Daily Post – February 24th 2021

Living through a pandemic

in the south of France

343 days in Carcassonne since

1st lockdown in March 2020

▫️ DAILY AND WEEKLY STATISTICS HERE .

▫️Fewer doses of AstraZeneca in February. France expects fewer doses of AstraZeneca vaccine in February, before catching up in March. “We are going to reach 1.7 million doses in February for AstraZeneca instead of 2.5, which we had originally planned,” “but if we cumulate February and March, we’ll fall back on our feet with 5.9 million cumulative doses,” the ministry said Tuesday evening. According to the same source, after a delivery of 550,000 doses last week, the same number is expected this week and around 850,000 doses should arrive next week. The pharmaceutical giant, for its part, announced that it could manufacture in the European Union only half of the doses it has to supply to the EU in the second half of the year and that it would produce elsewhere the rest of the doses promised to Europeans. For the moment, the vaccine is reserved for people aged 50-64 with co-morbidities, or about two million people, and for healthcare professionals under 65 years of age.

▫️ SPOTS ON THE MAP At a time when the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes announced yesterday at noon the partial confinement of the Nice coastline, on the other side of France Dunkirk was setting a new record. Its incidence rate is over 900 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, more than four times the national average!
On site, tests now exceed 70% positivity to the British variant. A worrying phenomenon, the virus spreads around in deconcentrated circles, like an ink stain.

Seen from Paris, we watch the map of France tinting on both sides, mitering to the north and south, but also to the east and even in the Paris region, where indicators are turning sour. In the end, this evolution is quite in line with epidemiologists’ forecasts, after a short period of calm, as unexpected as it is fragile.
All this suggests that other local confinements could be decreed quite quickly before, if that were not enough, national measures. Emmanuel Macron left himself a few more days to decide.

▫️ 🍺 ALCOHOL IS FORBIDDEN on certain streets in Paris. The Prefect of Police has issued an order prohibiting the consumption of alcohol on the public highway between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. in the 6th arrondissement, rue de Buci, and in the 5th arrondissement, place de la Contrescarpe, as of this Tuesday and “for 15 days”.

▫️ APPLICATIONS

In addition to the barrier measures allowing the fight against the Covid-19 epidemic, the Government is making a set of complementary digital tools that are fully integrated into the “Test – Alert – Protect” health strategy.

▫️ UNFAIR – Part II

In the meantime my dear spouse has made appointments for her 1st & 2nd injection of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

I on theother hand obtained this morning a doctor’s certificate pushing me in front of the list. I now need to find available slots in a vaccination centre near me. Easier said than done, all the slot available yesterday are gone this morning.

▫️ ANCILLARY NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND from our correspondent in Britain

✒️ No flies on this man!

Bizarre moment a naked man sprints down a London street with three police officers in hot pursuit

The incident took place near the Westway in west London on February 22
Man was arrested by police and taken to a central London police station
Ross Springham, 29, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court charged with indecent exposure

Watch it here

▫️ MUSIC

ANOTHER ONE IN MY TOP 100

🎶 / 🎶 / 🎶

▫️ VIDEO OF THE DAY

▫️ SATIRE

▫️ NEWS FROM ACROSS THE POND 🇺🇸

▫️ WEATHER

Today in Carcassonne, beware, very strong gusts of wind

▫️ VENDEE GLOBE

The MACSF navigator Isabelle Joschke 🇩🇪 🇫🇷 managed to stay ahead of the low pressure system that will affect Sam Davies tonight. She is expected in Vendée today at midday. Out of the race since her retirement on January 9th following damage to her keel actuator, “Isa” will not cross the finish line but will take directly the channel of Les Sables d’Olonne which she left 107 days ago.