Thought of the Day - January 17 - By the Numbers

The world has now seen over two million official deaths from COVID-19. But there is some good news. It looks like the measures in Europe and North America have curtailed the growth of the second wave.

Of course, deaths will take a while to follow suit, but the trend is promising.

In Canada, it also looks like we have also crested the peak of the second wave. That said, there are regions that are still in trouble. For example, cases are on the rise in Saskachewan

BC hit an unfortunate milestone at the beginning of this week - we now have had over 1,000 deaths in the province attributed to COVID-19.

Hospitalizations remain fairly high outside of the Atlantic Bubble, the Territories and, to a lesser extent, in BC.

Looking at vaccines, a number of European countries have now overtaken Canada in percentage of population vaccinated. As reported earlier in the month, India has now started its vaccination program ( Thought of the Day - January 6 - Vaccine War Snippets, The Third Installment ).

Israel continues to lead the world, but unfortunately has yet to see any "Herd Immunity" benefit. In fact, as cases continue to rise there, the reverse maybe true. A false sense of security may be a driver.

Here in Canada we have now reached 1.5% of the population (20 times less than Israel).

I know of a number of seniors, as well as those providing care, that have had or are getting called for vaccinations ( Thought of the Day - January 17 - Getting Vaccinated ).

This week's shout-out goes to Prince Edward Island, leading the provinces in having no deaths and now with the highest vaccination rate.

Cheers

Cliff