Are you preparing for life disruptions from this winter/Omicron COVID surge?

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My wife returned to curbside grocery pickup at Kroger this week, after about six months of picking out our own items. I normally do the smaller midweek purchases and our Costco shopping and have been adding items to our grocery purchases for a couple of weeks to hedge against disruption in supplies or store hours.

We are both vaccinated and boosted, as is our visiting daughter, so I'm a little more concerned with supply disruptions than our own susceptibility to illness. Vaccination rates in our metro area are near the national average.

Interested in hearing other people's plans and actions.
 
Not majorly. Just converting back to outdoor dinner at our weekly sushi place ("our" table is easily 10 feet from the next). Back to masking everywhere of course. And going to be a bit extra careful in the weeks leading up to a hopeful trip the first week of Feb. My first flight in two years...
 
We really haven't changed much since the whole thing started--still primarily order groceries online and pick up, eat at restaurant once a month-only outside and stay masked except when eating,otherwise do curbside pick up, very limited social interaction other than family/siblings who are all vaccinated. We see enough neighbors out and about when walking , so do get other socialization. It's enough for me right now.
Have no desire or plans to travel at this time.
 
We are returning to 100% curbside pick up, the wife will be crabby for a while but does OK. Last few days, we been setting new records on infections and like to avoid the darn virus plus I find it easier to do the shopping.
 
Nope. Fully vac’d and living life as normally as possible.
 
No we just restocked with more 3M and Honeywell N95 masks and are continuing to wear those when we are flying, shopping or at the doctor's office. We are flying back to Florida in about 10 days. We have a box of five lateral flow antigen tests that we bought in Switzerland a few weeks ago in case we need tests. My wife puts a surgical mask on top of the N95 mask but I don't. During the past two weeks we went for our annual preventive check-ups and all the UCLA facilities we visited were nearly empty. It was just like last year. The nurse drawing blood from my arm told me that she was infected during the month of October but was asymptomatic. She was wearing her mask below her nose. She believes she contracted it from a dialysis patient who was positive. I just rolled my eyes.

On Tuesday we past by the Getty Center drive in testing site on our way to UCLA for my wife's annual OBGYN checkup and we didn't see any big lines. In fact, it was pretty empty. They offered both PCR and rapid antigen tests.

In the past 60 days We have made emergency trips to Canada and Switzerland via France and in one case we on a flight from Paris to Geneva on a full Airbus A320 with people unmasked (wearing their masks below their nose or chin) and coughing throughout the 55 minute flight. My wife kicked me and said don't pull off your mask to eat or drink. We were tested multiple times with both PCR and antigen tests and never tested positive.

In Europe they tell you to wear minimum 3 layer surgical mask and now they starting to mandate PPF2 (N95) masks for public transportation. You can't get onto a plane with a cloth masks but they don't enforce covering your mouth and nose with a mask once your are inside a plane, train or bus. So is it any wonder that infections are rising?

This is an airborne infection and a mask with good filtration is required to prevent infection. The talking heads on TV are beginning wake up and are recommending N95 masks which have no supply issues at moment thanks to the production increases over the past year. The prices have dropped dramatically since last year and you can even buy them at Lowes or Home Depot now. The key to getting through wearing a mask with high filtration and making sure that you have a good seal around your face. Air should not be seeping out through the sides when you breath.

We have been flying before and after vaccination and have always worn 95 masks in high risk settings since the initial lockdowns and so far neither of us have been infected. This is our new normal.
 
The only thing we are doing differently is stocking up on non-perishable goods or those that have long shelf lives. I have seen some rumblings in the restaurant business that some vendor prices for 2022 is providing a lot of sticker shock and many are reducing their menus. I just noticed this AM that the availability/prices for peanut oil is "surprising"

Also, the freezer is pretty well stocked, but might see about stuffing some additional items in there for the same reasons.
 
Nope. We’ve both had three Moderna shots, we wear masks in public indoors and don’t put ourselves in that situation as much as we used to. Out social lives have suffered, but that’s not going to change soon. It appears this is going to go on for years and we’re going to live our lives with the above compromises (very small inconvenience IMO) as long as it takes unless circumstances change even more drastically than Omicron. There will be more variants and thousands more deaths unfortunately, but all we can do is look out for us…
 
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Not doing anything different. Just observing the indoor mask mandate re-instated.
 
We cancelled some indoor dining plans with friends, but will continue to do things like shopping, medical procedures and physical therapy sessions. Fully vaxxed and fully masked for all of it.

Not planning on stocking up / hoarding supplies. Wasn't really necessary during the panic of 2020 and I doubt it will be this time.
 
I know testing appointments are readily available here (I could get a PCR in 2 hrs but not an antigen until this afternoon or tomorrow within walking distance) which leads me to wondering if the % is increasing or if it's just increasing because only those who suspect they have it are testing?
 
Expecting a surge and minor impacts to availability of some items, but not really preparing for anything significant. We did curbside pickup almost exclusively for most of the last half of 2020, however that ended once we were fully vaccinated and it became a fairer fight between our bodies and the virus. Even in a county with a vaccination rate of 53% (first shot), we take essentially zero precautions and rarely mask unless the business really makes a strong point of requesting it and therefore actually has a high compliance rate (e.g. REI).
 
gayl said:
I know testing appointments are readily available here (I could get a PCR in 2 hrs but not an antigen until this afternoon or tomorrow within walking distance) which leads me to wondering if the % is increasing or if it's just increasing because only those who suspect they have it are testing?
Click to expand...
The numbers I see rising are numbers of cases, not tests, although I don't doubt that's available too.
 
Got my flu and covid shots and I'm wearing a mask in most indoor public environments. We probably have stocked on a few more things than we normally might but other than that, it's back to normal for us.
 
We were double vaccinated last Spring and boosted in October, and we are nearing the end of our isolation period since catching covid (probably Omicron variety), so as far as personal protection or behavior, I don't see any changes. Although we will still mask up indoors since everyone else has to (and around here generally does).

This coming Monday, I expect to make a very large grocery run. Both to replenish our stores since we haven't been out of the house in almost two weeks and to stock up a little heavier than normal in the event of coming supply disruptions. From my reading and personal experience, I expect Omicron to sweep through the population quickly and the concomitant disruption to be short. Perhaps a month or two of troubles.
 
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Not planning on doing anything different than we’ve done since March 2020. I have worked at the office, eat out for lunch every day and whenever we feel like it at night. We go to basketball and hockey games indoors, also concerts and movies regularly. We go to all the home games for our college and pro football teams including tailgating. I fly at least twice a month. We shop in person when we need things as we have always done.

If we are somewhere that requires or requests masks, we do with no issues. Other than flying and medical settings, that is few places in my area.

We are healthy and vaccinated and have had COVID early on and have chosen to live our lives as we always have. We only have so many fun years left and do not intend to change this course. That is our informed choice.
 
Back to wearing the mask on all shopping trips, not just the grocery store. Volunteering at the food back went back to mask wearing for everyone. Got a supply of the free at home covid tests from the state of Colorado. I had to give a couple of tests to a man friend who was potentially exposed. Nothing shows you care like sharing your covid tests. :)
 
I never stopped wearing a mask indoors at the store... but I've upgraded to kn95. Went to lunch today with the hubster and we opted to eat outside, despite it being a tad chilly today. Probably the biggest change was that we asked for negative covid tests from our guests for Christmas Eve.

I'm nervous and crossing my fingers that my planned trip in April (Florida, then transatlantic cruise, then Cinque Terre, then Milano) can happen. The cruise news does not bode well for this trip happening. Considering our options if the cruise gets cancelled.
 
Not really. We are vaxxed and boosted. We will obey any mask mandates that might be implemented in our area, and more frequently mask (we only use n95/kn95, I do not know why these level masks are not being given freely as part of a statewide or federal plan) when running indoor errands.We try to get a sense of the particular indoor environment to determine the risk.

We still socialize, but have become very tuned in to folks personal habits, as this seems to be an exposure factor.

We have stocked up a little on home covid tests just in case. We are also continuing to do the preventative/reduce the impact actions.

Earlier this month we both had relatively mild covid-like symptoms (for us, "mild" = no worse than the last time either of us had the flu) for about a week, but tested negative. Given the way viruses tend to work, I full expect we will likely get it at some point - I do not see what can prevent that - but likely expect it to be relatively mild.
 
We're Vaxed and boosted but are beginning to see this turn into something else. Today DM called and said someone tested positive at her independent living facility. Panic. DW is now on Facebook with many people reporting huge backlogs at Dr offices and Medistations. The get tested no matter what mantra may be flawed IMHO. Undesired consequences are surfacing. I simply don't know.
 
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We are both boosted. I’ve been wearing an N95 exclusively all along. My wife just upgraded to KN95. Indoor dining is out so no restaurants until spring. No travel plans. I’ll still grocery shop in person. Otherwise staying out of public as much as possible. Which isn’t much of a change for us.
 
I expect that in the near future, supply chain problems will get worse, as will availability of many services. Flight cancellations and public transit cutbacks are two examples we've already seen due to employee illnesses. I expect omicron to cause havoc at facilities like meatpacking plants when the variant arrives there.

Here in the DC metropolitan area, cases have skyrocketed, and this area has a very high vaccination rate. DC and suburban MD have masking mandates which are well-respected. One month ago, the 7-day average daily new case rate in DC was 11 per 100,000 population. Today it is 291. MD is 147 per 100,000 which is still a huge number. MD presently has the 4th highest new infection rate among the 50 states, and DC is higher than all of them. Hospitalizations are at record highs in MD, though the percentage of people infected with covid requiring hospitalization is lower than for other variants, so far.

Urban areas in the northeast are getting hammered with covid right now, and I expect this explosive case growth to spread throughout North America, and then Latin America.

This entire metro area had weathered the covid storm better than most regions until now thanks to high vaccination rates and responsible behavior. Infection rates here are now the highest they've been since the pandemic began, which is indicative of just how infectious omicron is. One suburban MD county reportedly has the highest vaccination rate in the country (NIH & FDA are located within the county), but even the new infection rate there is sky-high right now.

I have to be inside my 100 year old mother's home a few times each week. I mask there. Her 4 caregivers are vaxed. Mom is homebound and she's had 2 JnJ shots thanks to a county nurse who came and administered them. The JnJ vaccine is the only vaccine they would give to homebound people there, due to the simple storage requirements and the original thinking that it was "one and done".

My mom began home hospice care a year ago after breaking her hip, but she was discharged 6 months later because she doesn't have a known fatal condition, though she has fairly advanced dementia. Elderly patients usually don't survive too long after a hip fracture, which is why she was initially accepted for home hospice. My nightmare scenario is if one of the caregivers or myself brings in the virus to my mom. I wouldn't expect non-infected caregivers to continue taking care of my mom if she were infectious. I honestly don't know what I would do.

I've remained careful even when case numbers were low here. I never stopped masking, nor did most other folks here, and I only wear a KN95 mask. I've continued in-person food shopping throughout the pandemic, but now I've resumed doing what I did last winter, which is to do grocery shopping very early in the morning so that the stores are nearly empty.

A friend e-mailed me and 5 other friends this week, suggesting we meet for dinner this weekend at a restaurant in DC. I thought he was nuts. I declined, as did 2 others, all of us citing the current covid situation here. I have had a small number of boosted friends in my home for dinner, and I've eaten in some of their homes. I think I'll stop that for now, until the covid explosion here burns itself out. I had been going to museums, but I'll stop that for the time being, too. The Smithsonian closed 4 smaller museums here because they needed to send the staff in those museums to more popular ones, due to staffing issues related to covid. I still take brief trips to the library, which is notably emptier this week.

I expect to get omicron at some point (I'm boosted with Pfizer), but I'd like to hold if off for as long as possible. It's very difficult to get a timely PCR test reservation here right now because demand is so high. Actual infection case rates are probably even higher than our high numbers due to non-reporting of antigen tests results, as well as all of the folks who are unable to get tested at all. There are also recent reports that antigen tests are less likely to detect an omicron infection than infections from earlier variants.
 
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My mom in her 80s --- vaccinated and boosted --- returned to her senior center in early fall.

She is not sure whether she should return in Jan. 2022 after the holiday break.
The vaccine status of some of the members is unknown, and many of the members are not masked.
They say it is hard to be masked and do line dancing and Zumba.

Thoughts?
 
Leaving for Mexico tomorrow. Double masking on the plane and double shots in the margaritas...:dance::LOL:
 
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