Covid And The Rest of Us

[lisaviolet]

I think by the sounds of it Canada's system is very lax compared to Australia. Our arrivals have no control over where they are sent (unless you are a celebrity and make an application for self-funded private quarantine arrangements), are under extremely strict quarantine conditions and are tested regularly. I only know of one report of someone managing to escape security at the airport - a pair from Germany who conned a police officer on his first day in that role, walked from Sydney international terminal to domestic (and that is NOT a walk that anyone would normally choose to do), boarded a flight to Melbourne and were only detected thanks to someone at the car rental agency realising there was an issue. Otherwise the stories have tended to go the other way - people trying to get exemptions due to medical reasons, dying relatives, etc. There have been a handful of leaks but, apart from Melbourne's big one, they have been well managed.

Speaking of international travel and quarantine, Australia and New Zealand are officially going to have a travel bubble in 2 weeks! As it stands, arrivals from NZ don't have to quarantine when entering Australia but from 19 April there will be no quarantine on the other side of the ditch either. There may be issues that arise if there are positive cases in either country (as there currently are with interstate travel here), but it will be nice even just knowing that international travel is a possibility (and I'm sure my aunt the travel agent will be thrilled!).

Elphaba,

Obviously these choices have been very successful. But can you tell us what the chatter was like in your country when they first decided to enact tough measures. I find it all fascinating.

Thank you.

 

[lisaviolet]

Our quarantine hotel stays in Australia have caught the vast majority of COVID cases before they get out into the public.

People returning are told upfront what the costs are involved ($AUD3000 per adult) and this is no matter if you are made stay for the minimum 14 days or longer, as it can be extended if you are positively tested during your stay.

Our government doesn’t necessarily require if to be paid upfront - they have payment arrangements in place to assist returning travellers.

The fees include all meals, wifi, medical attention if required. You are tested a number of times during the initial 14 days. If you test positive your stay can be increased to 24 days at no extra charge.

There has been some leaks - transmissions occurring to staff, transport workers, cases where COVID positive persons have transmitted the virus across a hallway to another person who was also in an open doorway at the same time, another where a person used a nebuliser which then sprayed fine particles.

So it’s not perfect but in our case personally I believe it’s still a worthwhile procedure.

Your thoughts on how the country took these measures at first, kyton.

I am amazed at the level of precise organization and firm protocol, given the fast-moving changes abound

Or maybe my mind is somewhat impacted here by a lack of organization and firm protocol at times.

 

[lisaviolet]

I had stopped watching the news for a few days, and I missed that we got an exit strategy in NL

After school care reopens next Monday (So happy with this, I have no kids, but my team at work was seriously impacted)

If the figures go in the right direction:
STEP 1
26 April
- Colleges/Universities back to in person

28 April
- End of curfew
- Max 2 visitors
- Outside dining allowed again
- Non essential stores reopen

STEP 2
11 May
- Outside locations like zoos can reopen (there is a huge controversy now about testing at the gate for zoos and theme parks in the test days we have planned)
- Indoor sports allowed
- Indoor art allowed again (think choirs etc.)
Expansion
- Outdoor sports for adults, team sports etc.

STEP 3
26 May
- Max 4 visitors
- Gatherings of 4 outside
- Theaters/Museums etc. reopen
- Restaurants reopen

STEP 4
16 June
- Max 6 visitors
- Gatherings of 6 outside
- Every type of bar, restaurant, club reopen for food & drinks (didn't hear anything about dance clubs)
- Events allowed
Expansion (not clear what exactly gets expanded, probably more guests)
- Restaurants
- Theaters/Museums
- Indoor sports

STEP 5
7 July
- Max. 8 visitors
- Gatherings of 8 people outside
Expansion (not clear what exactly gets expanded, probably more guests)
- Restaurants
- Theaters/Museums
- Indoor sports

STEP 6
End of measures, no date yet


We are at 4 million vaccinations (both 1st and 2nd shot), my mom could schedule her first Pfizer shot for next week
Greece opens the doors to vaccinated people, if you are vaccinated you no longer have to get tested or quarantine upon arrival.
Flight ban for South Africa and several South American countries extended to 1 May
Belgium stops their travel ban next week (Belgium was really strict on no people in or out), and reopens outdoor dining again as well early May.

What are you most excited about Karin? I
see you have noted about child care but I mean selfishly excited for! Maybe a trip to Greece!

 

[NAB]

Our numbers in Ontario are crazy today. I’m guessing it has to do with Easter and the variants.

I feel like my age is never going to come up. With no supply and having to cancel like 10,000 appointments. Now they say the supply may be off another week. Than you have to take into account the people that need their second shot after getting the first one even if it is now pretty well 4 months after instead of 3 weeks.

Then the essential workers need to be done. I think I will be stuck in the house forever. I shouldn’t have read the other thread ...people are sick of COVID. There all living normally, going out, to weddings etc.

My husband tells me to stop watching the news....I think he maybe right.

 

[NFLDERS]

Our numbers in Ontario are crazy today. I’m guessing it has to do with Easter and the variants.

I feel like my age is never going to come up. With no supply and having to cancel like 10,000 appointments. Now they say the supply may be off another week. Than you have to take into account the people that need their second shot after getting the first one even if it is now pretty well 4 months after instead of 3 weeks.

Then the essential workers need to be done. I think I will be stuck in the house forever. I shouldn’t have read the other thread ...people are sick of COVID. There all living normally, going out, to weddings etc.

My husband tells me to stop watching the news....I think he maybe right.

I hear you, as my thoughts echo yours..

 

[NFLDERS]

My parents are in Hamilton and thankfully got their appointment quickly once the 70+ group opened. My moms brother became sick shortly after and is a Toronto hospital for a long stint now, so it was well timed since she is his appointed hospital liaison. She’s not fully protected, but better than no protection!

Incomplete reply..

 

[Karin1984]

What are you most excited about Karin? I
see you have noted about child care but I mean selfishly excited for! Maybe a trip to Greece!

I'm not vaccinated yet, so no trips to Greece we vaccinate by age till we have done all the 60+ year olds. We are now at the people born in 1952 (counting backwards).
I am excited about child care as I have a team of call center agents to plan at work, and all the adjustments I needed to make to accomodate the colleagues with children... it was such a hassle! I could always make it work. Happy kids = happy moms = happy employees = happy me

Personally I would go to the zoo as soon as I can. I have a tradition with my mom to go to specific zoo where we went once a year when I grew up. But we won't go as long as there is testing at the gate. I am longing for freedom, but to be tested for a day out, a few hours of fun... that's not worth it yet for me.
Otherwise: museums, theaters...

 

[NFLDERS]

My parents are in Hamilton and thankfully got their appointment quickly once the 70+ group opened. My moms brother became sick shortly after and is a Toronto hospital for a long stint now, so it was well timed since she is his appointed hospital liaison. She’s not fully protected, but better than no protection!

Error incomplete reply..

 

[NFLDERS]

My parents are in Hamilton and thankfully got their appointment quickly once the 70+ group opened. My moms brother became sick shortly after and is a Toronto hospital for a long stint now, so it was well timed since she is his appointed hospital liaison. She’s not fully protected, but better than no

Dbl post

 

[NFLDERS]

My parents are in Hamilton and thankfully got their appointment quickly once the 70+ group opened. My moms brother became sick shortly after and is a Toronto hospital for a long stint now, so it was well timed since she is his appointed hospital liaison. She’s not fully protected, but better than no protection!

My husband was in the 70+ group too. So sorry to read about your uncle, and mother. I'll keep them in prayer.

 

[lisaviolet]

Happy kids = happy moms = happy employees = happy me

 

[BadPinkTink]

Update from Ireland about registering for a vaccine

I now have my mums online registration for a vaccine sorted. It was announced this week that all over 60's will get the Astra Zenica vaccine and if anyone refuses they will not get a second option and will have to re register for a new appointment.

They released a YouTube video going through each of the steps , so you know what information is required before you start the registration process.

There is also a phone number to ring for people who are not comfortable using the online registration system or for people who don't have any of the required information, such as an email address.

They are opening booking for each age group on a day by day basis. Yesterday, Thursday, when they opened the booking over 20,000 people registered online and there was an online queuing system in place on the website, just like with Disney websites!

Once I heard that, I decided to be online at midnight, when the website would unlock my mums birth year. It was a good plan, I got in straight away, no online queue and had everything completed in about 8 minutes. Just like with Disney, the website gave you 10 minutes to complete the registration.

I had my mum beside me and had all her details written down before hand, so as I went through the sections she was calling out the information that I needed to type.

You don't get to choose a vaccination centre. You have to put in your Post Code / Zip Code so you will get matched to the nearest vaccination centre.
You don't get to choose a vaccination appointment , you will get a text message about 7 to 10 days in advance. You can also log back into the vaccination registration website and check for your vaccination appointment details.

I wonder how many people are in the online queue right now and on hold on the phoneline.

 

[ronandannette]

There’s been no updates from Canadians lately, I think that’s because it sucks here and doesn’t seem to have a way “out”. I do get my first vaccine dose next week which is exciting and a relief. My husband qualifies but they don’t have doses or a strategy for vaccinating 18+ in hot zones in Ontario like they announced last week. Sucks to be in a hot zone but hey, if it gets him vaccinated earlier that’s good. I qualify earlier because I work in the schools with special needs students at times.

I’m sure Canada will come out of it at some point, just seems like a long ways away still!

The idea of “hot zones” isn’t being implemented nation-wide; here in Alberta everybody is under the same restrictions and has the same structure for vaccine availability. Our schools are closing again as of Monday - all 7-12 schools are back to virtual learning only. Our restaurants closed to dine-in again two weeks ago as did gyms, sports and kid’s music/dance lessons and all group activities. Our ban against all indoor social gatherings has been in place for 6 months and occupancy numbers for places of worship and retail stores have been further reduced.

Our cases are up, back almost to November levels but hospitalizations and ICU occupancy are steady to slightly reduced. Fatality rates are down significantly because it seems most of our cases are now in younger people. The vaccine roll-out that prioritized LTC facilities and hospitals seems to have been successful in protecting the most fragile populations. Our positivity rate is around 7% right now and more than 50% of our cases now are variants. I haven’t heard an R number just lately.

Vaccine eligibility is quite good at the moment but uptake is troubling. Pfizer and Moderna is rationed for persons over 65 only and is available to the general population based on birth-year. DH (born in 1954) became eligible 10 days ago and got his first shot of Moderna at the pharmacy attached to his doctor’s office. Second-doses of Pfizer and Moderna are not being booked; people go on a will-call list. I know quite a few people who have had their first but only couple very elderly friends/family that are fully vaccinated.

We are figuratively swimming in AstraZeneca and it is available to anyone aged 55-64 only. There seems to be great reluctance to taking it, which is a problem. The Province has set up mass-vaccination sites with walk-availability and can theoretically administer thousands of doses of AZ per day. Apparently less than 250 people attended province-wide yesterday. I have an appointment to receive AZ at a WalMart pharmacy on Monday.

 

[NFLDERS]

The idea of “hot zones” isn’t being implemented nation-wide; here in Alberta everybody is under the same restrictions and has the same structure for vaccine availability. Our schools are closing again as of Monday - all 7-12 schools are back to virtual learning only. Our restaurants closed to dine-in again two weeks ago as did gyms, sports and kid’s music/dance lessons and all group activities. Our ban against all indoor social gatherings has been in place for 6 months and occupancy numbers for places of worship and retail stores have been further reduced.

Our cases are up, back almost to November levels but hospitalizations and ICU occupancy are steady to slightly reduced. Fatality rates are down significantly because it seems most of our cases are now in younger people. The vaccine roll-out that prioritized LTC facilities and hospitals seems to have been successful in protecting the most fragile populations. Our positivity rate is around 7% right now and more than 50% of our cases now are variants. I haven’t heard an R number just lately.

Vaccine eligibility is quite good at the moment but uptake is troubling. Pfizer and Moderna is rationed for persons over 65 only and is available to the general population based on birth-year. DH (born in 1954) became eligible 10 days ago and got his first shot of Moderna at the pharmacy attached to his doctor’s office. Second-doses of Pfizer and Moderna are not being booked; people go on a will-call list. I know quite a few people who have had their first but only couple very elderly friends/family that are fully vaccinated.

We are figuratively swimming in AstraZeneca and it is available to anyone aged 55-64 only. There seems to be great reluctance to taking it, which is a problem. The Province has set up mass-vaccination sites with walk-availability and can theoretically administer thousands of doses of AZ per day. Apparently less than 250 people attended province-wide yesterday. I have an appointment to receive AZ at a WalMart pharmacy on Monday.

I wish we could get a Pfizer shot at pharmacies here. I'm optimistically hopeful that flights from Brazil to Canada will be addressed soon.. sigh.

 

[ronandannette]

I wish we could get a Pfizer shot at pharmacies here. I'm optimistically hopeful that flights from Brazil to Canada will be addressed soon.. sigh.

They are not openly available - only to those in eligible groups and appointments are still subject to supply issues. I haven't heard of anybody lately getting Pfizer; it seems to be mostly Moderna.

 

[NFLDERS]

They are not openly available - only to those in eligible groups and appointments are still subject to supply issues. I haven't heard of anybody lately getting Pfizer; it seems to be mostly Moderna.

Are you versed in the Brazil to Canada flights? My husband said after PM Trudeau didn't address it (assuming there is anything to address?) that he thinks it's an opposition party's hopeful election mud slinging?

 

[Karin1984]

I was browsing our national dashboard and had a look at the articles it has. It has an article about vaccinations and ramadan.
I am not a muslim, so it's outside my frame of reference of course, it never occured to me that this could be an issue. Our government made a video with an arabist / theologist / board member of a mosque to explain Islam's views on vaccinations. It was really interesting. There are no animal products in the vaccins so it is a halal product (and vegans don't have to worry either).

I had also a look at our website where you can make your appointment. You have to log in with your government ID, which we also use to file our taxes, if they see that you are not eligible (due to age) your appointment gets cancelled. When you make your appointment you have to go through a list of all kinds of health questions. And two questions about sharing your details with your general doctor and with our CDC.


About Brazil. It's included in the travel ban that has been extended last week.

 

[Corien]

It's so interesting to see how every country has it's own vaccination strategy. Here (the Netherlands) there's a lot of critique about how slow it's going, but I feel like that's currently the way it is in a lot of countries. We're expecting to be getting a lot of vaccines somewhere in May and then the plans are to start vaccinating the bulk of the population so every adult who wants one has been given the opportunity to get their first vaccine by July 1st and half of the adults have been fully vaccinated.

Of course this is all subject to supply of the vaccines and if we will end up being able to use J&J for the bulk of the population once the sinusthrombosis case have been investigated.

Here vaccination strategy goes as follows: healthcare workers in eldery care homes get Pfizer, same for eldery people from 100+ to 65 year olds (eldest to youngest). These people are vaccinated by the Health Authority here. AstraZeneca was supposed to be used for people aged 60 to 65 and younger people with Down Syndrome and/or a BMI of 40+, administered by physicians. Due to AZ now not being used for the latter two groups they are now getting an invitations for Pfizer vaccines by the health authority too.

Summary: here you just have to wait for your invitation, either from the Dutch version of the CDC, from your physician or your employer, which tells you how you can make an appointment.

 

[ronandannette]

Are you versed in the Brazil to Canada flights? My husband said after PM Trudeau didn't address it (assuming there is anything to address?) that he thinks it's an opposition party's election mud slinging?

Sure.

I was browsing our national dashboard and had a look at the articles it has. It has an article about vaccinations and ramadan.
I am not a muslim, so it's outside my frame of reference of course, it never occured to me that this could be an issue. Our government made a video with an arabist / theologist / board member of a mosque to explain Islam's views on vaccinations. It was really interesting. There are no animal products in the vaccins so it is a halal product (and vegans don't have to worry either).

I had also a look at our website where you can make your appointment. You have to log in with your government ID, which we also use to file our taxes, if they see that you are not eligible (due to age) your appointment gets cancelled. When you make your appointment you have to go through a list of all kinds of health questions. And two questions about sharing your details with your general doctor and with our CDC.


About Brazil. It's included in the travel ban that has been extended last week.

I have not studied up on all the possible implications/ethical concerns Muslims may have with vaccines but their local spiritual leaders have been very active in our city to encourage their communities to take the vaccine and that it is permissible during the fasting hours of Ramadan.

The Catholic Archbishop has also addressed the idea of vaccines being derived from the so-called "immortal cell lines", which poses a moral issue for some Christians. His advice is that this matter of conscience is individual but to be aware that practically every vaccine used since the 60's have been similarly developed. There is no new or added reason to resist the Covid vaccine if one's conscience has allowed them to receive others previously.

 

[fab1976]

The idea of “hot zones” isn’t being implemented nation-wide; here in Alberta everybody is under the same restrictions and has the same structure for vaccine availability. Our schools are closing again as of Monday - all 7-12 schools are back to virtual learning only. Our restaurants closed to dine-in again two weeks ago as did gyms, sports and kid’s music/dance lessons and all group activities. Our ban against all indoor social gatherings has been in place for 6 months and occupancy numbers for places of worship and retail stores have been further reduced.

The hot zone thing was announced last week by Ford, and has had no movement in actually implementing it further than education workers in hot zones. They announced it with no heads up to those who will need to actually put it in place, as per usual. I know it’s just an Ontario thing but it’s barely even an Ontario thing lol. The positivity rate for Peel is around 16% right now. It’s awful to think about, and I’m very relieved our schools are going remote again.