Covid-19 News & Updates

[PeteC]

Note: The below link will lead to the full, updated story sometime around 1500 hours this afternoon.

6,335 new Covid cases, 37 more deaths

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... ore-deaths

[joelle]

Each province's daily domestic COVID-19 cases update in Thailand on Thursday November 25th.
Infographic from Scandinavian Facebook page: Thaipodden

[PeteC]

I expect to see the numbers go up now through March, until the heat arrives once again. There is a cold season here too, even if our 15 - 18c seems hot compared to Europe or the US. The weather change here will cause the disease to spread IMO.

[PeteC]

This one has worldwide implications and if history is a guide, it will be here in Thailand eventually. What a bloody rotten way to start the day!

Covid: New heavily mutated variant B.1.1.529 in South Africa raises concern

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-59418127

We're back in familiar territory - growing concern about a new variant of coronavirus.

The latest is the most heavily mutated version discovered so far - and it has such a long list of mutations that it was described by one scientist as "horrific", while another told me it was the worst variant they'd seen.

It is early days and the confirmed cases are still mostly concentrated in one province in South Africa, but there are hints it may have spread further.

Immediately there are questions around how quickly the new variant spreads, its ability to bypass some of the protection given by vaccines and what should be done about it.

There is a lot of speculation, but very few clear answers.

So, what do we know?

The variant is called B.1.1.529 and is likely to be given a Greek code-name (like the Alpha and Delta variants) by the World Health Organization on Friday.

It is also incredibly heavily mutated. Prof Tulio de Oliveira, the director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation in South Africa, said there was an "unusual constellation of mutations" and that it was "very different" to other variants that have circulated.

"This variant did surprise us, it has a big jump on evolution [and] many more mutations that we expected," he said.

In a media briefing Prof de Oliveira said there were 50 mutations overall and more than 30 on the spike protein, which is the target of most vaccines and the key the virus uses to unlock the doorway into our body's cells.

Zooming in even further to the receptor binding domain (that's the part of the virus that makes first contact with our body's cells), it has 10 mutations compared to just two for the Delta variant that swept the world.

This level of mutation has most likely come from a single patient who was unable to beat the virus.

A lot of mutation doesn't automatically mean: bad. It is important to know what those mutations are actually doing.

But the concern is this virus is now radically different to the original that emerged in Wuhan, China. That means vaccines, which were designed using the original strain, may not be as effective.

Some of the mutations have been seen before in other variants, which gives some insight their likely role in this variant.

For example N501Y seems to make it easier for a coronavirus to spread. There are others in there that make it harder for antibodies to recognise the virus and might make vaccines less effective, but there are others that are completely new.

Prof Richard Lessells, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, said: "They give us concern this virus might have enhanced transmissibility, enhanced ability to spread from person to person, but might also be able to get around parts of the immune system."

There have been many examples of variants that have seemed scary on paper, but came to nothing. The Beta variant was at the top of people's concerns at the beginning of the year because it was the best at escaping the immune system. But in the end it was the faster-spreading Delta that took over the world.

Prof Ravi Gupta, from the University of Cambridge, said: "Beta was all immune escape and nothing else, Delta had infectivity and modest immune escape, this potentially has both to high degrees."

Related article.

Covid: Africa travel restrictions over variant fear

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-59424269

[PeteC]

https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/

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[PeteC]

Note: The below link will lead to the full, updated story sometime around 1500 hours this afternoon.

6,559 new Covid cases, 64 new deaths

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... new-deaths

[joelle]

Each province's daily domestic COVID-19 cases update in Thailand on Friday November 26th.
Infographic from Scandinavian Facebook page: Thaipodden

[Big Boy]

New zones from 1 December:

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[Big Boy]

The above chart makes no sense whatsoever to me. Ratchaburi are Orange with 681 cases today. PKK are Red with 100 cases today. It would be interesting to see the algorithm they use to come up with the zoning.

[Big Boy]

Today's Brief:

[HHTel]

So PKK having left the 'red' zone and Hua Hin designated a 'blue' area, we're all back in the RED!!

And the whole of BKK is 'blue'!!

[Big Boy]

No, PKK hasn't left red for ages. We're nowhere near as bad as the likes of Chonburi or Samut Prakarn, yet they are classed in the Orange Zone.

[Lost]

This one has worldwide implications and if history is a guide, it will be here in Thailand eventually. What a bloody rotten way to start the day!

Covid: New heavily mutated variant B.1.1.529 in South Africa raises concern

The new variant has been handed the name 'Omicron' by WHO. They chose to skip 'Nu' as they decided it was too close to the English 'new'.

They didn't care to mention why they skipped 'Xi' though...

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[pharvey]

This one has worldwide implications and if history is a guide, it will be here in Thailand eventually.

Sooner rather than later IMHO - especially with cases connected to HK (and no doubt mainland China). This excerpt from the Guardian: -

"Belgium reported a case in a traveller who had been in Egypt and Turkey rather than southern Africa, suggesting community transmission, while cases were also detected in Israel and Hong Kong. Experts predict it is only a matter of time before it reaches Britain."

Full Article: - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... ads-europe

Not good news....

[Bamboo Grove]

They didn't care to mention why they skipped 'Xi' though...

I haven't seen the Lambada version either. It was very popular when I first arrived in Phuket in the summer of 1989.