At first I thought I was not hardly reacting to the booster (sore arm, that was it) until the next day when I felt like I was getting a major sinus infection! The week before, my throat was scratchy so I thought I'd book a Covid test. Had it today and the result was Negative. I am relieved, but not surprised. We have been so careful.

I brought the testing station paramedics a generous Timmies gift card, to thank them, albeit inadequately, for all their sacrificial service throughout the pandemic. I thought the gal was going to cry, she was so grateful. She exclaimed, "You have made our day!". We did the same when we got our vaccines, and the staff were also very appreciative. This is the least we can do for their service they have rendered over these challenging months.

With mounting cases (the numbers today are staggering for Québec and Ontario), we as a family made the very difficult, but very prudent, decision last night that our son and his wife who live in Montréal will not be coming down, after all. We were all nearly in tears, but, particularly after hearing the case numbers today, know that we made the responsible decision. Our daughter will be joining us (she is in our bubble) and our youngest son might be, depending on a few factors. My dad and sister were supposed to be here, but will be instead together at my dad's place. We will all video chat, for sure!

And so a second Christmas of ours is postponed until who knows when. But we all sure anticipate that time.  

Today in both provinces the new daily case count is the highest it has ever been throughout the pandemic ... and Canada isn't doing too bad with Covid compared to many parts of the world. Québec, with a population of 8.4 million, has 9397 new cases today, 3000 higher than yesterday. That province declared a state of emergency a couple of days ago; Ontario, with a population of nearly 15 million, jumped up 1300 new cases today to 5790.

Thankfully this concern is overridden by the fact that we are in the midst of celebrating Emmanuel, God with us. In Him alone is our hope! Merry Christmas, all!  

Glad to hear that you got through your booster and had a negative test result. I had a negative test too this week, after throat and sinus issues. (I should get a booster in the New Year)

New Zealand is in what may be the Deep Breath before the Plunge, but I hope that our high vaccination rates, and now boosters, help keep Omicron at a manageable level for our health service.  Aucklanders are enjoying much greater freedom now after 3 months in lockdown, although many will stay around home for the summer. 

Christmas crowd activities and church services have been reinvented this year. I'm not  going to church in person but will follow online.

Very good to hear about your negative test, too, coracle.  

Our provincial daily new case numbers are skyrocketing due to Omicron. Three members of my family have their booster vaccine booked for next week. Two others, who are out of province, aren't eligible yet, age-wise, but should be soon enough. I say cases are leaping up, but, really, Canada is not doing too badly compared to many areas in the world.

Our youngest son ended up contracting Covid, even though he had been careful. He is pretty much over it now, having had a mild case. However, we won't be able to see him for another couple of weeks, just to be safe. Video chats, however, are still very much a part of our family life now.

We always have various lots of company over throughout the holidays—family, people who are alone and lonely, friends—but this year, along with last, is so very different. There are other ways to keep in touch, though, which we intentionally pursue on a daily basis. 

More provincial restrictions were implemented here yesterday. The leadership here are working hard at not going into another lockdown again, but this Omicron variant is so transmissible that there had to be at least a few more precautions taken.

I am very thankful that my elderly father, me, our daughter, and, as of tomorrow, my husband, will all have had the booster vaccine. Our two sons will receive it in the next few weeks, most likely. Our daughter-in-law gets hers today.

And so we keep persevering in this pandemic, looking out for those who need extra care, and doing our part in not spreading this virus, particularly to those most vulnerable. There are always opportunities to care for others during such a challenging time.

Things have gotten really bad here. My sister and I both work with children. She is an elementary music teacher and I am a preschool teacher (at a daycare). My sister's school had 3 staff and 10 kids with covid when the school started back after break. We have had 4 classrooms shut down since Christmas. My work has started requiring kids to test before returning to school. We are going back to a mask policy at work. I am not sure how helpful it will be since we are only required to wear them in common spaces and during parent pick up and drop off. I have been wearing my mask all the time since the CDC changed it's guidelines for vaccinated people. Up until a little bit ago I was the only one at work wearing a mask all the time but a few teachers joined me even before the mask rule was reinstated.

As an introvert, I have mostly been okay with not socializing much but am now tired of having to miss out on hanging out with friends because I can't risk bringing something back to my students. I went to the Spider-Man movie because when I had agreed to it cases were declining. I still didn't feel completely comfortable about it and tested after. Many live theather events require masks and proof of vaccination so I have gone to some of those but with omicron those are on hold for me again.

So sorry to hear this, Twig's.  

Ontario's mask policy has been in place since early in the pandemic (spring, 2020). I can't see it being lifted anytime soon.

Our schools, which were online learning for the past couple of weeks after the Christmas holidays are headed back to in-class learning this Monday, the 17th. There is some hesitation about this, but more safety measures have been put in place in each classroom, hence the education leaders are hoping for relatively little transmission in the schools. I heard on the radio yesterday that our Ontario kids have been in online learning for 27 weeks of the pandemic (not consecutively), apparently the longest time of anywhere in North America.

There are so many people ill here that hospitals, businesses, organizations and, soon, no doubt the schools are being quite severely affected in terms of workers/staff not being able to come in, having contracted the virus. This Omicron is terribly transmissible!

My father is turning 95 this Saturday, so we are taking a scrumptious meal to his place. Our daughter and one of our sons will join us, making five of us, the maximum for indoor visiting at this time. (We have all been vaccinated.) Our son and his wife in Québec were hoping to come down, but with the Covid situation ramped up again and along with the more rigid restrictions, they are postponing their visit until things are safer.

Our country is waiting for the Omicron outbreak which we're told will happen, and will likely affect more people than Delta. Even though though it's milder we're warned that some people will get quite sick, some will be in hospital, and children will not be immune. Our vaccine programme for under 12s is getting underway, but some leaders are suggesting we delay the opening of school (Start of February is the new school year).

I'm due for a booster in about 10 days, and my local jab place has walk-ins.

  It's really sad how Covid is still affecting the whole word 🙁 here in Brazil we still have many cases, and Omicron is increasing. Thank God the number of deceased people went down heavily with the vaccines. Unfortunately, some people still spread fake news and refuse to get vaccinated... and even our president underestimates the effectiveness of the vaccines.

  To top it all off, we're facing an epidemic of flu (H3N2) in the whole country, and some relatives of mine caught it... at least it isn't as dangerous as Covid. 

Nearly everybody where I live is sick right now. Multiple businesses have either shut down or have reduced hours because there aren't enough healthy employees to stay open. 

After two years of being extremely careful, my family came down with Omicron-Covid on my birthday. The good news, we weren't very sick. All 6 of us followed the same cycle. Day 1 - Sore Throat. Day 2 - Actually sick with fever and such. Day 3 - Feeling nearly back to normal. Day 4 - For the kids, normal. For my husband and I, we regressed with allergy-like symptoms. Day 5 - Good to go. 
I told my husband afterward that I'd much prefer that to the flu. 

I feel like (and maybe it's wishful thinking) that omicron is in many ways the light at the end of the tunnel, with everyone around here being sick now, hopefully in a couple weeks everyone will be well again. And it seems to be chasing Delta on its way out, which is good because Delta has been pretty rough on my friends that have had it.

Posted by: @calormenwarrior

To top it all off, we're facing an epidemic of flu (H3N2) in the whole country, and some relatives of mine caught it...

Is it normal for Brazil to have the flu this time of year? 

@fantasia What a bummer you family caught it 🙁 but at least you didn't get very sick, as you said. I like your way of thinking about Omicron, let's hope things get well soon.

  No, it's not! That's exactly what surprised everybody. And maybe because of the summer, citizens underestimated the cautions with the flu and this allowed it to flow freely... I don't know. But fortunately, most of the people who caught it are already getting well (my relatives included). 

My sister and I found a video about the current covid situation. It is good for a few laughs.

I have also been struggling with whether or not I am being too cautious. I found this quote from Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota very helpful:

"Would you call it a lockdown when the weather service announces we're going to get 26 inches of snow ... and you don't go driving around town?" Osterholm said. "That's not a lockdown. That's a prudent decision you make to not put yourself in harm's way."

Posted by: @twigs

I have also been struggling with whether or not I am being too cautious.

Once the vaccine was made available, I am supportive of whatever lifestyle people choose to live. And in your case Twigs, there is nothing wrong with trying not to get sick.

Posted by: @twigs

"Would you call it a lockdown when the weather service announces we're going to get 26 inches of snow ... and you don't go driving around town?" Osterholm said. "That's not a lockdown. That's a prudent decision you make to not put yourself in harm's way."

The problem I have with this, is that it's not an apples to apples comparison. Instead, it needs to be snowing 26 inches the next day, and then they day after that, and then the day after that, and forever (because Covid is not ever going to go away). At some point, you're going to be faced with the decision that you're going to HAVE to go out even though there's 26 inches of snow on the ground, or stay locked up for forever. 

For my family, we're still laying low for the most part, even though we've now had omicron, there is still delta floating around and I REALLY don't want that. Or influenza. Or RSV. Or stomach flu.
But once omicron dies down around here (cases are still very high but starting to drop), I plan to start having playdates for my kids again, one family at a time. And once my 4 year old turns 5 in April and is eligible for the vaccine, I plan to get that for her and then go back to normal, because there will be nothing further that we can do at that point to stay safe. 

That's what I plan to do with my family, personally. It's going to be different for everybody. 

Posted by: @calormenwarrior

@fantasia What a bummer you family caught it 🙁 but at least you didn't get very sick, as you said. I like your way of thinking about Omicron, let's hope things get well soon.

  No, it's not! That's exactly what surprised everybody. And maybe because of the summer, citizens underestimated the cautions with the flu and this allowed it to flow freely... I don't know. But fortunately, most of the people who caught it are already getting well (my relatives included). 

I'm glad that fantasia has told us what to expect from Omicron, as much as we have been trying to avoid getting it. I am glad you & your family are over it, fantasia, & can get on with your lives. We've just had our booster shots, except for one family member who has to wait until February. The flu season usually arrives about autumn here, so thank you, calormenewarrior, for your timely reminder to keep up our regular yearly flu vaccinations, usually in April or May, after the March Equinox. Though the mere thought of it makes me think I am turning into an echidna or a pincushion. When is your part of Brazil's normal flu season? I understand that Brazil is the only country in the world that has both the Tropic of Capricorn & the Equator passing through it. 

It seems that Omicron, which only struck just as we were coming out of lockdown last October, has hit Australia for six. We had reasonably low figures for rates of infections, on the Worldometer, even when the Delta strain hit us. But now our infection rates are soaring into the hundreds & thousands, & at 31 we are right up into the top half of the tally. 

Lockdown, plus all this business with masks & QR codes was supposed to stop by the end of last year. The Telegraph cheered us up with the vaccination percentages climbing to just under 95% vaccination for the whole state of New South Wales, despite the solid body of anti-vaxxers protesting about their civil liberties being breached. Even when the Omicron started to hit, & the hospitals started to go on red alert, again, it was discovered a week or so ago, that up to three quarters of patients in intensive care with COVID, had the Delta strain, rather than Omicron, & that all were either unvaccinated or only had one vaccination shot. Yesterday we reached a peak, with 46 deaths, in New South Wales, but it seems all of them had underlying conditions which made it worse.  

The Western Australian border to the rest of Australia is still closed, indefinitely. Or when their vaccination rate gets to 80% or whichever comes first. Maybe they don't love us anymore.  And it is QR codes, & the longish time it takes to stand around shop doorways, getting those things to work properly, more than anything else, that really make going out a pain. By the time the QR code decides to work, I could get all my shopping done & be out of there.  Thank goodness for simple lists & pens at shopping centres. 

@waggawerewolf27 I'm finding ways to lessen that, such as opening the app ahead of arriving at the entrance, or doing something else while I wait. Do you find it's quicker if you use it in different shops several times in a mall? 

Omicron  has arrived in New Zealand, so we are now on a 'Red Light'. In December we changed from the Alert Levels system, and the government says we won't have lockdowns any more because of high vaccine levels. We get a 'vaccine passport' once fully vaccinated, and this allows full access to normal shopping, Libraries, cafes, theatres etc.

Some Meetings (eg churches) choose not to require the passport, and instead limit numbers - ours livestreams into a second large room. We also have a vaccine-only room on another site. We've just moved from Orange to Red level, and I'm waiting to see how the church leaders will organise with smaller numbers. 

@fantasia, so sorry your family got Covid... especially on your birthday! My family and I had a similar experience just recently; we got Covid the week of Christmas. I was the first one to get it, and had the most severe symptoms (and was consequently quarantined in my room... on Christmas day too! ). Fortunately it was Omicron, so apart from a fever followed by cough, it wasn't too bad for any of us. Even after fully recovering, I had to get tested negative to return to work, which had me running all over town in search of a test. It took me several weeks to do that and get back to work... and since my department had shut down due to my infection, we found ourselves coming back to several week's worth of accumulated work. We caught up with it just last week. 

I guess that's why I've felt a bit drained lately... I realize I haven't posted as much as usual on here as a result, but I'm hoping to come back more frequently soon! 

Supposedly Omicron could be reaching its peak in the U.S., so we'll see how much longer this lasts. The light may well be in sight soon... and until then, we'll just keep following the Albatross!