Covid And The Rest of Us

[mom2rtk]

In Australia at least, that was not the case. That's been one gripe with our restrictions, actually. There is no 'bonk ban' for people with partners, but if you are single and living alone then you aren't allowed contact with anyone. So, one of my Mum's coworkers has 2 adult children living at home. Her 21 year old son has a girlfriend, so she is allowed to come over and spend time with him and his family and he is allowed to go over to her house and spend time with her and her family. She also has a sister who also has a boyfriend and they are then allowed to do the same thing. It works out to be quite a sizeable social circle! Meanwhile, my 71 year old aunt is widowed and on her own and isn't allowed to see a single soul.

Won't even get into the forced celibacy issue, but just the isolation is a huge. I think those of us living with others have no idea just how isolating this has been for some.

 

[lanejudy]

Won't even get into the forced celibacy issue, but just the isolation is a huge. I think those of us living with others have no idea just how isolating this has been for some.

Oh so true! My 86-yr-old mom lives in her own apartment in “independent living” but they’ve been locked down like the nursimg homes. She’s had very minimal face-to-face interactions for 6 months. Very worrying...

 

[ronandannette]

Ah, Canadian posters, trying to act so straight laced.... ha, we know better Second time you have made headlines in the German news for your health department recommendations during intimacy.... I won't post more but easily searchable!

Maple syrup, hockey sticks and...glory holes!?! I agree those recommendations are pretty laughable.

 

[Karin1984]

I live alone with no social life. In the beginning I blocked certain people online, because all they did was post on social media was their oh so happy family life. I get it, it's nice to be able to spend time with your family, while I don't even have a cat to care for.
I have shed many tears in the beginning out of loneliness. Then later came the stories how family members made each other crazy and I started to count my blessings again.

Both situations had pros and cons, to me.

We are low on Covid news today. Biggest items today from NL: One of our political parties wants to make prostitution illegal again, and we get a new coin with an image of our King with his beard on it (The beard is a recent thing, media is fascinated by it)

 

[TimC40]

Here in France all schools are open and everyone has gone back to work after the holidays, daily new cases are as high now as they were in May but the big difference is that new hospital admissions are still very low with deaths around 20 per day, in our local area which is very rural we have escaped pretty much unscathed with only 50 deaths in total since the pandemic first hit.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Here in France all schools are open and everyone has gone back to work after the holidays, daily new cases are as high now as they were in May but the big difference is that new hospital admissions are still very low with deaths around 20 per day, in our local area which is very rural we have escaped pretty much unscathed with only 50 deaths in total since the pandemic first hit.

How's the perception of the cases being as high as they were in May? Does it seem like there's an acceptance towards that or is there more of a constant "we need to get the cases down"?

 

[TimC40]

It was to be expected as we had tourists from all over Europe but as hospitals are not under pressure there's no real panic at the moment.

 

[mommasita]

Today Quebec reports 187 new cases, the highest since June, a lot of these are coming from an apparent outbreak from a karaoke bar in Quebec City.
Today’s jump in cases comes after an outbreak linked to a karaoke night at a Quebec City bar; 50 cases have been linked to the singing.
Hospitalizations dropped by 9 to reach 100, 20 in ICU.

School slowly started last week in the French school boards, English this week. We see closures daily for cases. We only have online options for medical exceptions, otherwise it is mandatory in person learning.

We are hearing small talk of perhaps another lockdown, yet our Premieur says he is not closing bars or thinking of stopping karaoke

5,767 people have died of Covid in this Province

 

[bavaria]

Drosten, of the Charité in Berlin, suggested shortening the quarantine period for people suspected of having Covid-19 on his NDR podcast, the Coronavirus Update, which has returned after a summer break.

Currently people have to isolate at home for 14 days if there's a risk they could have the infection. But Drosten said research shows that people are no longer infectious after five days.

"There's already, let's say, a steep thesis, that after five days we say the infectious period is actually over," said Drosten.

He said authorities needed to consider how long quarantine periods should last so that they don't turn into lockdowns.

"What can you do in reality so that you don't have a de facto lockdown?" he said. "It's no use having all kinds of school classes, all kinds of workplaces under weeks of quarantine."

https://www.thelocal.de/20200902/af...ectious-period-is-over-says-german-virologist

 

[BadPinkTink]

lots been going on in Ireland, we too have had a Covid Government scandal.

So the rule here in Ireland is indoor gatherings limited to 6 people from no more than 3 households, the exceptions being Church services and weddings which can have a maximum of 50 people.

A few weeks ago in a hotel in Galway, 81 people attended a society golf dinner function. Many politicians, government officials and even judges and other high profile CEO's and business people were there. The whole event has caused huge outrage but one attendee caused the biggest scandal, as he was Ireland's EU Commission / Representative in the European Parliament. He was the EU Commissioner For Trade, and part of the Brexit Negotiations team.

Naturally enough he has now lost his job in the in the European Parliament and the Irish Government has to nominate 2 candidates for the position which will be chosen by the European Parliament.

Irelands schools started their new school year this week and many parents and teachers are not happy. One of the new rules is that schools have to have somewhere to isolate a child if they show symptoms of Covid as the parents will be called to take them home. Many schools are struggling with this, as they just don't have proper facilitates. There are also concerns about what happens if a child tests positive and so much more.

Then yesterday Ireland's Stay and Spend Scheme was launched. Its to encourage Irish people to stay in hotels and eat in restaurants over the winter. Its a complete joke and I will not be doing it.

• You have to spend a minimum of €25 in a single transaction up to a maximum total of €625 per person between October 1 and and 30 April.
• The money has to be spent to pay for hotel rooms or sit down , eat in restaurants. Takeaways are not included. Alcohol is not included.
• The hotel or restaurant has to register to be part of the scheme, so if you spent the money in a place that's not registered, the receipts wont count.
• You have to keep the receipts and submit them to revenue.
• You will then get 25% of the total amount added to your tax free allowance.
• So basically you spend a maximum of €625 to get €125 added to your tax free allowance.

There is huge outrage as it excludes people who are on state pensions or people on benefits or low income people who don't do tax returns. It also excludes students.

It assumes everyone can afford to spend €625 in restaurants or hotels when huge amounts of the population have lost their jobs and many are struggling with back to school expenses.

 

[Karin1984]

Then yesterday Ireland's Stay and Spend Scheme was launched. Its to encourage Irish people to stay in hotels and eat in restaurants over the winter. Its a complete joke and I will not be doing it.

• You have to spend a minimum of €25 in a single transaction up to a maximum total of €625 per person between October 1 and and 30 April.
• The money has to be spent to pay for hotel rooms or sit down , eat in restaurants. Takeaways are not included. Alcohol is not included.
• The hotel or restaurant has to register to be part of the scheme, so if you spent the money in a place that's not registered, the receipts wont count.
• You have to keep the receipts and submit them to revenue.
• You will then get 25% of the total amount added to your tax free allowance.
• So basically you spend a maximum of €625 to get €125 added to your tax free allowance.

There is huge outrage as it excludes people who are on state pensions or people on benefits or low income people who don't do tax returns. It also excludes students.

It assumes everyone can afford to spend €625 in restaurants or hotels when huge amounts of the population have lost their jobs and many are struggling with back to school expenses.

That's quite a complicated scheme. For both the guests as the businesses.
I like what Belgium is doing. To promote national tourism, everyone could register for free train trips within Belgium between now and December. I think 6 trips was the max.

We don't really have that here, the government is sponsoring businesses to make sure as many people can keep their job as possible, but nothing on a personal level. Although, I am not sure if that's needed here.

 

[BadPinkTink]

That's quite a complicated scheme. For both the guests as the businesses.
I like what Belgium is doing. To promote national tourism, everyone could register for free train trips within Belgium between now and December. I think 6 trips was the max.

We don't really have that here, the government is sponsoring businesses to make sure as many people can keep their job as possible, but nothing on a personal level. Although, I am not sure if that's needed here.

yep, very complicated and it gets worse. As part of the track and trace, hotels and restaurants now have to keep detailed logs of every customer for 28 days, time and date, contact details and what each person had to eat. The Hospitality Industry is saying its unworkable, as many places just don't have the resources for this.

Irish people are not impressed with Stay and Spend scheme, especially as many have experienced the simple one from The UK Government which is in operation in Northern Ireland. For once The UK Government got something right, the customer gets a discount and the hotel / restaurant claims the difference between the full price and the discount.

 

[ronandannette]

Well, FWIW, any type of tax deduction is only applicable to people who actually pay taxes. It may not be a perfect set up but it does at least ensure the dollars are being spent as intended to stimulate the hospitality sector. I remember a thread months back about something similar being considered in the US but the feedback, at least here on the DIS was that it didn’t benefit people who couldn’t afford to travel or eat out. Duh - it was never meant to benefit individuals - it was intended as a economic boost for a specific, hard-hit industry. I don't recall hearing anything of it since and I wonder if they ever went through with it.

Canada has not taken any of those types of stimulus measures. Local and provincial tourism boards have been aggressively marketing this summer but our feds have stopped short of anything that encourages travel, although it is allowed in some forms.

 

[NFLDERS]

Maple syrup, hockey sticks and...glory holes!?! I agree those recommendations are pretty laughable.

Eh! Masks are worn...

 

[Karin1984]

I hadnt noticed, but the longest running musical in NL has restarted their shows on Wednesday. Also about a 3rd of the regular audience allowed. And they have taken 2 weeks to rework the show, mainly the spacing on stage when they sing or scream (it is a story set in WWII, they scream a lot ) they needed to creatie more space between one another.

They didnt say if/how often cast and crew gets tested, but I assume they created some kind of bubble for each other.
What I could see on the video, they didnt keep distance at the curtain call.

 

[MommyinHonduras]

Here in Honduras our cases in the hospital are under 850. Which is cut in half for 6 weeks ago. Hard part is we are up to 33 here on the island up for under 5 6 weeks ago. We have 8 beds in the hospital in a covid19 wing and a covid center with 30 beds. There are 17 people squished in the hospital and 16 people in the covid center. We do not have enough oxygen tanks but more should arrive in the next day or two.

Our daily cases are staying about the same, but they are giving out free drugs to any suspected cases or those who test positive by rapid test(not included in country totals) by the hundreds every day. Its a combo of its a combo of 4 meds Microdacyn, azitromicin,ivermectin and zinc dosage depends on the patient.

 

[ronandannette]

Here in Honduras our cases in the hospital are under 850. Which is cut in half for 6 weeks ago. Hard part is we are up to 33 here on the island up for under 5 6 weeks ago. We have 8 beds in the hospital in a covid19 wing and a covid center with 30 beds. There are 17 people squished in the hospital and 16 people in the covid center. We do not have enough oxygen tanks but more should arrive in the next day or two.

Our daily cases are staying about the same, but they are giving out free drugs to any suspected cases or those who test positive by rapid test(not included in country totals) by the hundreds every day. Its a combo of its a combo of 4 meds Microdacyn, azitromicin,ivermectin and zinc dosage depends on the patient.

Interesting! Antibiotics and zinc...there was mention of that here some time ago but nothing recently. Has it been proven to combat Covid or just treat/prevent secondary infections? I'm off now to google Invermectin. I've not heard of it before but apparently it's approved for use towards a wide range of conditions from SARS to round worm!

 

[godisney14]

Azithro for possible secondary infections such as bacterial pneumonia.
Steroids and vitamin D are also being tried in places. How effective?
Ivermectin showed efficacy in vitro but no substantive clinical data yet.

 

[MommyinHonduras]

Glad @godisney14 replyed because I have no idea. More details for anyone who understands it: MAIZ (Microdycin (which is a salt water with some Clorox in it and we tell people to just gargle with salt water twice a day), Azithromycin 500 mg daily x 5 days, Ivermectin 6 mg, two tablets if < 160#'s and three tablets if > 160#'s x 5 days and Zinc 50 mg 2 x a day x 10 days).

They have 216,000 maiz protocols to give out, there are part of a medical study out of Italy I believe.

If you are admitted into a hospital then the protocol is called catracho. It is 5 medicines plus zinc, they are very proactive here with drugs. Its la colchicina, antiinflamatorios, tocilizumab, ivermectina, anticoagulantes y la hidroxicloroquina Sorry they are in Spanish, but this mix is from Switzerland they are reporting. I am sure you can all recognize the "h" word. We have enough for 34,600 people that was donated back in May. https://www.radiohrn.hn/fuertes-llu...apados-e-inundaciones-en-la-capital-hondurena

 

[ronandannette]

https://news.google.com/covid19/map?hl=en-CA&mid=/m/01n7q&gl=CA&ceid=CA:en
This is a VERY interesting chart that compares Cases-Per-Million population for every nation on the globe. I had not seen it compiled in exactly this form before. Click on a country on the map then scroll down to where the numbers are and click the “cases per million” button. It’s absolutely shocking to see how huge this problem is in the US compared to any other country on earth.