Covid-19 News and Discussions

[Yommie]

https://www.reddit.com/r/CoronavirusDownunder/comments/1ei32is/weekly_case_numbers_from_around_australia_5683

 

[Yommie]

Covid-19 update: 1761 new cases, 16 further deaths

There have been 1761 new cases of Covid-19 reported in New Zealand over the week to Sunday, and 16 further deaths attributed to the virus.

www.rnz.co.nz

Covid-19 update: 1761 new cases, 16 further deaths​

11:39 am on 30 July 2024

Photo: 123rf.com
There have been 1761 new cases of Covid-19 reported in New Zealand over the week to Sunday, and 16 further deaths attributed to the virus.

Of the new cases, 1069 were reinfections.

There were 134 cases in hospital, none of whom were in intensive care.

The highest number of new cases were in Canterbury, followed by Waitematā, Counties Manukau and Waikato.

The case numbers were lower than last week when Te Whatu Ora reported 2414 new cases and 22 further deaths attributed to the virus.

 

[Yommie]

Think you have a ‘summer cold’? There’s a good chance it’s COVID-19, doctors say

Gayle Robin was surprised when her sister in California told her in early July she had tested positive for COVID-19.

www.thestar.com

Think you have a ‘summer cold’? There’s a good chance it’s COVID-19, doctors say​

Gayle Robin was surprised when her sister in California told her in early July she had tested positive for COVID-19.
Aug. 3, 2024
3 min read

Doctors say we are in a summer wave of COVID-19. Specimens to be tested for COVID-19 are seen in Surrey, B.C., on Thursday, March 26, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

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By Nicole Ireland The Canadian Press

Gayle Robin was surprised when her sister in California told her in early July she had tested positive for COVID-19.
“I thought, ‘Really? It’s summer,’” the marketing and communications professional said in an interview from St. Catharines, Ont.
About a week later while camping, Robin woke up with a sore throat and felt achy later in the day. She thought it was “a summer cold.”

“It never even occurred to me that perhaps it was COVID,” she said.
When she returned home a couple of days later and was still not feeling well, she decided to take a rapid antigen test, which was positive.
Since then, Robin’s partner and his family, as well as some of her friends and co-workers in both Canada and the U.S., have all had COVID.
“Almost every day I’m hearing about someone else who has it or knows someone who has it,” she said.
That because “we’re in the midst of a summer wave of COVID,” said Dr. Andrew Pinto, director of the Upstream Lab, a public health research team at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
In addition to wastewater data that suggests an “upward trajectory” in COVID-19 activity, Pinto said he is seeing more patients with the virus in his family practice clinic.

”One of the really unique things about COVID is that it is surprising us in ways that other respiratory pathogens haven’t,” he said.
“It is spreading even in the absence of very cold dry air with lots of people indoors, which we normally see with respiratory pathogens like influenza and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus).”
Dr. Fahad Razak, the former scientific director of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, said coronaviruses have historically spread year-round and don’t follow a seasonal pattern.
Since COVID-19 is still relatively new, we don’t have the population immunity built up that we do for flu and RSV, which have been around for a long time, said Razak, who is also an internal medicine specialist at St. Michael’s Hospital.
Even though we tend to think of viruses spreading as people crowd together indoors during the fall and winter, summer also presents opportunities for COVID-19 to spread, he said.

“People tend to get together more socially with family. There tends to be more gatherings like concerts, for example,” Razak said.
Just as the cold forces people indoors during the winter, the “blistering hot days” we’ve had this summer also send people inside into air-conditioned spaces, which can also increase the spread of the virus, he said.
Pinto noted that the summer wave is also happening at a time when individual immunity to COVID-19 infection, which decreases about six months after vaccination, is probably lower.
”What we’ve seen in Canada is that there has likely been a period of time since people were last infected, so that immunity has waned and also a lot of people didn’t get their COVID vaccines this past fall and winter,” he said.
Although Razak has seen some patients hospitalized with COVID-19 over the last few weeks, those severe cases are “far, far rarer now,” he said, thanks to protection against serious illness provided by vaccination and prior infections.

Still, vulnerable people – including seniors and those who are immunocompromised – can get very sick from COVID, the doctors say.
That’s one of the reasons it’s important to know there’s a good chance your summer cold symptoms are actually COVID-19, they say.
It’s “good practice” to not expose vulnerable people to any respiratory virus, Razak said, but it’s especially important with COVID.
“If I had a fresh COVID infection, would I visit my parents who are high risk and in their 70s and 80s? No. I would be careful for a few days. I would make sure that my symptoms are resolving, that I don’t have a fever, that I don’t have a cough before I went to see them,” he said.
If you are 60 years or older, immunocompromised or have chronic underlying conditions such as diabetes, heart or lung disease, you should consider taking the antiviral drug Paxlovid to prevent serious COVID-19 illness, Razak said.

That means getting a COVID test as soon as possible, as the medication must be taken within the first few days of infection, he said.
And no matter what your age or health status, confirming whether or not you have COVID-19 is helpful for timing vaccines and maximizing your protection against the virus, Razak said, since immunization is most effective at least three months after your last infection or vaccination.
COVID-19 vaccines targeted to recently circulating variants are in the works for the fall, the Public Health Agency of Canada said in an email to The Canadian Press.
Health Canada is reviewing mRNA vaccines that target the KP.2 strain, as well as protein subunit vaccines – which contain harmless and purified pieces of the virus – that target the JN.1 strain, the agency said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 3, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

 

[Yommie]

Paris 2024 Was Supposed to Be ‘Normal’—But You Can't Compete With COVID

Some athletes are taking their own precautions, but the responsibility shouldn’t be solely on them.

www.self.com

VCG/Getty Images

In the lead-up to the Paris Games, we couldn’t escape how “normal” it was all supposed to be: Media outlets touted the return of cheering spectators in place of empty stadiums, a hyped opening ceremony packed with hundreds of thousands of fans, arrivals of friends and families to help athletes celebrate huge wins (and process tough losses)—and no masks in sight.

All in all, as the Associated Press wrote at the beginning of July, the Paris Games would mark the return to “post-pandemic” “normal,” following “a stretch when host cities turned into closed-off shells of themselves, depriving those who had earned their way inside the so-called Olympic ‘bubble’ of a true Olympic experience.”

But as we’re learning as the 2024 Summer Games go on, popping that bubble might have been more than a little premature—and the athletes could be the ones paying the price.

To be clear, the lack of spectators, family support, and ability to connect with others wasn’t easy for the athletes. As fencer Kat Holmes told SELF, the atmosphere was “very restrictive.” “In Rio, it was like, ‘We’re here together, we’re gonna get to know each other,’” she said. “In Tokyo, it was like, ‘Oh my God, don’t breathe on me.’” So we totally get the desire to avoid that—it’s just that, unfortunately, COVID hasn’t gotten the memo.

The strict rules of Tokyo and Beijing didn’t exactly make it to Paris.​

In Tokyo, the rules for the athletes were strict, so much so that the term “intimacy ban” kept getting thrown around. The reason for the “safety first” policies, according to a 70-page playbook released one month before the 2020 Games (which actually happened in 2021), was to protect all athletes, participants, and the people of Japan from the spread of COVID-19. As such, it detailed policies including mask wearing “at all times” (except for sleeping, eating or drinking, training, or competing); avoiding the “3 C’s” (spaces that are confined, crowded, or involve close contact); testing regularly for COVID-19, whether you were symptomatic or not; and isolating yourself if you do test positive, among others.

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Strict, yes, but also effective. According to the annual report released by the IOC in 2021, there were only 33 cases of COVID-19 out of 11,300 athletes—and no confirmed spread of the virus between Games participants and the local population. As a result, those learnings went on to influence the policies for the Winter Games in Beijing in 2022, which maintained many of those strict rules too.

Fast forward two years later. We’re now several variants away from the virus that was circulating during the Tokyo and Beijing Games, and while fewer people are dying from the current strain, it’s definitely not “just a cold.” It’s still dangerous, linked to heart problems and lung damage, and the threat of long COVID is real too. Folks with underlying conditions are particularly at risk, and while you may not realize it, that includes a lot of athletes—yep, even those at the top of their game. According to a 2023 review in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, about 15 to 30% of Olympians have asthma, and, recently, athletes like Suni Lee and Katie Ledecky have shared their own experiences living with chronic illnesses. And anyone, even seemingly healthy adults, can get seriously ill from it, whether that’s from the infection itself or the long COVID that can come after it.

Problem is, pandemic fatigue is real, and folks are understandably ready to get back to that elusive “normal.” But you can’t just wish away COVID—something other sporting events have been forced to acknowledge. In July, the Tour de France got rocked by COVID, with several top cyclists getting sick and withdrawing from competition. The Tour even reinstated mask mandates, requiring race organizers, media, and guests to wear them around contact with riders and team staff, Bicycling reported.

While the Games started just a couple weeks later (and in the same country!), the guidelines didn’t follow suit: According to Reuters, there’s no strict policy for COVID-19 at the Paris Games. “We have a protocol (that) any athlete that has tested positive has to wear a mask and we remind everyone to follow best practices, but in terms of monitoring COVID, cases are quite low in France,” Anne Descamps, Paris 2024 chief communications director, told Reuters.

Lars Baron/Getty Images

When SELF asked Paris Games organizers on July 15 whether the Tour’s reinstatement of COVID prevention measures and mask mandates would influence theirs, a spokesperson simply said: “Paris 2024 is following the evolution of public health issues closely, together with the French Ministry of Health and Santé Publique France (Public Health France).” On July 19, Julie Dussliere, chief of Paralympics for the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) told SELF that while Team USA was encouraging a lot of “proactive behaviors for people to stay healthy,” like wearing masks on the plane “if they’re comfortable doing so” and “consistently using hand sanitizer,” there are “no specific COVID protocols in place from Paris 2024 for either the Olympics or the Paralympics.”

“Our team USA campaign for the games actually is called Don’t Let A Cold Keep You from the Gold,” Dussliere said. “And so we’ve provided a little travel packet to all members of our delegation athletes and coaches with things like hand sanitizer and masks, eye masks, earplugs for sleeping on the plane, things of that nature, to help with their travel and to try to keep them healthy while they’re traveling.”

So unlike the Tokyo Games, where visual reminders of COVID-19 were everywhere—from the empty stands to the masks athletes wore on podiums—Paris kicked off looking a lot more like a pre-2020 Games. Dig a little deeper, though, and it’s a different story.

COVID cases started popping up before the Games even began—and haven’t eased since.​

Three days before the Games officially kicked off, an Australian water polo player tested positive for COVID-19. “I need to emphasize that we are treating COVID no differently to other bugs like the flu. This is not Tokyo,” Anna Meares, the Australian Olympic Team’s Chef-de-Mission, said, according to Olympics.com. “The athlete is not particularly unwell, and they are still training, but sleeping in a single room.” One day later, the number grew to five.

After the opening ceremony, more cases began to pop up, hitting swimming particularly hard: British swimmer Adam Peaty went into his 100-meter breaststroke final on Sunday feeling “unwell” and tested positive the next day. ESPN reported that “the 29-year-old does not have to isolate from other athletes and does not have to test negative before competing again, but he will avoid making contact with others for the next few days.” On July 30, Australia’s Lani Pallister withdrew from her 1500-meter freestyle heat after testing positive for COVID. According to The Guardian, she scratched from that event—she’s the national record holder in that distance—in the hopes she’d recover in time for the 4x200m freestyle relay two days later. (Despite even a five-day isolation period likely not being enough, she ended up swimming in that race, winning gold with her team and setting a new Olympic record.) That same day, SwimSwam reported that two American swimmers tested positive too. Maltese swimmer Sasha Gatt and Romania’s Vlad Stancu came next.

MANAN VATSYAYANA/Getty Images

With no firm testing policies in place like in Tokyo, it’s not really easy to tell how prevalent the virus is among athletes and other team personnel. Athletes with minor symptoms might fly under the radar (and let’s not forget that asymptomatic spread is still a thing too). Without mitigation in place, they might unintentionally pass it along to a teammate or competitor, which could make that person feel horrible during what might be the biggest event of their lives. As Team USA gymnast Jade Carey, who competed in the qualifications while not feeling well (she hasn’t shared with what) described it to Olympics.com: “I had, like, no energy today and didn’t really have a sense of what was going on in my head.” Definitely not ideal for one of the biggest performances of your life.

Manuel Eitel, a German decathlete who withdrew from the Games on Tuesday after testing positive wrote on Instagram in a translated caption, “Today is and will be one of the worst days of my life. What I feel right now exceeds any defeat I’ve ever experienced in sports. I’m absolutely stunned, completely lost and do not understand the world anymore. How many times I’ve fought, how hard I’ve worked to earn these games, few people know. I don’t know how to move on, my heart hurts and I can’t think straight yet. How long this will take to heal, no idea. I feel incredibly sorry for everyone who worked on this dream for years. I would have loved to make you so proud! I wish the German track and field team maximum success and especially my decathlon boys. How I would have fought this fight with you!”

Training for years or decades to make it to the Olympic stage only to have sickness wreck it for you can be heartbreaking, but it’s also not even the worst thing that could happen. COVID can still have serious implications, from decreased cardiovascular and power-related performance that can linger to organ damage and blood clots. Plus it can lead to other conditions, like long COVID or POTS, which can make training and competing at your best difficult (and, for some athletes, even impossible).

Some athletes are taking their own precautions—but it shouldn’t be left only up to them.​

On July 31, SELF reached out to Paris organizers about the COVID situation. In response to our emailed questions about testing and mandatory masking and isolation after an athlete tests positive, a spokesperson wrote, “The rules governing athletes’ participation in competitions are the responsibility of the international federations. Each National Olympic Committee is also free to put in place additional measures for its athletes. Please contact them for more information.”

We also asked if the Olympic Village has rapid tests, N95 masks, or quick-result PCRs available for athletes. The spokesperson wrote, “We are carefully monitoring the health situation in close coordination with the Ministry of Health. We regularly remind athletes and all other Games stakeholders of the good practices to adopt should they experience any respiratory symptoms: wearing a mask in the presence of others, limiting contacts, and washing hands regularly with soap and water or using hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer stations can be found at all the residential areas and also the restaurant of the Olympic Village.”

Finally, we asked if there were any policies regarding masking for spectators. The spokesperson wrote, “Paris 2024 monitors the situation with Santé Publique France and the Ministry of Health. Masks are not mandatory.”

On July 26, SELF asked the USOPC what, if any, protocols Team USA had in place for COVID as a result of the cases at the Olympic Village, and we haven’t yet received a response.

OLI SCARFF/Getty Images

It’s unfortunate that at these “normal” Games, the onus for self-protection is falling heavily on the individual. The sort-of good news here is that we’re already seeing a handful of athletes and teams take some protective measures. The Australian Olympic team wore masks throughout the airport when they traveled to Paris. After Peaty tested positive, swim coaches from different countries could be seen masking up in the stands at La Défense Arena, and British swimmer Jacob Whittle told Reuters they were all getting stricter with precautions: “When we’re swimming and doing stuff like this (speaking to reporters) are the only times we're not wearing a mask.” Team Canada told Reuters they have an isolation protocol for people who do get sick, and are also focusing on “hand washing, sanitation, and good hygiene practices,” as Canada’s chief medical officer Mike Wilkins explained it.

But at arguably the biggest sporting event in the world, the health of the athletes who made it there shouldn’t be solely in their hands—they deserve protections in place that could help them compete safely so they could put their absolute best effort out there. And this didn’t have to look like the impenetrable bubble from the Tokyo and Beijing days. The world is different now, and we know that those strict rules would be a pretty hard sell. But there’s a big difference between a bubble and basically nothing. Having some mitigation efforts—in the form of testing protocols; easy access to PCRs, rapids, and N-95 masks; isolation expectations; and just…some kind of a plan, should cases start to increase—doesn’t mean we’re going back to the fear and isolation of March 2020. There could have been a happy middle ground that offered athletes more protection and the experience they want and deserve.

If more athletes do end up testing positive for COVID-19 as the Games continue, it’s possible that changes could be made at the eleventh hour and additional precautions could return. But that approach comes at the expense of every person who has to drop out of a big event (or just deal with being seriously ill) along the way. These incredible athletes who have worked for years to get here (not to mention the staff, volunteers, and people of Paris) deserve better.

 

[Yommie]

https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/501933/No-severe-cases-of-KP-3-reported-in-Iran

No severe cases of KP.3 reported in Iran​

1. Society

August 3, 2024 - 16:13


TEHRAN –Cases of the new COVID variant, called KP.3, are reported in the country, but no severe cases have been detected so far, an official with the health ministry has said.

The new strain is rising in Europe and Iran. However, there has been no report of severe cases, ISNA quoted Behnam Arshi as saying.

KP.3 accounts for 25 percent of COVID cases in the U.S. and is now the dominant variant.

It is a sublineage of the JN.1 lineage which comes from the Omicron variant; it only has two changes in spike compared to JN.1.

The symptoms associated with KP.3 are mild similar to those from cold.

With the Paris 2024 Olympic games, a resurgence in COVID-19 cases is expected, the official said.

At least 10 athletes competing at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics — including swimmers from multiple countries and five Australian water polo players — have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last week. The uptick in cases has raised questions about the measures in place to stop the spread of COVID at the Olympics.

This year's Games are considered the first post-pandemic Olympics. Unlike the postponed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, there are no strict protocols or restrictions around COVID-19 in Paris.

However, COVID-19 is still spreading around the world. The United States is facing a summer wave, and the virus is also spreading in Europe, including in the Olympic Village.

 

[Yommie]

Canada protesters not guilty in Covid-blockade case

The two men were arrested and charged at a 2022 border blockade in Coutts, Alberta.

www.bbc.com

Canada Covid protesters cleared of plotting to kill police​

4 hours ago
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Nadine Yousif
BBC News

Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Coutts blockade tied up border traffic for two weeks
Two Canadian men accused of conspiring to murder police during protests over Covid-19 measures have been found not guilty.

Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert were charged after guns, body armour and ammunition were found at a border blockade in Alberta province.

The blockade in the village of Coutts was part of "Freedom Convoy" protests that broke out in Canada in early 2022.

Prosecutors had argued that the men planned to start a revolution and commit violence against Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers.

While the jury found them not guilty over the alleged murder plot, the two were convicted on other charges including possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.

Mr Olienick was also convicted of possessing a pipe bomb.

Their lawyers argued that the two were worried about losing their freedoms but had no violent intent.

The Coutts blockade tied up traffic for two weeks at a section of the border between Alberta and the US state of Montana.

It was part of a series of demonstrations inspired by the Freedom Convoy truck protest in Ottawa over Covid-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates.

Some 400 trucks and other vehicles descended on Canada’s capital and blockaded streets for three weeks in early 2022.

Another US-Canada border point between Ontario and Michigan was blocked.

The truck protest ended when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act - the first time the law has been used. It allowed police to clear the streets and freeze the bank accounts of protesters.

Around the same time, RCMP officers moved in on the Coutts blockade. They arrested 13 people and seized weapons including guns, a machete and high capacity magazines.

More weapons, ammunition and pipe bombs were later found at Mr Olienick's home.

Police initially charged four people in connection with the blockade, including Mr Olienick and Mr Carbert. The two others pleaded guilty to lesser charges early this year.

During the trial, jurors heard from undercover officers who said Mr Olienick had told them he considered police pawns of “devil” Mr Trudeau and that he had threatened to “slit their throats” if they stormed the blockade.

A lawyer for Mr Olienick argued that he was ensnared by a female undercover officer who flirted with him to get information - something police denied.

Other people charged over the Freedom Convoy protests include Pat King, an organiser of the Ottawa protest whose trial ended last week. A decision is expected in October.

Separately, protest leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber are facing trial together in connection with the disturbances in Ottawa. They have pleased not guilty of mischief and intimidation.

 

[Yommie]

The Covid Pandemic Never Ended And We Are Almost Out Of "The Tools"​

 

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COVID levels in Southern California continue surging​

 

[Yommie]

San Diego COVID-19 positivity rate reaches second highest ever​

 

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Why are COVID cases rising in Southern Nevada?​

 

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Covid numbers spiking again​

 

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Homeless center in San Luis Obispo sees spike in COVID-19 cases​

 

[Yommie]

Dr. Andrew Weil, Coronavirus (COVID-19) Prevention Tactics (#38)​

 

[Yommie]

'Web Of Deception': Rand Paul Accuses Fauci Of Engineering Vast Cover-Up' Surrounding COVID-19​

 

[Yommie]

TVB News | 3 Aug 2024 | Rise in Covid cases reported in some hospitals​