Coronavirus Discussion

[Lagie]

18 hours ago, Ruby Eyes said:

Maybe she is used to talking to hearing-impaired people.

Nah. She thinks her voice isn't projecting enough. I usually hear her just fine with her mask.

 

I hope you'll be okay, @trystan!

[Astreya]

I hope everybody here stays okay despite all the problems and ignorant people they face.

 

In Germany, there is still a lot of squabbling between the federal government and the state governments as the former wants one set of rules for all states, but the latter all want to cook their own little soups. As here the rule is "health is a matter of the states", the federal government can't actually do much until they manage to change the federally valid "Infektionsschutzgesetz (IfSG)", the law to protect the population against infections. Changing this needs legislation that first goes through the Bundestag (German parliament) and then the Bundesrat (the part of the German legislative that represents the German states, something similar to the US Senate).

 

As least the Deutsche Bahn (the biggest railway company in Germany) finally decided that they will ban people who repeatedly refuse to wear a mask from getting transported and even to enter the railway stations for 6 months.

 

Unfortunately the Covid-19 numbers are still on the rise. With the introduction of the "Corona Schnelltests" (free fast tests that give the results within 15 minutes and are administered by professionals (doctors, pharmacists etc) for people who are free of symptoms and want to know if they are okay), one can see that (numbers from my home town) there is an average of about 20 positives from 3000 tests in the last days, that is about 0.7% of the tested people are free of symptoms and still carry the virus.  (By the way, if a person gets tested positive that way, they are obliged to get a proper PCR test to verify the result as these fast tests are not that exact as the PCR tests.)

 

----------

As of today, Sunday, April 11, 11:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 211 000) has 547 (+26) active cases, while 8202 (+13)  people are considered to have recovered. 308 (+-0) persons sadly died. 1204 persons are currently quarantined. All in all there have been 9057 (+39) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 124.8 (+8.6).

 

Currently 83 (+6) persons are treated in hospitals, with 16 (+1) of them in intensive care, 12 (-1) of these needing artificial respiration.

All in all there have been 83 984 Covid-19 PCR tests in Oberhausen (in general).

There have been 31 830 (1st jab) and 12 208 (2nd jab) vaccinations so far.

 

----------

As of today, Monnday, April 12, 13:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 211 000) has 524 (-23) active cases, while 8257 (+55)  people are considered to have recovered. 308 (+-0) persons sadly died. 1227 persons are currently quarantined. All in all there have been 9089 (+32) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 131.9 (+7.1).

 

Currently 81 (-2) persons are treated in hospitals, with 15 (-1) of them in intensive care, 11 (-1) of these needing artificial respiration.

All in all there have been 83 984 Covid-19 PCR tests in Oberhausen (in general).

There have been 32 426 (1st jab) and 12 429 (2nd jab) vaccinations so far.

[Source: Stadt Oberhausen]

Edited April 12, 2021 by Astreya

[Ruby Eyes]

I got one of those rapid tests and got negative. Quite a relief after the little scare with a colleague's mother earlier this week (who he spent all 4 days of the long Easter weekend with and who tested positive on Tuesday).

I guess Boss has figured out that supplying those rapid tests to their employees gets the company a tax advantage or somesuch

[trystan]

thanks @blackmagicrose and @Lagie.... I think i met the person who tested positive like...once.  ever. in like 2019.

 

but I think at this point, if people aren't going to cover their nose, they never will, and won't understand why they ought to. *sigh*

[Lagie]

A lady came in my shop this week with one of those eye/sleep masks as her mask. This one at least had a nose pocket (had it been where it should have been) so everything was covered but still... We keep a few spare cloth ones just in case, so I gave her one. "But this one has all the areas covered," said she. "True, but it's a sleep mask."  By the time she left (WAY after her time limit had passed), she did have the proper one on.

[trystan]

i don't think i've ever done as much eyerolling in the last 13 months than i have before.  even counting all my eyerolls since january 20, 2017.

[Ruby Eyes]

27 minutes ago, trystan said:

counting all my eyerolls

That's a strange hobby you have there.

GF has been trying to get the vaccine in her home country for about 3 weeks now. Seems AZ is available everywhere and the other one, B/P, is always out, gone to people with better "connections".

Her home country is, unfortunately, rather high in the corruption ranking.

[trystan]

1 minute ago, Ruby Eyes said:

30 minutes ago, trystan said:

counting all my eyerolls

That's a strange hobby you have there.

i mean... yes.... but....

y'all know what i mean  

[Nalyua]

Here in Germany our politicions are turning kinda stupid. Like really how they act surprised when the numbers grow slow and then suddenly skyrocket. Im mean srsly we have had this game with exponential growth like how often since all this started?

 

I really dislike Merkel for doing like nothing about anything in all those 16 years, but the woman has a phD in physics so at least she is the one person able to read the numbers for what they are. And every time she said what would happen it actually did or was worse and all the others were like what? Nobody warned me! How could this happen?

 

Like in kindergarten.

 

Honestly if you publicly admit that maths is not your thing, like fine it doesn't has to be, everyone has different strengths, but the wth don't you listen to all those experts you pay so much?

 

I'm seriously angry by now.

[Ruby Eyes]

4 hours ago, Nalyua said:

And every time she said what would happen it actually did or was worse and all the others were like what? Nobody warned me! How could this happen?

But that's not Merkel's fault, really. The biggest issue is that we're nearing the end of her being chancellor, so look at all the wanna-be chancellor candidates scrambling for tiniest bits of public appreciation - how could any of them possibly voice anything unpopular, something that they know the people won't like much?

This is no longer a kindergarten, it's a moshpit where only one gets to get out and on stage.

[Astreya]

@Nalyua

Not only Angela Merkel always warned and tried to get the Ministerpräsident*innen to see reason and scientific facts, numerous virologists and medical doctors pointed out the problems weeks and months ago all the time.

 

The heute show (German satire show) analysed the situation very thoroughly (Language German only, sorry):

Spoiler

 

 

Or extra3:

 

 

Edited April 12, 2021 by Astreya

[Nalyua]

Ruby fact ist over 60% don't even want laxer rules. Just the Querdenker are being the loudest about it.

[Ruby Eyes]

18 minutes ago, Nalyua said:

Just the Querdenker are being the loudest about it.

Tell me about it. EVERY FRIGGING SATURDAY they pop up around the corner and YELL through their megaphones for about 15 minutes - I suspect afterwards, police disassembles that flock of covidiots. I don't know what happens there exactly because I for SURE will not leave the house with those guys out there just to look around that corner. But I see the police squads' cars ...

[Lagie]

Our numbers are rising again. We may end up back in lockdown.

[Astreya]

@Lagie

Sadly the numbers seem to be on the rise practically worldwide:

Quote

“We are at a critical point in the pandemic now, the trajectory of this pandemic is growing for the 7th week in a row,” said the WHO team leader on COVID-19, Maria van Kerkhove.

Noting that there had been a 9% rise in cases last week, the seventh consecutive week of increases, and a 5% rise in deaths, she added: “If you look at the epi (epidemic) curve and the trajectory of the pandemic right now, it is growing exponentially”.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-who-pandemic-idUSKBN2BZ1SF

 

----------

As of today, Tuesday, April 13, 13:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 211 000) has 495 (-29) active cases, while 8308 (+51)  people are considered to have recovered. 309 (+1) persons sadly died. 1325 persons are currently quarantined. All in all there have been 9112 (+23) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 132.9 (+1.0).

 

Currently 82 (+1) persons are treated in hospitals, with 18 (+3) of them in intensive care, 14 (+3) of these needing artificial respiration.

All in all there have been 90 472 Covid-19 PCR tests in Oberhausen.

There have been 33 161 (1st jab) and 12 663 (2nd jab) vaccinations so far.

 

----------

As of today, Wednesday, April 14, 11:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 211 000) has 512 (+17) active cases, while 8346 (+38)  people are considered to have recovered. 310 (+1) persons sadly died. 1349 persons are currently quarantined. All in all there have been 9168 (+56) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 139.5 (+6.6).

 

Currently 81 (-1) persons are treated in hospitals, with 18 (+-0) of them in intensive care, 17 (+3) of these needing artificial respiration.

All in all there have been 90 598 Covid-19 PCR tests in Oberhausen.

There have been 33 871 (1st jab) and 12 912 (2nd jab) vaccinations so far.

[Source: Stadt Oberhausen]

Edited April 15, 2021 by Astreya

[Caius]

Since the pandemic broke loose I've been somewhat blessed to have been spared from it in many ways. No one I know has died from it and few I know has gotten covid. I have been very strict with keeping my distance, only meeting people that I meet on a regular basis (like my family and the ones I work with), only going to the stores when it's less people there and avoiding stores where I know it's always too large crowds.

 

But last Monday while I was picking trash at work (since the use and purpose of trashcans are still a mystery for too many people), I met a man who coughed and sneezed right at me, without any concern for me being there right in front of him (and I do know he saw me, because he looked at me right before then). Then he simply smiled awkwardly while walking away from me, as he kept coughing and sneezing. Both me and the person I worked with stayed home from work since. Because both he and I got such an ache to our bellies, feeling really sick and a need to throw up. I haven't texted him to see how he's doing, but I personally also got fever around noon yesterday, as well as I started feeling dizzy, I started having trouble breathing and I've been tired no matter how many naps I take. Thus I booked a test tomorrow when they had an opening. So we'll see, I hope it's nothing serious and just a normal cold. But the part of getting fever and having trouble breathing concerns me ...

[Astreya]

@Caius

That's awful! I'll keep my fingers crossed that you didn't catch the virus! *virtual hugs*

 

----------

As of today, Thursday, April 15, 11:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 211 000) has 543 (+31) active cases, while 8383 (+47)  people are considered to have recovered. 311 (+1) persons sadly died. 1349 persons are currently quarantined. All in all there have been 9247 (+79) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 138.1 (-1.4).

 

Currently 75 (-6) persons are treated in hospitals, with 17 (-1) of them in intensive care, 14 (-3) of these needing artificial respiration.

All in all there have been 90 706 Covid-19 PCR tests in Oberhausen.

There have been 34 485 (1st jab) and 13 233 (2nd jab) vaccinations so far.

[Source: Stadt Oberhausen]

Edited April 16, 2021 by Astreya

[Lagie]

13 hours ago, Caius said:

But the part of getting fever and having trouble breathing concerns me ...

Eeps. I hope you'll be okay. *hugs*

 

Edit - Wednesday.

 

Covid figures for the Bahamas for Tuesday, April 13th:

58 new cases, for a total now of 9,563, 46 of those on my island (from 493 tests so that's a very high figure). One additional death for a total of 191 deaths.

Edited April 14, 2021 by Lagie
Updating

[Caius]

@Lagie and @Astreya

Thanks *hugs*

Taking the test was probably one of the most uncomfortable things doing. My throat that already was sore got even more upset after it. 

Anyhow, got the results today, and it turned out I don't have covid, so it's quite the relief. Now I only wonder what it is that has giving trouble breathing for the past few days ... 

 

 

And ugh, those numbers you guys show are scary ... I've been kinda sad about the high numbers here in Sweden so I've stopped looking. Or well, my best friend told me today over the phone that the number of dead here are closing in on 16 000 ... Over 1 million confirmed cases and probably even more than that which are in the dark still, since there's such a small amount who get symptoms from wave three. The government does little to nothing to stop the pandemic. They are too vague with merely a few guidelines and small "it's best if you do this and that, but it's no obligation to do it. See it as our recommendation only."

There's large crowds wherever you go, every restaurant is full with people now that the spring has started for real and everyone wants to enjoy it. For those chosen few that gets the vaccination, it's large crowds as well (I work right beside one of the places where they vaccinate the elderly) and no one really seem to care about keeping their distance even there. And then we have the young people ... Almost every day there's meet ups for them after sundown where they listen to music, party and such things. They really don't seem to care if they carry around the virus and let it infect others even if they believe themselves to be immortal. So all in all there's no surprise why we have such high numbers here.

 

 

So I'm gonna keep to staying away from crowds as per usual as soon as my throat gets better and I "start living again" (lots of tea an honey going on over here instead of coffee, hehe). 

[Astreya]

@Caius

That's such a relief to read!  There are numerous possible reasons for some kind of cold symptoms - just because there is SARS-CoV-2 it doesn't mean other viruses or bacteria have disappeared.

 

Sadly here the number of infections increases more and more, too, and our politicians are more interested to squabble about who will become the successor of Angela Merkel. The posturing of the CDU/CSU guys Armin Laschet and Markus Söder means that they sort of forget doing what is sensible, but rather do (or talk about and don't do much of anything as they just want to be seen appearing competent) what they think the public (and or business aka possible donors) want. Meanwhile some town mayors decided to do the right thing and try to bring down the infection rates by enacting measures themselves.

 

Also sadly some opposition parties already announced they would fight measures like lockdowns and curfews by lawsuits taken before the Federal Constitutional Court, while many virologists and medical experts warn that the hospitals are getting overrun if nothing is done.

 

As for the positivity rate of the laboratory based PCR tests - in Germany we currently have an average of 12.04% positive tests, with this rate rising, too:

Spoiler

Source: https://www.n-tv.de/infografik/Coronavirus-aktuelle-Zahlen-Daten-zur-Epidemie-in-Deutschland-Europa-und-der-Welt-article21604983.html

 

----------

As of today, Friday, April 16, 11:00 GMT+1, my home town (population 211 000) has 607 (+64) active cases, while 8418 (+25)  people are considered to have recovered. 311 (+1) persons sadly died. 1349 persons are currently quarantined. All in all there have been 9336 (+89) people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of newly infected people per 100 000 citizens in the last 7 days is 148.5 (+10.4).

 

Currently 80 (+5) persons are treated in hospitals, with 18 (+1) of them in intensive care, 14 (+-0) of these needing artificial respiration.

All in all there have been 90 765 Covid-19 PCR tests in Oberhausen. The rapid test positivity rate here is rising, too. The last two days it was about 1% and as these are done by people without symptoms, it shows that the dark number is growing, too.

There have been 35 190 (1st jab) and 13 236 (2nd jab) vaccinations so far.

[Source: Stadt Oberhausen]

Edited April 16, 2021 by Astreya

[Confused Cat]

Our government has decided we can risk lifting a lot of restrictions even though the daily numbers are high (and rising), because... uh... because they're hoping to speed up vaccinations sometime in the next few months, I think.

 

Insert "this is fine" fire dog picture here.

[Uther_Pendragon]

Well, my very high risk husband and dad each have had both doses of Pfizer now! They are still masking, staying away from people, or at home as much as possible, but it's a relief to know they have that extra protection. I have had my first Pfizer dose! 

Husband had an odd reaction to first dose, (racing heart, nausea, tendons in opposite arm fluttering and jumping), but it all stopped after about a half hour. The nurses at vaccine site were wonderful, and checked him out thoroughly, and stayed with us until it all calmed down. His 2nd dose only caused the arm soreness for a few hours. Dad had zero reaction.
I had a small fibro flare the evening of my shot, but it was mild, then had the arm soreness the next day. It wasn't terrible and all went away quickly. I will continue wearing a mask and distancing, probably forever, because I didn't get the usual colds or flu over the winter.

 

 Had to visit the store yesterday, and hardly a mask to be seen, and the ones that were worn, were worn incorrectly. (Chin straps, noses out, pulling them down to talk or cough.) I get so frustrated when I see how many people don't give a heck about covid.

 

Hoping everyone here stays as safe as possible!

[Lagie]

9 hours ago, Caius said:

Anyhow, got the results today, and it turned out I don't have covid, so it's quite the relief.

Yay for not having Covid! Thanks for the update. Now to figure out what it is.

 

Glad you are vaccinated, @Uther_Pendragon! Stay safe!

 

I have been feeling tired, unfocused, and hot all day. I doubt it would be a vaccine reaction more than two weeks later, but I have to admit to wondering. And as far as the unfocused part goes - it didn't even occur to me to check my own temperature with the scanner we use at the shop until someone at the shelter suggested I use the one there.  (And it was normal...)

[purpledragonclaw]

@Caius I'm so glad to hear your test came back negative!

 

@Uther_Pendragon I'm so glad your father and your husband are now fully vaccinated, and congrats on getting your first dose! It's so heartening to read this thread now, compared to where we were in the world last year, and see so many people posting that they and their loved ones are getting vaccinated.

 

I got my first shot of Pfizer today! My arm is sore, but it's comparable to the pain I feel after the flu shot. 

 

Speaking of Pfizer, the Pfizer CEO said a third booster shot will probably be needed 6-12 months after the second dose.

 

 

[Nalyua]

Honestly I think this is gonna be just like flu shots that you have to get like every year.

 

I had a super sore throat last week just the day I was supposed to get my blood sampled so I can get a doctor's order against Vector-Vaccinations (I got a high risk for thrombosis but the original like 15 year old documents proving that are gone, most likely lost during a move, the practice that did those bloodworks after my thrombosis doesn't exist anymore and my copy was gone). So the doc said I should just come anyway but stay outside and get tested (since Covid causes thrombosis as well), thankfully negative so they went ahead with the bloodwork.

 

Not that I'm gonna get a vaccination anytime soon but here we cannot choose the type of shot you get and in case they revoke the Astra only above 60 and introduce any other Vector-Vaccine without age limits we wanted to get the proof that disqualifies me for those ready. Unfortunately in Germany no one has any idea when we younger people will acutally getting their shots.