Pandemic diary – July 2021 notes

Thursday, 1 July 2021
50% of Warsaw’s population (including children below age of 12) fully vaccinated.
50% of Poland’s population eligible for vaccination (12+) have received at least one shot.

Monday, 5 July 2021
The seven-day rolling average of new infections in the UK exceeds 25,000, which is more than 12 times more than exactly two months earlier, when new infections reached their low. Thanks to vaccination of groups of risk, hospital admissions have not risen markedly and deaths… have barely risen. Vaccines do work! Many are surprised by the British prime minister’s decision uphold the date of lifting nearly all restrictions, including mask-wearing mandate, i.e. 19 July 2021. Worth noting 50% of the UK’s population are fully vaccinated, 86.1% of adults have had their first jab.

Thursday, 8 July 2021
Cyprus is another excellent example of how the delta variant might send new infections skyrocketing. On the part of the island being a part of EU the new infections (7-day rolling average) rose by 10 times within a fortnight.

Saturday, 10 July 2021
The 7-day rolling average number of new cases bottoms out in Poland at 77. With hindsight – it just crept up thereafter.

Monday, 12 July 2021
To celebrate the first anniversary of the run-off in the presidential election in 2020, I compare results of that vote with vaccine uptakes in 10 communes with the highest and the lowest vaccine uptake (defined as percentage of population vaccinated with at least 1 dose) and who the local residents voted for a year ago. Here come the results.

What a coincidence!

Tuesday, 13 July 2021
The summer wave of new infections hits its high in Russia, with 7-day rolling average of new infections reaching nearly 25,000 (vs. 30,000 during the previous wave). The country has a low level of vaccinated population (around 10%) and the daily death toll exceeds 700.

Sunday, 18 July 2021
In the Netherlands the daily number of new cases averaged out more than 10,000 over the last week, more than 16 times more than at the end of June. One music festival is to blame for the spread of the virus. The infected are usually young, hence hospital wards are not packed with patients and death toll will remain low.

Monday, 19 July 2021
The UK celebrates the freedom day, with … new inflections and 7-day rolling average number of new infections exceeding …. The British prime minister (fully vaccinated). is in self-isolation after contacting the health minister infected with mild COVID-19. What a farce!
In Poland the reproduction coefficient exceeds 1.00x for the first time since early April 2021.

Friday, 23 July 2021
The delta wave in Portugal reaches its peak, with daily new infections (7-day rolling average) 10 times higher than in early May.

Sunday, 25 July 2021
Anti-vaxxers attack a vaccination centre in Grodzisk Mazowiecki. This is the first incidence of physical violence towards a jab centre staff, police and medical rescue teams. The aggression of the anti-science cattle is growing, sadly.

Wednesday, 28 July 2021
In late June, Spain reported on average less than 4,000 infections daily. After a spike in early July, now the average number of new cases runs around 25,000. Thanks to high vaccination rate among the elderly, daily number of deaths averages out 25, a reduction by more than 90% vs. what was observed in January 2021 when the number of infections was merely 20% higher.

Saturday, 31 July 2021
Just like a month ago, a customary month-end vaccination (sluggish) progress report

1. Vaccine uptake in age groups


2. Vaccination status in the entire population of Poland