TallGuyJohninBKK

Leaked memo shows J.D. Vance’s anti-woke ideology on foreign affairs Trump’s VP pick froze dozens of ambassador nominations over issues like gender transition care and diversity hiring, offering a glimpse into his anti-establishment views July 19, 2024 Before J.D. Vance became Donald Trump’s pick for vice president, he was known in the most powerful offices of the State Department as the single biggest obstacle to confirming career ambassadors in the Senate. Armed with a questionnaire on hot-button social issues about gay and lesbian rights, gender transition care and hiring practices related to diversity, equity and inclusion, Vance (R-Ohio) held up for more than a year the nominations of dozens of diplomats assigned to serve in posts across the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. A copy of Vance’s questionnaire, obtained by The Washington Post and published here for the first time, asked would-be ambassadors if they would increase the number of “gender-neutral bathrooms” in U.S. embassies, boost resources for “gender dysphoria and gender transition care” and raise the “Progress flag” during “regional Pride celebrations.” (more) https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2024/07/19/jd-vance-leaked-memo-state-department/ https://archive.ph/YqIUp

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) said that fellow Marine Corp veteran Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who was chosen this week as former President Trump’s running mate, doesn’t uphold “Marine values.” Moulton joined Crooked Media’s “Pod Save the World” on Friday where he was asked by Tommy Vietor what he thought about Trump’s recent announcement of naming Vance as his vice president at the Republican National Convention, as Moulton and Vance are both veterans. “He’s a Marine Corps veteran. I mean, a combat correspondent. He didn’t do much fighting and he doesn’t exactly uphold Marine values,” Moulton said. “In fact, not even close to it.” “I consider him one of the biggest hypocrites in Congress, someone who wrote a book, completely contradicted by his candidacy, someone who assailed Trump, before he became a sycophant,” he continued. (more) https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4783102-moulton-says-vance-doesnt-exactly-uphold-marine-values/

July 20, 2024 A Marine who stormed the U.S. Capitol and apparently flashed a Nazi salute in front of the building was sentenced on Friday to nearly five years in prison. Tyler Bradley Dykes, of South Carolina, was an active-duty Marine when he grabbed a police riot shield from the hands of two police officers and used it to push his way through police lines during the attack by the mob of then-President Donald Trump's supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. Dykes, who pleaded guilty in April to assault charges, previously was convicted of a crime stemming from the 2017 white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Dykes was transferred to federal custody in 2023 after he served a six-month sentence in a state prison. (more) https://apnews.com/article/marine-capitol-riot-ea3478197e15b21810aa97b3351663c6

US COVID-19 activity continues to rise steadily July 20, 2024 The latest COVID indicators from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today showed more rises, with wastewater detections trending upward in all regions of the country, especially the West and South. ... Surge in KP.3.1.1 detections In its latest variant proportion projections, the CDC reported a big jump in KP.3.1.1 viruses, an offshoot of KP.3 that scientists this week said is poised to become dominant because of its higher infectivity and immune evasion. KP.3 and its relative, KP.3.1.1, together make up more than 50% of variant sequences. ... Along with the CDC's report of high wastewater levels of SARS-CoV-2, WastewaterSCAN, a national wastewater monitoring system based at Stanford University in partnership with Emory University, notes that detections are in the high category, with no significant trend up or downward over the past 3 weeks. It said all regions of the country are in the high category, except for the Midwest, which is at the medium level. (more) https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/us-covid-19-activity-continues-rise-steadily

The “Make America Strong Once Again”-themed night was marked by misstatements about LGBTQ people, racial and gender parity, and religious liberty July 18, 2024 The big moment from Day 3 of the Republican National Convention was the keynote speech by U.S. Senator JD Vance from Ohio, former President Donald J. Trump’s newly chosen running mate. But in the lead-up, a few featured speakers took the stage to address foreign policy under the evening’s theme of “Make America Strong Once Again.” And again, substantive issues facing the LGBTQ community were ignored at the RNC and LGBTQ identities were only used to generate misunderstanding and fear or outright lies. Vance was preceded by a long list of speakers that included, among others, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, Donald Trump Jr., former acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell, and Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota (a GOP primary candidate for president who was also reportedly vetted by the Trump campaign as a potential running mate), all of whom have anti-LGBTQ records. Their records and many more can be found in the GLAAD Accountability Project. Grenell’s speech included the baseless assertion that, “Donald Trump doesn’t care if you’re gay or straight, black or white, or what gender you are…” In fact, multiple other speakers have lobbed gender-based attacks from the RNC stage, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. (more) https://glaad.org/day-3-rnc/

CDC COVID update for July 19, 2024: "Many areas of the country are experiencing consistent increases in COVID-19 activity. COVID-19 test positivity, emergency department visits, and rates of COVID-19–associated hospitalizations are increasing, particularly among adults 65+. CDC will continue to closely monitor trends in COVID-19 activity." https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/data-research/dashboard/snapshot.html https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home COVID Deaths The latest CDC update on weekly U.S. COVID deaths shows 385 as of the week ending June 22 (the last full-data week colored in blue below), up from a revised 342 tally for the prior week ending June 15. And up from a weekly low of 294 as of June 8. Source: Provisional Deaths from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) National Vital Statistics System (NVSS). Provisional data are non-final counts of deaths based on the flow of mortality data in NVSS. Deaths include those with COVID-19, coded to ICD–10 code U07.1, as an underlying or contributing cause of death on the death certificate. Death data are displayed by date of death (event). ... Data during recent periods are incomplete because of the lag in time between when a death occurs and when a death certificate is completed, submitted to NCHS, and processed for reporting. This delay can range from 1 week to 8 weeks or more, depending on the jurisdiction. The most recent 3 weeks of mortality counts are shaded grey and mortality rates shown as dotted lines because NVSS reporting is <95% during this period. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklydeaths_select_00 Current Epidemic Growth Status "As of July 16, 2024, we estimate that COVID-19 infections are growing or likely growing in 42 states and territories, declining or likely declining in 0 states and territories, and are stable or uncertain in 6 states and territories."" https://www.cdc.gov/forecast-outbreak-analytics/about/rt-estimates.html

Alarm bells ring in Japan as experts warn of fast-spreading new Covid variant KP. 3 The country reported a 39 per cent week-on-week surge in infections from July 1 to 7, with Okinawa the hardest hit 19 Jul 2024 Japan is grappling with a new and highly contagious coronavirus variant that is fueling the country’s 11th wave of Covid-19 infections, health experts warn. The KP. 3 variant is spreading rapidly, even among those who are vaccinated or have recovered from previous infections, according to Kazuhiro Tateda, president of the Japan Association of Infectious Diseases. “It is, unfortunately, the nature of the virus to become more resilient and resistant each time it changes into a different form,” Tateda told This Week in Asia. “People lose their immunity quite quickly after being vaccinated, so they have little or no resistance.” ... While hospitals have reported a sharp uptick in Covid-19 admissions, Tateda said he is “relieved that not many of these cases are severe”. Typical symptoms of the KP. 3 variant include high fever, sore throat, loss of smell and taste, headaches, and fatigue. (more) South China Morning Post https://archive.ph/54MSY

Japan's weekly COVID-19 cases rise for 10th straight week July 19, 2024 The average number of new coronavirus cases at designated hospitals across Japan rose for 10 consecutive weeks in the week through July 14, health ministry data showed Friday. The average [number of COVID cases]among the roughly 5,000 medical institutions stood at 11.18 in the week, with the total number of patients increasing to 55,072, 1.39 times the figure the previous week, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare data revealed. ... Japan "is likely entering an 11th wave of COVID-19 infections," said Naoki Hasegawa, a chairperson of the Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases and a professor at Keio University. "It is important to prevent contracting and spreading." (more) Kyodo News https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/07/14a84c28e80c-japans-weekly-covid-19-cases-rise-for-10th-straight-week.html Prior background: Japan saw over 16,000 deaths from COVID-19 in May-Nov. 2023 May 7, 2024 TOKYO - While life has gradually returned to normal almost a year since Japan downgraded COVID-19 to a lower-risk disease category, persistent waves of infections resulted in over 16,000 deaths between May and November last year, according to government data. Health experts have stressed the need for a renewed understanding that lives are still being lost to the virus, even after the government reclassified COVID-19 as an infectious disease on par with the seasonal flu on May 8 last year, facilitating the normalization of social and economic activities. A ninth wave of infections from last summer to fall resulted in Okinawa Prefecture's medical system being overwhelmed and difficulties in providing ambulance services. There was also a 10th wave across Japan last winter. (more) https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/05/b2586927169e-japan-saw-over-16000-deaths-from-covid-19-in-may-nov-2023.html

Interesting statistic -- as the above chart suggests, the weekly COVID deaths reported in England for the first week of July 2024 are running almost double the comparable period for the first week of 2023, according to the UKHSA data: ... https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/

Here's the charts from the latest UKHSA weekly COVID update as of July 18: My text summary - COVID cases and hospitalization admissions increased vs. the prior week's report. New weekly COVID deaths (163) and COVID testing positivity rates slightly down thru July 6 (though a later update thru July 13 shows the testing positivity rate increasing again, substantially). https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/ Up to and including 13 July 2024: Date -- Positivity % 13 Jul 2024 -- 15.86 12 Jul 2024 -- 15.61 11 Jul 2024 -- 15.46 10 Jul 2024 -- 15.34 9 Jul 2024 -- 14.77 8 Jul 2024 -- 14.41 7 Jul 2024 -- 14.07 6 Jul 2024 -- 13.88 https://ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/topics/covid-19

About 7 percent of U.S. adults have had long covid, report says Just 6 percent of the vaccinated and boosted respondents reported long covid symptoms vs. 8 percent of those who weren’t vaccinated July 15, 2024 About 7 percent of U.S. adults — nearly 18 million people — had suffered from long covid as of early last year, according to a recent report in JAMA Data Brief. ... The household survey of the U.S. civilian non-institutionalized population used a nationally representative sample of about 17,000 adults age 18 and older. Of those, 8,275 adults reported having had covid-19, with some 1,200 indicating that they suffered from long covid symptoms. ... The MEPS survey also asked participants about their covid-19 vaccination and booster shot history. Just 6 percent of the vaccinated and boosted respondents reported long covid symptoms vs. 8 percent of those who weren’t vaccinated. The findings suggest “booster shots may enhance protection against long covid, possibly because booster shots reduce the risk of severe covid-19,” the researchers wrote. (more) Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/07/15/long-covid-united-states-adults/

Key takeaways: The risk for long COVID has declined with each new variant but remains “substantial,” according to researchers. Vaccination lowers a patient’s risk for long COVID, the researchers found. July 17, 2024 The risk for developing long COVID declined over the course of the pandemic but has remained significant, researchers reported. ... Results showed that 10.4% of COVID-19 unvaccinated veterans experienced long COVID during the pre-delta era, 9.5% experienced long COVID during the delta variant era and 7.7% developed long COVID during the omicron era, according to the researchers. Among vaccinated veterans, 5.3% developed long COVID during the delta era and 3.5% developed long COVID during the omicron era. The researchers found that roughly 70% of the decline in long COVID risk was attributed to vaccinations and roughly 30% to changes in the virus from variant to variant. (more) https://www.healio.com/news/infectious-disease/20240717/qa-risk-for-long-covid-has-declined-remains-substantial https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2403211 Risk of long COVID declined over course of pandemic Drop attributed mostly to vaccination but remaining risk still significant The risk of developing long COVID has decreased significantly over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an analysis of data led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Researchers attributed about 70% of the risk reduction to vaccination against COVID-19 and 30% to changes over time, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus’s evolving characteristics and improved detection and management of COVID-19. ... To do this, Al-Aly and his team analyzed millions of de-identified medical records in a database maintained by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the nation’s largest integrated health-care system. The study included 441,583 veterans with SARS-CoV-2 infections and more than 4.7 million uninfected veterans, from March 1, 2020, through Jan. 31, 2022. (more) https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/risk-of-long-covid-declined-over-course-of-pandemic/

Australian cyclist Chris Harper withdraws from Tour de France with COVID-19 symptoms July 16, 2024 GRUISSAN, France (AP) — Chris Harper of Australia has withdrawn from the Tour de France ahead of Tuesday’s 16th stage, his team said, as COVID-19 infections continue to hit cycling’s marquee event. ... Harper’s withdrawal marks the latest case of coronavirus at the three-week race, following those of Juan Ayuso — a teammate of race leader Tadej Pogacar — Tom Pidcock and Maxim Van Gils. Tour de France organizers have reintroduced protective measures against the virus, including mandatory mask-wearing for all those who might get in contact with riders and teams staff on the race. https://apnews.com/article/tour-de-france-coronavirus-4fa5a143cf1e53260ea7ba46b48d8f44

With three out of four Europeans planning on travelling over the summer, the era of border closures, mandatory testing and vaccine certificates seems a half-remembered nightmare to many. But with more than 1,700 people still dying every week across the world from Covid-19 and vaccine coverage declining among at-risk populations, according to the WHO, the pandemic isn't something that can just be spoken about in the past tense. 15/07/2024 ... On Thursday, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that more than 1,700 people across the world are still dying every week from Covid-19, warning that vaccine coverage was dangerously declining among people aged over 60 and in frontline health workers – two of the groups most at risk of dying due to Covid-19 infection. The virus is still making headlines. The Tour de France has reinstated protective measures to “limit health risks” after several riders, including the UK’s Tom Pidcock and Spain's Juan Ayuso, were forced to abandon the race after testing positive for Covid-19. Masks are now mandatory for anyone coming into contact with the competitors or their teams. With millions of people expected to travel to Paris for the Olympics and Paralympics in the coming weeks, it could be a worrying precedent. A WHO report published in June 2024 found that 4.9 million older adults across 60 countries had received a vaccine dose in the first quarter of the year, corresponding to a 0.42 percent uptake rate. Among healthcare workers, this figure was just 234,000 people across 40 reporting countries – an uptake rate of 0.17 percent. (more) https://www.france24.com/en/health/20240715-as-europe-prepares-for-summer-holidays-who-warns-that-the-covid-19-era-is-far-from-over

Because the research on COVID and vaccines shows what it shows, but policy makers in different countries make differing policy judgments on how to respond to that science. Presumably in the U.S., the FDA and CDC were looking at this kind of data showing that some young children, even previously healthy ones, can and do get very sick from COVID, especially when they haven't been vaccinated -- even if their rates of COVID illness may be lower that older age groups. Characteristics and Clinical Outcomes of Vaccine-Eligible US Children Under-5 Years Hospitalized for Acute COVID-19 in a National Network March 2024 "We enrolled inpatients 8 months to <5 years of age with acute community-acquired COVID-19 across 28 US pediatric hospitals from September 20, 2022 to May 31, 2023.... Among 597 children, 174 (29.1%) patients were admitted to the intensive care unit and 75 (12.6%) had a life-threatening illness, including 51 (8.5%) requiring invasive mechanical ventilation. Only 4.5% of children hospitalized for COVID-19 (n = 27) had completed their primary COVID-19 vaccination series and 7.0% (n = 42) of children initiated but did not complete their primary series. Among 528 unvaccinated children, nearly half (n = 251) were previously healthy, 3 of them required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for acute COVID-19 and 1 died. Conclusions: Most young children hospitalized for acute COVID-19, including most children admitted to the intensive care unit and with life-threatening illness, had not initiated COVID-19 vaccination despite being eligible. Nearly half of these children had no underlying conditions. Of the small percentage of children who initiated a COVID-19 primary series, most had not completed it before hospitalization." https://journals.lww.com/pidj/abstract/2024/03000/characteristics_and_clinical_outcomes_of.10.aspx combined with Study estimates 2 COVID vaccine doses 40% effective against emergency, hospital care in young kids December 1, 2023 "Two doses of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine were 40% effective against emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalization in preschool-aged children during a period of Omicron variant predominance, estimates a test-negative, case-control study using data from the New Vaccine Surveillance Network (NVSN). Today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-led team published COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE) estimates among 7,434 children aged 6 months to 4 years receiving ED care or being admitted to one of seven pediatric hospitals for acute respiratory infection (ARI) from July 2022 to September 2023. https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/study-estimates-2-covid-vaccine-doses-40-effective-against-emergency-hospital-care-young

Another tired old rehashed anti-vaxer claim re vaccines and transmission. COVID vaccines were approved in Europe and the U.S. on the basis of their ability to reduce and prevent COVID infection and illness in the people who received the vaccines, which they did. Preventing transmission was never a requirement for approval of the COVID vaccines either in Europe or the U.S. so they were not initially tested for that, even though once out in the real world, studies showed they did in fact help reduce transmission. Fact Check: Preventing transmission never required for COVID vaccines’ initial approval; Pfizer vax did reduce transmission of early variants Reuters Fact Check February 13, 2024 "Social media users are circulating video clips of testimony by a Pfizer executive, who is said to “admit” that the company and its partner BioNTech did not test whether their mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine reduced virus transmission prior to rolling it out – which is something the companies were not required to do for initial regulatory approval, nor did they claim to have done. To get emergency approval, companies needed to show that the vaccines were safe and prevented vaccinated people from getting ill. They did not have to show that the vaccine would also prevent people from spreading the virus to others. Once the vaccines were on the market, independent researchers in multiple countries studied people who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and did show that vaccination reduced transmission of variants circulating at the time. https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/preventing-transmission-never-required-covid-vaccines-initial-approval-pfizer-2024-02-12/

As reported in various bits and pieces earlier in this thread: Six people found dead in Bangkok hotel killed with cyanide, Thai police say The multiple murder is thought to be connected to a joint investment in a Japanese hospital construction project. By Euronews with AP Published on 18/07/2024 "Initial autopsy results have identified traces of cyanide in the blood of six Vietnamese and American guests found dead at a central Bangkok luxury hotel, with Thai authorities saying one is believed to have poisoned the others over a bad investment. ... Trairong Piwpan, chief of the Thai police force's forensic division, said there were traces of cyanide in the cups and thermos flasks that police found in the room. This was later confirmed by the initial autopsy results. ... Kornkiat Vongpaisarnsin, head of the forensic medicine department at Chulalongkorn University's medical school, said at a news conference that there was cyanide found in the blood of all six bodies and that CAT scans had revealed no signs of blunt force trauma. (more) https://www.euronews.com/2024/07/18/six-people-found-dead-in-bangkok-hotel-killed-with-cyanide-thai-police-say

Interesting result... Notwithstanding her role in the above, von der Leyen just got elected to a second five-year term as European Commission president, and the COVID vaccines issue got only a one paragraph mention at the bottom of a very long CNN report that mostly focused on defense and economic issues. Ursula von der Leyen elected to second term as European Commission president July 18, 2024 (CNN) — Ursula von der Leyen has been reelected to a second five-year term as president of the European Commission after a vote by EU lawmakers, as the continent’s mainstream seeks to reassert itself in the face of a resurgent far right. In an earlier pitch to the European parliament in Strasbourg, France, von der Leyen on Thursday pledged to invest in infrastructure and industry, create a new “European Defense Union” and stay the course on the continent’s green transition. After a secret ballot, von der Leyen was reelected with 401 votes in favor and 284 against. She needed more than 360 ballots to secure a majority in the 720-seat parliament. (more) https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/18/europe/eu-parliament-von-der-leyen-second-term-commission-intl/index.html

Six people found dead in Bangkok hotel killed with cyanide, Thai police say The multiple murder is thought to be connected to a joint investment in a Japanese hospital construction project. Euronews with AP Published on 18/07/2024 Initial autopsy results have identified traces of cyanide in the blood of six Vietnamese and American guests found dead at a central Bangkok luxury hotel, with Thai authorities saying one is believed to have poisoned the others over a bad investment. ... Trairong Piwpan, chief of the Thai police force's forensic division, said there were traces of cyanide in the cups and thermos flasks that police found in the room. This was later confirmed by the initial autopsy results. ... Kornkiat Vongpaisarnsin, head of the forensic medicine department at Chulalongkorn University's medical school, said at a news conference that there was cyanide found in the blood of all six bodies and that CAT scans had revealed no signs of blunt force trauma. (more) https://www.euronews.com/2024/07/18/six-people-found-dead-in-bangkok-hotel-killed-with-cyanide-thai-police-say

Good thorough article by the BBC, that goes beyond the OP news report here, and has the doctors doing the autopsies on the victims confirming that cynanide was found in all of them. Cyanide found in blood of Bangkok hotel victims By Thanyarat Doksone & Kelly Ng, in Bangkok and Singapore "Cyanide has been found in the blood of all six people who died in a luxury hotel suite in Bangkok, say doctors after examining their bodies. Based on the initial post-mortem examination, they say there is "no other cause" that would explain their deaths "except for cyanide". But further tests are being carried out to determine the "intensity" of the deadly chemical and to rule out any other toxins." (more) https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3g64ljwp2go

COVID-19, influenza outbreaks have peaked: CDC 07/16/2024 Taipei, July 16 (CNA) COVID-19 and influenza cases in Taiwan have peaked, with the epidemic phases likely to pass by mid-August, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Tuesday. ... Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳), the deputy director of the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Center, said that 898 new domestic COVID-19 cases with severe complications were recorded last week, a week-over-week drop of around 9 percent. "But the overall number of cases remains high, exceeding our epidemic prediction threshold, which indicates that the outbreak is still ongoing," Lee said, adding that 104 new COVID-19-related death cases were reported last week, slightly higher than the previous week's 99 cases. (more) https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202407160016 So, recapping the successive news reports above, Taiwan's weekly COVID deaths over the past four weeks have gone from 40 to 64 to 99 and now 104 for the most recent week.

Indeed, prior news reports on all this, including the change to 60-day visa exempt stamps, made it clear that the new policies could NOT take effect until... A. they were officially signed off by the Prime Minister, and B. then after that they were published in the Royal Gazette Typically, AFAIK, once the PM approves something, there's also an intermediate step where I believe what's called the Council of State reviews such measures for their legality prior to RG publication. It seems more than a bit strange that the above news report only talks about action by the Interior Minister and makes absolutely no mention about actions by the PM or Royal Gazette publication. I'm not going to believe the 60-day visa exempt change has or can come into effect until AFTER I read a news report here announcing that all these changes have been published in the RG. And AFAIK, that hasn't happened yet.

With the SmartTube app on Android and Fire TV devices, if it doesn't already give you an app message prompt asking you to update, you can always check for doing a manual update in the app Settings menu, under the About tab... In there, there's a menu item to check/click for checking for app updates. Yep, I was getting 403 errors as well with Smart Tube last week. Whenever something like that happens, the first thing I always do is check manually if there's an available update for the app. Last week, there was, I installed the update, and it solved the 403 errors problem. Lately, Google said they were going to be doing things aimed at countering third-party apps that provide the same kind of benefits (no commercials) as those provided by their own paid YouTube Premium service. Frankly, for me, the SmartTube app is a far better app than any version of the native YT app, chiefly because it has far more available customizations, including the ability in Settings to entirely hide any of the pre-configured content menu categories that you may not be interested in or use.

The latest weekly COVID report issued today by the Thai Ministry of Public Health is a clear sign that the country's spring 2024 COVID surge is finally winding down. The report included a second consecutive week of substantial declines in new weekly hospitalizations for COVID from the peak of 3,256 reached in late June, a figure six-fold higher than mid-March when the surge began. Monday's MoPH report also marked the first time since mid-March that Thailand reported week-over-week declines in all four publicly reported COVID indicators -- new weekly COVID hospitalizations, new weekly COVID deaths, patients hospitalized in serious condition, and patients requiring ventilation to breathe.

Thailand MoPH Weekly COVID report for July 7 - 13, 2024: --1,004 new COVID hospitalizations, averaging 143 per day, down 373 / 27.1% from 1,377 the prior week --5 new COVID deaths, down 6 / 54.5% from 11 the prior week --682 current COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition (pneumonia symptoms), down 53 / 7.2% from 735 the prior week (dark purple) --309 current COVID patients hospitalized requiring intubation/ventilation to breathe, down 31 / 9.1% from 340 the prior week (light purple) --------------------------------------- The latest MoPH report is finally a clear sign that Thailand's spring 2024 COVID surge is winding down after new weekly COVID hospitalizations peaked at 3,256 two weeks ago in late June, following 3-1/2 months of near relentless increases that saw those hospitalizations rise more than six-fold from mid-March levels (501). Monday's report marked the second consecutive week of substantial declines in new COVID weekly hospitalizations, and the first time since mid-March that Thailand has seen week-over-week declines in all four publicly reported COVID indicators -- new hospitalizations, new deaths, serious condition hospitalized patients and patients requiring ventilation to breathe. The newly reported 1,004 new COVID hospitalizations last week, averaging 143 per day, now are only about double the weekly number (501) reported in mid-March. The latest tally of 5 officially reported weekly COVID deaths is back to the typical kind of COVID death numbers Thailand has seen during most of 2024, down from 16 that tied Thailand's year-high weekly total two weeks ago. Cumulative officially reported figures since the start of 2024 are COVID hospitalizations (33,586) & COVID deaths (188). Of the 5 official COVID deaths for the past week, the MoPH is reporting that all were female. By age, 3 were ages 70 and above, 1 was age 60-69, and 1 was age 20-49. https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/?dashboard=main The weekly new COVID hospitalization totals since this year's spring surge began in mid-March have been: March 16 -- 501 March 23 -- 630 March 30 -- 728 April 6 -- 774 April 13 -- 849 April 20 -- 1,004 April 27 -- 1,672 May 4 -- 1,792 May 11 -- 1,880 May 18 - 1,882 May 25 -- 1,801 June 1 -- 1,863 June 8 -- 2,762 June 15 -- 2,881 June 22 -- 1,823 June 29 -- 3,256 July 6 -- 1,377 July 13 -- 1,004 By comparison, Thailand's key weekly COVID indicators to start 2024 were 664 new COVID hospitalizations and 4 COVID deaths for the first week of the year. Compared to the second week of July in 2023, cumulative officially reported COVID deaths thus far this year of 188 are far below the 741 figure from a year ago. But cumulative COVID hospitalizations thus far this year of 33,586 are running higher than the 30,309 total from the same point last year.