United Kingdom
Deaths, + 8,565 = 94,580
News coverage, hospitals, staff, morgues, graves
CoViD symptom data
https://covid.joinzoe.com/data
New cases peaked on 1st January
Cases now falling in most parts of the country
R = 0.8
Decreased cases in 20 – 40 years
London 55% of hospital patients
Hospital cases plateau, 16th January
Should start reducing next week
Deaths will stay high for next 2 weeks
Home Secretary Priti Patel
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55757807
Fines of £800 for anyone attending a house party of more than 15
Double for each repeat offence to £6,400
Organisers, £10,000 for holding large illegal gatherings, 30 +
not stand by while a small number of individuals put others at risk
Martin Hewitt, chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council
Forces are telling us there has been a significant increase in recent weeks
Brick Lane, East London, more than 40 people, house party, officers injured
Tower Hamlets, also more than 40
Dalston, pub found open
Metropolitan Police, 140 FPNs last weekend
Northern Ireland
Lockdown extended to 5th March
Restrictions until after Easter holidays
Non-essential retailers closed
Work from home when possible
Family gatherings are prohibited
Ordered to stay at home
Schools are closed to most pupils until after February’s half-term
R = 1.8 due to Christmas relaxations
https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/health/r-number-190121.pdf
R now is 0.65 to 0.85
Case numbers still higher than first wave peak
Hospitals x3 last April peak
United States
Deaths, + 4,383 = 408,521
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_casesper100klast7days
President Biden
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/biden-coronavirus-executive-actions/2021/01/21/9a4ab954-5b56-11eb-8bcf-3877871c819d_story.html
Let me be clear – things will continue to get worse before they get better
Deaths, top half a million by next month
One hundred million in 100 days
Vaccine centres at stadiums and community places
International travellers, test negative before departure
Self-quarantine for 14 days on arrival
Masks and social distancing on all federal government property
Mandatory in airports and on many planes, trains and buses
New office to co-ordinate national response
Defence Production Act, PPE, supplies needed for vaccine production
Form Pandemic Testing Board
New research on treatments for covid-19
Strengthen collection and analysis of data to shape the government’s response
198-page plan
White House unit, global health security and biodefense
Join Covax
Continue WHO funding
WHO
https://www.passblue.com/2017/04/24/as-the-who-elects-a-new-director-the-agency-is-already-adrift/
25 % of the WHO staff work in Geneva
Report directly to the director-general
$4.4 billion budget (2017)
Director-general has a $1.5 billion pot to disburse (Gaudenz Silberschmidt, WHO director of partnerships)
David Fidler, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/04/15/what-is-world-health-organization/
Re – WHO
You had the authority, you had the ability to challenge China,
to question China as to what they were doing, and you needed to do that for global health
You failed to do it
https://www.change.org/p/united-nations-call-for-the-resignation-of-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus-who-director-general
An independent panel
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/independent-pandemic-review-panel-critical-china-who-delays-n1254598
Criticized the World Health Organization (WHO) for not declaring an international emergency until Jan. 30.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark
Former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
What is clear to the Panel is that public health measures could have been applied more forcefully by local and national health authorities in China in January
As evidence emerged of human-to-human transmission, in far too many countries, this signal was ignored
Although the term pandemic is neither used nor defined in the International Health Regulations (2005),
WHO first uses the P word, 11th March
its use does serve to focus attention on the gravity of a health event.
The panel called for a global reset
Make recommendations in a final report to health ministers from the WHO’s 194 member states in May
Canada
Government of Canada has purchased more vaccines per capita than anyone
Supplies temporarily been halted by Pfizer, as they expand their facilities in Belgium
Delay, 4 weeks
Have asked US for Pfizer
Mass rollout will begin in April
Finished by July-August
Western Australia
https://www.news.com.au/national/western-australia/wa-has-now-detected-six-cases-of-the-mutant-uk-strain-of-covid19/news-story/414b2b33b076e89861a9485aa5655e6e
No community transmission since 11th April
Source