Local COVID restrictions

Simon Hampel

Simon Hampel

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20+ year member
I was having some discussions about restrictions and lockdowns with people here in Australia - while we had our extended lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne, there was a lot of chatter about how other countries were not locking down.

Similarly now that we are in the middle of an Omicron outbreak - there are questions about why we aren't in lockdown.

I was curious to see what localised restrictions there are in your country or city?

Here in Sydney, there are restrictions on who can enter health care and aged care facilities - but other than that, and some limits on indoor gatherings - we have no restrictions. We do have an indoor mask mandate (other than in private homes), plus we use a QR code checkin app run by our state government to register when we enter any public venue (shops, businesses etc).

Are there other countries or cities that are currently in lockdown or have more severe restrictions? Is there talk about introducing more restrictions due to Omicron?

Note that I am not looking for political discussion about whether these restrictions are justified - I just want a summary of current restrictions in your area.
 
Right now where I live - nothing. There are vague talks about perhaps adding restrictions but nothing has happened yet (and probably nothing will).

Meanwhile in larger cities only a few hours away (especially Chicago) restrictions are tightening fast.
 
There is nothing in Hungary rn except mandatory masking on public transport and in schools. Immunity card is only needed for concerts and mass events, which is a right measure imo.
 
Czechia has mask mandate (FFP2 or better) in all indoor spaces and public transport since autumn 2020. Children under age of 12 have an exception (resulting in massive spread in schools).

People without covid-certificate (double-vaccinated or recently PCR positive) are prohibited to enter service/culture/entertainment/sport/dining/hotel/hospital/aged care/prison... establishments since early autumn 2021. However zoos, botanical gardens and libraries are extempted.

All events (indoor and outdoor) over 1.000 people are prohibited. Events with 100 - 1.000 are allowed only in case all participants are sitting on seats.

Omicron has so far not triggered additional tightening with one exception. Starting 17th January, all school children and company employees will undergo antigen testing twice a week (instead of 1x week) and testing will be mandatory even for vaccinated.

Omicron will probably hit us hard in 2-3 weeks. The coalition who won elections and just now created new government promised us no lockdowns... We will see.
 
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In the UK there are restrictions in Wales, Scotland and N Ireland, however not within England. Face masks are mandatory in many places...for those who care to wear them.

Some of the restrictions meant that people from Wales & Scotland travelled to English towns and cities to celebrate new year and probably for other events closed within their countries.
Omicron which is now very established as the dominant variant in the UK, thankfully the vast number of infected individuals are showing minor general common cold symptoms only, certainly with those who are double vaccinated with a booster.
Personally, I would not mind getting the Omicron variant to further boost my immune system. I may even have it now.

I believe the estimates are that about 1 in 25 to 1 in 30 people in England have covid just now and it will rise further.

With regards to testing, I am not sure how successful these tests are. I now know of too many people within the same household when on tests positive and one negative and they are both showing symptoms, this has been the case since before the Omicron variant. As I write this, I have most symptoms, but tested negative this am. A friend is in the same boat and yet her two sons are positive in the same household.

From what I have read, if you are jabbed as much as possible, Omicron isn't too bad.
I have also read that about 20% of people in hospitals in the UK with Covid are in for Covid, i.e. they went in hospital for treatment due to Covid. The other 80% who have it and are in hospital for other reasons and now test positive.

The biggest strain on our NHS (Health Service in UK) seems to be that so many staff are off work due to testing positive that the workforce cannot cope effectively. In other UK industries, I know today about 1 in 10 rail workers are off work with Covid. (Rail is my area of work, hence this one).
 
I have noticed since masks became mandatory indoors in England again, I see much more people refusing to wear them, like 20% almost not wearing masks which is a lot more than before.
 
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