quote:

During the 2nd week of August (8.6~8.12), the number of new confirmed cases was 349,279, an increase of 0.8% compared to the previous week, but the rate of increase slowed.

The weekly average daily number of confirmed cases was 49,897, and the infection reproduction index was 1.04, which decreased below 1.1 for two consecutive weeks from the 1st week of August.

* Weekly accumulation: (3rd week of July) 253,000 → (4th week of July) 313,000 → (1st week of August) 346,000 → (2nd week of August) 349,000
** Daily average: (3rd week of July) 36,258 people → (4th week of July) 44,841 people → (1st week of August) 49,523 people → (2nd week of August) 49,897 people

...

Last week, the number of severely ill patients in the hospital increased by 21.5% from the previous week to a daily average of 215, and the number of new deaths increased by 40.2% from the previous week (97 → 136), with a daily average of 19.

* Weekly daily average number of critically ill patients in hospital: (July 3rd week) 142 → (July 4th week) 170 → (August 1st week) 177 → (August 2nd week) 215
** Weekly daily average number of deaths: (3rd week of July) 7 → (4th week of July) 13 → (1st week of August) 14 → (2nd week of August) 19

...

Currently, all Omicron subsystems, including EG.5 (XBB.1.9.2.5), a subvariant of XBB.1.9.2, are designated as major mutations and are closely monitored. The detection rate of EG.5 in the second week of August was 20.3%, which showed the highest increase in detection* among major mutations identified in Korea.

* Domestic detection rate: (7.3 weeks) 11.8% → (7.4 weeks) 17.8% → (8.1 weeks) 16.8% → (8.2 weeks) 20.3%

The detection rates of XBB.1.9.1 - 23.1% (+1.5%p), XBB.1.16 - 20.5% (+1.1%p), and EG.5 - 20.3% (+3.8%p) increased compared to the previous week, and XBB.1.9 .2 and XBB.2.3 decreased by 9.8% (-2.8%p) and 16.3% (-0.8%p).

Glumwheels posted:

I haven’t been infected, afaik, for even a first time so those doctors and scientists can gently caress right off

quote:

Gyms in the capital Seoul and other nearby areas are no longer allowed to play music faster than 120 beats per minute (the speed of "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen) during group fitness classes.

Treadmill speeds may not surpass 6 kilometers per hour (or 3 miles per hour).

The concern is that intense exercising, especially in a group setting, could increase the likelihood of stray respiratory droplets and that all the sweat-and-spit slinging could lead to more COVID-19 cases.

Some gym-goers are expressing frustration.

"Hardcore cardio has marked the start and end of my daily exercise routines, and now they want me to run slower, but they ask us to leave in two hours," Jang, an office worker who frequents the gym, told The Korea Herald. "What do they want from us? Does the government want me to get fat and give up our lifestyle for the sake of these dumb rules?"

Still, it's not hard to understand why health officials are concerned: the greater Seoul area has seen a marked increase in COVID-19 cases, hitting a record daily high this past weekend, according to the Yonhap News Agency. Stringent social distancing protocols have been implemented and will be in place for the next two weeks, with gatherings of more than two barred after 6 p.m., in a bid to get the situation under control.

Son Young-rae, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Welfare, defended the new measures on Monday, according to the Herald. While acknowledging the effectiveness of masks, the Delta variant is more easily transmittable, he pointed out.

"When you run faster, you spit out more respiratory droplets, so that's why we are trying to restrict heavy cardio exercises," Son said.

That's one excuse to skip the gym, at least.

Steve Yun posted:

Korean study finds that many kf94 masks have harmful chemicals several times the recommended limit. These chemicals seem to come from the plastic packaging, so they recommend airing out your mask for 30 minutes after opening the wrapper

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37079939/

quote:

An unusual summer flu epidemic continues. Flu cases normally mass in winter, but due to COVID preventive measures, there were no significant outbreaks in the last few years.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency last Friday, about 12 out of every 1,000 outpatients were diagnosed with flu. Their number has been decreasing since a peak of 17.3 per 1,000 people in the third week of July but still remains 2.4 times higher than the epidemic threshold of 4.9.

The biggest proportion was among children aged 7 to 12.

Meanwhile, adenovirus infections continue to spread among children as well. From Aug. 13 to 19, a total of 757 patients were admitted to hospital with adenovirus, 16.8 times more than in the same period last year.

quote:

The accumulated number of infected children in the age bracket reached 1,887,337 as of Saturday, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

That translates into nearly 50,190 out of every 100,000 in the age group being infected with the coronavirus, marking the highest infection rate among other age groups, the KDCA said.

The infection rate in the 10 to 19 age group was second highest, with 43,289 out of every 100,000 infected with the virus. (Yonhap)

quote:

Age - [10-19]
Confirmed - 4,223,709
Deaths - 24

Age - [0-9]
Confirmed - 3,263,224
Deaths - 39

Zugzwang posted:

Thanks for sharing. Out of curiosity, does Korea have its own version of Emily Oster-type "my data shows that schools are safe" ghouls?

Seems like a tough time to be a mammal.

Tzen posted:

We Were 3.5 Years in Power: An American Tragedy

family took an international flight and got got
entire family positive
kids are mild, meanwhile myself+spouse got hit hard
using paxlovid and symptoms are gone
still going through the course so we'll see how things go
i'm sitting on another paxlovid course if need be

quote:

RIP to RTJ
Wonder how many shows they will make it through of the planned 16.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQx5jnL6Tgs

emgeejay posted:

https://twitter.com/chapotraphouse/status/1705370901351682116?s=46&t=m6fGiglUP1-mz5m0sRqpiw
chapo’s on hiatus due to matt christman suffering a near fatal medical emergency, described only as a “totally normal-style sudden medical emergency that happens to normal people,” which is a joke about people thinking he got epsteined but also mirrors the widespread belief that having major heart attacks or strokes at age 40 is totally normal these days. the folks on the recording don’t want anyone to be speculative little freaks, but they sound badly shaken up and I am too, and sometimes I just despair that we aren’t even trying to turn this around. his baby’s on the way this week.

Gildiss posted:

Cushbomb got got, but acknowledges the potential future owning of his immune system.

Up to around first 10 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdMeye3sAZU

speng31b posted:

having read the past few pages pretty carefully I haven't seen anyone suggest that it's against the rules to talk about the larger implications of covid death and disability, or even under reporting of it in principle.

Bringing up Matt's situation in that context is weird as gently caress though. Like this, this is a super weird to point out in the current context.

Mola Yam posted:

japan has had the weirdest covid waves, unlike anywhere else.



just increasingly bad, since the start. this last one looks like it's finally broken the trend though.

Glumwheels posted:

How can the largest medical system in the state not have the new vaccine yet, really?

Okuteru posted:

If they ask you to come in regardless, cough in their face.

Pillowpants posted:

Guys,

we have a problem. remember when I was tracking COVID pooo growth as a result of those idiot Swifties?

What happens when local movie theaters decide to make some money but relegating all the other releases to one screen and put the swift concert on 13/20 screens?

that results in 28 shows today - half of which are sold out already….and 38 showings Saturday (6 showing almost full)… and 36 showings on Sunday.

They’re making a huge deal of this and it’s goi g to spark the next wave. 4000 screens

The Oldest Man posted:

Get pax

shazbot posted:

just lol how much more contagious can this thing get

Steve Yun posted:

https://x.com/1goodtern/status/1723379573448949885?s=46

WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO BE BRAVE LIKE THE REST OF US

Pingui posted:

https://twitter.com/JosetteSchoenma/status/1725433540597240282

Pingui posted:

Be advised that it might still be possible for your wife to avoid getting infected. I hope some of the posters in the thread whom have successfully managed to curb household spread will chime in, but basically it comes down to quarantine, masking and corsi cubes.

Gildiss posted:

Yeah I managed to avoid getting infected by just staying in the far side of our apartment and keeping my window open every once in a while as it was late December. Using my N95 when going out to the living room for food and etc.

Steve Yun posted:

I could totally believe that Covid immunocompromise let other respiratory viruses run unfettered

quote:

https://m.hani.co.kr/arti/society/society_general/1089575.html

Any pediatric clinic in Korea is currently slammed.

Parents showing up with children with pneumonia and fevers waiting hours for visits.

Even showing up an hour before the clinic opens they are #43 in queue.

Remote waiting lists for clinics via an app completely fill up in 2~5 minutes after opening registrations.

Seasonal flu cases grew 58% over the last 5 weeks. Viral accute respiratory infections up 94% in the last month.

"How can you raise a child in a country like this?"

Anne Whateley posted:

I’m in NYC, so I expect Paxlovid to stay free (with free phone prescription hotline and free delivery!) significantly longer than my 5-day window to get on it for this bout

NeonPunk posted:

Nobody cares about Covid anymore and it's kinda fascinating to me because I can certainly see the subtle impact Covid is having on everything. Not the obvious thing but the smaller things.

Like on Tiktok, I follow several young fitness and weight lifting creators that produce videos for their young audiences. Lately they've been making more and more videos on exercises for weak knees, how to alleviate back pains, ways to reduce pain in your feets and strengthen your hips. Ya know... old people common problems.

Also been seeing a awfully lot of advertising that's targeted to younger folks for blue chews, and other ED medicines. Hair growth medicines for hair loss too as well. It's almost as if there's something that's going around aging our population on the cellular level, what could it be?

U-DO Burger posted:

quote:

Could it be a pandemic again?... Corona confirmed cases worldwide ‘increase 52% in 4 weeks’

quote:

The number of suspected influenza cases in South Korea has surged to a five-year high, but the immunization rate has remained relatively unchanged.

The rate of patients showing symptoms suggestive of influenza per 1,000 outpatients for the second week of December stood at 61.3 – the highest figure since 2019, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

The immunization rate as of Dec. 15, however, stood at 76.2 percent, slightly above 76.1 percent last year.

...

A KDCA official noted that influenza cases among children aged between 7-12 increased by around 20.5 times, compared to last year, and the vaccination rate for the age group was relatively lower perhaps as they are not eligible for free vaccine programs.

The influenza vaccination rate among children has decreased over the past years, according to the country’s health agency. The KDCA said the flu vaccination rate for children here reached 74.5 percent in 2018. But the figure went down to 71 percent in 2022 and to below 70 percent this year.

Some have attributed the lower immunization rate to vaccine hesitancy.

“After the COVID-19 pandemic, I have become less confident in vaccines in general,” said Cho, a 32-year-old woman who lives in Seoul.

One mother of an 8-year-old boy said her son got the seasonal flu vaccine several years ago but only to get a high fever right after.

“Since then, I became increasingly reluctant to have my child and myself get flu vaccines,” said the woman surnamed Park.

Kim, the doctor at the Seoul hospital, said visitors showed reluctance to get both COVID-19 and flu vaccines in the same visit.

"Only a few patients had no issue getting both vaccines, while many have refused to get both vaccines,” Kim said.

Platystemon posted:

The efficacy witnessed now is a far cry from the ninety‐five percent reduction in symptomatic COVID‑19 that was seen in the trials.

Even so, if the updated formulations were delivered around the world, the reduction in mortality could be equivalent to outright eliminating one of the other major scourges. Tuberculosis, malaria, and AIDS are each estimated by WHO to kill fewer than one million people annually.

COVID‑19 kills multiple millions every year. The vaccines we have now are eminently capable of reducing that toll by one million.

ThatBasqueGuy posted:

i think 2024 is the year we beat covid

gradenko_2000 posted:

love to dial in to a meeting and half of the people are out sick and the other half sound like they're dying

[thank you for all the responses and words of encouragement to my earlier post]

Steve Yun posted:

Ugh report from friend in Korea. she tried to wear masks all the time but Korean office culture dictates that you have to eat in a restaurant once in a while as a team building thing.