Canadian COVID-19 News

[desodave]

Back to the thread's dismal topic, BC new case counts have skyrocketed to over 2400 on Friday. Oh how I wish for boating season to begin so we can escape ... rather than cleaning the snow off the boat

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Montanan

..l. Been working from home for going on 18 months, [or am I living at work??? 1]. Hours of video conferences with personnel all over the world.

I tend to not opine, just post factual and hopefully helpful info.2

Regards,

Dan

1. Good question!
The benefits of our ability to easily connect, despite being separate, can also blur the line between what is work time, and what is not. This adds a whole new dimension to these challenges, and when at its worst, you can feel like you are ‘living at work’, rather than ‘working from home’.
A recent report [a] from DigitalOcean found that 82% of Americam employees who work remotely feel ‘burnt out’ – with a further 40% claiming they felt pressured into doing more work than in-office colleagues.
After all, when your office is your home, it’s incredibly difficult to get the find that balance of personal and professional time.

[a] “Helping Remote Developers Avoid Burnout” ~ by Debbie Chew, for DigitalOcean
➥ https://www.digitalocean.com/blog/avoiding-burnout/

2. Good policy/habit!

[GordMay]

“Ontario reports more than 10K new COVID-19 cases for 1st time” ~ by Staff The Canadian Press [1]

Public Health Ontario says the province has recorded more than 10,000 new daily cases of COVID-19, for the first time.
The 10,412 diagnoses, reported on Christmas Day, surpass the previous record of 9,571, which was set Friday.
It's the third day in a row, the province has broken its record for daily case counts.
The rolling 7-day average, of new daily cases, now stands at 5,939, more than double that of last Saturday, which was 2,156.

The actual number of cases is likely far higher, than those reported each day, because many public health units have reached their testing capacity. [2]

[1] ➥ https://globalnews.ca/news/8474420/o...5-coronavirus/ https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-...port.pdf?la=en

[2] “Underreporting of COVID-19 Case Counts in the Context of the Omicron Variant”
➥ https://www.publichealthontario.ca/e...micron-variant

[Scorpius]

Originally Posted by GordMay

1. Good question!
The benefits of our ability to easily connect, despite being separate, can also blur the line between what is work time, and what is not. This adds a whole new dimension to these challenges, and when at its worst, you can feel like you are ‘living at work’, rather than ‘working from home’.
A recent report [a] from DigitalOcean found that 82% of Americam employees who work remotely feel ‘burnt out’ – with a further 40% claiming they felt pressured into doing more work than in-office colleagues.
After all, when your office is your home, it’s incredibly difficult to get the find that balance of personal and professional time.

[a] “Helping Remote Developers Avoid Burnout” ~ by Debbie Chew, for DigitalOcean
➥ https://www.digitalocean.com/blog/avoiding-burnout/

2. Good policy/habit!

122%?

My daughter goes into her home office (it's a totally separate, dedicated, albeit small, room) at 9am, with standing orders to her family not to bother her unless the house is burning - and emerges for lunch and at 5pm precisely.

I couldn't do it.

[Mike OReilly]

And Ontario hospitalizations are now on a steep rise. Have gone up nearly 25% in less than a week according to official stats.

https://covid-19.ontario.ca/data/hos...ndHospitalized

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by GordMay

1. Good question!
The benefits of our ability to easily connect, despite being separate, can also blur the line between what is work time, and what is not. This adds a whole new dimension to these challenges, and when at its worst, you can feel like you are ‘living at work’, rather than ‘working from home’.
A recent report [a] from DigitalOcean found that 82% of Americam employees who work remotely feel ‘burnt out’ – with a further 40% claiming they felt pressured into doing more work than in-office colleagues.
After all, when your office is your home, it’s incredibly difficult to get the find that balance of personal and professional time.

As a self-employed scribbler I spent my most of my professional life working from my home-office. It does require a different mindset, but if you do it for a while you learn to put boundaries around work time. It's not that hard, but the onus is purely on you. No one is there to tell you when to work, and when to play.

[TrentePieds]

I make my contact hours a term of all tenancy agreements these days. The law and regulations say that landlords must provide contact information. They don't say what your contact hours or means of contact should be, so mine are:

---------------------------------
In emergencies (such as leaks in plumbing) Dial (XXX) XXX-XXXX. Wait for the ring, then hang up. Repeat. Call again. I will answer on this third ring.

Do not text. Texts will not be answered. Ever.

All routine business: e-mail to xxxxxxx@xxx.ca. I will respond at first opportunity.

I check for e-mails as often as convenient during my work day (1000 - 1600) and answer them during those hours regardless of their time of arrival.
-----------------------------

Works for me, even when on the boat, tho obviously I recognize that it couldn't work for someone still plugged into the corporate world. Still, you've GOT to define the limits - otherwise you'd go nuts. HolyMotherNet becomes an all-consuming mistress if you forget how to say "NO!"

TP

[Montanan]

Oh Deer!

SARS-CoV-2 infection in free-ranging white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

Abstract
Human-to-animal spillover of SARS-CoV-2 virus has occurred in a wide range of animals, but thus far, the establishment of a new natural animal reservoir has not been detected. Here, we detected SARS-CoV-2 virus using rRT-PCR in 129 out of 360 (35.8%) free-ranging white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) from northeast Ohio (USA) sampled between January-March 2021. Deer in 6 locations were infected with at least 3 lineages of SARS-CoV-2 (B.1.2, B.1.596, B.1.582). The B.1.2 viruses, dominant in Ohio at the time, spilled over multiple times into deer populations in different locations. Deer-to-deer transmission may have occurred in three locations. The establishment of a natural reservoir of SARS-CoV-2 in white-tailed deer could facilitate divergent evolutionary trajectories and future spillback to humans, further complicating long-term COVID-19 control strategies.

One-Sentence Summary A significant proportion of SARS-CoV-2 infection in free-ranging US white-tailed deer reveals a potential new reservoir.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...11.04.467308v1

[desodave]

"One-Sentence Summary A significant proportion of SARS-CoV-2 infection in free-ranging US white-tailed deer reveals a potential new reservoir."

That possibility was discussed briefly a few (?hundred) pages ago. More research seems to confirm. Denmark culled a few million mink, and BC has ordered our 4 mink farms to shut down and remove (kill) animals over what memory says is a fairly short time. There certainly won't be any massive deer culls, if it was even possible. As I said before they're more like community pets here on the Island ... treated like Bambi imo.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Perhaps I'm suffering from the optimism bias here, but I am pleased to note that while case counts are rising steeply in Canada (mostly in Quebec and Ontario), our hospitalizations are still declining ... at least so far:

https://health-infobase.canada.ca/co...ast7&map=pt#a7

I have the same bias. Gratifying to see the same patterns there as we experience in other parts of the world. Good luck!

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I have the same bias. Gratifying to see the same patterns there as we experience in other parts of the world. Good luck!

Sadly, since my optimistic post Canada is now starting to see an increase in hospitalizations and ICU patients. It's a small, but still significant uptick so far, but it reverses a many-month trend.

Omicron seems to have flooded through Canada. Most provinces are now breaking records for cases, and hospitalizations are starting to follow. It's starting to look like the increased contagious factor is overwhelming the lower virulence factor -- at least up here where it's winter and everyone is indoors these days.

At this point, my hope bias is leaning on the data from South Africa which is showing a steep, narrow spike to their Omicron infection peak. Maybe this wave will be steep but thin, meaning it will pass quickly.

And on a personal note, I see Newfoundland is starting to lock down again, making it harder for me to visit my boat (not that I can anyway). And I've learned my winter cover was completely destroyed in a recent Atlantic storm .

[hpeer]

Mike,
Who called you? Ivan?

[Montanan]

I've got mine, have you got yours?

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

And on a personal note, I see Newfoundland is starting to lock down again, making it harder for me to visit my boat (not that I can anyway). And I've learned my winter cover was completely destroyed in a recent Atlantic storm .

Jeeze Mike that really sucks...

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by hpeer

Mike,
Who called you? Ivan?

No, a new employee from the marina: Sheena. I'll PM you. I think I need more help than the marina staff is willing to provide.

Originally Posted by Macblaze

Jeeze Mike that really sucks...

Agreed , although not unexpected I suppose. The cover has been up for 24/7 since September 2019. It was never designed for this kind of use, so I guess I can't complain too much. But I do fear for what we'll find come the Spring (assuming we can go to NL in the Spring).

Before and after pics... just for fun: