Pandemic diary – weeks 42 & 43

Monday, 28 December 2020
First representatives of medical staff were vaccinated in Poland yesterday. This marks a milestone in a fight against the pandemic, a symbolic one, but we are far from a breakthrough.

Tuesday, 29 December 2020
Now a little bit of pure maths, after 14,000 first doses of vaccine have been administered in Poland. If 100,000 jabs are given each day, it means 50,000 get immunity each day. Assuming optimistically that first people get immune to the virus 28 days after the first dose, or at the end of January 2021 and the process goes smoothly, 16.5 million Poles will have been vaccinated by the end of 2021. This too little for herd immunity to work.

Wednesday, 30 December 2020
The problem of children stranded at homes (they are unlawfully banned from moving about between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on weekdays), devoid of contact with peers, sick and tired of online learning, is getting more and more attention. Physical and mental health of youngsters has been wrecked by the quarantine.

Thursday, 31 December 2020
I thoroughly recommend watching this film to anyone interested in Polish politics. In its simplicity is masterfully depicts how badly my country has been run before and in the pandemic.

Friday, 1 January 2021
The illegal curfew was a calm period. The night was more silent than any usual night. Nevertheless, those who wanted to party stayed the night where they celebrated the beginning of 2021.

Saturday, 2 January 2021
Just for the record, yesterday my girlfriend and I broke up (actually she has taken that decision) – break-up during the pandemic means you act responsibly, you cannot take comfort in your friends, family, go and meet people, socialise and do other things which in normal times help people overcome their sorrow. More on it in a separate post, once I cool off.

Sunday, 3 January 2021
The first scandal of the new year is that some celebrities have been given a first dose of the vaccine, despite not being eligible for it (they had been told they would promote the vaccinations). My take on it is simple: vaccines must not go to waste. The other story is a lack of transparency in selecting candidates to be given the doses which cannot go to waste.

Monday, 4 January 2021
A short note on statistics – the reason why the number of total cases is underestimated is that once one member of a household is tested positive, all other, usually infected symptomatically, are quarantined. Ordered to stay at homes 7 days longer than the infected, they do not spread the virus, but are not included in the statistics.

Tuesday, 5 January 2021
The UK goes into full lockdown and on its first day registers nearly 61,000 new infections, which means 1 in 1,100 citizens is tested positive on this day. This is not a record-breaking figure yet. On 31 December 2020 in Czech Republic 1 in 628 citizens was tested positive.

Wednesday, 6 January 2021
The Czech Republic beats the aforementioned record and reports 1 in 620 citizens to be tested positive yesterday. This is an equivalent of 61,000 daily new infections in Poland, a figure never reported, yet conceivable to have occurred in early November 2020.

Thursday, 7 January 2021
As the minister of health says, social mobility during Christmas and New Year’s Eve / Day was as high as in summer of 2020. This should be reflected in the figures…

Friday, 8 January 2021,
The statistics in Poland do not indicate as a nation we have failed the exam in responsibility in terms of celebrating Yuletide. Two weeks have elapsed since social gatherings took place and the number of new infections is not markedly higher, as I feared it would be.

Saturday, 9 January 2021
The number of tests (carried out since the onset of the pandemic) per 1,000,000 citizens in Poland hit 200,000. My homeland ranks 26th out of 27 EU countries (Bulgaria keeps holding the last position and takes no effort to step up testing).
In comparison to other EU countries (with population exceeding 1,000,000):
- Denmark has tested every citizens nearly twice,
- the United Kingdom has tested once 86.5% of its population,
- Lithuania has tested 64% of its population,
- Spain has tested 59% of its population,
- Germany has tested 42% of its population,
- Czech Republic has tested 37% of its population,
- Hungary (with overtook Poland on 25 November 2020) has tested 29% of its population.
The gap in testing between Poland and other EU countries keep growing, despite larger number of tests in recent days.