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

[Dockhead]

Summer is ending up here. Normally August is cooler at these latitudes, but this year August was hot and sunny -- lovely.

The pandemic situation is pretty reasonable everywhere in Northern Europe. The death rate in Sweden dropped off to almost nothing already in July; currently the 7 day rolling average deaths fluctuates between 0 and 1. The daily rate of new infections in Sweden now is 143, less per million than Denmark.

Denmark had an outbreak in the city of Aarhus, but this was gotten under control without lockdown or any kind of harsh measures.

Finland has had a small uptick in cases during August, but still lower rate per million than either Denmark or Sweden.

Similar story in Estonia and Latvia, which continue with very low rates of infection.

Thank God we haven't yet had the feared second wave. So life continues much as normal and cruising goes on normally. I'm in a Danish fishing harbour now and there are boats here from all of the Baltic littoral states.

Only Germany and Poland, among the Baltic littoral states, has at present a significant rate of new infection. Germany has had an outbreak in the Northwest. Poland is seeing a general rise in infections although in both countries it's still very moderate compared to what was going on in the spring time.


Borders are open everywhere in the region for internal European travel, but conditions change in a bewildering way. I flew yesterday from Poland to Denmark and was surprised to have to go through passport control. Non-Europeans were doing a lot of explanation to the border guards; I'm not sure what the rules are now. I was waved right through when I showed by Nordic residence permit, despite my non-European passport.


Another new rule -- if you travel to Latvia or Finland from Poland, you are now subject to a 14 day quarantine.



So as the cruising season 2020 draws to an end, I think we Baltic cruisers can actually be really grateful that we got a more or less normal year in. What will next year be like?

[mglonnro]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

So as the cruising season 2020 draws to an end, I think we Baltic cruisers can actually be really grateful that we got a more or less normal year in. What will next year be like?

Yes, it was (and is still for a while) a good season!

One more thing: I haven't seen any news/reports of recreational boaters spreading the virus, so that's good as well. That might have happened anyway, of course, but maybe not very much.

[Dockhead]

By the way, ran across this interesting resource, which shows the relative stringency of anti-pandemic measures in different countries:

https://data.humdata.org/dataset/oxf...sponse-tracker





It shows clearly what I suspected, which is that the Nordic & Baltic region has the LEAST stringent measures of any developed countries except Japan.


Presently the stringency ratings are:
19.44 Estonia
19.44 Lithuania

31.48 Norway
37.04 Sweden
37.96 Finland
43.52 Latvia

56.48 Denmark


compare to 30.56, Japan.


And NONE of these countries has any significant daily case rate:





I'm feeling pretty blessed to be in this region right now! Hope our luck holds.

[barnakiel]

Very fine graph and educative.


One of the factors sure is how strict the counter measures are.


I think, too, that another and very related measure is how very disciplined or not a culture is. Think of Nordic Ordnung must sein and Mediterranean mañana. Given the same strict actions by the administration, each culture will adhere to the measures to different degree.


Which puts Germany perhaps at the top of the list ...


I wonder how well the German strict rules bound with disciplined society predicted their succes in dodging covid.


Perhaps a German member here has some insight.



b.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

. . . I wonder how well the German strict rules bound with disciplined society predicted their success in dodging covid.

Perhaps a German member here has some insight.

b.

Germany did not have any national lockdown. Most of the country had restrictions similar to those in the Nordic countries, with emphasis on voluntary measures, and no stay-at-home orders. Exceptions are Saarland and Bavaria which did have lockdown for a few weeks.


The Germans were particularly active with contact tracing, which seems to have been beneficial.



Germany has had an average outcome compared to Nordic/Baltic countries -- more cumulative deaths per million than Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania or Norway, but less than Sweden.

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Very fine graph and educative.


One of the factors sure is how strict the counter measures are.


I think, too, that another and very related measure is how very disciplined or not a culture is. Think of Nordic Ordnung must sein and Mediterranean mañana. Given the same strict actions by the administration, each culture will adhere to the measures to different degree.


Which puts Germany perhaps at the top of the list ...


I wonder how well the German strict rules bound with disciplined society predicted their succes in dodging covid.


Perhaps a German member here has some insight.



b.

I was surprised, how disciplined the Italiens and the Spanish people had been, felt very safe in this countries the last months during the pandemic, while in Germany were no masks and no distancing, germans simply ignored the regulations most of the time.

[arsenelupiga]

here around southern pole, we find queensland in australia is really handy, like N europe but with addition of sun and sparkling reefs. QLD is large and contains tropic and subtropics so one can play cyclone season within one covid country. Borders are closed to outsiders and virtually no infections.

Winter in tropics summer subtropics so one enjoys summer 12 mth a year - ie minimum night temperatures do not go below 15C.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by arsenelupiga

here around southern pole, we find queensland in australia is really handy, like N europe but with addition of sun and sparkling reefs. QLD is large and contains tropic and subtropics so one can play cyclone season within one covid country. Borders are closed to outsiders and virtually no infections.

Winter in tropics summer subtropics so one enjoys summer 12 mth a year - ie minimum night temperatures do not go below 15C.

Can Australia be said to be "around Southern pole"? What's the highest latitude? I think you're pretty far from the South Pole, aren't you?

Northern Europe, by contrast, is much higher than that. Helsinki is above 60N and the Baltic Sea reaches up to within 30 miles of the Arctic Circle. Mainland Norway reaches above 71N, not counting Svalbard which is almost 78N or less than 700 miles from the North Pole..

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Can Australia be said to be "around Southern pole"? What's the highest latitude? I think you're pretty far from the South Pole, aren't you?

Northern Europe, by contrast, is much higher than that. Helsinki is above 60N and the Baltic Sea reaches up to within 30 miles of the Arctic Circle. Mainland Norway reaches above 71N, not counting Svalbard which is almost 78N or less than 700 miles from the North Pole..

Heard Island (Aussie territory) - 53S

AAT (Aussie territory)- From 60S to 90S between 160E and 45E. Davis is located 68.5S

Crikey, you can walk to the Southern Pole without leaving Australia

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by Wotname

Heard Island (Aussie territory) - 53S

AAT (Aussie territory)- From 60S to 90S between 160E and 45E. Davis is located 68.5S

Crikey, you can walk to the Southern Pole without leaving Australia

There's no Aussie territory beyond Heard and McDonald

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by TeddyDiver

There's no Aussie territory beyond Heard and McDonald

Haha.... you are having beer with the wrong people; you should be having G & Ts with those in the know in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, France and Norway.

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by Wotname

Haha.... you are having beer with the wrong people; you should be having G & Ts with those in the know in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, France and Norway.

The point is I and my palls won't sell it Besides Chilean and Argentinians have something to say to that claim too..
Talking about wild claims I (and my palls) claim the ownership of Ceres, Europa, Io and Callisto and the space between the orbits, effectively half way from Mars to Jupiter and a bit beyond..

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by TeddyDiver

The point is I and my palls won't sell it Besides Chilean and Argentinians have something to say to that claim too..
..................

The Chileans and Argentinians are only claiming bits of the UK areas, they aren't bothering the Aussies. We are a friendly mob and have let Russia, China, Romania, France and Italy all build bases on the Aussie turf.

If you are interested, you might like to set up camp in Marie Byrd Land. It could help you when you try selling something you don't have...

I recall the Argentinians thought they had a claim on the Falklands too .

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Wotname

I recall the Argentinians thought they had a claim on the Falklands too .

The ramifications of that little saga made both the Soviet Pact and the US sit up and take notice how quickly an effective task force was able to deploy and win. The Soviets were more cautious for a couple of decades afterwards.

Interesting the US did provide assistance including helping resupply a RN Frigate who had spent 6 months on anti drug patrols in the Caribbean and stopped in the US on the way home when the balloon went up. The resupply not only included food and fuel but also extra .50 machine guns and ammunition meaning the Frigate sailed South rather than back to the UK first.

[Pete7]

UK rates of C19 creeping up but being managed with local town hot spot lock downs. During the past 3 weeks cruising we have been disappointed to see folk in some holiday tourist areas not doing all they could with social distancing and face masks seemingly a foreign concept

We avoided preferring our own company and space, distancing ourselves from the pubs, restaurants and sadly the local chip shop

Weather has been a mix of storm low pressure systems crashing into NW Europe spaced with nice warm sunshine providing some challenging passage planning.

Pete