Thought of the Day - February 7 - By the Numbers

Case numbers continue to fall around the world - the effect of significant restrictions, especially in Europe.

And this is now translating into a decrease in the number of new deaths per capita.

Vaccines continue apace particularly in Europe, North America and the middle east.

Israel has now vaccinated well over 60% of their population, Seychelles and UAE continue to compete for second, the UK still leads Europe, and Canada is running about the world average for nations that have started vaccination programs.

It should be noted that Israel still has very high new case counts per capita - number three in the world for countries over 5M people. Thus are yet to see any vaccination immunity effects.

Across Canada, new case counts continue to fall, as the second wave abates.

As have hospitalizations (data up until the end of last month).

In the meantime, Canada has now exceeded 20,000 deaths from COVID-19, almost half of which were in Quebec.

Of course, the downside of the second-wave restrictions has manifested in seasonally adjusted Canadian unemployment rates, which are once again climbing.

Quebec and Ontario had the most significant lockdowns. Quebec unemployment went from 6.8 in December to 8.8 in January, Ontario 9.6 to 10.2 and here in BC from 7.2 to 8.0. On the other hand, things continue to improve in the rest of Canada (with the exception of NFLD).

The same trend can be seen in job creation.

As mentioned in earlier articles, the Atlantic provinces are in the best position when compared to a year ago.

The week's shout-out goes once again to Prince Edward Island, with unemployment one of the lowest in the country, almost back to pre-COVID numbers, and, unlike Saskatchewan, they are pretty well case free.

Cheers

Cliff