Welcome to NarniaWeb, @cyberlucy! Glad to hear you do not have to be in the office every day.

Posted by: @fantasia

You can always wear it during any flu season. It certainly seems to help keep you from getting sick.

That is definitely my thought in the wintry 'flu months after the pandemic is over: when I go into stores, I plan to wear my mask. Here in Ontario, Canada, our mask mandate in public places will not lift until at least March, 2022. Last week booster shots were approved for those 70+, so my elderly father (nearly 95) got his yesterday. (Good to hear you have yours now, @fantasia.) My dad's first and second vaccines (early March and early April/21) were both Moderna; the booster was Pfizer. As the ages drop for receiving the booster, my husband and I are hoping to receive ours in late January/early February, as that will be more than six months after our second shot (both Pfizer). We shall see how this all plays out in Ontario.

Case numbers are rising again, but mostly in the unvaccinated and younger people, so Ontario has paused any further restriction-lifting for now. More restrictions eased on October 25, and these higher numbers is the result of that. Restaurants remain open, but only with proof of vaccination to dine in. At least we should be able to gather with close family members for Christmas this year ... unlike December, 2020. Yes, I have left the Christmas decorations up inside all year in anticipation. And the local farm turkey is waiting for us in our deep-freezer.

While indoor gatherings are allowed here up to 25 people, our leadership is advising being cautious and prudent with this number, preferring that people are wise in having fewer people over indoors, and preferably close friends/family who are vaccinated.

Discussions and trials are still ongoing for children's Covid vaccines (ages 5-12): a decision will be made hopefully before Christmas on this.

85.5% of our provincial population (age 12 and above) are fully vaccinated; those who have got the first dose equals 88.7%.

The vaccination stats for New South Wales were 92.6% double vaccinated. There is increasing talks about booster shots, six months afterwards.

I like this Daily  Telegraph comment about the new Omicron strain, now affecting people from Southern Africa. Currently travel is restricted from Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, itself, Botswana, Eswatini and Lesotho, among other places.

Phi on omicron, a nu variant of Covid. That is three strains in a rho. So far we have only an iota of knowledge about it, though we'll psi if it leads to more lockdowns. Naming it might have improved our knowledge of the Greek alphabet, but it might be pi in the sky to think it hasn't delta blow to recovery. 

What were the strains from Epsilon to xi, I wonder? Where did they get to? The Greek alphabet runs from alpha to omega, and between Epsilon and omicron there are zeta (z), eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu, and xi. ( Ξ ξ =ks or x)

The uppercase and lowercase forms of the twenty-four letters are:

Α α, Β β, Γ γ, Δ δ, Ε ε, Ζ ζ, Η η, Θ θ, Ι ι, Κ κ, Λ λ, Μ μ, Ν ν, Ξ ξ, Ο ο, Π π, Ρ ρ, Σ σ/ς, Τ τ, Υ υ, Φ φ, Χ χ, Ψ ψ, and Ω ω.

A FB friend posted this:

As nu (Ν ν) did mean new in that Daily Telegraph comment. Yes, President Xi might not be too enthralled at having a virus variant called after himself. Or, maybe, since it is another language anyway, he might not care one "iota" .Best not take the risk. 

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Phi on omicron, a nu variant of Covid. That is three strains in a rho. So far we have only an iota of knowledge about it, though we'll psi if it leads to more lockdowns. Naming it might have improved our knowledge of the Greek alphabet, but it might be pi in the sky to think it hasn't delta blow to recovery. 

Ohhh nooooo... (I studied New Testament Greek at university, but that's more puns in one paragraph than I encountered in three semesters!)

I was also wondering what happened to all the letters between delta and omicron, so thanks for filling us in, @coracle.

Posted by: @coracle

The letters Nu and Xi were not chosen because Nu sounds like New, and Xi... well, you can understand what President Xi of China would have to say about that.

Er, quite...  

Our country has changed its alert levels into 'traffic lights' - most of the country is on orange, some areas with bigger case numbers are on red, and we all aspire to get to green.

Within each 'light' colour, businesses and services are open/partly open, people can meet with certain restrictions of numbers, masks etc, and some facilities are available only to people who are fully vaccinated/have a very recent negative test result. Not everyone is happy about the potential to divide the country into two groups! (I won't talk further about this as it gets political)

Christmas according to Covid-19, Omicron version. Courtesy of Daily Telegraph (UK version).

By the way, what is the difference between Shepherd's Pie & Cottage Pie?

Shepherd's Pie is supposed to have lamb in it,while Cottage Pie is usually beef (mince in both cases).

I like the cartoon!
Everything is slightly different since last Friday. I heard someone say that lots of Auckland people will be heading for holidays down here in the South Island for the Christmas break. We hope they are all fully vaccinated, and not been exposed to the virus, but we know that it's likely we'll have some cases here too. Since our Delta outbreak began in August, there have only been a few cases in the South Island, all linked to cases in Auckland. It's 'the deep breath before the plunge' as we wait for Christmas.

That's funny wagga.  

Two years+ into the pandemic, and I lost my first friend this week. It was particularly sad as she was a wife and mom to four young kids, and I think the day before she posted on FB that she was feeling better and finally off the ventilator. And then suddenly she passed away overnight. 

I just feel so bad for her family.....

@fantasia I'm so sorry to hear that.

@fantasia, this is heart-breaking! How I feel for that family. And, very sadly, on a related note, we received word this morning that yesterday someone we know, a mother in her early 50s, passed away from Covid. They lived in Ontario for years, but had moved down to Mississippi just over a year ago. They have four kids, highschool age and up.  

I booked our booster shots yesterday for January 5.   Next step will be our kids, who should be able to receive theirs in the next month or so. As with around the world, the Omicron variant is spreading like wildfire, being much more contagious, but the symptoms perhaps not quite as severe. Delta is still the dominant strain in Ontario, with Omicron expected to usurp that soon.

Our family of six, plus my father and my sister, will be gathering this year for Christmas. Our kids will be with us for four-five days. We have a lot to fit in (games, walks, conversations, singing, cooking wonderful food together) after missing being together for the holidays last year, the infamous 2020. We have all been vaccinated twice, with my dad having had his booster already.

This good news was from yesterday on a news station here:

On the one-year anniversary of the start of Ontario’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign, 90.3 per cent of residents over the age of 12 have one dose and 87.6 per cent have two doses.

Our daily case numbers (and positivity rate, which has doubled in one week) are on the rise, after having dropped for weeks, but that downward direction turned around near the beginning of November, and is definitely ramping up again. While our leadership wants to avoid another lockdown, caution, common sense, and care for others is urged all around. There are some restrictions being put in place again in specific 'hot spot' locations, rather than a province-wide lockdown.

And our Premier announced today that large venues (sports events, theatres, etc) are going back to 50% capacity for the time being. Thankful for our leadership through this here in Ontario!

Hugs to all your family, Jo, as you look at those figures and wonder what's next.
Keep your eyes on the One who brings Hope and Life.

Over here our daily new case figures are mostly lower than 100 now, but there have been over 10,000 cases in the Delta outbreak that started in mid August. Our national vacc rates are similar to yours, and yet there are some sections of the community still lower than average, especially Maori people - is this true of indigenous people in your country?

We were fortunate that our church going was not affected for Christmas 2020, but this year it's a logistics issue for most churches. Ours is now holding two identical services of 'Nine Lessons And Carols' this weekend, then two services each on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning; that sounds fine until you realise only 50 people can attend, and so we are asked to choose just one of the four (we have a free booking system online - how weird is it to book a ticket to go to church!).

Our biggest city has just reopened its borders after about 3 months locked down; our new system here has different rules for vaccinated and non-vaccinated people. Some events and locations are available only to double-vaxed people, and others are open to everyone. Most people are being considerate and compliant, but wearing masks everywhere is wearying and if businesses don't enforce the rules there may be risks in shopping or eating there. 

Posted by: @coracle

Keep your eyes on the One who brings Hope and Life.

Amen! God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in time of trouble.

Just a quick pop-on to say that my booster vaccine is now this coming Monday, December 20! I debated about booking it after our family gathering (Dec. 24-29), given all the prep there is to do, but figured why wait?! So, here we go. The reason I was able to move it earlier is because my Nurse Practitioner clinic wrote this morning to say they are now offering the booster. (I must remember to cancel my Jan. 5 app't.) I could choose between Pfizer and Moderna, and am going with the former, which is what my first two were. I don't have a problem mixing, but I only had mild side effects with Pfizer, so thought I'd stick with that one.

Our government has brought in new restrictions this afternoon, given that our new daily Covid cases have doubled in the past week. Our previous indoor gatherings were limited to 25 people; now this is down to ten. So, as for our family, we are fine for Christmas, as we number eight for the 25th and six for the surrounding days. We will still be careful, of course (eating buffet style, rather than crowding around the table), but at least we can be together this year! Very, very glad for that.

There have been other restrictions brought in as well (50% capacity for all public places, for one).

Even though Christmas is still different this year, there are so many things to be grateful for!  

Booster is DONE! (Pfizer)