Zero COVID
It's nice to be able to report some brightening news from Europe.
The UK has joined Israel in absolutely crushing the coronavirus with vaccines, following the administration of some 53.3 million vaccine doses to date.
The focus will now swing back to first doses, with about 68 per cent of UK adults already having had at least one dose.
Through April and early May the focus has been on delivering second doses to the most vulnerable and elderly cohorts.
Weekly deaths within a month of a positive test continue to fall by about -33 per cent per week for the United Kingdom (and total deaths are miles below their 5-year average now, and have been for weeks).
And indeed there were no such deaths at all across most jurisdictions reported today.
With hospitals fairly emptied of serious virus cases, the UK is now winding back restrictions.
Europe is about a month or so behind, with Germany (35 million) and France (25 million) now storming through their own dose rollouts, while the warmer weather is already helping things to turn a corner on the continent too.
Australia's rollout has been notoriously slow, with only 2.66 million doses administered to date, although the weekly total has picked up a notch to above 400,000.
Hopefully Australia can speed up to around 1 million doses per week in line with domestic supply as the new mass vaccination hubs open and begin to hit their straps.
The US is also seeing virus cases down about 85 per cent from their highs as the massive vaccination programme continues apace.
Overall, the vaccines have evidently been tremendously effective wherever they've had a widespread rollout.
