Covid-19 within Europe.

[Suff]

Deaths are a hard one because they can take up to a week to come through.

The government charts are hard to decipher as their trends show significant decline in the "incomplete" sections. But the daily stats show a lot of variation.

I had a look at Sweden today and also their restrictions. Their cases are bouncing around the 1,000+ and their deaths are single digit. Their restrictions are almost non existent.

Their deaths chart, however, looks very like the UK. Just lower. They don't test that much either. More than Germany, about half our tests per head of population.

[JanB]

We're back in a State of Emergency, from next week.

Details to follow, but masks must now be worn everywhere, not just in shops, by everyone. So walking along the street, wear a mask. This will continue until 10 January, at the earliest.

We're going to the local monthly market on Saturday, held outside. Last month, only a couple of people (us ) were wearing masks. This time, we'll all be wearing them.

[JanB]

Our PM is on every tv channel all four of them and can't watch the footie

[cromwell]

Oh crikey Jan, what a pain. Back to square one, and missing the football as well.

[JanB]

It's back on now

We have over 3000 new cases of the virus every day, hence the new measures. Testing before you go into bars, restaurants, show vaccination certificates.

Can't quite see how our local bar is going to demand tests before we go in. The nearest test place is Castro Verde, 17kms away, although the chemist in Ourique does it. So to have a couple of beers, we'll have to go into Ourique, get tested, show Jose and then buy a beer.

Think we'll see the fine tuning over the next day or so.

[Suff]

In France it was show vaccination or test results. Not both.

I notice Germany is now running over 70,000 cases per day and deaths are up over 300 daily. Now they are mulling mandatory vaccinations and controls on entry to bars, etc, using vaccine certs.

France is heading for 30,000+ new cases per day, deaths are pushing up towards 100 per day. No new changes for us, vaccination certs have been mandatory for some time in every public area (we were scanned in McDonalds yesterday). Masks were only relaxed for outside and inside areas with only vaccinated people o9r people with a negative PCR test in the previous 3 days. No change there so far.

Sweden is running 2k new cases per day and single digit deaths, interspersed with days of no deaths. No masks! Still! They only ever "advised" them during peak periods on public transport and they ditched that in June.

[Workingman]

So now we have a new variant rolling in from Southern Africa and we have put six nations on the travel red list as from today, Friday 26 November: South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Anyone arriving after 4 am on Sunday will have to isolate in a government-approved hotel quarantine facility for 10 days.

Apparently the new variant (Nu) has over 50 mutations with some 30 of them on the spike proteins (the bits the vaccines target). There are concerns over its infectiousness, transmissibility, and that it might also be able to get around parts of the immune system.

There have been 77 fully confirmed cases in South Africa, four cases in Botswana and one in Hong Kong, but the latest news is that it has been detected in Belgium.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is taking this one very seriously and the government has acted swiftly to its advice.

[Suff]

There are concerns over its infectiousness, transmissibility, and that it might also be able to get around parts of the immune system.

That has been the concern every time there has been a variant. I guess we will have to wait and see. Just like every other time. The odds, though, are good that the vaccines will defeat these too. Just like every other variant. The human immune system is quite flexible in recognising variants. After all that is its job and it has been doing it for hundreds of thousands of years.

Precaution is OK, but we know that it will spread. Because not every country will include these restrictions and people will abuse that link in order to get home.

[cromwell]

Well the scientists have cried "Wolf!" so often, they have to be right eventually.
Possibly.
So far it's just another variant which "may" do this or "may" do that, magnified by the shrieking headlines of rags like the Daily Mail.

[Workingman]

The gene sequence was published on Monday the 22nd but it is not clear when the victim first contracted the new variant or where. It now goes by the name of Omicron.

It has obviously spooked the authorities. The WHO has upgraded it to a 'variant of concern', the EU has imposed an immediate travel ban and a whole host of individual countries are also following the UK ban. Stock markets have taken a hit. I am not sure that the Daily Fail, Depress or Torygraph had much to do with the 'news'. It is what it is. Mind you they do spin all the fact-free extras to scare us into compliance with the rules....

There are obviously concerns but as it stands it is too early to tell which way it will go. At least we are on to it and acting quickly and more united this time.