Article

2021-12-22 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Omicron Infections May Have Already Peaked In South Africa

[MSN] Daily Covid cases in South Africa have fallen for the fourth day in a row as Omicron continues to fade in the variant's epicentre.

Data from the National Institute For Communicable Diseases (NICD) shows 15,424 South Africans tested positive in the last 24 hours, down by a third on the nearly 24,000 cases confirmed last Tuesday.

A fifth fewer people were tested for the first in the last 24 hours compared to the same period last week, but test positivity — the proportion of those tested who are infected — has been trending downwards for eight days.

But hospitalisations and deaths — which lag two to three weeks behind the pattern seen in case numbers due to the delay in an infected person becoming seriously unwell — have risen.

More than 630 people were hospitalised across the country, up only 5 per cent in a week but the highest daily number in the country's fourth wave.

The previous record was last Wednesday when 620 people were hospitalised. Meanwhile 35 deaths were recorded, a 46 per cent uptick on last Tuesday.

The falling case numbers come despite only 25 per cent of South Africans being double-jabbed and boosters not being dished out in the country.

Posted by Lord Garth 2021-12-22 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11135 views ] Top

#1 the falling case numbers come ~~despite~~ in part BECAUSE only 25 per cent of South Africans are double-jabbed and boosters have not been dished out in the country

It's endemic now, you fools.

It's spreading much faster and becoming much less lethal -- like seasonal flu.

Game over.

Posted by Merrick Ferret 2021-12-22 12:30|| 2021-12-22 12:30|| Front Page Top

#2 Outside of SAfrica, as of this morning, 14 deaths worldwide from or with Omicron (1 Israel, 12 UK, 1 USA); most from people with multiple serious conditions

per https://nowbreakingnews.in/2021/12/22/omicron-deaths-reported-in-3-countries-so-far-experts-warn-of-more-fatalities/

Posted by Lord Garth 2021-12-22 12:35|| 2021-12-22 12:35|| Front Page Top

#3 Total incoherence now.
Boost! Don't boost! Oh SHIT whaddawedonow

WHO says COVID vaccine booster programs will prolong pandemic

Posted by Merrick Ferret 2021-12-22 12:42|| 2021-12-22 12:42|| Front Page Top

#4 Omicron provoked a Moronic Response.

At least South Africa still has some intelligent researchers who understand evolutionary biology and its connection to epidemiology:

"It was a short wave ... and the good news is that it was not very severe in terms of hospitalizations and deaths,” Marta Nunes, senior researcher at the Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics department of the University of Witwatersrand, told The Associated Press.

Duh:

It is “not unexpected in epidemiology that a very steep increase, like what we saw in November, is followed by a steep decrease."

Posted by Merrick Ferret 2021-12-22 12:59|| 2021-12-22 12:59|| Front Page Top

#5 Thought this was over around here until the other day when a silly white affluent old couple come tourist shopping in their silly city golf car and silly blue paper masks and made silly distressed rabbit motions every time someone came within touching distance.

They even backed their golf car up against the curb. Embarrassing.

Posted by swksvolFF 2021-12-22 18:14|| 2021-12-22 18:14|| Front Page Top

#6 fwiw, covid cases increased on 22 Dec in SAfrica to ~21k

Posted by Lord Garth 2021-12-22 19:05|| 2021-12-22 19:05|| Front Page Top

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