Covid… where do we stand now?

We are down to treating it like a cold. I have zero paid sick days and we’re not allowed (per new superintendent) to take unpaid days so I guess if I get Covid I’ll just put on a mask and go to work.

If I knew I had it, though, I would definitely avoid anyone I knew to be immunocompromised or otherwise in danger of a bad outcome.

Our school has a 5-day stay at home requirement, after which you can return if you test negative on an antigen test. Then 5 more days masked.

We're definitely still testing, but it's all voluntary. It seems we've been hit harder by flu and RSV this year than by covid, though covid has not gone away.

Aren’t you a teacher?  Zero paid sick days? Do you get any each year?  How can they refuse to let you take an unpaid day?  My DH has brain melanoma, I take days.  That’s just how it is!  I have 10 a year for “family” and any I don’t use get banked.  I have almost 120 banked.  I can’t use any of my 120 for care of DH, I must be sick if they’re used.

Here it’s quarantine for 5 days from date of first symptoms followed by recommended masking for 5 days. Most people aren’t testing unless they go to the dr. At school we’re seeing way more step than anything else, the couple of Covid cases I’ve heard of have been mild cold like symptoms.
Personally I’ll follow common sense rules….good hygiene, stay home if sick and avoid high risk people when possible during cold/flu season.

In the UK the guidance is to ‘try’ to stay home for a few days if you do test positive but there’s no requirement to even test.

DH was recently in the hospital. He was never tested for Covid or asked if he had the vax. None of the drs, nurses, or techs wore masks.

School district no longer has an official Covid policy.

I have zero because I’m a part time teacher. Full time teachers have 10 days to take. I’m .4 FTE so it would have seemed reasonable that I have four days in case of illness, but nope.

This new superintendent imposed on us by the state is a piece of work. A custodian was fired a few weeks ago because she took too many days off to care for her sick daughter. Teachers get reprimand notes in their files if they exceed guidelines like more than three missed days before November or some such. It’s absolutely asinine.

We just had a family friend die of Covid (mid-60’s, no serious health conditions, vaccinated). So I’m taking it more seriously than I was a week ago. As a matter of fact, I just got my booster today (2 months late). I had all intentions to get it, but was avoiding it because it makes me soooo sick. The headache has already started.

It’s a tough call. I was always so vigilant because I didn’t want to give it to my brother. Now that he’s gone, I don’t worry as much. Funny—he had it 2x. Once was a year ago (got it from my SIL). She was MUCH sicker than he was. He got a cough for a couple of days. He also had it last summer, but we had ZERO idea until he had to be admitted to the ICU (that’s when they test here). He tested positive (no symptoms—he was in the ICU for unrelated reasons).

I still test if I have symptoms (I have a stash of tests from school). I spent Christmas Eve with friends at a dinner. We drank and laughed and hugged a lot. When a friend got home, he found out he had been exposed the day before. (I sat next to him at dinner and hugged him several times). A couple of years ago, that would’ve sent me into a panic. This time, I wasn’t worried at all.

I almost NEVER wear a mask. Although, I couldn’t even bring myself to stash them away when I was cleaning last week. Just in case.

I hope your DH is ok






that’s nuts. I guess they just have so many backups they don’t care? 🙄

We also had a nutcase superintendent. Among other things, she thought Covid was a hoax, harassed employees that got vaccinated, and coughed on people on purpose. Guess who died from Covid? I told my daughter that was a life lesson: live your life in a way that when you die people are actually sad.

I was told that if I had to take days for DH after my 10 were used that they would be without pay and to file FMLA.  

When I had my kids, I was able to use banked days (48 with kid 1 and 59 with kid 2).  It's so jacked up.

that is complete crap.
We have different designations- sick leave self and sick leave family, but they come from the same pot. I'm not sure what the reason behind having the two categories is but I love always used sick leave for me or the kids.

We are not required to mask unless in a patient room with a positive test for droplet/airborne (covid, flu, RSV, that kind of thing).

We only test patients who are symptomatic.

If we test positive, it's 5 days quarantine (off work) from start of symptoms and then 5 days masking. It's up to us to self-report to employee health. I think we're all quite happy to go test bc it's an automatic 5 days off work. Honor system, test can be a home test.

There has been a huge rise in influenza A. I would say on any given day in the last week or two, about 1/4 of our patients tested positive for flu A and we have seen an uptick in Covid as well. Because of this, most of us are masking everywhere even though not required in common areas.

This is a cardiac floor and we don't normally have so many flu cases at once that needed to be hospitalized. Many of ours are medical overflow and each night there are about 140 pts in the ER when I get here, waiting for beds or waiting to be seen, so we have to help accommodate. They're lining the hallways. The flu is also causing people to go into Afib/Aflutter so we are getting a lot of those too.

The ER is drowning every night. Last night I caught 2 cardiac patients who weren't even being addressed as cardiac. Now is not a good time to head into the ER if you don't have to!

I have several family members (not here at home) with Covid and the kids have 104° fevers and are very, very sick. Two of the adults are ver ill too.

I wish I could say the vaccine has helped them all but it hasn't. 😔

We are masking inside again. Ds will go back to school with a mask until this big surge is over. And dh will continue to mask at work.