Thought of the Day - August 15 2021 - By the Numbers

Looking across the world, the US continues to have the highest official total of new cases (up over 20% this past week). On a per-capita basis, the US is now starting to catch the UK, which has also seen recent increases; a delayed result of the elimination of many management measures.

More significantly, the US is now highest in per-capita hospitalizations (of major countries reporting), thus deaths have also increased significantly.

In deaths per million, the western world's vacation spots are still suffering, due to "vaccinated superspreaders". The BVIs continue to top the list in deaths over the past week. Sint Maarten, French Polynesia, Martinique, Fiji, are also all in the top ten.

As mentioned Friday, Canada's next wave continues to build - we are now back to the same level of cases as when we started to unwind restrictions back at the end of May. Health Canada is reporting, as of the end of last month, the Delta variant (B.1.617.2, India) made up 85% of new Canadian cases; we are basically a month or so behind the US.

The western provinces are leading the wave, with Alberta, BC, and Saskatchewan all double the Canadian new case average. There is also now no province in the country without cases.

Health Canada has started reporting on vaccine effectiveness in Canada.

While there is little detail as to the method (I assume they take the percentage of vaccinated in hospital versus the vaccinated population overall), their figures do seem to line up with what other countries are experiencing. In short, if you are vaccinated you are a little over three times less likely to end up in the hospital and 50% less likely to die. A great improvement, but also a stark reminder you are certainly not immune.

This week's shout-out goes to the Yukon. It has been a hard-fought battle since outbreaks took off back in June. Cases in the Yukon have halved in the last two weeks, and their most recent death was recorded at the beginning of the month. They also have the highest vaccination rate outside of Atlantic Canada. Fingers crossed they manage to keep the downward case trend going.

Cheers

Cliff