Northern Europe during Pandemic -- Summers 2020 & 2021 & onwards

[laird]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

The icy sea in the Estonian islands, from the air, yesterdayAttachment 233846

does it freeze over completely in the Baltic during winter ? or is it like the North
sea , painfully cold

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by laird

does it freeze over completely in the Baltic during winter ?

Yes..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgWo1uCu-RA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_class


I recall many years ago being told by friends who traded up there that being iced in was good as all the crashing and banging stopped.
Also check out Leningrad when surrounded in WW2....

[laird]

regarding the vaccine roll out in the UK , our gov threw a lot of money at it , ive been involved with getting old hospitals ready to become vacine centers, buildings that were going to be knocked down have had new life breathed into them so that they could be made ready.
Ive had first shot of the Astra vaccine , i got a phone call on jan 12th to get my butt up to a medical center , flash my NHS I.D. and present my Arm , the rest of my co workers did the same on the following day.
I have had no side effects from the jab, the guys on the team who have felt unwell are those who are the more youthfull members of the team , the older guys have had no reactions ,

i get my second shot on April 13th and my personal view point is that this will become an annual event similar to the flu vaccine , there will be an yearly visit from the grim reaper in the same manner as the flu

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by laird

does it freeze over completely in the Baltic during winter ? or is it like the North
sea , painfully cold

Depends of the winter, mostly the southern Baltic is ice free, coastal ice north from Stockholm, towards east from Helsinki more ice cover. North to Botnia completely freezed.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by TeddyDiver

Depends of the winter, mostly the southern Baltic is ice free, coastal ice north from Stockholm, towards east from Helsinki more ice cover. North to Botnia completely freezed.

Yes. Any part of the Baltic CAN freeze, but normally (if there is any "normal" anymore) there's not much complete and long-lasting ice cover outside of the Northern parts of the Baltic - Gulf of Finland, Gulf of Bothnia, Swedish coast from Stockholm. The sea around the South Coast of Finland "normally" freezes so solid you can drive a car between the islands. I've seen it.
We're above 60N after all. Santa Claus Land!

[Antoine Rioton]

Here is the charts of current and historical condition of ice cover

https://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/ice-conditions

[laird]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Yes. Any part of the Baltic CAN freeze, but normally (if there is any "normal" anymore) there's not much complete and long-lasting ice cover outside of the Northern parts of the Baltic - Gulf of Finland, Gulf of Bothnia, Swedish coast from Stockholm. The sea around the South Coast of Finland "normally" freezes so solid you can drive a car between the islands. I've seen it.
We're above 60N after all. Santa Claus Land!

The north sea felt quite brutal in the winter, although it never froze , i worked on DSV,s and oil rigs , dont fancy sailing the baltic or the north sea in winter

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by laird

The north sea felt quite brutal in the winter, although it never froze , i worked on DSV,s and oil rigs , dont fancy sailing the baltic or the north sea in winter

The North Sea is a different kettle of fish, so to speak. And not only in winter.

Nordsee ist Mordsee, the German mariners say -- North Sea is Murder Sea. Some of the most barbaric waters in the world. Shallow, and fetch infinite to the Northwest, so incredible sea states can blow up in not all that extraordinary say F9 conditions.

Baltic is nothing compared to that. Can be very uncomfortable with short steep seas, but not more than that. I think Baltic is even less challenging than Med. North Sea, on the contrary, is the most demanding waters in the world, but for perhaps Southern Ocean, Western Approaches.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Wow oh wow!!!

There were ZERO COVID-19 deaths reported today in the UK.
It is a Sunday and reported numbers tend to be lowest on Sunday and Monday, but on the other hand reported deaths lag by days and some lag up to weeks, so this is an exciting milestone.

Daily cases are averaging less than 10% of their peak in early January, despite testing rate being nearly twice as high.

The averaged weekly case rate is roughly the same as it was mid September, but testing rate is over three times higher. We had very few restrictions then.

Exactly a third of the population (almost all the most vulnerable) have now received their first dose, which so far seems to largely protect them from severe illness 12-35+ days after vaccination (it is a sliding scale). In addition, an unknown percentage of the population has already developed acquired immunity following infection. Given the high rates of infection here, I am guessing this is not an insignificant amount.

On the down side we still have at least 4 weeks of “stay-at-home” lockdown.
I would have thought restrictions would be starting to lift by now, but not so .
The UK is still at a standstill.

SWL

[RoseofWight]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

Wow oh wow!!!

There were ZERO COVID-19 deaths reported today in the UK.
It is a Sunday and reported numbers tend to be lowest on Sunday and Monday, but on the other hand reported deaths lag by days and some lag up to weeks, so this is an exciting milestone.
.

SWL

Unfortunately, it seems it's a glitch in the system.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by RoseofWight

Unfortunately, it seems it's a glitch in the system.

Who has reported a glitch?

The numbers are not those for actual deaths on the day, simply reported deaths including some that occurred days or even weeks ago. They have been dropping dramatically each day compared to the same day the previous week. Last Sunday the figure was merely 144 (in a population of 66 million) so it is not impossible that none were reported today.

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

Who has reported a glitch?

The numbers are not those for actual deaths on the day, simply reported deaths including some that occurred days or even weeks ago. They have been dropping dramatically each day compared to the same day the previous week. Last Sunday the figure was merely 144 (in a population of 66 million) so it is not impossible that none were reported today.

7 March 2021
Owing to processing issues for deaths in England, the numbers of deaths throughout the UK will be updated later. In the meantime, the number of newly reported deaths for 7 March 2021 may incorrectly show as zero.

—https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths

Too bad because i was sure heartened by it for a moment.

[RoseofWight]

Just echoing what someone posted on YBW forum in the Covid section.

https://forums.ybw.com/index.php?thr...-today.561362/

You should be able to see it as you are a registered member I believe.

Zero deaths seems unlikely to me at this point in time.

[El Pinguino]

I'm guessing that you don't here the cry of 'bring out your dead' echoing around the streets of London on a Sunday morning...

I find this to be a handy site https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/ for getting an idea about what is happening around the planet.
Dropping the 7 day moving average in the UK from 1241 to 240 in such a short space of time is impressive.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by RoseofWight

Just echoing what someone posted on YBW forum in the Covid section.

https://forums.ybw.com/index.php?thr...-today.561362/

You should be able to see it as you are a registered member I believe.

Zero deaths seems unlikely to me at this point in time.

Thanks. Yes, I could read the thread.
Bugger .

Still, the overall numbers are extremely low. The daily deaths averaged over a week with a positive COVID-19 test within 28 days (death not necessarily related to COVID-19) in the UK is currently around 200 and still dropping quickly. Given the way these are counted I doubt it will actually be zero for a long time to come, well past the time the crisis is over.

Each death is an awful loss, but the numbers need to be put into perspective. During the couple of years prior to this pandemic, daily deaths in the UK averaged around 1400-1500, a lot of these preventable.

Numbers averaging around 200 a day with a recent COVID-19 positive test after a recent peak of around 1200 are still something to be optimistic about, particularly since some of these occurred some time before being reported. This is significant when numbers are dropping so sharply.

SW (“glass half full”) L