Tag Archives: coronavirus

This morning.

Aldi has kickstarted a nationwide search for a couple that has had to postpone their wedding celebrations due to the rona, launched by influencer Bonnie Ryan (above), who had to postpone her own ceremony this year.

Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

This afternoon.

Further to yesterday’s Astrazeneca/EU shenanigans…

…and with the Anglo/Swedish pharma giant having denied claims that its’ vaccine was substantially less effective among the over-65s…

…via AP:

A draft recommendation from Germany’s vaccination advisory committee calls for offering the AstraZeneca vaccine only to people aged 18-64 for now, citing what it says is insufficient data to judge its effectiveness for older people.

The European Medicines Agency is expected to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine for use in the 27-nation European Union on Friday.

…Germany’s permanent vaccination commission said that “there currently is not sufficient data to assess the vaccination effectiveness from 65 years.”

German draft doesn’t recommend AstraZeneca jab for over-65s (WBNG)

Yesterday: Vial Behaviour

Earlier: Zero Sum Game

Boo, hiss.

This afternoon.

Where’s a surface to air missile system when you need one?

Billy H writes:

If we build it, they will come. If we fly there, they will travel. Lanzarote on a grey January afternoon! Let’s get airborne!

FIGHT!

Yesterday: The Tans

Oh.

This afternoon.

Jacinda Ardern declares 2021 ‘the year of the vaccine; (Stuff.co.nz)

Meanwhile…

…in Ireland…

…Since last August, the Solidarity-People Before Profit and Rise group have been enthusiastically pursuing this approach [Zero Covid Strategy].

Hot on the heels of the committee presentation in August, Richard Boyd Barrett was the first to raise it in the Dáil, saying the strategy was needed to replace the “rollercoaster strategy going up and down with nobody quite knowing where it ends”.

The Social Democrats have, for some time, been advocating for much stronger restrictions on travel into the country, and have called for a Zero Covid or elimination strategy, which it says is supported by the public.

The Labour Party has avoided the term Zero Covid, and is instead advocating what its party leader Alan Kelly calls a “national aggressive suppression strategy” (he has even come up with the acronym NASS), which essentially amounts to the same thing: mandatory hotel quarantining for all those arriving into the country, rapid antigen testing in the community and serial PCR testing at health care facilities.

Sinn Féin now says it agrees with most of the premise of the Zero Covid approach, but does not believe it is possible without the political will to pursue the same strategy in Northern Ireland.

There is some support among Government TDs and senators for this approach. Fianna Fáil TD Christopher O’Sullivan said he was “disappointed” that the Cabinet stopped short of the kind of mandatory quarantine measures in place in New Zealand and Australia…

Um.

Hints of Government inching towards Zero Covid approach (RTÉ)

Getty

Meanwhile…

Last night.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that anyone entering the State from overseas – with some exceptions – are now required to quarantine for the first time.

However, the requirement may take several weeks to become operational.

Via RTÉ News:

Mr Varadkar said some of this quarantining will be done in hotels, some in people’s homes.

Legislation will be needed to underpin the move to hold Irish and EU citizens without a negative Covid test in hotels.

It has also been confirmed that those returning from overseas to the State via Northern Ireland will be subject to the same legal requirements.

Fines for those outside the 5km travel limit who are intending to travel abroad will be increased from the current €100….

Anyone?

Arrivals from overseas face mandatory quarantine (RTÉ)

RollingNews

A testing centre in Bejing, China

Where is everyone?

They’re all round the back.

This morning/afternoon.

China has begun using anal swabs to test those it considers at high risk of contracting Covid-19, state TV reported, with social media users and travellers squirming over the invasive procedure which doctors say can be more effective in detecting the virus.

Officials took anal swabs from residents of neighbourhoods with confirmed Covid-19 cases in Beijing last week, broadcaster CCTV said, while those in designated quarantine facilities have also undergone the test.

…The anal swabs method “can increase the detection rate of infected people” as traces of the virus linger longer in the anus than in the respiratory tract, Li Tongzeng, a senior doctor from Beijing’s Youan hospital, told CCTV

Yikes.

Alternatively, for a million big ones you can always come here.

Your choice, citizen.

China starts using anal swabs to test ‘high-risk’ people for Covid (The Guardian)

COVID Anal Swabs for Beijing Residents More Accurate, Says Chinese Expert (Newsweek)

AFP

From left: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and Minister for Transport Eamon RyanTaoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and and Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly at a post cabinet press briefing in Government Buildings yesterday

Yesterday evening.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the idea of a zero-Covid strategy has not been dismissed.

He said NPHET has never advised the Government to go for a zero-Covid strategy, but their position is we suppress the virus to the lowest possible level.

He said it would have to be a very long-term policy and there is a question of its sustainability.

Level 5 restrictions to continue until 5 March (RTÉ)

RollingNews

This morning.

AstraZeneca has pulled out from a meeting with the European Union scheduled for today to discuss Covid-19 vaccine supplies, an EU official said.

The Commission is demanding more information about the company’s projected 60 percent cut to the EU’s deliveries in the first quarter of 2021.

Via RTÉ:

The official added that the EU keeps asking the company to provide further explanations about its announcement to cut vaccine deliveries to the EU in the first quarter

The European Union has also asked the pharma giant to publish the contract it signed with the bloc on Covid-19 vaccine supplies after the company’s chief executive revealed confidential clauses.

Hmm.

Meanwhile…

Yesterday.

*cough*

EU says AstraZeneca pulled out of meeting over vaccine contract (RTÉ)

Getty

Last night.

Cruel sun holiday-shaming on RTÉ 1’s Prime Time.

Meanwhile…

Ooh. He’s so ‘ard.

Previously: Come Out You’re Back And Tanned