Omicron has arrived in Canada... travel plans in jeopardy again for Christmas and March breaks

[MoreTravels]

I was so looking forward to pediatric vaccine approval this week. This would have reassured me more to travel in the March break. Then Omicron showed up... and it's even in Canada now (two cases identified in Ottawa). I am not sure if I should book the plane tickets for March break any more.

 

[OttawaDisGirl]

I completely feel you. We have a trip booked for the Marathon Race Weekend. We're worried. Terrified. We totally thought we were in the clear or rather, we'd be able to do things with appropriate precautions.

 

[jaceraden]

I'm so done. So over the pandemic. I know, get in line. But I've got a Christmas trip to Florida planned and I'm going to be so sad if I have to cancel yet another trip.

 

[wdwmom3]

I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions. I really doubt they are going to start with quarantine requirements for everyone, and we all still had to be tested anyways. They still haven’t figured out if this variant is any worse then delta.

Remember everyone freaking out over delta a few months ago. It’s now the main one circulating.

 

[bfost87]

I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions. I really doubt they are going to start with quarantine requirements for everyone, and we all still had to be tested anyways. They still haven’t figured out if this variant is any worse then delta.

Remember everyone freaking out over delta a few months ago. It’s now the main one circulating.

Well, ya, but that was exactly what people were freaking out over. That it would become the dominant strain, and now it is. Who knows how far we'd be along to the "end" of this if Delta didn't catch hold.

 

[CanucksRock]

You can only go forward with life. You know Florida is not going to shut anything down. I have travelled 3 times to Orlando since the pandemic began. 4th trip in January. 5th in March.

 

[Frozen2014]

Same...we have a cruise at xmas. It was going to happen. Now I'm not so sure. Seems like media is over-reacting but DH is worried they are going to add border restrictions again or other travel criteria. Now I feel like another huge disappointment may be lingering.

 

[Silvermist999]

We were all set for March break. A week ago, I was selfishly hoping they would ease on the testing requirements to come back home. Now with this new variant, I’m pretty sure they will not (and should not). I’m beginning to think this trip of ours will need to be rescheduled again.

 

[bababear_50]

Deep Breath ,,
I know it hard and upsetting but you'll get through this.
Hugs
Mel

 

[pigletto]

We don’t know how our vaccines respond to this variant and we don’t know if it makes us sicker. Until we know those things there is nothing to be terrified of. Concern? Yes. But we’re vaccinated, we have a strong testing program in place and we know our public health measures work.

I just watched an infectious disease specialist say it would be extremely unusual for this variant to make our vaccines ineffective. That’s the most definitive piece of information I’ve seen this far.

 

[mommasita]

Count me in on this. We are due to leave in 3.5 weeks for a trip to Florida. We are driving, unless the borders close we are going,
I will be working from home for 14 days after, as I don’t want to (ya never know) put anyone at risk.
I hope it’s not as bad as what I’m hearing,
we plan to mask as we do here, and be as safe as we are here,
j
We just need to get out if here, I miss Florida, and Xmas here is not something I want a repeat of

 

[TammyLynn33]

Count me in on this. We are due to leave in 3.5 weeks for a trip to Florida. We are driving, unless the borders close we are going,
I will be working from home for 14 days after, as I don’t want to (ya never know) put anyone at risk.
I hope it’s not as bad as what I’m hearing,
we plan to mask as we do here, and be as safe as we are here,
j
We just need to get out if here, I miss Florida, and Xmas here is not something I want a repeat of

Same we leave the 16th and we need to go. Big kid leaves for college in Jan and DD15 sent me a text of the Moore statement that it’s in Ontario and she and I quote “ is this fU
Fu$ing real ?” I didn’t get mad at her language because I can feel her stress she’s already worried about not returning to school soccer being cancelled, she’s never had a school dance, she has a boy she may be interested in but he’s locked down pretty tight too so dating would be… pretty much what they do now Snapchat and maybe the occasional school lunch. Our mental health needs it. We will try to stay outside as much as possible , no indoor dining . Have N95s , big kid and I will be fully vaxxed x3, DDx2, littles x1 and maybe two down there . I won’t lie I’ll pray a lot and prob be paranoid the whole time and when I get back x 2 weeks , but if I get ten mins of quality family time stress free a day it will be beyond worth it .

 

[damo]

I just wish they had named it Omega so it would be the last one.

 

[hdrolfe]

I just wish they had named it Omega so it would be the last one.

I wonder what happened to the rest of the greek alphabet, I thought it should have been Epsilon next... or perhaps there have been other variants that we just never heard about!

 

[damo]

I wonder what happened to the rest of the greek alphabet, I thought it should have been Epsilon next... or perhaps there have been other variants that we just never heard about!

I wondered about that too....apparently we were up to nu and xi but they were deemed inappropriate.

 

[wdwmom3]

This is why I’m not freaking out yet. This could really be no bigger deal then we are dealing with already

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/29/omicron-covid-variant-symptoms-heres-what-we-know-so-far.html

 

[Donald - my hero]

I wonder what happened to the rest of the greek alphabet, I thought it should have been Epsilon next... or perhaps there have been other variants that we just never heard about!

I wondered about that too....apparently we were up to nu and xi but there were deemed inappropriate.

the nature of a virus means they continually mutate and while certain letters were skipped for a few reasons, the ones we'll hear about are only the Variants of Concern (VOC) there are certain criteria to be met before those words are used.

I sang the theme song from Transformers either cartoon or just commercials from the 80s when I heard this one

And because I can't be the only person stuck with this ear-worm, you're welcome
More Than Meets the Eye!

 

[jaceraden]

I wonder what happened to the rest of the greek alphabet, I thought it should have been Epsilon next... or perhaps there have been other variants that we just never heard about!

Yes, there were others named that we didn't hear about. Only Nu and Xi were purposely skipped.

 

[SCCNJ]

I'm concerned too. I have two of my kids homeschooled and was planning on putting them back in school after Christmas break. They need to go for their mental health.
We also were going to drive to Florida for March Break. I don't know, if it comes down to it, I'm fine with just hanging out at house down there and having food delivered in, skipping Disney, but my goodness we need a break. Everyone does! Covid sucks.

 

[2Lunds]

I only have three windows of time we can travel: Jan/Feb, Apr/May and Sept/Oct. We're booked for the first week of Feb now, May is the backup. If we can't get away by Sept 2022 then we lose almost $3K in Delta credits. My biggest fear now is that the border will keep closing and we'll lose that money.