Covid And The Rest of Us

[elphaba91]

All group activities and sports are shut down here but we haven’t yet had to address the golf issue. Courses aren’t open - it was still snowing here last weekend.

Golf was definitely one of the more controversial issues during Melbourne’s lockdown. They said the bigger issue was that people would still have to interact with staff, etc. rather than having a problem with 2 people walking around a golf course together. I think it was also because the Premier is/was a very keen golfer (poor guy suffered a spinal injury a couple of months ago and they don’t know if he’ll be able to play again) and I don’t think he wanted to be seen to be favouring his sport.

 

[ronandannette]

Golf was definitely one of the more controversial issues during Melbourne’s lockdown. They said the bigger issue was that people would still have to interact with staff, etc. rather than having a problem with 2 people walking around a golf course together. I think it was also because the Premier is/was a very keen golfer (poor guy suffered a spinal injury a couple of months ago and they don’t know if he’ll be able to play again) and I don’t think he wanted to be seen to be favouring his sport.

As things go, it's really pretty "contactless". Checking in for your tee-time can be done on-line and as long as they're not making singles or twosomes join with others, nobody would really have contact anyone except maybe for a minute or two when getting the keys to the golf carts or picking up rental clubs which equal about the same amount of contact as grabbing take-out food from a drive-thru. Just one of many things that have been dealt with rather illogically in various countries over the course of the pandemic.

 

[NAB]

As things go, it's really pretty "contactless". Checking in for your tee-time can be done on-line and as long as they're not making singles or twosomes join with others, nobody would really have contact anyone except maybe for a minute or two when getting the keys to the golf carts or picking up rental clubs which equal about the same amount of contact as grabbing take-out food from a drive-thru. Just one of many things that have been dealt with rather illogically in various countries over the course of the pandemic.

The reason they gave us in Ontario for no golf is people would car pool to the golf courses , then go somewhere for drinks after and gather with people that are not from their household. But today on the news they showed young people on the beach playing volley ball. I feel bad for the people losing money being shut down. It is outside.

I’m guessing he doesn’t want to say yes to tennis courts and basketball courts because.you can’t hand pick one over the other. But people need to get out.

Saw on the news one town is charging $20. to park at the trails so people from outside won’t come . People that live there have to go on line to register their car to park there. To many people and crowding there.

It’s going to be a long summer.

 

[Jrb1979]

As things go, it's really pretty "contactless". Checking in for your tee-time can be done on-line and as long as they're not making singles or twosomes join with others, nobody would really have contact anyone except maybe for a minute or two when getting the keys to the golf carts or picking up rental clubs which equal about the same amount of contact as grabbing take-out food from a drive-thru. Just one of many things that have been dealt with rather illogically in various countries over the course of the pandemic.

I do see where they are coming from. Its that most people don't golf alone. The other issue is what happens after golf. They

The reason they gave us in Ontario for no golf is people would car pool to the golf courses , then go somewhere for drinks after and gather with people that are not from their household. But today on the news they showed young people on the beach playing volley ball. I feel bad for the people losing money being shut down. It is outside.

I’m guessing he doesn’t want to say yes to tennis courts and basketball courts because.you can’t hand pick one over the other. But people need to get out.

Saw on the news one town is charging $20. to park at the trails so people from outside won’t come . People that live there have to go on line to register their car to park there. To many people and crowding there.

It’s going to be a long summer.

They are doing the same here in Niagara for the beaches. St Catharines residents can get a pass for free parking but outsiders will be paying $20 a day to park.

 

[ronandannette]

Where are they gonna go for drinks? Nothing is open. Not golfing won't stop people from getting together and drinking in their back yards if they're so inclined. It's nonsense really. And how on earth is tennis a contact sport? Yes, a long summer indeed.

 

[lisaviolet]

I think it's why they are so hesitant to reopen quickly. It's due to how high cases are in the GTA still. They are worried about a repeat of cases surging due to opening to soon. Once 70% are vaccinated in Ontario I believe things will change.

I was talking specifically about hair salons/barbers - their distinct situation, and not in the last surge. Everyone was closed.

The months and months in between. That they can't get back.

I know they will open relatively soon, unless a variant causes an issue with our vaccine.

I personally think it was criminal to keep them closed for all those days, when people were shopping here there and practically anywhere. Hang out in Wal-Mart for an hour, feel free - carry on. A regimented to safety hair cut, nope. The one time I got my hair cut, I was not allowed inside until the last minute, I never faced her and no washing face to face as it was a dry cut (nothing to do with Covid), both of us fully masked. And obviously the hair salons never impacted any surge in Toronto nor Peel, how could they? They were hardly even open to impact a thing. But numbers still flew.

I knew my own hairdresser would have a change of heart, with almost an entire pandemic doors shut. She went home to Ireland.

 

[Karin1984]

As of today for NL our regular 'do not travel abroad'-advice got cancelled. And for several countries the advice changed tier, from Orange to Yellow and 2 even to Green. With orange you have to isolate upon return, with yellow and green you don't have to anymore. Yellow is some precaution. Green is all safe. At all times, you have to adhere to local laws and regulations of course.

Our list (I am really surprised about Rwanda, is the data reliable?)
Yellow: Finland, Ireland, Malta, Portugal (including the Azores and Madeira), the North Aegean, South Aegean, Ionian Islands, Balearic and Canary Islands, Aruba, Curacao, St. Maarten, Rwanda and Thailand.

Green: Saba and St. Eustatius.

Iceland is officially also yellow for us to travel to, only the Icelanders don't want us, so it stays on Orange.

To celebrate this, I am going to Belgium for the weekend No, it has a different reason, but really looking forward to a weekend away. I am typing this from the train. The train departs from the airport. I walked around through the departure hall and all I can think: God, I miss travelling. Real travelling. Not a quick, less than 48 hours weekend getaway. But actually travelling abroad, seeing and experiencing new things.
I was pleasantly surprised to see on the screens with all the departing flights, they can't fit all the flights for the day on the available screens anymore. Most places in the departure hall have 5 screens with departing flights. At the beginning of the crisis last year, they only needed one or two screen. There were so little flights going per day. Now the flights for the evening do not fit on the five screens anymore this is a good sign.

 

[Corien]

As of today for NL our regular 'do not travel abroad'-advice got cancelled. And for several countries the advice changed tier, from Orange to Yellow and 2 even to Green. With orange you have to isolate upon return, with yellow and green you don't have to anymore. Yellow is some precaution. Green is all safe. At all times, you have to adhere to local laws and regulations of course.

Our list (I am really surprised about Rwanda, is the data reliable?)
Yellow: Finland, Ireland, Malta, Portugal (including the Azores and Madeira), the North Aegean, South Aegean, Ionian Islands, Balearic and Canary Islands, Aruba, Curacao, St. Maarten, Rwanda and Thailand.

Green: Saba and St. Eustatius.

Iceland is officially also yellow for us to travel to, only the Icelanders don't want us, so it stays on Orange.

To celebrate this, I am going to Belgium for the weekend No, it has a different reason, but really looking forward to a weekend away. I am typing this from the train. The train departs from the airport. I walked around through the departure hall and all I can think: God, I miss travelling. Real travelling. Not a quick, less than 48 hours weekend getaway. But actually travelling abroad, seeing and experiencing new things.
I was pleasantly surprised to see on the screens with all the departing flights, they can't fit all the flights for the day on the available screens anymore. Most places in the departure hall have 5 screens with departing flights. At the beginning of the crisis last year, they only needed one or two screen. There were so little flights going per day. Now the flights for the evening do not fit on the five screens anymore this is a good sign.

I celebrated it by booking a hotel in NYC for January 2022. I came across such a good deal I couldn't ignore and I was like: "screw this, I need something to look forward to". Of course it's fully cancellable in case I can't go or if I decide not to go.

 

[NFLDERS]

The reason they gave us in Ontario for no golf is people would car pool to the golf courses , then go somewhere for drinks after and gather with people that are not from their household. But today on the news they showed young people on the beach playing volley ball. I feel bad for the people losing money being shut down. It is outside.

I’m guessing he doesn’t want to say yes to tennis courts and basketball courts because.you can’t hand pick one over the other. But people need to get out.

Saw on the news one town is charging $20. to park at the trails so people from outside won’t come . People that live there have to go on line to register their car to park there. To many people and crowding there.

It’s going to be a long summer.

Here in Niagara we (residents of Niagara) have been offered a Parking Pass into some Niagara Parks for a daily/monthly fee. But there will probably be those who find a way to get a pass, and are not Niagara residents. Like you said it's going to be a l..o...n...g hot summer!

 

[BadPinkTink]

The big news in Ireland the last few days is that our health service is under a ransomware attack, similar to the Colonial Pipeline last week. The ransomware attack is mainly affecting hospital appointments but all health service IT have been shut down as a precaution. The Covid vaccine registration website is back online, and as various other parts of the Health Service are checked, they are coming back online.

The ransom demanded by hackers from the HSE could be as much as $20m, according to an Interpol-associated security site, citing alleged exchanges between the ransomware gang and Irish authorities.

700GB of “unencrypted” files, including patient and employee information, are also alleged to have been stolen.

The claims are made in the respected online security website Bleeping Computer, which cites access to a cybersecurity researcher.

A spokesperson for the HSE declined to comment on the ransom and data theft claims and said that the issue was being handled by the National Cyber Security Centre.

Yesterday, HSE boss Paul Reid confirmed that a ransom demand had been made.

But Mr Reid said that government policy is not to pay ransomware demands.

The thieves responsible for the attack, known as Conti gang, are known for ‘double extortion’ ransomware threats, demanding payment for unlocking data and, separately, for not releasing the data publicly.

The gang has targeted public schools and hospitals in the US this year and reportedly secured a €2m payment from the UK retailer FatFace in March. It is estimated to be responsible for dozens of international ransomware attacks so far this year.

The criminal gang is suspected to operate from Russia or one of the former Soviet countries, now known as the Commonwealth of Independent States.

 

[mom2rtk]

The big news in Ireland the last few days is that our health service is under a ransomware attack, similar to the Colonial Pipeline last week. The ransomware attack is mainly affecting hospital appointments but all health service IT have been shut down as a precaution. The Covid vaccine registration website is back online, and as various other parts of the Health Service are checked, they are coming back online.

The ransom demanded by hackers from the HSE could be as much as $20m, according to an Interpol-associated security site, citing alleged exchanges between the ransomware gang and Irish authorities.

700GB of “unencrypted” files, including patient and employee information, are also alleged to have been stolen.

The claims are made in the respected online security website Bleeping Computer, which cites access to a cybersecurity researcher.

A spokesperson for the HSE declined to comment on the ransom and data theft claims and said that the issue was being handled by the National Cyber Security Centre.

Yesterday, HSE boss Paul Reid confirmed that a ransom demand had been made.

But Mr Reid said that government policy is not to pay ransomware demands.

The thieves responsible for the attack, known as Conti gang, are known for ‘double extortion’ ransomware threats, demanding payment for unlocking data and, separately, for not releasing the data publicly.

The gang has targeted public schools and hospitals in the US this year and reportedly secured a €2m payment from the UK retailer FatFace in March. It is estimated to be responsible for dozens of international ransomware attacks so far this year.

The criminal gang is suspected to operate from Russia or one of the former Soviet countries, now known as the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Attacking a health care IT system in the middle of a pandemic is the lowest of the low. I hope they find a way out without paying.

 

[ronandannette]

Attacking a health care IT system in the middle of a pandemic is the lowest of the low. I hope they find a way out without paying.

Sadly they probably won’t. A very close friend of ours runs one of our province’s largest and most prominent IT support and security firms. He says these ransom attacks happen much more often than you’d imagine and barring a miracle, there’s no slipping the hack. His advice for any organization that truly can’t start over from scratch (and some can, if their enterprise isn’t particularly time sensitive) is to quietly and quickly negotiate the price and pay - just get it over with. And of course revamp cyber security afterwards.

It’s a terrible cycle that obviously emboldens the criminal element but really, how much longer could your pipeline have stayed down? How long can a nation’s entire health system operate in analog? It’s frightening how vulnerable our entire world is to cybercrime. @BadPinkTink is an IT professional; maybe she’s got some thoughts?

 

[BadPinkTink]

Sadly they probably won’t. A very close friend of ours runs one of our provinces largest and most prominent IT support and security firms. He says these ransom attacks happen much more often than you’d imagine and barring a miracle, there’s no slip the hack. His advice for any organization that truly can’t start over from scratch (and some can, if their enterprise isn’t particularly time sensitive) is to quietly and quickly negotiate the price and pay - just get it over with. And of course revamp cyber security afterwards.

It’s a terrible cycle that obviously emboldens the criminal element but really, how much longer could your pipeline have stayed down? How long can a nation’s entire health system operate in analog? It’s frightening how vulnerable our entire world is to cybercrime. @BadPinkTink is an IT professional; maybe she’s got some thoughts?

I agree with your friend, these attacks happen all the time. Its a vicious circle, pay and you encourage them and they will target someone else next week, don't pay and hope that you can retrieve / start over. All this has done is highlight the failings in the Irish IT infrastructure. Ireland has a reputation for being like a mini silicon valley, but the reality is the tech industry is mainly multinationals who come here, not our domestic tech industry. Irish state IT is woefully behind and this just highlights the many problems. It will cost the Irish Health Department a lot of money to fix it, but I can't see them paying the ransom.

The real damage may be to the vaccine rollout. Up until now, we have had a high uptake in the over 50 age group. People may be more wary now of using the online registration website.

On a more personal level, my age group is the next age group eligible to register for a vaccine. Due to this ransomware attack, that is being delayed.

 

[Karin1984]

I am on my way back from my very short weekend in Antwerp / Brussels. Weather could have been better, but it was so great to be out again.
The website of the Belgium government is a bit vague on when to bring a negative result. If you go by your own transportation, and stay less than 48 hours, you do not have to get a negative test. If you get in by a form of public transportation, you do need to have a negative test result. The test has to happen 72 hours before departure or shorter. Same of getting back into the Netherlands. 72 hours or less. By taking it short before departure from NL, meant I only had to get tested once, and stay within both time frames.

So I did it on Friday morning and paid extra to get a same day result. Same day is before 23.59. My train to Antwerp was at 8:30 the next day. My test result didn't came in till 23.38, which yes is a same day result, but it did get on my nerves, and I was thinking of back up plans. And getting less sleep because I was staying up checking my email every minute to see if it was there yet.

Anyway, at the station going to Antwerp, no one asked for my test results. Not at the station, not on the train. And I went through the entire weekend without anyone batting an eye.
On one hand, nice, because it just feels weird to prove you are healthy to do something. I know, 'new normal', but still. On the other hand, I paid a lot of money for that test! I want to be checked!

When I arrived at the platform in Brussels, there was staff present to check my ticket and indeed asked for my negative test result.

I wonder if on the way out, they did check people in the Netherlands, but only at the start of the train route, in Amsterdam. I got on the train at the second stop, the airport.
Or maybe the Netherlands just doesn't care enough. And just send everyone off to Belgium, let them deal with it.

The trip itself, the weather wasn't too great, but it was a very good birthday trip. We went to Antwerp zoo (unfortunately indoor exhibitions closed), really nice place for a few hours. We had a leisurely outdoor lunch in the city center, did some shopping. For Brussels today, we took it easy, and went to park & Atomium, had ramen for lunch, and we bingewatched New Girl.
My friend baked cupcakes decorated with Frozen edible paper, and I got a Bruni-head pillow (very cuddly), and a Disney Princess paint-by-numbers book, which looks a great distraction.
Overall, great weekend

I probably won't be back before being vaccinated, but that's more about the pace of vaccinations in NL.
Positive tests have dropped by 27% in comparison to last week.

 

[ronandannette]

We have finally got our vaccination program running in earnest and the path forward looks positive if we can keep availability steady and avoid further massive bungling of procurement. As of yesterday there have been 2,086,589 doses administered in Alberta to persons aged 12 and up. It took 119 days to reach the first million milestone (starting back in January) and only 29 days to reach the second.

 

[mommasita]

Quebec will be having our press conference Tuesday afternoon to let us know about our re-opening Plans, rumour has it , it will be similar to Saskatchewan’s.

Under Saskatchewan’s three-step plan, three weeks after 70 per cent of people 40 and older have received a first dose, restaurants and bars can reopen, places of worship can have larger capacity and indoor and outdoor gatherings will be permitted. Quebec has already reached this vaccination benchmark, so if Quebec adopted the same plan, it would take effect in the first week of June.

Meanwhile, Dubé announced Sunday evening that the province was just 85,000 appointments short of the goal to give 75 per cent of adults their first vaccine dose. He challenged Quebecers who hadn’t done so to sign up by noon Monday to reach that target. Quebec had set as a goal to give 75 per cent of adults a first vaccine dose by June 24.

Slowly but surely we are getting there, hopefully for good. Our golf courses are quite busy, assuming this weather Is really helping. I had my first pedicure in 2 years, glad to see all the precautions in place.

It seems we , as a Country, are going to be getting more vaccines than we be able to handle in the coming weeks. Hopefully the roll out goes well. We have also been hearing they will be moving up the second doses, but who knows.

 

[hdrolfe]

Ontario is finally opening booking to 18+ starting tomorrow. I am anxiously waiting for their plans for 12+ as I homeschool and if they only do it through the schools I will be very disappointed. I am glad to see progress though, I know the appointments are in June but even just getting people signed up gives me hope. I do wish the province would give some indication of our reopening plans.

 

[lanejudy]

The big news in Ireland the last few days is that our health service is under a ransomware attack

A hospital system in my area (maybe 7 hospitals across 2 states) was attacked a couple of years ago. They went offline for at least a week, if I recall, using "old fashioned" paper records for emergency use in the immediate time frame. Non-urgent appointments were cancelled, billing was a mess, records were lost. It took a long time for things to return to normal. My DD had some test results that were caught up in it, and those finally posted to her portal account about 8 months later.

 

[BadPinkTink]

A hospital system in my area (maybe 7 hospitals across 2 states) was attacked a couple of years ago. They went offline for at least a week, if I recall, using "old fashioned" paper records for emergency use in the immediate time frame. Non-urgent appointments were cancelled, billing was a mess, records were lost. It took a long time for things to return to normal. My DD had some test results that were caught up in it, and those finally posted to her portal account about 8 months later.

Yep, thats exactly what its like here right now. Ireland is about the size of Indiana, so think of how bad it would have been if it was your entire state affected, not just the 7 hospitals in your area.

 

[lanejudy]

Yep, thats exactly what its like here right now. Ireland is about the size of Indiana, so think of how bad it would have been if it was your entire state affected, not just the 7 hospitals in your area.

I expect the impact here was similar. While my state is considerably smaller than Indiana - both population and land-wise, and yeah it's a "small" health system comparatively but very large in this rural state and impact was quite broad.