Baltic Dry Index. 2217 Dec 24. Brent Crude 77.78
Spot Gold 1829
South Africa lifts curfew as it says COVID-19 fourth wave peaks
CAPE TOWN, Dec 30 (Reuters) - South Africa has lifted a midnight to 4 a.m. curfew on people's movement with immediate effect, believing the country has passed the peak of its fourth COVID-19 wave driven by the Omicron variant, a government statement said on Thursday.
The country made the changes based on the trajectory of the pandemic, levels of vaccination in the country and available capacity in the health sector, according to a press release issued by Mondli Gungubele, a minister in the presidency.
South Africa is currently at the lowest of its five-stage COVID-19 alert levels.
"All indicators suggest the country may have passed the peak of the fourth wave at a national level," a statement from the special cabinet meeting held earlier on Thursday said.
Data from the Department of Health showed a 29.7% decrease in the number of new cases detected in the week ending Dec. 25 compared to the number of cases found in the previous week, at 127,753, the governmentsaid.
South Africa, with close to 3.5 million infections and 91,000 deaths, has been the worst-hit country in Africa during the pandemic on both counts.
Besides lifting the restrictions on public movement, the government said gatherings will be restricted to no more than 1,000 people indoors, and no more than 2,000 people outdoors.
It also ruled that alcohol shops with licenses to operate beyond 11 p.m. (2100GMT) may revert back to full license conditions, a welcome boon for traders and businesses hard hit by the pandemic and looking to recover during the festive season.
Omicron hospitalisation risk around one third of Delta, UK analysis shows
LONDON, Dec 31 (Reuters) - The risk of hospitalisation with the Omicron variant of coronavirus is about one-third that of the Delta variant, according to British analysis of more than a million cases of both types in recent weeks.
Britain is experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the highly-transmissible Omicron variant, with record daily infections of 189,846 reported on Friday. read more
While hospital admissions have started to rise, the government has said it believes the new variant is milder than the Delta variant.
The number of patients needing mechanical ventilation beds has also remained steady through December, unlike previous peaks in the pandemic.
The analysis was published by the UK Health Security Agency, after it worked alongside Cambridge University MRC Biostatistics unit to analyse 528,176 Omicron cases and 573,012 Delta cases.
It also found that vaccines can work well against Omicron.
Approx. 20 minutes.
Most omicron hospitalisations incidental
Approx. 21 minutes.
Omicron - Incubation And Contagious Period (Vaccinated, Unvaccinated, Previously Infected)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5gldSCTkmw
Approx. 22 minutes.
Pfizer COVID 19 FDA Authorized Pill "Paxlovid" Explained
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMMTw0MAT-8
Next, some very useful vaccine links kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada. The links come from a most informative update from Stanford Hospital in California.
World Health Organization - Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines. https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines
NY Times Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
Regulatory Focus COVID-19 vaccine tracker. https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker
Some more useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus resource centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Rt Covid-19
The Spectator Covid-19 data tracker (UK)
https://data.spectator.co.uk/city/national
“The play was a great success, but audience was a
dismal failure.”
George Bernard Shaw.
This weekend’s musical diversion. Approx. 10 minutes.
Vivaldi. Oboe Concerto a minor RV461
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yOd1y6gvYg
This weekend’s chess update. Approx. 14 minutes.
Capablanca's Legendary 12-Move Combination
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH_kRCZayHw
This weekend’s math’s update. Approx. 14 minutes.
How not to Die Hard with Math
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Oef3MHYEC0
“The world is a place that’s gone from being flat to round to crooked.”
Mad Magazine.
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