🇱🇻 Everybody: Corona is over! – Corona: Hold my beer

The Story

About a not so welcome guest 

I guess what it’s about.

Latvia is the first country to reimpose lockdown in Europe’s new Covid wave. After an unprecedented surge in infections, the government imposed a month-long night-time curfew, from 8 pm to 5 am, and closed schools and non-essential stores again. 

I suspect Latvia has a low vaccination rate.

Only 51 per cent of all Latvians are fully vaccinated, compared to 64 per cent within the European Union. The Baltic country has one of the highest rates of new Covid cases per capita in the world, and the health system is threatened with overload. Prime minister Krišjānis Kariņš said: “I have to apologise to the already vaccinated.”

Why is the vaccination rate so low?

With recording fewer than 3,000 Covid deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, Latvia was viewed as one of Europe’s lone coronavirus success stories for a long time. While the dire consequences of the pandemic were not that visible, many may not have found it necessary to get vaccinated. 

How are other European countries doing?

Russia reported a daily death record this week, Romania and Ukraine recorded a surge of new infections and Covid deaths. All of these countries have low vaccination rates. But the truth also includes: Cases are also increasing again in countries with high vaccination rates, such as the Netherlands and Great Britain. The key difference: the death rate is significantly lower there. 

The Upside

Vaccination changes everything. An analysis of UK data shows that only 3 per cent of patients with Covid admitted to hospital had received their second dose. The even more important figure is the number of “breakthrough” deaths, which means that one dies of a Covid infection despite receiving both vaccine doses. Data shows that only 0.5 per cent of the covid related deaths that occurred in England were breakthrough deaths. That means that 99.5 per cent of people who died due to a Covid infection were not (fully) vaccinated. 

Notes: 

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/10/20/russia-sets-another-coronavirus-fatality-record-a75346

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/20/latvia-enters-month-long-covid-lockdown-as-fourth-wave-breaks

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/oct/20/coronavirus-news-live-singapore-reports-highest-ever-covid-cases-uk-urged-to-enact-plan-b-or-risk-nhs-crisis

https://www.bmj.com/content/374/bmj.n2306

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