Re: Coronavirus
 

Ontario…525 reported COVID cases yesterday…the lowest since September. 15 deaths. Looking good for the province to re-open next week…hopefully an early opening will be announced for this weekend.

https://www.cp24.com/news/ontario-s-...nths-1.5459289

Re: Coronavirus
 

In line at the drive through for my 2nd AZ shot. Wait time went down to half an hour!
Someone queueing with the top down:
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...3e3cb53e38.jpg
Their time estimate is right on; half an hour after driving onto the grounds I'm vaccinated and in the 15 minute waiting area.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Yup, Elliott is mentioning possibility of Friday.
https://www.cp24.com/news/ontario-co...iott-1.5459311

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Ontario moves to Stage 1 on Friday 11th.

https://www.cp24.com/news/ontario-wi...open-1.5459311

Re: Coronavirus
 

Very good news!

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Our numbers are still looking good. I'd like to see it continue sailing down over the next 2 weeks as if the long weekend had never happened.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...a289a67779.png


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...a0f4bf888c.jpg

Re: Coronavirus
 

For those who got Astra Zeneca, University of Waterloo put out a pretty good info on what vaccine may be best suited for your 2nd dose. Long version below, short version in the infographic on twitter.



pdf file: https://uwaterloo.ca/pharmacy/sites/...ng_version.pdf


Now that BC is giving us the choice, I am going to opt for Pfizer or Moderna for my 2nd dose.

Re: Coronavirus
 

we've just booked our second doses. Second Moderna shot for me and husband is going for Moderna this time

Re: Coronavirus
 

We had our first AZ vax 12 weeks this coming Monday. Going for Pfizer for the second, but all the nearby pharmacies are out of stock. Nothing to do with blood clot fears, but 1 shot AZ and 1 shot Pfizer seems to give the best immunity, or so the experts on TV say.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Seems to be what they are getting at, AZ + mRNA is likely better against the variants than AZ + AZ.

Not sure when we will get ours, Pfizer and Moderna they will send a booking link when eligible, AZ the pharmacy where we got will eventually call pending stock, but we can turn down AZ and wait for mRNA chances are at the rate things are going, a mRNA booking will become available before an AZ simply due to supply.

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On Tuesday Lions Gate Hospital in Vancouver had 0 COVID positive patients, first time since January 2020.

https://www.nsnews.com/coronavirus-c...ee-day-3864330

Re: Coronavirus
 

Does not appear BC will be doing provincial vaccine passports.

"“We’re not enthusiastic about it quite frankly. This is private health information at the end of the day,” he said. "

Also looks like BC Government is pushing the feds to let tourists come, makes sense, not enough domestic tourists to make up for the lack of American and other foreign tourists, and Americans have shown they are willing and eager to travel this summer.

https://www.abbynews.com/news/horgan...ine-passports/

Re: Coronavirus
 

I have a printed image from Ontario Ministry of Health confirming I have had 2 doses, date of birth, date of vax, vax batch etc.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Today I went to the same shops as every week. I noticed that there were people on patios so I supposed there had been some lifting of restrictions. Then I saw the queue, it went for many blocks, socially distanced but still, hundreds and hundreds of couples. I went into the LCBO, the checkout person asked "have you seen the queue?" I said I had but I didn't know what it was about. The checkout person didn't either "must be something to do with the reopening", We wondered what excitement waited at the end of the queue, free tickets to see Celine Dion, perhaps? A sample give away at the cannabis shop?

Winners. The Winners shop had reopened and the people of Ontario had nothing better to do than stand for hours in the sun to go into it.

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Seems the same happened at Winners in the GTA. It was on the news yesterday…people started queuing hours before the store opened. Some waiting 3 - 4 hours.

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Whatever for? What manner of a person sits in lockdown for a year longing for the moment when he or she can queue for hours for the chance to buy second quality clothing?

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My daughter said some of her staff took yesterday off to shop. :eek:

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I suppose it drives the economy and, indeed, I shop. I bought nearly a thousand dollars worth of wood stain today and a new paintbrush. Clothing though, in a country that doesn't have fashion, seems a very odd thing to queue for.

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Crazy people will wait in line for hours to shop, glad its more sane in my part of the world.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Canada's Incredibly Ugly Centennial Tartan, the Canadian Tuxedo, touques... you're right, we have no national sense of fashion. I feel spiffy even when I get new work clothes and underwear. Business will chart our spending patterns as we re-emerge from lockdown, and will conveniently place the hole for us to throw our money down.

Re: Coronavirus
 

This Winners talk probably illustrates the two nations of Canada.
I can't speak for Winners specifically but my stepdaughter works at HomeSense which is part of the same group and probably less essential than Winners who, I gather, sells clothing in addition to other household stuff.
Apart from that initial month of 'lockdown' I think it's been open all the time.

Re: Coronavirus
 

This always remind me of my old office. There was a woman who dressed like Alison Moyet in her Yazoo days.

Hearing that I was leaving she said "I like Canada. They don't care what they look like." :lol:

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Like the last time shops reopened…I do not intend to ‘shop’ for a week or two. I refuse to stand in line outside a grocery store, so I am certainly not waiting outside non essential shops.

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i went to the dentist last week, and the hygienist was really looking forward to Homesense reopening. I got quite a detailed review of the place, and her purchases.

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:lol:
Well that's even more illustrative than I thought. HomeSense and Winners. Closed in Ontario open over here. ;)

Re: Coronavirus
 

Same in BC, aside from early in the pandemic last year when some stores voluntarily closed, it's been business as usual for retail in BC.

I can say literally nothing restriction wise has affected our day to day living.

Re: Coronavirus
 

As of 12.00am Friday they are open in Ontario…15% capacity.

Just called at Sobey’s about twenty people waiting to get inside. Stuff that…didn’t get out of the car.

Re: Coronavirus
 

We've not eaten out since January last year, but we've had a variety of meal delivery instead. I even had a poutine - albeit a butter chicken one :lol:
And grocery shopping has mostly been delivery of course.

I've done 4 big store grocery shops in the last two months and pretty much monthly to Giant Tiger since last summer. Not a sign of a queue.

Maybe there should be an app to see what the waiting time is.

Re: Coronavirus
 

There haven't been any real queues to get into a grocery store here, except maybe waiting for the person in front of you to be checked by a store employee as to mask and hand sanitizer, while his companion made sure that the cart handles were wiped ............. and even that was only in the first few weeks last March/April.

The grocery stores were only closed for about 2 weeks in March last year, not even long enough for us to have to worry about doing an online shop. That was the length of time it took the stores and the health officials to work out how to operate safely, to mark out the floors for safe distancing, etc etc.. Then grocery stores were declared essential, and fully re-opened. That also included the little neighbourhood ma-and-pa groceries. There was no change in the way they were operating in this last wave.

Now, there may have been queues at certain busy times, but we never experienced any. Of course, we don't go shopping at 5 pm on Friday or Saturday lunch time, or other known busy times!

Our only problem was with the usual pre-pandemic "I'll just leave my cart here while I go 2 lanes over ....", or "Hi Jane, how lovely to see you, let's have a chat ..... " thus blocking up the whole aisle, (which of course is the only "down" aisle in the frozen foods section) :rofl:

Nor have most other stores been closed again after they re-opened last June/July, except for some restriction on numbers.

This is why some of us have been so disturbed when people in Ontario have constantly complained how bad it has been. On and PQ are really the only 2 provinces that have been so harshly treated, for so long yet some are describing it as the whole country's experience. It wasn't, and isn't.

Re: Coronavirus
 

My experience in Ontario has been that, in the first couple of weeks, there were some queues and a few items, flour, toilet paper, Marmite, London Pride, were hard to obtain. After that, there have been no queues to speak of at Loblaws or Sobeys and everything has been in stock (as much as usual anyway). The butcher's and the tack shop served through windows which isn't a problem if you know what you want but limits browsing. The longest queues, at shops I go to, were at the LCBO but they're not very good at retail and are often in disarray without the pandemic.

So, for shopping it hasn't been bad at all, I even bought a car during the pandemic, as easily as at any other time.

Re: Coronavirus
 

I must admit I have rarely seen a queue outside supermarkets, but I did today. I have noticed before that Sunday afternoon seems to be a particularly busy time for some odd reason.

Re: Coronavirus
 

I haven't seen a line to get into a store since maybe last June.

Re: Coronavirus
 

BC now in Stage 2 of loosening of restrictions.............. over 75% eligible have received at least the 1st jab.

Re: Coronavirus
 

This is loosely related to coronavirus and, being someone who has always ranked Eric Clapton down there with Coldplay, it made me roar (even the video at the end):

https://www.avclub.com/still-not-tir...pro-1847097548

Re: Coronavirus
 

Re: Coronavirus
 

I got my second dose yesterday.

Such is the chaos of Ontario's pandemic response a relatively healthy 42 year old who was told by his doctor his odds of hospitalization by the virus was 50,000 to 1 and who lives alone with little contact with people can be in the first 15% of people vaccinated properly???? God knows what happened to all the poor people older than me and those more vulnerable?

We don't get too many line up's anymore. When it started they were bad for the supermarket and LCBO- although for the latter you could pre-buy online and pick up with no hassle.

Friday late afternoon/Early evening the LCBO gets busy. There is a Loblaws that sells beer next door so if I don't fancy the line I head there. If there is a line at the Loblaws you just go to another door for the Shoppers Drug Mart and then head on up to the Loblaws. I do this often with my headset in. No one says anything they just shrug and look in dismay because they joined a line unwittingly.

They're talking about easing the lockdown faster in Ontario. They should new cases are nicely down and hospitals are emptying. Is it over? I think they'll struggle to lock it down again- even in Canada.

Re: Coronavirus
 

i just got an email asking for my preference for the second dose, having had AZ for the first dose. We have chosen to switch to Pfizer, for the same reason as you. Can I ask if you had bad side effects after getting your second dose, a lot of articles seem to say this is the case.

Re: Coronavirus
 

Neither of us had side effects after dose 1 or 2.

Re: Coronavirus
 

My daughter got her 2nd dose on Saturday. She called the local pharmacy Sat lunchtime…got a call a few hours later saying that had a cancellation.

People queuing from 1 am earlier in the week, at a gov. vax site. When the facility opened they were told people with small children would be allowed in first. As you say…chaos.