Yesterday's paper had a report about 215 "excess deaths" in the province. It's paywalled and I can't copy/paste either nut it compares a normal death total in that period of 500 with 715, saying that the official (yeah right) covid deaths in this period were 47, so another 168 unaccounted for.

One of the province's health officials sent an internal memo suggesting that hospital staff should wear their masks in all public places, not just where they work. 24 hours later the government removed him from his position.

Not fitting the "covid is over" narrative apparently.

Yes, many extra deaths in Uk too. It is more in the news lately. Not to mention the serious ingoing damage of Long Covid and the utter uselessness if not damaging vaccines now as well.

Twice as many people died with Covid in UK this summer compared with 2021

Maybe that's why all those proofs of life were needed, to check how many were surviving in Canada

I see yesterday our intrepid modeler for all things COVID was in the media again saying we have currently reached the peak of current wave and people should be very cautious but things will improve as we move forward. This was the same modeler who in mid June predicted a massive rise come July and suggested we all mask up, stay home and do whatever it takes to avoid a serious rush of infections and overloaded hospitals.
This clearly never happened and it would seem that here in BC anyway things are just rolling on as normal. We get the weekly report but there is always the addition that the figures are inaccurate and not to be taken to mean things are ok, hospitalizations are still occurring but are down on previous numbers.
So on a positive note and something to be thankful for, the other day we did a job for a lady whose mother lives with her. Her mother had become a little unwell and tested positive for COVID, she is 94. Apparently apart for feeling a bit off she was otherwise fine and now has made full recovery. This is a sign that we are in a much better place now than 2 years ago. Back then 94 year olds were dropping like flies. Yet this week we see more panic stories about back to school/university, one such University in Ontario stating all staff and pupils to wear masks and all should be triple vaxed where appropriate. Then the teachers and some parent groups calling for added protocols for start of term such as masks! When are we going to move away from this? If we have all travelled and mixed and partied our arses off all summer why is going back to school such a terrible thing to consider?

That's still happening isn't it?
https://bc.ctvnews.ca/b-c-emergency-...nues-1.6045460
Seems to be pretty universal.

Over here the ERs keep closing weekends and other days with people sent to bigger hospitals. But last week, the two biggest hospitals in the province asked people to keep away from its ERs except for life threatening issues over the weekend just gone.

No chances taken here

UK's alert level downgraded from level 3 to 2, good news I guess....

Agreed but rather than because the places are full of COVID cases its because there is no staff, something that the article clearly states. Again on local media today it mentions drop in hospitalizations for BC which is good but of course flu season is potentially round the corner which could be worse than the current Omicron threat judging by the number of elderly people who seem to be living through this current wave. If flu takes a hold and hospitals get real busy what's the governments plan of action? Today they say the Omicron variant vaccine has been approved yet i wonder how many will jump at it and will these people also get the flu shot as well?

Yes, but the lack of staff numbers is covid connected.

Trying to avoid health services being overwhelmed was never only about covid patients, it was obviously going to include staff numbers affected by covid. So patient numbers are down - with the expectation that they are about to rise again - but staffing is still negatively impacted.

the Canadian staff shortage even made front page of the BBC this morning.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62716710

Peterborough COVID levels are now back at high risk. Kids are back at school. Same old, same old

But why? UK COVID level down to a 2 as per Dannys link and a town in Ontario is high risk. 70 million odd versus 80 or 100 thousand. Same variants circulating, same protocols were being used except Canada is still way behind UK on reducing some of its masking rules. UK has been out of most restrictions since Christmas yet Canada still cannot let go so we should expect the reverse to be happening.
I had to get bloods yesterday and despite the fact that masks are still mandatory they still have limited spaced out seating and will only let one person inside at a time to register then when all seats full its stand outside. I still cannot enter any Canadian airport without a mask yet i can enter any other crowded establishment without one and sit or stand right next to another mask less person. I cannot however enter the blood clinic with full medical mask and sit up close to anyone or stand inside unless person in front has sat down!

I wonder why it is that medical places still have some measures in place that other establishments don't. It's almost like they are run by people with some medical knowledge isn't it.

That doesn't really make sense though. Either we are following scientific and medical knowledge from experts or we aren't. Do you lump airport terminals into the same category as hospitals and blood clinics? What is their reasoning behind the continued mask policy? Again there is no common sense being applied across the board. When we all had restrictions in place for all transport or all indoor places it made some sense. How is Vancouver airport different to London Heathrow or LAX for example?

Sorry, I misread the airport bit. But my guess would be that airports have a lot more people coming from a lot more different places than a restaurant or some other, more localised, establishment. As for a comparison between something Canadian and something British, I'm afraid I wouldn't have any faith in anything decided by the British government right now.