Susanna502MC said:

There are definitely advantages to being an introvert.

My son tells me I've been practicing "social distancing" for years. LOL

Back to work today. It seems like just yesterday I was looking at 17 days off, and now it is over. Going to go to the leave calendar straight away and book some more holidays so I have something to look forward to.

Work was chaotic this morning, as someone decided to cut all staff access off, so no one could get into their offices, or even the building their office was in. They wanted us all to have to go to security services to show our vaccine passes before our access was restored. Problem was, no one had told anyone about this, not even poor security services, who suddenly had a que of hundreds needing access restored. And as vaccines aren't mandatory (yet) they really shouldn't have done that. They finally got it sorted by early afternoon and gave everyone their access back.

Went to the pharmacy across the road from work at lunchtime and got my booster shot. So I'm all ready for when COVID actually arrives here, be it Delta or Omicron.

Things have been absolutely horrible here in Kentucky - especially the Louisville - since Christmas because of Omicron. Every day for the past week we have set new record highs for the number of new positive test results and the positivity rate.  

I just found this announcement about the Jefferson County Public School (Louisville). When I talked with my son, who is a teacher, on Friday morning he told me this was coming. 

Last year when the Kentucky General Assembly met, they passed a bunch of new laws to limit what the Governor can do.  They just met again this past Tuesday for this year's session. Guess what?!? They're now going to reverse some of those laws because they learned with the tornadoes back in Dec. that what they did kept Governor Beshear from being able to do things that were needed for those victims.

Another law they passed last year is to limit schools to only 10 NTI days per the year. I know they want to keep the kids in school, but it's hard to do when there aren't enough teachers. And the sad part about this is that the majority of the JCPS teachers got the vaccine. I don't know about the booster and that's what they're saying is so important now.

Me? l'm still staying in and away from people.

Bad here in Minnesota also. Like in Kentucky our Governor is limited in what he can do. 

My niece tested positive on New Year's Eve Day (I was with her Christmas Eve and part of Christmas Day). Luckily I didn't have to be anywhere (on vacation) so I stayed home and never developed any symptoms. Noone else around my niece tested positive.

However, I returned to work on Thurs (Jan 6), on Fri we got a text that 2 employees tested positive so now all of us and the residents have to be tested starting tomorrow. Will have to be tested until we have 2 weeks of negative results.

I'm sorry to hear how difficult it has been in your state. Good that your governor is getting some powers back to do what needs doing, but it probably isn't enough.

Here, we have not had any Omicron in the community yet. We still have Delta in the North Island, but it's about 20-30 cases per day for the whoe country. I live in the South Island with no Covid, and it currently has a double lock on it to hopefully stop the spread of Delta for now. You have to be vaccinated or have a negative Covid test in order to fly to the South Island, or catch the ferry from North to South. No other way to get here, so we are a little bit more secure. We know it will come eventually, but the longer we can keep it out, the better.

Currently NZ is sitting at 92% double vaxxed, and 98% with one shot. We are also able to get boosters from last week, and the Govt wants as many people vaxxed and boosted before Omicron inevitable gets out of border quarantine.

According to percentage per 100,000 population who have COVID, Florida is #4 in the US.

Gov. DeSantis, a solid Trump supporter, has been pushing testing and treatment, NOT vaccination.

Whatever happened to being proactive in any situation?

Whatever happened to Common Sense?

Mask wearers are getting omicron.  Vaccinated are getting omicron.  Vacicinated and boosted are getting omicron.  Masked, vaccinated, boosted and filled with natural immunity are getting it.  We had 7,000 new cases this last weekend, and we're not in Florida.  This is NOT a disease of the unvaccinated.  Yes, it is important to do all of the above if you want to live, but all of the above does not prevent the disease, nor does it prevent spread of the disease.  All of these measures do apparently keep the disease from killing you, which is a plus.  Please don't politicize this.  What is the problem  with pushing testing and treatment?  Seems to be a pretty good idea to me.

I am a COVID study participant for Johns Hopkins. We received an email asking us to share. Here is the email. You can live anywhere in the country to register.

Good afternoon, 

We cannot thank you enough for being a part of the HOPE (Hopkins Opportunities for Participant Engagement) registry community and for doing your part to fight COVID-19! We appreciate your support of COVID research going on here at Johns Hopkins.

Today, we would like to share some information with you about the Omicron variant so you and your family can stay safe this winter. Please visit https://sway.office.com/M70Mjvvz1JnZ7wb2?ref=Link to learn more.

To navigate, click the right and left arrows at the bottom of the screen. Please share on social media or via email to spread the word! To share, copy the link in the URL bar at the top of the screen while viewing the presentation, and paste into a social media post or email.

Have a wonderful day!

The HOPE Registry Community Team

Just to let people here in the US know that the website to order free covid tests is up and running (a day early). I heard about this on CNN, so I went to the website, and it took my about 5 minutes to order. Just a caveat, some people have had difficulty placing orders but keep trying, they're still working out the kinks.....

COVIDtests.gov - Free at-home COVID-19 tests

I saw that also. Thanks for sharing the link.