6 August 2024

 

COVID-19 infections are surging worldwide - including at the Olympics - and are unlikely to decline anytime soon, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday.

 

The UN health agency is also concerned that more severe variants of the coronavirus may soon be on the horizon.  “COVID-19 is still very much with us,” and circulating in all countries, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove of WHO told journalists in Geneva.

Testing positive

"Data from our sentinel-based surveillance system across 84 countries reports that the percent of positive tests for SARS-CoV-2 has been rising over several weeks," she said. "Overall, test positivity is above 10 per cent, but this fluctuates per region. In Europe, percent positivity is above 20 per cent," she added.

 

New waves of infection have been registered in the Americas, Europe and the western Pacific.  Wastewater surveillance suggests the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 is from two to 20 times higher than current figures suggest.

 

(more)

 

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/08/1152866

 

 

6 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

The UN health agency is also concerned that more severe variants of the coronavirus may soon be on the horizon.

 

So something slightly worse might happen in the future, maybe, possibly - but it's not happening right now.

Non story fluff piece.

 

Right now, without anything getting worse.... as reported and sourced elsewhere in this subforum:

 

--US COVID deaths are running more than 400 per week and rising, along with estimates of nearly 1 million new infections daily.

--England COVID deaths are running more than 200 per week and rising.

--Taiwan COVID deaths are running about 100 per week.

 

All part of what has become the evolving pattern of twice a year seasonal COVID surges coming in the summer periods and again at year's end.

 

Then add on top of that the uncertainty of what future / evolving variants of COVID may bring. As reported in the OP article:

 

“I am concerned”, the top WHO COVID specialist said.

 

“With such low [up-to-date vaccination] coverage and with such large circulation, if we were to have a variant that would be more severe, then the susceptibility of the at-risk populations to develop severe disease is huge,” Dr. Van Kerkhove warned.

 

If covid is making a worrying comeback my local hospital must of missed the memo. 

 

From today August 24. 2024. Canadian hospital sign. 

 

 

I can't speak to Canada, specifically.

 

But, if you look at the CDC info right now regarding the U.S., it says levels of "respiratory illnesses" are low, in general, meaning flu, RSV, etc.

 

In the very next sentence, though, they go on to add that levels of COVID are HIGH!

 

Also, the U.S. has always had higher and more serious levels of COVID illness than Canada, AFAIK.

 

It also could be your image is a generic hospital flyer on masking policy that was posted and has remained since who knows when.

 

Current respiratory illness info postings from the U.S. CDC, by way of example:

 

 

 

 

https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/data/index.html

 

26 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

It also could be your image is a generic hospital flyer on masking policy that was posted and has remained since who knows when.

 

 

Or they realize that covid is not what it once was and are now concentrating on more important things. 

 

Even medical staff were not wearing any masks at the hospital today. 

 

 

The WHO's last global update on COVID, in so far as data still is tracked and made public by a limited number of countries, was about 10 days ago in mid-August:

 

COVID-19 Epidemiological Update
Edition 170 published 13 August 2024

 

[emphasis added]...

"Wastewater surveillance remains important as an early warning system and monitoring SARS-CoV-2 circulation. Around 30 countries from five WHO Regions have publicly available wastewater surveillance information. According to estimates obtained from wastewater surveillance, clinical detection of cases underestimates the real burden from 2 to 19-fold.

• Globally, during the 28-day period from 24 June to 21 July 2024, 96 countries reported COVID-19 cases, and 35 countries reported COVID-19 deaths. Note that this does not reflect the actual number of countries where cases or deaths occur, as many countries have stopped or changed the frequency of reporting. From the available data, the number of reported cases and deaths have increased during the 28-day period, with over 186 000 new cases and more than 2800 new deaths, an increase of 30% and 26%, respectively, compared to the previous 28 days (27 May to 23 June 2024). Trends in the number of reported new cases and deaths should be interpreted with caution due to decreased testing and sequencing, alongside reporting delays in many countries.

• During the 28-day period from 24 June to 21 July 2024, 46 and 35 countries provided data at least once on COVID-19 hospitalizations and admissions to an intensive care unit (ICU), respectively. From available data, over 23 000 new hospitalizations and more than 600 new ICU admissions were reported during this period. Among the countries reporting these data consistently over the current and past reporting period, there was an overall increase of 11% and 3% in new hospitalizations and new ICU admissions, respectively. The increasing trends in hospitalization and ICU admissions is mainly driven by countries from the Region of the Americas and the European Region."

 

https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/covid-19_epi_update_170.pdf?sfvrsn=af869e8a_2&download=true

 

1 minute ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

The WHO's last global update on COVID, in so far as data still is tracked and made public by a limited number of countries, was about 10 days ago in mid-August:

 

COVID-19 Epidemiological Update
Edition 170 published 13 August 2024

 

[emphasis added]...

"Wastewater surveillance remains important as an early warning system and monitoring SARS-CoV-2 circulation. Around 30 countries from five WHO Regions have publicly available wastewater surveillance information. According to estimates obtained from wastewater surveillance, clinical detection of cases underestimates the real burden from 2 to 19-fold.

• Globally, during the 28-day period from 24 June to 21 July 2024, 96 countries reported COVID-19 cases, and 35 countries reported COVID-19 deaths. Note that this does not reflect the actual number of countries where cases or deaths occur, as many countries have stopped or changed the frequency of reporting. From the available data, the number of reported cases and deaths have increased during the 28-day period, with over 186 000 new cases and more than 2800 new deaths, an increase of 30% and 26%, respectively, compared to the previous 28 days (27 May to 23 June 2024). Trends in the number of reported new cases and deaths should be interpreted with caution due to decreased testing and sequencing, alongside reporting delays in many countries.

• During the 28-day period from 24 June to 21 July 2024, 46 and 35 countries provided data at least once on COVID-19 hospitalizations and admissions to an intensive care unit (ICU), respectively. From available data, over 23 000 new hospitalizations and more than 600 new ICU admissions were reported during this period. Among the countries reporting these data consistently over the current and past reporting period,
there was an overall increase of 11% and 3% in new hospitalizations and new ICU admissions, respectively. The increasing trends in hospitalization and ICU admissions is mainly driven by countries from the Region of the Americas and the European Region."

 

https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/covid-19_epi_update_170.pdf?sfvrsn=af869e8a_2&download=true

 

 

Point is John that not many people care enough anymore. They are on with life and realize that it's something that happened. Something that is still there but with minimal risk now. 

 

Looking at the entire covid forum the vast majority of all threads are only you. Speaks volumes to me about the importance the average person puts in it now.

And yet here you are again....

 

Nice to have an interested and dedicated audience. 🙂

 

 

If nothing else, it's my way of reminding people here that COVID hasn't gone away, and is still killing people and sending many to hospitals, mostly but not entirely older folks, on a daily basis.

 

From the U.S. CDC, by way of example -- at least 763 COVID deaths (partial count) during the first week of August. A weekly tally of COVID deaths that's more than doubled over the past two months.

 

Much better than at the start of the year, and much better than the peaks of 2021 and 2022... But still too many deaths, many of them entirely preventable.

 

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklydeaths_select_00

 

 

 

An off-topic post commenting on a fellow forum member has been removed.