Originally Posted by Boiler (Post 13085157)

I went for a pint yesterday, the Brewery I went to is now in a indoor mask requirement area, must have changed in the last week.

We now have snow, time of year, so packed. So you are supposed to wear your mask until you get to the bar and then once you have your beer in hand mask is not required.

The logic escapes me.

Originally Posted by old.sparkles (Post 13085203)

Is drinking at the bar allowed there?

You have to be seated at a table here and eating / drinking to be able to remove your mask. The tables are spaced as well so as to maintain distance from other patrons.

If you subsequently test positive, you will hopefully only transmit to other people in your group.

Originally Posted by old.sparkles (Post 13085203)

Is drinking at the bar allowed there?

You have to be seated at a table here and eating / drinking to be able to remove your mask. The tables are spaced as well so as to maintain distance from other patrons.

If you subsequently test positive, you will hopefully only transmit to other people in your group.

Originally Posted by Jingsamichty (Post 13084658)

Just tested positive myself. Very minor symptoms - fatigue, minor cough - certainly nothing I'd have taken so much as a day off work for in any other circumstance. However, rules be rules and I'm self-isolating for 10 days. It's put a real spanner in our New Year plans but in the big scheme of things that's a trifle.

I've had 2 jabs and got the booster just a week ago, although to be fair we have certainly been fairly actively socialising until now. No-one else in the family/social group has tested positive (yet). I'm reminded of the time in Calgary in 2008/9 when my wife alone got swine flu which totally wrecked her for about 3 weeks yet none of the rest of the household got it.

On the plus side, if most people who are testing positive have as minor symptoms as me then this Omicron would seem to be little more than an inconvenience. I'm fully for taking all measures necessary to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed but I've yet to see evidence that there is a corresponding increase on hospitalisations from the fully vaccinated population.

Originally Posted by Danny B (Post 13085401)

Is it still only 1 (one) omicron death in the US, 4 weeks in with a nation of 330m people? Hard to find reputable information online right now. Are we still at 0 (zero) in Canada?

Originally Posted by BristolUK (Post 13085405)

Dunno but this Forbes article dated Dec 18 says

That's in two days.

I'm putting off my plans for hugging and snogging for the time being. :lol:

Originally Posted by printer (Post 13085457)

Well i'm not sure but with the latest figure from UK today on case numbers, almost 250,000 i would hope that this is very much a common cold because if it isn't then they are in for some serious hospital overload never before seen and i'm pretty sure the scientsts and professors that calculate all this stuff alongside NHS advisors will have been consulted on this and a more rigorous set of rules or a lock down would have been ordered by Boris already but it hasn't. There is talk of contingency plans to be made as 300,000 NHS staff could be off isolating if predictions are correct. Who knows maybe Boris has been busy changing nappys (diapers) at home and forgot he was running the country.

Originally Posted by Atlantic Xpat (Post 13085473)

Highest ever daily case count here - 434, which I know is tiny compared to elsewhere.

Originally Posted by BristolUK (Post 13085486)

Same sort of thing here - in the 600s - but when it was between zero and 9 daily throughout 2020, with post Christmas daily highs of 40 and as recently as July 2021 not a single active case in he province for several consecutive days (not just the absence of new ones), 600 daily is ENORMOUS.

Easy to say not serious but we have as many ICU beds used for covid as we've ever had in my city.

Originally Posted by old.sparkles (Post 13085496)

We definitely have omicron.

Originally Posted by BristolUK (Post 13085463)

It's the inconsistency that's bothering me.

Of course the UK advisors were all consulted last year :lol: in 2020 and their recommendations pretty much ignored so I don't think just because a government "does something" is because of advice. I mean Wales and Scotland must surely have the same batch of advisors as England but they've done different stuff. It's the same variant in most places but contrast England and Quebec with its curfew.

But mostly what bothers me most - and nobody seems to address this when I mention it - is from day one we were told there would be variants as the virus spreads. We have seen this come true. And now, apparently, we are somewhere between "not worrying" about Omicron and even encouraging its spread because it's like a cold.

How do we know that while it's spreading even more quickly that it's not mutating (and at a faster rate than others)? All the others have so why are we excluding that possibility for this one?

Is it like Doctor Who with a limit on regenerations or something like that? :lol:

Originally Posted by BristolUK (Post 13085463)

But mostly what bothers me most - and nobody seems to address this when I mention it - is from day one we were told there would be variants as the virus spreads. We have seen this come true. And now, apparently, we are somewhere between "not worrying" about Omicron and even encouraging its spread because it's like a cold.

How do we know that while it's spreading even more quickly that it's not mutating (and at a faster rate than others)? All the others have so why are we excluding that possibility for

Originally Posted by printer (Post 13085523)

And this came from the WHO regarding the latest rush to add booster shots in some countries.
World Health Organization officials on Wednesday criticized blanket Covid-19 vaccine booster programs as poor countries struggle to obtain initial doses, warning that the unequal access to immunizations could lead to more mutated variants that drag out the crisis.