Prolly gonna see a lot more of this type of news story over the next few months:
There’s more in the article about vaccine distribution in California; just too much to quote here.
Our local paper is reporting (AP story) that all ICU beds in central California are full. This may be an estimate.
New Zealand offers travel bubble with Australia if coronavirus cases stay low.
Pretty big news over here - New Zealanders have been able to travel to Australia without going into a two-week quarantine* for a little while now, but not the reverse. In fact, any international travel to or from Australia has been heavily restricted.
But as Australia hasn’t had any new locally-transmitted cases in…two weeks, a week-and-a-half?
Anyway, there’s fair odds this will go ahead. Thinking vaguely about my wife and I making the trip ourselves; New Zealand is beautiful, by all accounts, and it’ll be quite some time before we can go anywhere else internationally.
*Two-week quarantine is standard for all international arrivals right now - pretty pricey, too.
72,647,787 total cases
1,618,913 dead
50,865,504 recovered
In the US:
16,737,267 total cases
306,459 dead
9,724,439 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
New Zealand is also planning a travel bubble with the Cook Islands, which have remained Covid-free. But opening up to the South Pacific will be approached with a great deal of caution - no-one wants small Pacific nations (which are primarily accessed through New Zealand) to get Covid infections that they do not have the resources to handle.
Indeed! Australia and New Zealand are both pretty wealthy countries, but a lot of these little nations aren’t. Bad as an outbreak here would be/have been, it’d be devastating to them.
It will also cause more crazy political tensions with war-on-covid governments in Australia. It’s already the case that people returning to Australia from NZ are causing turmoil because they “might have been in contact with people from other countries”, and Australia has never been comfortable with NZ’s South Pacific travel rules.
Incidentally, the police visited my relative at home, to make sure she was obeying quarantine rules. After she had just been released from compulsory inter-state travel 14 day hotel quarantine, with no other relevant quarantine rules at all. A mixture of fear and incompetence.
States that have experienced their highest daily COVID reported cases (seven-day averaged) on Friday Dec 11 or later:
Maine
New York
Massachusetts
Pennsylvania
Ohio
California
Maryland
South Carolina
North Carolina
Tennessee
Arkansas
Arizona
Oklahoma
Mississippi
Alabama
It looks as if Georgia is poised to finally exceed that artificial-looking spike on November 6 that has kept it off these lists.
The good news is that a lot of states are still declining from highs experienced days or even weeks ago. That’s a good trend. But 15 states have new highs, with a couple of them poised to be added to the lists, or with highs that were just a couple of days before my cutoff.
In international news, Turkey has suddenly reported an absurdly high daily rate, exceeding even the United States. Something odd going on there
Apparently they’ve changed how they’re reporting. Now they’re listing cases, rather than patients
It’s wonderful seeing all the news reports as vaccines are administered in the UK last week and the US starting today. But it’s a hell of day for those of us who aren’t big fans of needles. I can’t watch the news or open a website without seeing a person getting jabbed.
I’m with you there, sibling. I have to cover my eyes.
j
73,190,427 total cases
1,627,900 dead
51,324,489 recovered
In the US:
16,942,822 total cases
308,089 dead
9,871,663 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
My daughter got her first dose of the vaccine at work yesterday(shes a nurse).
Now that’s worth a celebratory drink
Nice! Nice to hear some positive news in the pandemic fight for a change.
For the first time since this whole shitshow started, I feel like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. 
I’m feeling that way this morning, too.
Wonderful news!
Whoop!
Good to see that.
Only a few states have new highest-ever daily case reports (seven day average) on December 14, but at least two of those are shooting up rapidly
New Hampshire
Delaware
South Carolina
North Carolina
Tennessee
Arizona
Oklahoma
After shooting up briefly because of a change in the way they record their data, Turkey has dropped back down to a reasonable level.
So Moderna should get approved on Thursday.
How many doses have we reserved of their production? Anyone know?
I know it only needs to transport at -4°f. Then can be kept in fridges for weeks. That sounds like it will be far easier to get this to everyone.