Thought of the Day - July 25 2021 - By the Numbers

After staying close to home for the last couple of weeks I thought we would take a romp around the world. It is not a pretty sight as at the global level we continue with the current wave.

World-wide cases have now topped two-hundred million, and the rate is climbing, now back over 500,000 a day. And deaths, though vastly underreported, are approaching five million (in contrast India's latest study says its death toll of 420,000 is underreported by an order of magnitude. Thus they may have reached five million on their own!) with nearly 9,000 new deaths each day reported around the world.

For example, in Myanmar, it is now expected 50% of the country will get the coronavirus, within the next six weeks. At present, treatment facilities are at capacity; meaning hospitals are not taking any more patients. Oxygen is already in short supply; private sales of oxygen have been outlawed. There are also reported outbreaks in prisons. Probably the most telling fact is that China, which has taken in a significant influx of border residents, has now closed the border with the Myanmar. However, China has also supplied 736,000 donated Sinopharm doses to the country.

The UK is forging ahead with its undeclared herd-immunity push. They have now reached antibody rates across the UK of over 90% (from vaccination and infection). Unfortunately, while cases look like they may have peaked, hospitalizations and deaths, while still fairly low, are still increasing.

In addition, the high number of cases have also caused a 'pingdemic'. Notifications from the UK's official Covid-19 application have increased dramatically in recent weeks. Over half a million people received a ‘ping’ this past week to alert them that they had been in close contact with someone who had tested positive and thus they needed to self-isolate for 10 days.

Meanwhile, looking once again the European holiday destinations: unfortunately, Martinique and Gibraltar have joined this list. So now the top eight countries in the world in new cases per capita are European holiday destinations. In addition, the BVIs, Seychelles and Fiji continue to be top in deaths per capita ( Thought of the Day - July 12 2021 - Is Vaccination, A Selfish Act ).

And let's not forget the US. Unlike Canada, cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise rapidly.

A number of countries, the UK, the US and Canada included, are claiming that vaccination rates over 50% mean that the link between cases and death has been broken, of course, most countries in the world are nowhere near that stage.

Here in Canada, vaccinations are expected to plateau the second week of August, at around 72% first dose, 70% second dose - one of the highest in the world.

FYI - Canada has now performed over 38 million covid tests, enough to test everyone in the country.

There has finally been a significant improvement in reporting on variants across Canada. As you can see (sort of), unsurprisingly, it turns out that at the beginning of July the Delta (India, B.1.617.2, the one we weren't reporting on) accounted for around 70% of cases in our country.

It is sad to say, but our summer COVID-hiatus across most of Canada is now coming to an end. Cases are starting to rise again, and I see no reason we will not follow the trend in the US. We are just delayed by a month.

Closer to home, BC continues to see a slow uptick in cases. In Burnaby, cases have doubled over the past week - we are rapidly becoming the BC hotspot.

This week's shout-out goes back again to the Atlantic Bubble. It looks like they will continue to enjoy their summer a little longer than the rest of the Canadian provinces.

Cheers

Cliff