Re: International Effects of Covid-19
Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2022 4:31 pm
Falsehoods Unchallenged Only Fester and Grow
https://thefogbow.com/forum/
They just don't want us to go there because we'll be buying pot.Volkonski wrote: ↑Mon Jan 10, 2022 4:31 pm
Reuters
@Reuters
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1h
U.S. CDC advises Americans to avoid travel to Canada http://reut.rs/3HSOZd4
Quebec’s cannabis, liquor stores to require coronavirus vaccination proof
Quebec will require people to show proof of coronavirus vaccination when entering government-run stores selling cannabis or alcohol, the region’s health minister, Christian Dubé, said Thursday, as part of broader efforts to reduce covid-19 patients in the province.
The new requirement for patrons entering cannabis and liquor stores takes effect on Jan. 18. It will aim to persuade more Quebecois to get vaccinated, Dubé said, and thereby minimize the number of people being hospitalized for covid-19.
Dr Hans Kluge said a "west-to-east tidal wave" of Omicron was sweeping across the region, on top of the surge of the Delta variant already present.
The projection was based on the seven million new cases reported across Europe in the first week of 2022.
The number of infections has more than doubled in a two-week period.
"Today the Omicron variant represents a new west-to-east tidal wave, sweeping across the region on top of the Delta surge that all countries were managing until late 2021," Dr Kluge told a news conference.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday warned against treating COVID-19 as an endemic illness like flu, rather than as a pandemic, saying the spread of the Omicron variant has not yet stabilized.
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday it may be time to change how it tracks COVID-19's evolution to instead use a method similar to how it follows the flu, because its lethality has fallen. That would imply treating the virus as an "endemic illness", rather than a pandemic.
"We still have a huge amount of uncertainty and a virus that is evolving quite quickly, imposing new challenges. We are certainly not at the point where we are able to call it endemic," WHO's senior emergency officer for Europe, Catherine Smallwood, told a press briefing.
On 21 January 2022, the Government announced a plan for easing COVID-19 restrictions.
From 6am on 22 January 2022:
Pubs and restaurants can return to normal opening times (no longer must close at 8pm)
Nightclubs can reopen
You no longer need a vaccination or recovery certificate to access hospitality or indoor activites
Social distancing is no longer required in hospitality or other settings
Restrictions on numbers attending indoor and outdoor events or activities no longer apply
Limits on household visits no longer apply
From 24 January 2022, a phased return to offices can begin.
The following restrictions remain in place until 28 February 2022:
Requirement of a vaccination or recovery certificate for international travel
Use of face coverings to continue where currently required (for example, in shops and on public transport)
Requirement to self-isolate if you have symptoms of COVID-19 and close contact guidance to remain in place
Protective measures in primary and secondary schools and early year settings to remain in place
Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP)
The Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) will close for new applications from 22 January 2022. If you are getting PUP, you will move to a weekly rate of €208 from 8 March 2022. After that, remaining PUP recipients, who are eligible, will move onto a jobseekers payment from 5 April 2022.
Enhanced Illness Benefit
Enhanced Illness Benefit is extended until the end of June 2022.
EU Digital COVID Certificate (DCC) for international travel
From 1 February 2022, the DCC based on primary vaccination will expire after 270 days (9 months). You can get an updated DCC if you get a booster dose.
Tonga, once covid-free, goes into lockdown weeks after volcano eruption
By Frances Vinall
Yesterday at 12:12 a.m. EST|Updated yesterday at 1:26 a.m. EST
Five coronavirus cases have been reported in Tonga as the country recovers from last month’s volcanic eruption and tsunami, leading the government to place the once covid-free Pacific archipelago into a complete lockdown.
The lockdown started at 6 p.m. local time Wednesday. Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni said there would be no boat or plane travel among Tonga’s roughly 170 islands — three dozen of them inhabited — until further notice. Schools were closed, government workers given time off and masks encouraged in public spaces, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Sovaleni said the restrictions would be reviewed every 48 hours, local news website Matangi Tonga reported.
It’s not clear how the virus was transmitted into Tonga. Two people who contracted it worked at a port in the capital, Nuku’alofa. There was an outbreak of more than two dozen cases aboard an Australian navy ship, the HMAS Adelaide, that docked at the port last week to deliver disaster relief. Aid also arrived from New Zealand, France, Japan and China — all countries that have cases.
Sovaleni said Wednesday afternoon that the virus had spread beyond the two port workers to a woman and two children, Radio New Zealand reported.
Curtis Tuihalangingie, a senior Tongan diplomat in Australia, had said the nation’s aim after the volcanic eruption and tsunami was to avoid a “tsunami of covid” hitting the islands through aid deliveries. The natural disasters Jan. 15 left at least three people dead.
Tonga had previously logged only one coronavirus infection, which was detected in a hotel quarantine in October and triggered a week-long lockdown.
The Tongan government on Wednesday released a list of places where the virus could have spread from the two cases in recent days. They included a church, a kindergarten, a bank and several stores.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... australia/
NZ Covid outbreak ‘like nothing we’ve experienced’, Ardern says, as cases skyrocket
Virus-free for much of the pandemic, New Zealand is now reporting near-daily record case numbers
Tess McClure in Auckland
Mon 14 Feb 2022 05.00 GMT
New Zealand’s prime minister has warned that the country is entering a new phase of its pandemic response that is “like nothing we’ve experienced to date”, as case numbers begin to explode.
“We are embarking for the first time in the two years since the start of the outbreak into a period where New Zealanders will see more Covid in the community,” Jacinda Ardern said on Monday.
“It is a period of disruption and, I know, of risk and will be like nothing we’ve experienced to date.”
Ardern was speaking to reporters after a political reporter produced a positive rapid antigen test moments before the press conference. The empty seats in front of her – and the decision to forge on with the standup regardless – helped illustrate the new era for New Zealand, in which the government expects Omicron to reach every part of the country.
New Zealand has been reporting near-daily record highs in case numbers, as infections begin to hit an exponential growth curve. On Monday, officials announced 981 cases in the community, up from previous all-time highs of 810 on Sunday and 454 the day before. The latest additions mean there are 4,960 active cases recorded across Aotearoa – but experts say the true number is likely much higher, given the lag in test results, and the fact testing is only advised for those with symptoms or who have been a direct contact of a case.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... -skyrocket
I remember talking about this on some thread. I thought Denmark had a chance of being disciplined enough to try to make this work. Nope.At the beginning of February, Denmark became the first major country to lift the last of its COVID-19 restrictions and effectively declare its part in the pandemic over.
Around the world, and especially in the United States, Denmark’s “liberation” from indoor mask mandates, vaccine passports and nightclub closures was heralded as a watershed moment — the shape of things to come. Democratic governors across the U.S. started rescinding their own mask rules a few days later.
“This marks the transition to a new era for all of us, because Denmark will once again be an open society, completely open,” said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. “We dare to believe that we are now through the critical phase."
Since then, however, Denmark has continued to record more COVID-19 cases per capita than nearly anywhere else in the world, and both COVID hospitalizations and deaths have shot up by about a third.
“Not looking good in Denmark,” Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Translational Institute, tweeted Sunday, sharing several charts that terminated in near-vertical upward lines. “Deaths are now 67% of peak, with a steep ascent.”
It's a resignation by the government over a larger section of the population still rejecting sensible means to fight back a pandemie. I am astonished to see all those privately run test sites pop up to issue short term (24h) covid free certificates and them getting picked up for a significant amount of cash when the vaccination is free.