Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Josquius]

Girlfriends dad was meant to get the vaccine today but apparently there's some potential allergy problems with the Pfizer one. All very vague exactly what this allergy might be

[The Larch]

Girlfriends dad was meant to get the vaccine today but apparently there's some potential allergy problems with the Pfizer one. All very vague exactly what this allergy might be

Yes, that's a known possible secondary effect of the Pfizer vaccine, I believe some people with strong allergy backgrounds got some bad reactions from it.

[The Brain]

Impression is that the second wave in Sweden peaked around Christmas. As always time will tell more.

[viper37]

Worst day of the pandemic in Portugal, which is back into lockdown, following a now widely seen foolhardy relaxation of measures for Christmas:

10,947 new cases and 166 deaths i.e 8,709 since it started.

https://www.dn.pt/sociedade/mais-10-947-novos-infetados-e-166-mortes-ha-4-653-pessoas-internadas-13239227.html

Not looking good over there
https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-portugal/portugals-health-system-on-brink-of-collapse-as-covid-19-cases-surge-idUSL8N2JS0FA
How is France doing?  I haven't read much about it for a while.

[Josquius]

France is at peak anti vax.

[Syt]

The mayor of Feldkirch is under fire. While in his town high risk persons were still waiting for vaccines he insisted he gets the last available shot.

[Duque de Bragança]

France is at peak anti vax.

Not anymore, due to not enough vaccines supplied and the incompetence of the Macron clique, so lots of wait to get one. One 80+ elder I know could only get an appointment in March. Opened to people over 75 since yesterday. I am not eligible till Q3...

https://www.france24.com/en/video/20210118-coronavirus-pandemic-in-france-the-surprising-popularity-of-the-vaccine

[Duque de Bragança]

Worst day of the pandemic in Portugal, which is back into lockdown, following a now widely seen foolhardy relaxation of measures for Christmas:

10,947 new cases and 166 deaths i.e 8,709 since it started.

https://www.dn.pt/sociedade/mais-10-947-novos-infetados-e-166-mortes-ha-4-653-pessoas-internadas-13239227.html

Not looking good over there
https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-portugal/portugals-health-system-on-brink-of-collapse-as-covid-19-cases-surge-idUSL8N2JS0FA
How is France doing?  I haven't read much about it for a while.

Yep, yesterday in Bragança it was announced only one available bed in ICU. Actually, not just the city and outskirts, the whole district, down to the Douro river.

As for France, lockdown advanced to 18 instead of 20 to avoid an upward spiral before the British variant becomes dominant in February-March.

[celedhring]

It's looking bad right now in Spain but my favored twitter covid whisperers say underlying trends aren't looking bad for the coming weeks. Numbers in Catalonia are down today for the first time in weeks, and we're usually a bellwether.

[Sheilbh]

It's looking bad right now in Spain but my favored twitter covid whisperers say underlying trends aren't looking bad for the coming weeks. Numbers in Catalonia are down today for the first time in weeks, and we're usually a bellwether.

Yeah there signs this wave has peaked in the UK - cases are falling at a decent clip now and hospital admissions looks like it's started to fall. Of course that means we've still got a week or so of increasing deaths

[Threviel]

The town where I work (Halmstad) is one of the top spreading places in Sweden. Yesterday the last residents in care homes were vaccinated and vaccinations for health care workers and people cared for in their homes have started seriously. Now everyone needs to be very careful for two weeks to let the vaccines do their shit.

The town where I live (Varberg) is presumably at about the same level. Our end of Sweden got away very cheaply in the spring so now we get it hard. My wife works in retail and has just gotten back to work after some parental leave during the autumn. Apparently most people behave themselves, and most people cannot use their mask properly. And there's still a lot of people not giving a fuck, coughing right out and moving in large groups and just standing close to other people.

I work from home, sitting in the garage. Slowly getting into it and feeling very sorry for everyone that has had to work from home for almost a year. A very good friend of mine has been sitting alone in his apartment more or less since april and its slightly heart breaking how lonely he is.

[The Larch]

The mayor of Feldkirch is under fire. While in his town high risk persons were still waiting for vaccines he insisted he gets the last available shot.

Over here a number of mayors from small villages have been found out to have sneaked for vaccination while the vaccinating teams were visiting the local care homes. Their excuse was normally something like "they called us to the city hall to offer the vaccination because they had finished with the elderly and personnel and there were some vaccine doses left unused that they'd have to throw away otherwise".

[Josquius]

The mayor of Feldkirch is under fire. While in his town high risk persons were still waiting for vaccines he insisted he gets the last available shot.

Over here a number of mayors from small villages have been found out to have sneaked for vaccination while the vaccinating teams were visiting the local care homes. Their excuse was normally something like "they called us to the city hall to offer the vaccination because they had finished with the elderly and personnel and there were some vaccine doses left unused that they'd have to throw away otherwise".

This doesn't sound so unreasonable on one level. Theres a whole thing about official 5 dose supplies having enough for 6 so random cleaning stuff et al getting them.
But making sure they're in the right place at the right time of course...

[celedhring]

So, as I said a few pages ago the Catalan regional election had been postponed until summer. This had very little legal basis (again, one of many things we don't have clear ways to handle amidst a pandemic). A couple microparties have seen this as a chance for free publicity and have announced they are appealing the decision. If the court takes up the case it is very likely - and the Catalan acting president has admitted it - that the court will rule against the cancellation.

As expected, the Catalan Supreme Court has - temporarily -  ordered the preparation for the election to restart until there's a final decision.

[Sheilbh]

Is there any possibility that it could be done by postal ballots or some other covid-safe system?

We have local elections in England, plus Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd elections in May. The English local elections were already postponed by a year so I think it's unlikely they'll be postponed again. My impression is that they still intend to have the elections in May. We'll see if that's attainable as a goal.