The number of coronavirus cases in France rose by 19,749 in the last 24 hours, marking a 56% jump compared to the prior week’s figure, according to the data published on Sunday by the country’s health authorities. During the same period, there were 15 additional deaths attributed to the virus. France’s President Emmanuel Macron previously assured that a lockdown in the country will not be necessary due to the successful use of COVID passes
Germany’s COVID-19 incidence jumps to 372.7
Germany’s COVID-19 incidence rate reached a new record high on Sunday, according to data published by the Robert Koch Institute. The seven-day average of cases per 100,000 people jumped to 372.7 from the previous record high of 362.2. The number of infections in a 24-hour period fell to 42,727 since Saturday. Since the start of the pandemic, Germany has seen 5,354,942 coronavirus cases. There have been 75 deaths since the previous daily update, a significant drop compared to 248 on Saturday. The death toll now stands at 99,062.
Italy reports 49 coronavirus deaths, 11,555 new cases
ROME, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Italy reported 49 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday against 48 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 11,555 from 10,544.
(CNN)Europe is facing a potentially devastating winter that could see half a million people die with Covid-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Thursday, as it sounded the alarm over a surge in cases and bemoaned stuttering vaccination rollouts on parts of the continent. Much of Europe is battling spikes in infections, with Germany on Thursday reporting its highest number of daily new cases since the pandemic began. And in a dire new warning, WHO regional director Hans Kluge said the pace of transmission across the region was of “grave concern.” “We are, once again, at the epicenter,” Kluge said in a statement. “According to one reliable projection, if we stay on this trajectory, we could see another half a million COVID-19 deaths in Europe and Central Asia by the first of February next year,” he warned, adding that 43 of the 53 countries on his patch could also see high or extreme stress on hospital beds. Large swathes of the continent are battling to beat back surges of the Delta variant, which has complicated the relaxing of restrictions in many countries. Eastern Europe is particularly badly hit; cases are at record levels in Russia and now Germany, while Ukraine’s capital Kiev introduced strict new restrictions on Monday. Germany is experiencing a ‘massive’ pandemic of the unvaccinated, says health minister Many experts have expressed concern that further rises in infections, coupled with seasonal winter colds, could place health care workers under unmanageable pressure through Christmas and in the New Year. In its latest weekly update, WHO said Europe recorded a 6% rise in cases on the previous week. That was the highest of any global region, with every other region registering “declines or stable trends.” “We are at another critical point of pandemic resurgence,” Kluge said. He blamed two factors for the new wave; the relaxation of Covid-19 measures, and a lack of vaccination coverage in the Balkans and towards the east of the continent. “Hospitalization rates in countries with low vaccine uptake are markedly higher and rising more quickly than in those with higher uptake,” he said. Germany’s health minister Jens Spahn on Wednesday warned that stricter measures are needed for those who refuse to get vaccinated. Spahn also told reporters at a press conference on Thursday that he was asked for his vaccination certificate in Rome during the G20 more often in one day than in Germany in four weeks. He was responding to a dramatic rise in infections in the country; 33,949 new cases were registered on Thursday, breaking the previous record set in December 2020. Hospitalizations and deaths remain far lower than they were in that pre-vaccine peak. Spahn said Germany was experiencing a “massive” pandemic of the unvaccinated, adding: “The truth is that there would be far fewer Covid-19 patients in [intensive care] if everyone who could do it got a vaccination.”
The US Food and Drug Administration on Friday authorized booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines for all adults six months after having been fully vaccinated with the shots from either Pfizer and partner BioNTech or Moderna. The agency’s decision authorizes booster doses for all US adults. It had previously allowed the additional shot for all recipients of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine. The move paves the way for millions of Americans to get additional protection and is also aimed at fighting the Delta variant of the coronavirus, which has driven breakthrough infections among the fully vaccinated who can then transmit the virus. After about two months of declining infections, the United States has reported daily increases for the past two weeks, driven by the Delta variant and people spending more time indoors due to colder weather. The nation’s top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said this week boosters can help reduce that spread. The FDA said its decision was supported by data showing that a third round of shots increased the immune response to the virus in studies of both the Moderna and the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines. About 31 million Americans have already received boosters, which had been approved for people in several categories in the United States. Some states in recent days had opened them to all adults ahead of FDA authorization, creating a patchwork of eligibility.
Nov 19 (Reuters) – The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review. Breakthrough COVID-19 raises risk of health problems, death COVID-19 is generally less severe in vaccinated patients but that does not mean breakthrough infections will be benign, a large study shows. Researchers analyzed data collected by the U.S. Veterans Affairs Administration from 16,035 survivors of breakthrough infections, 48,536 unvaccinated COVID-19 survivors and nearly 3.6 million uninfected people. At six months after infection, after taking their risk factors into account, people with breakthrough infections had lower rates of death and long-term lingering health problems than COVID-19 patients who had not been vaccinated. But compared to people who never had COVID-19, those who had breakthrough infections had a 53% higher risk of death and a 59% higher risk of having at least one new medical condition, particularly problems affecting the lungs and other organs. Even when breakthrough infections did not require hospitalization, the increased risks of death and lasting effects were “not trivial,” the research team reported on Monday on Research Square https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1062160/v1 ahead of peer review. “The overall burden of death and disease following breakthrough COVID-19 will likely be substantial,” the researchers conclude. Vaccine passports would allow infections to be missed “Vaccine passports” that exempt vaccinated people from regular COVID-19 testing would allow many infections to be missed, Israeli data suggest. Researchers analyzed infection rates in citizens returning to Israel through Ben-Gurion airport, for whom PCR tests upon arrival are required regardless of vaccination status. “Surprisingly,” in August 2021, the rate of positive tests among vaccinated travelers was more than double the rate among the unvaccinated, said Retsef Levi of the MIT Sloan School of Management, coauthor of a report posted on the SSRN server https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3963606 ahead of peer review. Travelers who had received the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine within the past six months or who had received a booster dose were considered vaccinated. The group considered to be unvaccinated included the never-vaccinated and those whose most recent shot was more than six months prior, given evidence of waning vaccine efficacy by then. In September, when the Israeli government was recommending booster shots for all adults, the positive-test rate dropped among vaccinated travelers and was about 3.5 times lower with vaccination than without. By October, the positive-test rate in the vaccinated group, while still lower, had started to climb again, Levi said. The data suggest that limiting frequent COVID-19 testing to unvaccinated people would “pose potential risks by reinforcing the misrepresentation that vaccinated individuals are protected from infections.” Masks, social distancing still worthwhile Mask wearing and physical distancing are tied to reductions in the spread of COVID-19 and should be continued, according to researchers who reviewed 72 previous studies. When they analyzed results from eight of the studies in detail, they saw a 53% reduction in the incidence of COVID-19 with mask wearing and a 25% reduction with physical distancing. There is not yet enough data to confirm the overall benefits of more stringent measures such as lockdowns, school and workplace closures, and border closures, the researchers reported on Thursday in The BMJ https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj-2021-068302. Very few of the studies analyzed were randomized trials, so they cannot prove the interventions directly reduced infection rates. Still, the researchers conclude, “It is likely that further control of the COVID-19 pandemic depends not only on high vaccination coverage and its effectiveness but also on ongoing adherence to effective and sustainable public health measures.”
VIENNA/BERLIN (Reuters) – Austria will become the first country in western Europe to reimpose a full COVID-19 lockdown, it said on Friday as neighbouring Germany warned it may follow suit, sending shivers through financial markets worried about the economic fallout.
VIENNA (Reuters) – Pressure on Austria’s government to impose a full COVID-19 lockdown grew on Thursday as its worst-hit provinces said they would adopt the measure for themselves since infections are still rising despite the current lockdown for the unvaccinated. Roughly 66% of Austria’s population is fully vaccinated, one of the lowest rates in western Europe. Its infections are among the highest on the continent, with a seven-day incidence of 971.5 per 100,000 people.
EAGLE ROCK (CBSLA) – As families across the southland prepare to ring in a second holiday season during a pandemic, the state of California is now suggesting that everyone who is vaccinated against COVID-19 should also get a booster shot. “In the short run, I am worried that until we vaccinate more children and our behavior changes with the holidays coming that there’s going to be a spike in cases,” CBS Medical Contributor, Dr. David Argus said.
Germany’s Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) on Thursday recommended booster shots for all adults. A draft resolution proposing booster shots of the mRNA vaccines should be given six months after the last vaccine dose has been sent on to experts and Germany’s federal states for vote and consideration. The committee recommend priority for booster shots be given to the immunocompromised, people over 70, residents and caregivers at elder care homes and staff in medical facilities. Regardless of what vaccine was given previously, mRNA vaccines should be administered as booster shots. Pregnant women after the second trimester should also receive booster shots.
Here is the cdc spin on the new variant… they have no credibility:
A more infectious new version of Covid-19’s delta variant is spreading fast in the U.K., accounting for about 12% of the samples gathered in the most recent government survey. That represents a 2.8% daily growth rate for sub-variant AY.4.2 over the course of the REACT survey, from Oct. 19 to Nov. 5, the researchers said. Still, the new sub-variant seemed less likely to cause symptomatic Covid. Outside researchers cautioned that it’s too early to say for sure whether the new sub-variant is really less likely to make people sick, or whether there are other factors at work. If AY.4.2 was spreading among people who were younger or in places with broad vaccine coverage, “these factors could account for the observed difference,” Simon Clarke, an associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said in a briefing distributed by the Science Media Centre.
About one in 20 school-aged children had the virus over the survey period. Prevalence also doubled in people over the age of 65.