Emergence of a Deadly Coronavirus

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The Surge

A couple days ago I registered to receive a dose of the coronavirus vaccine. I noted that the atmosphere reminded me of a Black Friday Sales event. The Internet access point was jammed, the phone lines were jammed. I would not have succeeded except for my daughter who had a faster internet connection and even though she lived two States away (500 miles) was able to register me. We have a friend, Cindy who tapped into her daughter on the other side of the country in California to help register her. Well this massive registration surge was not localized to just Indiana but was visible across the entire nation.

The rapid expansion of COVID-19 vaccinations to senior citizens across the U.S. has led to bottlenecks, system crashes and hard feelings in many states because of overwhelming demand for the shots.

Mississippi's Health Department stopped taking new appointments the same day it began accepting them because of a "monumental surge" in requests. People had to wait hours to book vaccinations through a state website or a toll-free number Tuesday and Wednesday, and many were booted off the site because of technical problems and had to start over.

In California, counties begged for more coronavirus vaccine to reach millions of their senior citizens. Hospitals in South Carolina ran out of appointment slots within hours. Phone lines were jammed in Georgia.

"It’s chaos," said New York City resident Joan Jeffri, 76, who had to deal with broken hospital web links and unanswered phone calls before her daughter helped her secure an appointment. "If they want to vaccinate 80% of the population, good luck."

Francis Clark said she tried repeatedly to schedule an appointment for her 81-year-old mother, who lives alone outside Florence, South Carolina, and doesn’t have internet access. But the local hospital had no openings on Wednesday, Clark said, and the other vaccination sites are too far away. "My mom can’t drive to Charleston," Clark said. "She’s too old."

Allison Salerno, an audio producer from Athens, Georgia, said she spent the better part of a day calling her state’s health department to get a vaccine appointment for her 89-year-old mother. I started calling at 8:30 a.m. and on the 67th call I was finally put on hold," Salerno said. "I had already pre-registered her two weeks before online, but I never received a confirmation." After Salerno had spent 65 minutes on hold, someone finally came on the line and gave her mother a Saturday appointment. My mother has not been out since the beginning of the pandemic," Salerno said. "She’s a very healthy woman and she wants to go to the grocery store, she wants to get her hair done."

Source: Expanded COVID-19 vaccine rollout in US spawns a new set of problems

Norway warns frail patients over 80 of vaccine risks after deaths

Here is the latest updates:

Progress of COVID inoculations

According to the coronavirus vaccine tracker, the U.S. has now administered 11.15 million vaccine doses.

Globally 35.30 million vaccinate doses have been given with the U.S., China and U.K. in the top three positions. The U.S. and China are vying for first place.

Source: Coronavirus vaccine tracker

[The number of doses given does not equate to the number of people vaccinated because several of the vaccines require 2 doses.]

Texas is the First State to Administer Over 1 Million Doses of Coronavirus Vaccine

Texas was one of the first states to allow all residents 65 and older to receive the first dose of the vaccine and at the same time Texas opened up 28 mass vaccination centers that could administer upwards of 4,000 jabs at each location daily.

CDC Model Suggests UK COVID Strain Will Dominate in U.S. Shortly – With Spike in Cases

Corona Virus death toll closes in on 2 million deaths and 100 million cases.
UK passes 100,000 deaths and USA is closing in on 400,000 deaths.

Lockdowns Across Europe

Here are the measures in place in the European Union’s 27 member nations and some neighboring countries:

Austria: In a third lockdown. Leaving home only allowed for work, medical visits, exercise, groceries. No overnight curfew.

Belgium: 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew in French-speaking regions; midnight to 5 a.m. in Dutch-speaking Flanders region.

Bulgaria: No lockdown or curfew.

Croatia: Limits on gatherings; cafes and restaurants closed, but no curfew.

Cyprus: In lockdown, plus a 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew.

Czech Republic: 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew.

Denmark: No lockdown or curfew.

Estonia: No lockdown or curfew.

Finland: No lockdown or curfew.

France: EU’s longest curfew, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., in 25 regions of eastern France. The measure is being extended nationwide from Saturday, to include zones where the curfew has started later, at 8 p.m. Shopping and all outdoor leisure activities stop at curfew, only short pet walks allowed. Working and commuting allowed with note from employer. Food deliveries but not takeout allowed. Fines for curfew-breakers.

Germany: A patchwork of restrictions in the 16 states; some have overnight curfews; no curfew in the capital, Berlin.

Greece: In lockdown; limited movements allowed during the day, plus 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew.

Hungary: 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew.

Ireland: In lockdown; travel allowed for work, education, other essential activity and for exercise within 5 kilometers (3 miles) from home. No curfew.

Italy: 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew.

Latvia: 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew from Friday night to Sunday morning.

Lithuania: No curfew.

Luxembourg: 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.

Malta: No curfew.

Netherlands: Strict lockdown until at least Feb. 9. No curfew, but considering one.

Norway: No lockdown or curfew.

Poland: Shopping malls closed, with the exception of pharmacies, cleaners, barbers and food shops. Restaurants can only do takeaway food. Hotels, sports facilities closed. No curfew.

Romania: 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. Localized lockdowns, but not strictly enforced.

Russia and most other ex-Soviet nations: No lockdowns or curfews. Georgia has a 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew.

Slovakia: In lockdown. Leaving home allowed for work and essentials.

Slovenia: 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.

Spain: Curfews start between 10:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. and end between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m., depending on the region.

Sweden: No lockdown or curfew.

Turkey: 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. weekday curfew; all-day lockdown on weekends.

United Kingdom: All four nations (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales) in lockdown, people must stay at home except for limited essential trips and exercise. Schools closed except to children of key workers and vulnerable children. No curfew.

Source: Europe’s coronavirus curfews and lockdowns at a glance

Here is the latest updates:

Progress of COVID inoculations

According to the coronavirus vaccine tracker, the U.S. has now administered 12.28 million vaccine doses.

Globally 35.79 million vaccinate doses have been given with the U.S., China and U.K. in the top three positions. The U.S. and China are vying for first place.

Source: Coronavirus vaccine tracker

[The number of doses given does not equate to the number of people vaccinated because several of the vaccines require 2 doses.]

India Begins to Vaccinate - Big Time

Indian authorities are planning an initial round of 300 million vaccinations -- roughly the population of the U.S. The recipients will include 30 million doctors, nurses and other front-line workers, to be followed by 270 million people who are either over 50 years old or have underlying medical conditions.

India on Jan. 4 approved emergency use of two vaccines, one developed by Oxford University and U.K.-based drugmaker AstraZeneca, and another by Indian company Bharat Biotech. Cargo planes flew 16.5 million shots to different Indian cities last week.



Health experts worry that the regulatory shortcut taken to approve the Bharat Biotech vaccine without waiting for concrete data that would show its efficacy in preventing illness from the coronavirus could amplify vaccine hesitancy.

India is second to the U.S. with 10.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, and ranks third in the number of deaths, behind the U.S. and Brazil, with 152,000.

Source: India starts 'world's biggest' COVID-19 vaccination drive

Here is the latest updates:

Progress of COVID inoculations

According to the coronavirus vaccine tracker, the U.S. has now administered 12.28 million vaccine doses.

Globally 39.17 million vaccinate doses have been given with the U.S., China and U.K. in the top three positions. The U.S. and China are vying for first place. In this update, many other countries are starting to show up on the scoreboard. I expect India will make its presence known shortly and will be a top contender.

Source: Coronavirus vaccine tracker

Aerosol Transmission in Australian Quarantine

In Australia, individuals entering the country are often put in quarantine upon arrival into the country in quarantine hotels.

Experts call on Federal Government to acknowledge possible airborne transmission of COVID-19 in hotel quarantine



Failure at a federal level to acknowledge COVID-19 is transmitted through the air has been putting the community at risk, senior scientists, health and safety experts and doctors have told the ABC. Leading scientists said the virus could be leaking through our border controls because authorities have not put in place precautions that provide the greatest possible protection from airborne transmission.

Since the start of November until Thursday night, Australia's hotel quarantine system had caught 765 positive cases of COVID-19. For every 191 cases of COVID-19 found in hotel quarantine, one escapes into the community.



A driver in NSW tested positive after transporting international travellers to hotel quarantine, which led to the Berala cluster that forced tens of thousands of people into isolation.

In Brisbane, a cleaner at a quarantine hotel, her partner and several Australians returning home tested positive for the more virulent UK variant of COVID-19, leading to a snap lockdown across the city and 129 people being evacuated from the hotel.

South Australia was thrown into lockdown after a cleaner and two security guards at a quarantine hotel tested positive and were linked to the Parafield cluster, in which 33 people caught the virus.

A genetic study in NSW showed a worker at a quarantine hotel in Darling Harbour caught the virus from an airline crew staying there, but she did not infect anyone else.

And earlier last year, breaches in hotel quarantine led to Victoria's second wave.

With an increasing number of people arriving at hotel quarantine carrying the more contagious UK strain of the virus, plugging the leaks in the system is more important than ever.

But scientists said the leaks would continue unless everyone encountering a possible positive case was given medical-grade PPE, to stop them breathing in the virus. That meant face coverings such as proper-fitting P2 and N95 masks, like those used in hospitals, on construction sites and to avoid breathing in fumes like smoke.

On Thursday, a group of doctors wrote to health authorities in Queensland calling on the Government to include workplace health and safety experts, ventilation experts and aerosol scientists in assessing problems with hotel quarantine in that state.

China Lack of Transparency in New Covid Cases

China reportedly put roughly 28 million people on lockdown this week in the the Hebei provincial capital of Shijiazhuang.

It remains possible that China — the site of the original coronavirus outbreak — has been underreporting its cases.

In the first wave of the pandemic, China built hospitals almost overnight to accommodate the masses of people infected with COVID. It is doing this again. China on Saturday finished a five-day construction project on a 1,500-room hospital as clusters of COVID-19 spread in Beijing and the surrounding provinces. The facility is the one of six hospitals with a total of 6,500 rooms in the works in Nangong, the Xinhua News Agency said Saturday.

Source: China builds hospital in 5 days as COVID-19 cases rise in Beijing

COVID Resurgence in China

As the novel coronavirus sees a resurgence in China, at least 11 regions in three provinces adopted de facto lockdown measures and rolled out massive free nucleic acid tests among populations to curb the spread of the virus. Local governments did not use the term "lockdown" in their official notices, but are adopting measures similar to lockdowns, which usually mean residents are asked not to go out, vehicles are prohibited on roads and routes into the region are strictly controlled.

Northeast China's Heilongjiang sealed off at least five regions - Zhaodong, Qinggang, Suihua city's downtown area, Angangxi district in Qiqihar and Hulan district in Harbin. Local residents are required to stay in their homes and vehicles are prohibited on roads. Exit and entry roads are also closed off.

The cities of Gongzhuling and Tonghua in Northeast China's Jilin are also in de facto lockdowns, while citywide nucleic acid testing is being given to all residents.

Jilin has become one of the provinces in China worst hit by the current outbreaks, with a total of 34 confirmed cases and 80 asymptomatic patients as of press time.

Four regions in North China's Hebei Province have also been sealed off - Longyao county, Gu'an county, Nangong and the provincial capital Shijiazhuang.

Source: 11 Chinese regions under de facto lockdown amid coronavirus infections


An empty railway station in Shijiazhaung, on Jan. 16. Photographer: CNS/AFP/Getty Images

Why isn’t the UK government talking about airborne transmission of Covid-19?

People who have had coronavirus are truly baffled as to how they managed to catch it, because they wore a mask, distanced and followed official guidelines. This is not a problem of ignorance or denial, but a lack of education – and that, like so much else during this pandemic, is the fault of the government.

When it comes to airborne transmission, most of us will know about droplets – the little water specks that explode from our mouths and land quickly on the ground (the reason behind the two-metre rule). Aerosols are less well known. While also emitting from our mouths, they are different to droplets in one crucial way: they float. They are the microscopic particles that hang around our heads in a cloud; and like a mist, they’ll continue to hang there until something blows them away.

Because of this, as illustrated by El Pais, they become incredibly potent when emitted indoors. Masks limit them, but not entirely; distancing helps, but even if on opposite sides of a room, infection is still likely after a few hours. Ventilation is the only major game changer, but to make ventilation work well, air needs to be able to flow in and out of the room at a rapid rate (almost like your living room being as airy as a marquee). They take hours to drop and accumulate faster – for every one droplet, we emit 1,200 aerosols.

It's not hard to think of potential reasons for the government failure to educate the public on aerosols: doing so would be to acknowledge that official messaging from the start has been off. Reluctance to warn people that meeting indoors is one of the riskiest things they can do

How to stay safe with a fast-spreading new coronavirus variant on the loose

The CDC has warned that B.1.1.7 could become the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant in the U.S. by March. Other fast-spreading variants have also been found in Brazil and South Africa. With the new variant, aerosol concentration levels that might not have previously posed a risk could now lead to infection.

The concentration of aerosol particles is usually highest right next to the individual emitting the particles and decreases with distance from the source. However, in indoor environments, aerosol concentration levels can quickly build up, similar to how cigarette smoke accumulates within enclosed spaces. This is particularly problematic in spaces that have poor ventilation.

What can you do to stay safe?

1) Pay attention to the type of face mask you use, and how it fits.

Most off-the-shelf face coverings are not 100% effective at preventing droplet emission. With the new variant spreading more easily and likely infectious at lower concentrations, it’s important to select coverings with materials that are most effective at stopping droplet spread.

When available, N95 and surgical masks consistently perform the best. Otherwise, face coverings that use multiple layers of material are preferable. Ideally, the material should be a tight weave. High thread count cotton sheets are an example. Proper fit is also crucial, as gaps around the nose and mouth can decrease the effectiveness by 50%.

2) Follow social distancing guidelines. While the current social distancing guidelines are not perfect – 6 feet isn’t always enough – they do offer a useful starting point. Because aerosol concentrations levels and infectivity are highest in the space immediately surrounding anyone with the virus, increasing physical distancing can help reduce risk. Remember that people are infectious before they start showing symptoms, and they many never show symptoms, so don’t count on seeing signs of illness.

3) Think carefully about the environment when entering an enclosed area, both the ventilation and how people interact. Limiting the size of gatherings helps reduce the potential for exposure. Controlling indoor environments in other ways can also be a highly effective strategy for reducing risk. This includes increasing ventilation rates to bring in fresh air and filtering existing air to dilute aerosol concentrations. In all cases, it’s important to minimize the amount of time spent indoors with others.

This is a good article. But more can be done to control the spread.
* Use highly efficient face masks, follow social distancing guidelines and ventilation are important.
* But so is killing indoor viruses in the air using UVC sanitizers, filtering out viruses using HEPA filtration and maintaining indoor humidity above 40% RH.