Coronavirus: Is North Korea getting ready to declare victory over Covid-19?
Pyongyang only acknowledged that it had a coronavirus outbreak last month. Yet state media claims cases are already plummeting and says just 73 people have died – a widely disputed fatality rate of 0.002 per cent, the lowest in the world. ⌘ Read more

European nations tell China ‘self-isolation’ is stoking ‘mistrust’ in plea for easing of Covid-19 curbs
European ambassadors from Switzerland, France, Norway, Italy and Croatia have appealed to China to relax rules that prevent face-to-face meetings, saying direct communication will help reduce international tensions. ⌘ Read more

**“This decision is not only a hollow response to Covid-19, but it sends the message that intellectual property rights outweigh the rights to health and life.”

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/06/covid-19-wto-ministerial-decision-on-trips-agreement-fails-to-set-rules-that-could-save-lives/**
“This decision is not only a hollow response to Covid-19, but it sends the message that intellectual property rights outweigh the rights to health and life.”

[amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2…](https://www.amnesty. … ⌘ Read more

Masks, Covid-19 test kits, plastic bottles: more than 9,000kg of litter found on Hong Kong’s hiking trails, seashore last year, green group says
Plastic bottles, bottle lids and buoys top three types of rubbish commonly found on seashore, while cigarettes, tissue paper and food packaging dot hiking trails, green group Ecobus says. ⌘ Read more

China’s Covid-19 health code system is ripe for abuse and must not outlast the pandemic
A recent scandal in Henan province that saw protesters issued bogus red health codes to restrict their movements shows how open the system is to misuse. ⌘ Read more

Hong Kong health experts propose 5 key groups, including animal care workers, be vaccinated against monkeypox before exposure
Pre-exposure jab considered for five target groups, but should not be given within four weeks before or after a Covid-19 vaccine is administered. ⌘ Read more

Chinese mRNA booster fights Omicron 4 times better than inactivated Covid-19 vaccines, researchers say
AWcorna vaccine produced 4.4 times more Omicron antibodies than for those boosted with Sinovac, scientists behind clinical trial write in Cell Research journal. ⌘ Read more

WTO strikes landmark deals after tense Geneva talks, prompting cheers
The World Trade Organization concluded hard-won deals on fishing subsidies, food insecurity and Covid-19 vaccines in a landmark bundle of agreements secured through hectic round-the-clock talks in Geneva. ⌘ Read more

How Hong Kong’s ‘Covid-19 heroes’ rose to the challenges they faced
The Post talks to some of Hong Kong’s ‘Covid-19 heroes’, people who have risen to the challenges thrown at them by the virus over the past two years. ⌘ Read more

Hong Kong’s biggest health crisis in 25 years: why did city stumble over Covid-19? Experts say it was too slow to change tactics, inflexible, put politics first
Insistence on ‘zero infections’ left authorities unable to act swiftly when Omicron variant of coronavirus arrived, experts say. ⌘ Read more

Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport to cut flights over busy summer
Thousands of travellers are likely to be affected each day, as the Netherland’s busiest airport struggles with a surge in demand as the Covid-19 demand eases. ⌘ Read more

Who can fill the shoes of China’s Iron Lady Sun Chunlan on Politburo?
For two years she has ruled the country’s Covid-19 response with an iron fist, but at 72 the vice-premier is expected to step down at this year’s party congress. ⌘ Read more

Covid-19 in China: latest Beijing outbreak ‘easing’ after millions tested
Cluster linked to Heaven Supermarket bar emerged days after the city had begun lifting curbs. ⌘ Read more

Shanghai reopening: Disneyland ready for visitors once more as theme park awaits green light after Covid-19 lockdown
A partial reopening of Shanghai Disney Resort, which comprises Disneyland, Disneytown, two themed hotels, Wishing Star Park and the Blue Sky Boulevard, attracted hundreds of local visitors on Thursday. ⌘ Read more

Anthony Fauci, Joe Biden’s top Covid-19 adviser, tests positive
The US top scientist, 81, is experiencing mild symptoms, and will work from home while he recovers. ⌘ Read more

Coronavirus: New Zealand to eliminate pre-departure Covid-19 tests for incoming passengers
Scrapping the requirement would bring New Zealand into line with a growing number of countries that have done away with Covid tests. ⌘ Read more

Can Sri Lanka tourism recover from ‘triple whammy’ of terrorism, Covid-19 and economic crisis?
The Easter Sunday bombings and the pandemic lashed the sector from 2019-2021. Now, unrest arising from economic duress has further hurt tourism. ⌘ Read more

Erlang Solutions: Using Elixir and WhatsApp to Fight COVID19

Discover the inside story of how the World Health Organisation’s WhatsApp COVID-19 hotline service was launched in 5 days using Elixir. At the beginning of March 2020, Turn.io launched the world’s first WhatsApp-based COVID-19 response for the South African Ministry of Health. The service was designed, deployed, stress-tested, and launched.

In 5 days. It scaled, before any kind of public launch, to 450K unique … ⌘ Read more

SUSE buys itself a “COVID 19 Hero” award. Not joking.
Also buys their CEO “Woman of the year” award. Also not joking. ⌘ Read more

How Docker containers are supporting the COVID-19 genomic monitoring effort
This is a guest blog post from Dr. Kelsey Florek and Curtis Kapsak. A video presentation of this post from Docker’s Community All-Hands can be found here. Dr. Kelsey Florek is the Senior Genomics and Data Scientist at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene and a steering committee member of the State Public Health Bioinformatics […]

The post [How Docker containers are supporting the CO … ⌘ Read more

Rapid Test Results
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Rapid Test Results
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The effect of large-scale anti-contagion policies on the COVID-19 pandemic | Nature ⌘ Read more

Yay! Biden admin drops IP protection on Covid-19 vaccine patents. #TRIPSwaiver ⌘ Read more…

StarTalk Podcast: The COVID-19 Vaccines with Irwin Redlener ⌘ Read more…

Different utilitarian approaches to COVID-19 vaccination order, by order of complexity: Maximize {probability of infection*probability of counterfactual death, probability of infection*expected life years lost, probability of infection*expected severity of illness, probability of infection*expected severity of illness+probability of infecting n others*fudging for spreading}

Largest COVID-19 contact tracing study to date finds children key to spread, evidence of superspreaders ⌘ https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/09/30/largest-covid-19-contact-tracing-study-date-finds-children-key-spread-evidence

A Supercomputer Analyzed #Covid-19 — and an Interesting New Theory Has Emerged ⌘ https://elemental.medium.com/a-supercomputer-analyzed-covid-19-and-an-interesting-new-theory-has-emerged-31cb8eba9d63

How Does COVID-19 Testing Actually Work? ⌘ Read more…

Karuna 2020: Using GitHub Actions in the COVID-19 response efforts ⌘ https://github.blog/2020-08-13-github-actions-karuna/

Red Herring Games: Navigating a Business During a Pandemic
How having a WordPress site helped this business survive the challenge of COVID-19. ⌘ Read more

How can our COVID-19 response create a more equitable and collaborative society? ⌘ https://link.medium.com/kcvunnlGP8

Belgium : When Covid-19 Hit, Many Elderly Were Left to Die - The New York Times ⌘ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/08/world/europe/coronavirus-nursing-homes-elderly.html

Google - Exposure Notification Reference Server for Covid-19 ⌘ https://github.com/google/exposure-notifications-server

Have been quite ill with Covid-19. Am slowly recovering. All is generally well.