400,000 infections as South Africa became the 18th to pass 900,000, the U.K. didn't take kindly to Turkey passing them and looks to now be trying to remedy that and India has broken past the 10 million mark.

Meanwhile it looks like North America wants its #1 spot back in the regionals.

It also came to light here last night that a Brazilian flight crew was caught breaking quarantine last week and were escorted back to the hotel that flight crews quarantined at by police and were each fined $1000aud. That hotel that overseas crews quarantine at is now under police guard as our northern beaches cluster now numbers 38 and from 5pm today the whole northern beaches area will be locked down until further notice as Sydneysiders all over the metro area are now cuing up for hours at COVID testing centres everywhere. :-(

[edit] Queensland has just announced that it will now quarantine overseas air crews in government facilities and it looks likely that N.S.W. and Victoria will soon follow.

Queensland has just announced that it will now quarantine overseas air crews in government facilities and it looks likely that N.S.W. and Victoria will soon follow.

Good to see that finally there seems to be a growing sense of seriousness to isolate the continuing spread of the Coronavirus-SARS2.


Meanwhile, over here in the UK, we now have our hospitals full oncemore with COVID victims, and we're over a week away yet from the expected big spread of the festivities - unfortunately the disease spread rather than food.

Yesterday, we hit a new high 28k+ newly reported cases for the day. And the uptick is far too fast for anyone's good health. Really, is the general population so unaware and so inept to avoid infection?...


Well, for one likely all too common example, I came across a mature adult maskless wonder in a small shop. In the brief exchange of comments, his view was that he's had 58 years of not wearing a mask and everyone else should 'keep their noses out of his business'. Also he commented that COVID-19 is everyone else's problem and nothing to do with him.


We badly seem to need much better education and a much better and clear message from the politicians...

Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

For one good positive move:


Covid: US Vice-President Mike Pence receives vaccine live on TV



Here's hoping that message and demonstration can roll back enough of the tide across the whole of the USA.


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Meanwhile in the UK....
England a new tier is announced covering the southeastern quarter of the country. Basically this means stay at home, don't meet anyone who doesn't live in your house (indoors or outdoors?)
For much of the rest of England (in tier 3) more restrictions have been announced - three households can meet only on Christmas Day (indoors only?)
Everyone - don't travel into tier 4.

Well, guess what I had planned, and won't be doing now :-(

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Meanwhile in the UK....
England a new tier is announced covering the southeastern quarter of the country. Basically this means stay at home, don't meet anyone who doesn't live in your house (indoors or outdoors?)
For much of the rest of England (in tier 3) more restrictions have been announced - three households can meet only on Christmas Day (indoors only?)
Everyone - don't travel into tier 4.

Well, guess what I had planned, and won't be doing now :-(

Yes, that is quite a Christmas spoiler.

No surprise for that with the newly increased infection rate SARS2 variant, and with the demonstrated ineffectiveness of the present social measures to contain it.

Then also, this sort of attitude:

... his view was that he's had 58 years of not wearing a mask and everyone else should 'keep their noses out of his business'. Also he commented that COVID-19 is everyone else's problem and nothing to do with him...

... is unhealthily likely far too prevalent.


I am still amazed at how so many people still do not wear masks, leaving the masks dangling uselessly around their necks as ornaments in case they get challenged. Or when actually wearing a mask, they position their mask to cover up only their mouths leaving their noses clear to transmit and receive COVID. Too many people really seem to not to get the idea about infection or even that we have a continuing expensive deadly pandemic.

Crazy?!!!


These current sorry headlines say it all:

Infections have risen again in England in recent weeks and R is above 1 in the UK (pdf, presentation slides summary)

Prime Minister announces Tier 4: 'Stay At Home' Alert Level in response to new COVID variant

Covid-19: Christmas rules tightened for England, Scotland and Wales
wrote:

... For tier-four areas in England, a stay-at-home order has been issued, with exemptions for those who have to travel to work or for education.

Social mixing will be cut to meeting one person in an open public space.

All non-essential retail will have to close, along with hairdressers, nail bars, indoor gyms and leisure facilities.

People will be advised not to travel into a tier-four area...

Pressure on hospitals 'at a really dangerous point'
wrote:

Nearly 90% of hospital beds in England are full as hospitals try to cope with the demands of Covid in addition to normal winter pressures.

Ambulances queuing to offload patients, staff sickness and a lack of beds mean hospitals are "at a really dangerous point", say emergency doctors...

Coronavirus: UK R number back above one
wrote:

... Covid-19 cases have risen to an estimated 660,000 infections across the UK between 6-12 December.

In England, the rise was driven by sharp increases in London, plus rises in the South East and East Midlands. But the proportion of people testing positive in the North West and Yorkshire has continued to fall.

Roughly one in every 95 people had the virus across Britain last week...

Most likely, that statistic is that currently, at this moment, more than one in every 95 people are currently ill with COVID and with too many of them spreading that illness to those around them...

Note also that the new admissions that are seen by hospitals are about two weeks 'behind the infection curve' from when the patient has been infected to then getting ill enough to need hospital treatment. Or in other words, whatever new measures are imposed now, will not produce visible effects to reduce COVID until after two weeks later...


How do we sensibly get out of this ill mess?

We have a good roll out of vaccine, but even so the estimates are for needing two months to vaccinate the over-65s to then work down through the ages.


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)