Lockdown diaries - COVID-19 matters!

What are you going to be doing during the lockdown?

  • At home. I’m non essential

    Votes: 70 41.2%
  • Working. The virus doesn’t scare me

    Votes: 41 24.1%
  • On standby

    Votes: 10 5.9%
  • Working from home. Too essential to take any risk!

    Votes: 66 38.8%

  • Total voters
    170
  • Poll closed .
To put it in simple words, the evolution is unpredictable because it depends on mutations that appear in a random way. What we hope for though is a mutation with less virulence and more transmissibility so that most of people get it without causing a high death toll and that’s where we’re at now with the Omicron…

I am fairly well versed on the chaos principle, (aka nature in this case), so I have to agree on the unpredictability based on a predictable path, (which in this context is survival), and I share your hope for a mutation / evolution into something we can live with, as I'm growing somewhat "gatvol", (love that word!), of the worlds status quo :(.
 
Omicron study in South Africa points to end of acute pandemic phase

https://businesstech.co.za/news/tre...africa-points-to-end-of-acute-pandemic-phase/
A South African study from the epicenter of the world’s omicron surge offers a tantalizing hint that the acute phase of the Covid-19 pandemic may be ending.

The infection wave moved with “unprecedented speed” and caused much milder illness than earlier strains, a study of patients infected with Covid-19 at a large hospital in the South African city where the first outbreak of the omicron variant was recorded showed.

“If this pattern continues and is repeated globally, we are likely to see a complete decoupling of case and death rates,” the researchers said. That suggests “omicron may be a harbinger of the end of the epidemic phase of the Covid pandemic, ushering in its endemic phase.”

The study at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital Complex analyzed records of 466 patients from the current wave and 3,976 from previous bouts of infection. Researchers that worked on it included Fareed Abdullah, a director at the council and an infectious disease doctor at the hospital.

South Africa, the first country to have a major omicron outbreak, is being closely watched to see how infections from the variant may pan out globally. The comparatively young age of the country’s population and those hospitalized in the latest wave could also mask the severity of disease caused by the variant, the researchers said.

Still, the data add to hope among researchers that concern over omicron’s high transmission rates is being tempered by the mildness of the disease it appears to cause and the limited number of deaths that result from its infections.

Less death

South African hospitalizations have crested at half of their record in previous waves. Weekly excess deaths, a measure of the number of deaths compared with a historical average, peaked at less than a fifth of their record during the pandemic.

If other countries have similar experiences, that may help move the pandemic to an endemic phase, where widespread exposure gives more people immunity resulting in less serious disease. Still, the virus could mutate further into a strain that causes more severe disease and more easily evades antibodies produced from prior infections or vaccinations.

The study showed that just 4.5% of patients with Covid-19 died during their hospital stay in the current wave compared with an average of 21% in earlier waves, according to the South African Medical Research Council’s website. Fewer people were admitted to intensive-care units, and hospital stays were “significantly shorter.”

Asymptomatic disease

The rate of admissions climbed rapidly but began to decline within 33 days of the first analyzed, the study said. A snapshot of patients in the hospital on Dec. 14 and 15 showed that almost two-thirds of those infected with Covid-19 had been admitted for other reasons.

“This phenomenon has not been observed to this extent before in the Steve Biko Academic Hospital Complex or anywhere in South Africa,” the study said. It “most likely reflects high levels of asymptomatic disease in the community with omicron infection,” it said.

It also found:

  • Hospital stays averaged 4 days compared with 8.8 in previous waves
  • The mean age of those admitted was 39 compared with almost 50 in earlier waves
  • Admissions to intensive-care units dropped to 1% of patients from 4.3%
  • Admissions peaked at 108 compared with 213 during the delta wave
The findings “were comparable to city-wide trends when cases and admissions from all public and private hospitals reported,” the researchers said. There was “a lower admission per case ratio, lower death rate and lower rates of admission to the ICU compared to previous waves.”
 
271540712_10161174706368942_3806277273774251695_n.jpg
 
https://www.businessinsider.in/indi...ew-variant-deltacron/articleshow/88805635.cms

Deltacron – All you need to know about the new variant

  • A new strain of COVID-19 that combines features of the Delta and Omicron named Deltacron variants has been found in Cyprus.
  • As per media reports, 25 cases of Deltracron have been found in Cyprus.
  • However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has not yet recognised the new variant.
 
South Africa has now been in a pandemic state of disaster for 666 days
https://www.businessinsider.co.za/sa-coronavirus-state-of-disaster-hits-666-days-2022-1
10 Jan. 2022
  • South Africa's national state of disaster around the coronavirus is now 666 days old.
  • During that time, the government has ruled by decree, granting itself that power on a month-to-month basis.
  • The state of disaster must be renewed again this week, or it will lapse automatically.
  • It can still be reimposed at any time.
South Africa's national state of disaster around the coronavirus pandemic is 666 days old as of Monday.

"For nearly 22 months, since 15 March 2020, the government has kept up that state of disaster – and the sweeping powers it gives the executive branch to rule many parts of daily life by decree – on the basis of the "need to continue augmenting the existing legislation and contingency arrangements undertaken by organs of state to address the impact of the disaster."

The official state of disaster must be renewed again this week, by Saturday, or it will lapse at the end of its latest month-to-month extension ... "
 
South Africa has now been in a pandemic state of disaster for 666 days
https://www.businessinsider.co.za/sa-coronavirus-state-of-disaster-hits-666-days-2022-1
10 Jan. 2022
  • South Africa's national state of disaster around the coronavirus is now 666 days old.
  • During that time, the government has ruled by decree, granting itself that power on a month-to-month basis.
  • The state of disaster must be renewed again this week, or it will lapse automatically.
  • It can still be reimposed at any time.
South Africa's national state of disaster around the coronavirus pandemic is 666 days old as of Monday.

"For nearly 22 months, since 15 March 2020, the government has kept up that state of disaster – and the sweeping powers it gives the executive branch to rule many parts of daily life by decree – on the basis of the "need to continue augmenting the existing legislation and contingency arrangements undertaken by organs of state to address the impact of the disaster."

The official state of disaster must be renewed again this week, by Saturday, or it will lapse at the end of its latest month-to-month extension ... "

upload_2022-1-11_10-11-27.png
This about sums up the Entire ANC, the Corrupt Command Council and it's members quite well......
 
We went from "Don't drink the sanitiser", "Don't drink the bleach", "Don't drink the cattle dewormer" to " Whatever, If it works for you, knock yourself out."

 
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