Thought of the Day - August 1 2021 - By the Numbers

As we close in on 200,000,000 total reported cases of COVID, daily new cases continue to rise around the world and so, unfortunately, do deaths.

One of the main countries now contributing to that rise is the USA, which is seeing increases across the board. The US is now reporting 100,000 new cases a day once again, the highest daily total in the world by far.

With cases in South America, and now in Europe, in decline, North America is once again the epicentre.

Tourist destinations continue to dominate the top countries in new cases per capita. In addition, Georgia is now on the map, this may suggest there may be more outbreaks to come in the Caucasus region.

The US CDC talks about the concerns with the vaccinated continuing to transmit the virus in their Powerpoint presentation that was supposedly "leaked" last week. The CDC has also reversed an earlier decision, and are now recommending that vaccinated people continue to wear masks.

As predicted at the beginning of July, Canada has now caught the lead peloton of the most heavily vaccinated countries.

It looks like we plateau in early August, at about 69% with two doses and another 3% staying with just a single dose.

Like most of Canada, BC's next wave of cases is starting - cases have doubled over the past week (BC's daily new cases are now five times higher than this time last year). Moreover, hospitalizations, that have been declining for several months, have also reversed direction (despite the vaccine, we have eight more people hospitalized than this time last year).

This week's shout-out goes back out again to the Northwest Territories. Although remote and sparsely populated (45k), as we have witnessed in the Yukon and Nunavut, infections can still happen. The Northwest Territories are COVID-free, they have not reported a case since the end of May, longer than any other region in the country. Moreover, they have not allowed a single COVID fatality.

Cheers

Cliff