How are you all dealing with coronavirus and the restrictions... #2

I think it’s really good that you’ve got access to free n95 coverings, and yeah I know what you mean about the next wave, I’ve got rapid tests stashed away as they’ll no longer be free here soon.

I don’t like it when people cough and sneeze uncovered here either, it just seems both bad manners and stupid like they learned nothing this last few years. I guess we’ll be left with some residual feelings like that even as we move forward. It’s bound to leave it’s marks on us, this collective trauma.

I’m actually feeling excited today because my husband seems happy to go to a show with me next month to celebrate my birthday and also book a hotel for the night! His friends are performing in the show so it’s a pretty good incentive, but I wasn’t sure if he’d be okay with it, he’s still fairly cautious, but even he is wanting to resume a normal life now. I’m feeling much more hopeful, although yes I do keep ‘next wave’ in the back of my mind.

Getting out of town to see a show will be so much fun! We are also planning some trips this year. My guess is that this will be seasonal like the flu, so hopefully those of us in places where flu is a winter thing can enjoy a relatively Covid free spring and summer like we had last year. The government has just started providing free tests and masks, now that things have calmed down. I'm also stashing the free tests while they are available. No one could get them last year when they needed them.

My office seemed to be the last one in Houston to still require masks, but the rates in Houston are finally going down, so we got an email saying masks are optional on Monday. I still wear them in indoor public places except when eating or drinking.

I've been having some symptoms that I hope are allergies. I took a couple of rapid tests that were negative, but also saw a doctor on Thursday and they are running a PCR test to make sure. Sometimes rapid tests can be a false positive. I am quarantining until I get the results, which should be by Monday. Going to get groceries delivered.

We have a new government as of last Friday. So far, we don't have much of a clue about Covid policy. He flip flopped a lot on that during the campaign and there have been no policy announcements after he was elected.

The only change so far has been to say that in-person school will become mandatory.

I just read today a major British retailer had been advising staff to come into work even if they tested positive for covid.

Wilko apologises for saying staff could come to work if they had Covid | Retail industry | The Guardian

They’ve apologised after being pulled up on it by the union but it reflects what a muddle we have going on in the UK right now.

I used to do a lot of volunteer work with different organizations. A couple more or less shut down during the pandemic. Now they are asking for help again and I find myself reluctant to sign up. Part of it is that I don't want to commit to a large event ahead of time in case we are in the middle of an outbreak when the time comes. A lot of the 'fun' volunteer stuff, like the social gatherings and classes, are not happening - they've shifted to Zoom and it just feels like another boring meeting rather than a chance to catch up with friends. One organization has gone crazy with rules, not just because of Covid but because someone retired and their replacement wants to run things a different way. I'm almost ready to quit all of it.

Seems I lucked out this week. I had been planning to go to the office on Monday, but because I hadn't been sleeping well over the weekend I decided to stay home. Now we had at least 1 corona case at the office on Monday. One person tested positive yesterday, another one felt sick today.

I did see those same 2 people last week, but with omnicron's shorter incubation time I assume they caught it after that. Did a self test today and it was negative, no symptoms either. Interestingly I think the 3rd person who was in the office with them is fine, too.

It was nice to be back at the office last week and actually talk to people IRL.

The new government seems to be following the former government's policy with their mobility pass, step by step restrictions and masks everywhere. These are the same people that heavily criticized the previous government. I was really hoping they'd get rid of the outdoor mask mandate, at least.

I don’t care about to have to wear the mask. I see it even hygienic when you have to interact with a person who doesn’t belong to your close group.

What I care is about the last stupid decision from my government that was the lack of need to keep quarantine to those people who are positive but has level symptoms.
I wonder which part of the body they made the decision with, of course, not with the brain.
What happen if one of these infest an elderly person and gets sick as hell. Or, how we are going to know the right data about how the pandemia is going.

Btw, I received as a booster shot Moderna. Do you know if this vaccine messes up with women menstruation. Because I had noticed problems with it and if I remember well, one of the vaccines cause these kinds of problems but I don’t remember which one?

@AzulOscuro some women did find that the vaccines messed with menstruation. I think my first Moderna dose made mine come early.

Do the rapid tests even work? My husband got sick last week, tested negative twice. I'm sick now with slightly different symptoms and swear this is Covid but tested negative also. I had plans to meet up with four different people this week and am glad those plans fell through for various reasons so I am not exposing anyone to whatever this is.

I heard it can happen with any vaccine - so many things can influence our hormones! I haven't noticed any effect but I still need to get my Moderna booster. Can someone just drag me to the vaccination centre next week?

They're a lot less sensitive and apparently especially with omnicron there is only a short window in which you would test positive. I don't know about other place but the news mentioned we had a flu wave going around here as well, so it might not be corona.

Even if it's not corona, I guess it's not a bad thing if we are more careful about spreading viruses to others. Thinking back to all the times people sat coughing and sneezing in the office or on public transport - it seems so icky now! But then we didn't have the option to work from home, it was either call in sick for "just" a cold or go to work and infect everyone around you. Probably the one good thing to come out of this is more companies offering remote working.

I had read Omicron isn’t always picked up by rapid flow tests, and also that the throat and nose ones detect it better than nasal only (opposite to delta apparently). I do know quite a few people who’ve had omicron (I guess that because they’ve had covid recently) who did test positive for a week or so though so broadly speaking the rapid tests can detect it in many cases. I wonder if some people just don’t quite have enough viral load? One friend got a faint line for one day only and jokes she had covid for an hour, her little girl and husband were sicker though.

Hoping you’re feeling better soon and glad you’re able to isolate!

There’s definitely been documented evidence of menstrual disturbance following covid vaccination in a number of women, although personally I was okay.

@AzulOscuro - Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with requiring masks on public transit or other enclosed spaces where people are close together. However, I think that we must be the only or one of the only countries that requires masks anywhere outside. When I go for walks in my neighborhood, there is usually no one around. When I come across people, we keep a decent distance. It's silly. The transmission risks in a situation like that must be tiny. I have severe respiratory allergies that don't respond well to treatment, so wearing a mask is pretty uncomfortable for me.


I think most countries have also gotten rid of vaccine passports, but not here.

I am just positive this must be Covid. My husband told me to go get a real test, but even if that came back negative, I wouldn't believe it, so I am just going to treat the situation as if I have it. Our Covid case count is very low here so maybe it really is something else.

It is very weird. I'm not at death's door and the symptoms are like a cross between a cold and norovirus. I just feel *weird.* There's this brain fog. My thinking is slow and it's like there's some extra layer between me and reality. If this is Covid after three vaccinations, I am glad I did not get it before.

Feeling weird is exactly how my experience of covid was after 2 vaccines, it didn’t feel like a cold, just odd symptoms. Is your taste and smell okay? That used to be the hallmark but not so much with omicron.

'Weird' is how I've heard so many people describe it! Taste and smell has been fine but I have zero interest in food. I feel like I've turned a corner this afternoon.

I tested negative again, so who knows. I lost four lbs. Yesterday I started to smell cigarettes that aren't here. Of course this all happened around the time I started my period and the cramps have been the kind that bring you to your knees. I hope today is the day that goes away. It's the last severely limiting symptom. I'm looking forward to leaving the house again some day!

Of course, I agree with you. Outside the masks shouldn’t be an obligation at this point in time, as long as you keep distance with other people.
I can understand how bad you may feel with the mask on, especially having those problems to breath due to allergies. It must be horrible.

I only was stressing on the contradictory thing in my country. On one hand you have to wear a mask any place indoors. It’s not that for me it’s a problem at all, but on the other side they let people who are positive with low symptoms to expose to people. No quarantine. I simply don’t understand it.

NL and BE have gotten rid of most of the restrictions now. Germany is slowly phasing them out, but masks are still required inside.

The differences between countries so close together are silly. Last night, I was at a concert in Belgium. No rules at all. It was a full house (not sure how big but definitely several hundred people), no certificate of any kind needed, no masks.

Today I went to a gig in Germany. Small gig at a tiny cafe,
probably only around 20-30 people there. Show proof of vaccination and wear a mask unless you're seated.
And they almost didn't want to let me in because I haven't gotten my booster yet which is NOT a requirement in Germany. 2 shots still qualifies as fully vaccinated and let's you into places which have either 2G or 3G. But the venue was re-opening tonight and no-one knew about the rules for "only" 2 shots. In the end they told me it's me who's taking the risk and let me go inside.

Oh that’s crazy Break, but glad they let you in!

This week once again lots of people I know had tested positive, all like bad colds, even the elderly ones thankfully, this is reassuring.

A neighbours daughter who nurses covid patients told her that 9 out of 10 people in hospital with covid have no vaccination at all.

I have noticed something interesting. Since the start of the new government, the number of daily tests has gone way down. In the last daily report, only about 35,000 tests were done. Under the old government, it tended to fluctuate from 60,000 to 90,000, with more during the week and fewer during the weekends. I wonder what is up there?


There also are complaints about a lack of vaccines in some cities. That doesn't seem to be a problem where I live. My husband went to get a second Pfizer dose because his first two doses were Sinovac and he does not feel protected. He had to wait for more people to show up before they opened the vial.


One small town in Patagonia decided to eliminate the mask requirement. They have a high vaccination rate and low case numbers. The federal government is all up in arms, saying that they can't do this because Covid policy is made at the federal level. In the end, it sounds like the town can just refuse to enforce the mandate. It's generally the municipal security workers that are supposed to do that.

Pretty much no mandate anywhere anymore except airports and medical settings. But USA just cleared the forth shot for those 50 and older. Completely voluntary and up to individuals. Those 12 and older with compromised immune systems are also eligible for the forth shot.

I'm going to a gig in a city that I think will be quite crowded. I will also be taking a bus and subway for the first time since this pandemic started. A little nervous. It looks like masks are still required on all public transport and in most of the places I plan to visit.


That's interesting about the lower test rates. Do you think people are just less interested in taking them? Have the positivity rates changed? We also have very low test rates right now but I believe it is due to low incidence.

Positivity is down. When we were at the worst of the most recent wave, it was around 20% or even higher in many places. The most recent report gives a rate of 7.6% in the country as a whole and 6.7% in the Metropolitan Region, which is the most populous.


For a few months now, the Metropolitan Region has generally had lower positivity than the national average. I am wondering why that might be. A lot of municipalities in the southern part of the capital suffer from severe overcrowding. These areas also have some of the lowest vaccination rates. Many were hard hit in earlier waves. I guess that could mean more people have some immunity from previous infections.

The government extended the health emergency without giving an explanation of why. That means they can continue to mandate masks and capacity restrictions.

How do you control anxiety levels on public transport? People are coughing and it’s freaking me out because I’m stuck on here for a couple hours. Everyone is supposed to be wearing a mask but some have it pulled down.