Covid And The Rest of Us

[mrs. magoo]

Here's an interesting thing that happened in Oregon:
Health workers administer COVID vaccine to motorists stuck in snow storm (msn.com)

I saw that happen. I hope to not get caught in the snow storm.

 

[NFLDERS]

Although it is not quite through the approval process here in Canada yet, I am rooting hard for the J&J vaccine. It's a one-dose, non mRNA product that, although it's not proving quite as effective as the current one in preventing transmission, is apparently almost 100% successful in preventing sever outcomes. I think it's a very, very sensible option for many priority groups and the flexibility in transport and storage will be a big deal. Canada has pre-ordered 36,000,000 doses apparently ready to ship as soon as the approvals are in place.
Canada has 'no delivery schedule' for Johnson & Johnson vaccine - iPolitics

J & J makes me skeptical given their track record of lawsuits.

 

[ronandannette]

Oh My...I am praying this is real. We NEED this. Our vaccination program is in utter disarray due to supply contracts that apparently aren't worth the paper they're written on. It's becoming increasingly clear that Canada simply must license a product for production here at home.
Canada signs deal with Novavax to make its COVID-19 vaccine at new Montreal facility (msn.com)

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Oh My...I am praying this is real. We NEED this. Our vaccination program is in utter disarray due to supply contracts that apparently aren't worth the paper they're written on. It's becoming increasingly clear that Canada simply must license a product for production here at home.
Canada signs deal with Novavax to make its COVID-19 vaccine at new Montreal facility (msn.com)

Even with having Pfizer and Moderna produced here it doesn't mean we don't still have our own issues but that said having to rely on facilities located so far away across an ocean with a sensitive product such that we are dealing with certainly creates a more precarious situation for y'all. That def. could be a relief to have more control over production with a vaccine and means to get it out to citizens of your country as a whole

 

[NFLDERS]

Oh My...I am praying this is real. We NEED this. Our vaccination program is in utter disarray due to supply contracts that apparently aren't worth the paper they're written on. It's becoming increasingly clear that Canada simply must license a product for production here at home.
Canada signs deal with Novavax to make its COVID-19 vaccine at new Montreal facility (msn.com)

Great news!

Hopefully other things like LTC Health & Safety regulations will be re-instated/brought back going forward too. Just as an aside news that Alberta may consider Lithium extraction is awesome!

 

[Karin1984]

In NL a few weeks ago, the British virus went from 2% to 5%, a week later to 10% of the new infections. Yesterday they announced that 65% of all new infections is the British virus.

 

[ronandannette]

In NL a few weeks ago, the British virus went from 2% to 5%, a week later to 10% of the new infections. Yesterday they announced that 65% of all new infections is the British virus.

In the news this morning, Alberta has identified 57 cases of the UK variant and 7 of the South Africa strain. The cases have been found in two different elementary schools and 1 day care centre. Upwards of 400 people are in quarantine after having been identified as close contacts. Our Minister of Health alluded to extra quarantine measures being mandated for people with these strains but the details were quite sketchy.

 

[elphaba91]

So yesterday morning Victoria hit 28 days of no community transmissions, thereby again reaching effective elimination. Then late last night they announced that a hotel quarantine working had tested positive. It is a bit of an unusual case. He was working at one of the Australian Open hotels. The last positive case at that hotel was moved on 22 January. The worker last worked on 29 January when he tested negative, then had a few days off and then tested positive at his next shift. So it seems an extremely long incubation period. Authorities have also reviewed CCTV and have said they can't see any breach of any protocols by the employee.

Our Premier had a press conference at 10:30 last night. He urged everyone not to stress at this stage, but to get tested. They have published a list of exposure sites and times and anyone who visited must get tested and isolate for 14 days. The person had been to quite the number of locations; people are joking that one symptom appears to be the urge to traverse town stopping at as many Kmarts, Bunnings and golf ranges as you can! Testing queues are already backed up for a couple of hours this morning. We are also back to masks in any indoor location (not just large stores), visitor numbers halved back to 15 and the plan to increase the number of workers in offices from 50% to 75% from next week has been postponed. They have also announced that quarantine workers will also be tested on their days off.

I'm confident that this outbreak will be nipped in the bud just like our one over New Year's, but this virus just keeps writing its own rule book!

 

[BadPinkTink]

https://www.thejournal.ie/vaccines-gp-pharmacies-5346195-Feb2021/
Irish GP's will begin to receive vaccine doses allowing them to give the jab to people over the age of 85 from Monday week under an agreement reached between doctors and the HSE last night.

In details agreed between the HSE and Irish Medical Organisation last night, the majority of people aged 70 and over will be vaccinated in their own GP practice with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. Of the 1,373 GP practices in Ireland, just under 1,000 of them will see patients vaccinated in their own GP surgeries.

For GP practices with under 200 people over the age of 70 there will be a GP-run vaccination clinic at an agreed location.

These will mainly be in larger urban areas such as Dublin, Galway and Cork. The first one of these will be in DCU in Dublin. They’ll be operated by GPs, practice nurses and admin staff.

There may also be a “buddy system” for small GP practices outside these urban areas for their patients to attend a larger practice to receive their vaccine.

All booking, registration and payment*** will be processed via each GP surgery’s practice management system. People within the appropriate age groups will be contacted directly when they are eligible to receive a vaccine.

These clinics will operate at weekends, and will continue to operate until all patients within the age range are vaccinated.

The first tranche of this vaccine rollout will see approximately 72,000 people over the age of 85 given the vaccination. There are approximately 490,000 people over the age of 70 in Ireland.

The first deliveries of vaccines to GP surgeries will start on 15 February and this is expected to “significantly ramp up in subsequent weeks”. The deliveries will be scheduled in line with supply lines and starting with practices who have the largest number of over-85s.

*** the vaccine is free, but people will have to pay the doctors usual appointment charge of €30 if they are not part of the medical card scheme.

 

[ronandannette]

https://www.thejournal.ie/vaccines-gp-pharmacies-5346195-Feb2021/
Irish GP's will begin to receive vaccine doses allowing them to give the jab to people over the age of 85 from Monday week under an agreement reached between doctors and the HSE last night.

In details agreed between the HSE and Irish Medical Organisation last night, the majority of people aged 70 and over will be vaccinated in their own GP practice with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. Of the 1,373 GP practices in Ireland, just under 1,000 of them will see patients vaccinated in their own GP surgeries.

For GP practices with under 200 people over the age of 70 there will be a GP-run vaccination clinic at an agreed location.

These will mainly be in larger urban areas such as Dublin, Galway and Cork. The first one of these will be in DCU in Dublin. They’ll be operated by GPs, practice nurses and admin staff.

There may also be a “buddy system” for small GP practices outside these urban areas for their patients to attend a larger practice to receive their vaccine.

All booking, registration and payment*** will be processed via each GP surgery’s practice management system. People within the appropriate age groups will be contacted directly when they are eligible to receive a vaccine.

These clinics will operate at weekends, and will continue to operate until all patients within the age range are vaccinated.

The first tranche of this vaccine rollout will see approximately 72,000 people over the age of 85 given the vaccination. There are approximately 490,000 people over the age of 70 in Ireland.

The first deliveries of vaccines to GP surgeries will start on 15 February and this is expected to “significantly ramp up in subsequent weeks”. The deliveries will be scheduled in line with supply lines and starting with practices who have the largest number of over-85s.

*** the vaccine is free, but people will have to pay the doctors usual appointment charge of €30 if they are not part of the medical card scheme.

Do all these doctors have the ultra-cold storage equipment needed for these vaccines? I'm not sure what a "medical card scheme" is. Does Ireland have public health care?

Stay well!

 

[BadPinkTink]

Do all these doctors have the ultra-cold storage equipment needed for these vaccines? I'm not sure what a "medical card scheme" is. Does Ireland have public health care?

Stay well!

No, what will happen is that they will be kept at central cold storage locations. The Irish Government has bought about 9 or 10 ultra mobile cold storage units which will be located in various parts of the country. Then the doctors surgeries will get deliveries from these storage units.

In Ireland, for health care, there are 3 types of people. The unemployed or low waged people have a medical card, which means they get free GP care, free hospital care and only pay a set fee for prescriptions. The majority of people who don't have a medical card have private health insurance. This is provided by a few different companies and is affordable to most people who earn above the medical card limit. Most annual premiums are about €1000 a year. However the health insurance does not cover things like GP appointments, so thats why if I get the vaccine at my GP I will have to pay about €30, the same as I would if I had to get a blood test.

 

[La Stilla]

Not too well here in MK as well. We are 2million people all in all. Here it is:
First column is positive, second cures, third death cases, 4 active cases

It began from March. First started with numbers like 50, then 100, then 300, then 500...etc. There were days above 1000. This is whole country, all the cities results. Hubby and I are negative since the begining, but here the kids, especially teenegers are difficult to see the whole picture, how dangerous it is, even fatal. Adults are more responsible, and the most responsible ones are old people. They value life most!

Vaccines we still haven't gotten, firstly they said gonna get from China, then it changed, they said Serbia will help (we border with Serbia, Greece, Albania, and Bulgaria), but I HATE the fact that we wait hopelessly. Government is too corrupt, the former one and the current one. All the country shakes from this group that firsty was on fb, then on telegram (I don't know what network that is) where photos of young girls, girls, and young women are compromised with nude pictures of themselves, some even not, but only provocative, and imagine next to the picture, a cell phone number and an address. Lots of girls being stalked, few of them even raped. Govermnet doesn't care. So this was to give you a practical sketch to where we live and how difficult it is.
Men in high positions only care for to make money.
There are political murders too, where kids die and the murderers are not punished.

COVID is very stresfull but I think that the Minister of health is good and admirable man. He has soft and gentle look in his eyes, he cares for the people and is kind and good, but he was unprepared or this kind o scenario too...
I don't know when we are going to get them. People die, the elder, the obese ones, the smokers. Young people too although more rarely.
Tough situation here and in the whole world.

 

[ronandannette]

Not too well here in MK as well. We are 2million people all in all. Here it is:View attachment 554560
First column is positive, second cures, third death cases, 4 active cases

It began from March. First started with numbers like 50, then 100, then 300, then 500...etc. There were days above 1000. This is whole country, all the cities results. Hubby and I are negative since the begining, but here the kids, especially teenegers are difficult to see the whole picture, how dangerous it is, even fatal. Adults are more responsible, and the most responsible ones are old people. They value life most!

Vaccines we still haven't gotten, firstly they said gonna get from China, then it changed, they said Serbia will help (we border with Serbia, Greece, Albania, and Bulgaria), but I HATE the fact that we wait hopelessly. Government is too corrupt, the former one and the current one. All the country shakes from this group that firsty was on fb, then on telegram (I don't know what network that is) where photos of young girls, girls, and young women are compromised with nude pictures of themselves, some even not, but only provocative, and imagine next to the picture, a cell phone number and an address. Lots of girls being stalked, few of them even raped. Govermnet doesn't care. So this was to give you a practical sketch to where we live and how difficult it is.
Men in high positions only care for to make money.
There are political murders too, where kids die and the murderers are not punished.

COVID is very stresfull but I think that the Minister of health is good and admirable man. He has soft and gentle look in his eyes, he cares for the people and is kind and good, but he was unprepared or this kind o scenario too...
I don't know when we are going to get them. People die, the elder, the obese ones, the smokers. Young people too although more rarely.
Tough situation here and in the whole world.View attachment 554560

Welcome and thank you. What kind of Covid restrictions is your country/state under - if any? It has certainly been interesting over these months to see how different regions of the world are responding. As for vaccinations, well, we're all at different stages of that process, aren't we? If you read back about 20 pages laughing: you don't have to) you'll see lots if discussion about how Canada's planes have also been completely derailed by the fact that we have no supply of our own and both Pfizer and Modern in Europe have stopped shipping to us.

...In Ireland, for health care, there are 3 types of people. The unemployed or low waged people have a medical card, which means they get free GP care, free hospital care and only pay a set fee for prescriptions. The majority of people who don't have a medical card have private health insurance. This is provided by a few different companies and is affordable to most people who earn above the medical card limit. Most annual premiums are about €1000 a year. However the health insurance does not cover things like GP appointments, so thats why if I get the vaccine at my GP I will have to pay about €30, the same as I would if I had to get a blood test.

Very informative - thank you. It's extremely different from the Canadian system and I was a little thrown by the word "scheme" which in our common vernacular generally implies some sort of fraud.

 

[Karin1984]

The Covid news stopped a bit as we are hit by a snowstorm in the Netherlands. It started snowing last night and will not stop till tonight. I woke up to about 2 - 4 inches of snow, locally 1 foot of snow. Combined with a wind force of 7 or 8, it's not the time to go out. Temperatures are in the low twenties, and feel like 0, therefore most testing and vaccination locations are closed today.
The temperatures will stay like this for at least a week, so my guess is that our vaccination figures will slow down as well.

 

[BadPinkTink]

The Covid news stopped a bit as we are hit by a snowstorm in the Netherlands. It started snowing last night and will not stop till tonight. I woke up to about 2 - 4 inches of snow, locally 1 foot of snow. Combined with a wind force of 7 or 8, it's not the time to go out. Temperatures are in the low twenties, and feel like 0, therefore most testing and vaccination locations are closed today.
The temperatures will stay like this for at least a week, so my guess is that our vaccination figures will slow down as well.

oh gosh stay safe, its the Beast From The East back again, its supposed to hit Ireland around Wednesday

 

[SirDuff]

The Covid news stopped a bit as we are hit by a snowstorm in the Netherlands. It started snowing last night and will not stop till tonight. I woke up to about 2 - 4 inches of snow, locally 1 foot of snow. Combined with a wind force of 7 or 8, it's not the time to go out. Temperatures are in the low twenties, and feel like 0, therefore most testing and vaccination locations are closed today.
The temperatures will stay like this for at least a week, so my guess is that our vaccination figures will slow down as well.

Stay safe.

We had a really weird "sand storm" thing yesterday. It was like living in a sepia picture. Apparently, sand from the Sahara desert ended up covering parts of Europe.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-skies-turn-orange-as-sand-arrives-from-africa/46350768

 

[ronandannette]

The Covid news stopped a bit as we are hit by a snowstorm in the Netherlands. It started snowing last night and will not stop till tonight. I woke up to about 2 - 4 inches of snow, locally 1 foot of snow. Combined with a wind force of 7 or 8, it's not the time to go out. Temperatures are in the low twenties, and feel like 0, therefore most testing and vaccination locations are closed today.
The temperatures will stay like this for at least a week, so my guess is that our vaccination figures will slow down as well.

We're in the throes of our coldest week of winter (so far) here too. -35C last light but should go back up to the low -20's during the day. We've had light snow falling non-stop for 4 days with accumulations of about 12 - 15 cm. It hasn't stopped testing though, or anything else really; these conditions are just normal here.

I'm curious about what form of measure is used in NL - metric or imperial? I can't help noticing you referred to inches and degrees Fahrenheit rather than centimetres and Celsius.

Stay safe.

We had a really weird "sand storm" thing yesterday. It was like living in a sepia picture. Apparently, sand from the Sahara desert ended up covering parts of Europe.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-skies-turn-orange-as-sand-arrives-from-africa/46350768

Well, you're off to a good start then if you had "freak sand storms" on your 2021 Apocalypse Bingo Card.

 

[Karin1984]

We're in the throes of our coldest week of winter (so far) here too. -35C last light but should go back up to the low -20's during the day. We've had light snow falling non-stop for 4 days with accumulations of about 12 - 15 cm. It hasn't stopped testing though, or anything else really; these conditions are just normal here.

I'm curious about what form of measure is used in NL - metric or imperial? I can't help noticing you referred to inches and degrees Fahrenheit rather than centimetres and Celsius.

We are on the metric system, but as this is a mainly American board, and my terrible prejudice assumption that metric-people are better at converting than imperial-people ;-)

It should stop snowing tonight. I went out for a walk. What normally is a 45 minute walk now took over an hour. Some side walks are completely clean, and you only have to be careful they are not slippery. And due to the wind some parts with 20-30 cm. There is nothing better than walking on fresh snow

Stay safe.

We had a really weird "sand storm" thing yesterday. It was like living in a sepia picture. Apparently, sand from the Sahara desert ended up covering parts of Europe.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-skies-turn-orange-as-sand-arrives-from-africa/46350768

I saw that, amazing it can travel this far.

 

[SirDuff]

We are on the metric system, but as this is a mainly American board, and my terrible prejudice assumption that metric-people are better at converting than imperial-people ;-)

Ah, but this is a mainly non-American thread so must of us of metric people. Did you know that only the US, Liberia and Myanmar stick to the imperial system? Of course, individual people do whatever they want (there is a great flowchart when Canadian use which system that I find weirdly accurate). Why I know this fact, I have no idea.

 

[ronandannette]

Ah, but this is a mainly non-American thread so must of us of metric people. Did you know that only the US, Liberia and Myanmar stick to the imperial system? Of course, individual people do whatever they want (there is a great flowchart when Canadian use which system that I find weirdly accurate). Why I know this fact, I have no idea.

Let me take a guess:

• tsp./tbsp./cups/oz. and pounds when cooking;
• lbs. when we're weighing ourselves;
• litres when talking about milk or gasoline, gallons when talking about paint or water;
• inches/ft. when measuring our heights or for construction purposes;
• kph when talking about speed but miles when referring to distance;
• degrees Celsius always for temperature (except when we're baking), unless of course we're talking to Americans and then we politely convert for their benefit;

...or maybe it's just me.