Where in the US still has mandates? Even "terrible" Canada hasn't any any COVID restrictions since the early spring, minus some ridiculous border crossing rules which are wildly unpopular. The only place I still have to wear a mask is in Hospitals, which honestly sort of makes sense even if COVID weren't a thing. I've heard wayyyy to many stories of people picking up new health issues from hospitals..

The only outstanding COVID issue is WFH and it's impacts, but that's employment market related and not government policy.

Yes, and even though Brazilian Federal government is this nightmare, all states and municipalities followed very strict protocols since the very beginning.

Still, urban life is thriving everywhere, people are traveling like crazy. It's hard to compare because it's been so long ago, but my feeling is things are busier today than back in 2019.

Anyway, today I took transit for the first time without a mask. As mask mandates on other public spaces were gone at some point in 2021, having to use them only in the transit was a nuisance. But people adhered completely. And even today almost everybody was using it. Probably the news haven't reached them.

Portland is the introvert capital of America. We will be the last to go back to the office. If ever. Also in America, covid reactions fell strongly along political lines. The further right of center, the less ppl gave a fck. And the exact inverse. Thats why red/swing state cities are doing better than blue, blue ones.

CalOSHA (California) still has mask requirements for employers with over a certain amount of cases which means most big companies will continue to have them.

God, this is very bad.

Will be good for folks to return to the office. Will add some more vibrancy to the daytime populations for certain cores. Plus, will help to justify further office construction.

People also forget the impact on local businesses. Less folks in "X" CBD or core and your businesses, especially local, suffer.

the only times i have to mask now is when i'm interacting with any part of the healthcare world - hospitals, doctors office, dentists office, etc.

my sister is a nurse in the chicago burbs and she recently told me that she thinks full-time masking for everyone in the healthcare world might be here forever, a true "new normal".


oh, and we went to a play at a small theater company recently and they were still requiring masks and vigorously checking vax cards and all of that nonsense, which thankfully seemed very anachronistically odd to me now. i was like "really? we're still going to go through this meaningless charade? ok......"

In a way for healthcare workers, masks on a permanent basis might not be a bad idea, considering there are more pathogens than Covid floating around. But for the rest of the masses, as its been since the invention of masks, optional. With respect to Covid, its so contagious that there is no way around it. Part of the background noise of life at this point.

But I don't think in general it will manifest to masks on a permanent basis for healthcare workers, and more a function of "X" hospital or facilities internal policies. While mandates or requirements may go away in time, up to the employer in the end as now it will be a matter of their rules and internal regulations.

Well I work in a hospital and a very good percentage of doctors and other healthcare workers just keep it on their chin. It's pulled up for show when at meetings or entering a patient room. Sometimes even in a patient room it is taken down to communicate with elderly patients that are hard of hearing, they need to see your mouth due to lip reading.
Of course in the cafeteria no one wears masks.

Masks will be around for a long time I suspect. But actually wearing them as they are intended, in very many cases, no longer exists.

I also can't think of a co worker that has not already had Covid over all of these years. People that work in a hospital have good immune systems. It's pretty rare anyone calls in sick, except for Covid. And quarantining for Covid is down to 5 days and workers often come back coughing like a chimney for up to 3-5 more days after but are still allowed to work in any area of the hospital.

The Fall and Winter is usually the lynching hour with the Covid, so we shall see with the rise of the BA.4.6 variant. Also the question of the new boosters.

A lot in the pipeline. A universal Covid AND flu vaccine is in the works and I believe in human trials. That could be big stuff if it pans out well.

I don't know how these stats measure up to most cities, but an article recently came out showing foot traffic downtown Portland is up 65% from a year ago. Of course last year wasn't all that great. But I was downtown today briefly and despite all the closed stores (and smoky skies from wildfires) it seemed as busy as anytime before covid. The cell phone study also measured a very small area, leaving out the pearl, university district and cultural districts, as well so Old Town. I doubt Old Town is seeing much traffic but if that includes Saturday Market, that's a huge tourist draw also left out of that study. Nonetheless, Portland and other west coast cities have a ways to go to get things back in order to a point where businesses and people want to locate in the city center at a healthy clip again. I have faith!

Portland should just just offer tax incentives to companies that renew their downtown leases or bring back employees. Also companies should give in office employees raises! Im not even joking. Yeah downtown proper seems to be picking up steam. Its pretty busy around the sq. and the pearl is looking pretty good. I was downtown a couple times this weekend. Went out to eat on 23rd Saturday and just took a bike ride Sunday around the west side. Do you live downtown? Did you see that lightening??

You still have to wear a mask in Canadian airports. I flew from Toronto to Halifax and that was the first time I had a mask on since I had flown to the Cayman Islands in April, on the day the mask mandate was removed by a judge.

Even with the mandate in effect, a lot of people were only wearing the mask to go through the Canadian-equivalent TSA lines, and to board the plane, and if the flight attendants were making rounds. At least 25% of people were not wearing masks sitting around at gates, and no one was making an attempt to require a mask. Once you de-boarded the plane, almost everyone took their masks off immediately (which makes sense, because what are they going to do, kick you out of the airport you're leaving?). I didn't wear a mask for most of the time in the airport, and I didn't wear a mask most of the time on the plane, either.

It was pretty clear to me that most people were fatigued with masks, which has long been the case in the US. Pretty much everyone in Canada is ready to move on. If Canada renews mask mandates and vaccination+app border crossings, I think people are going to disregard them completely more and more openly. I already know of a few Canadians who crossed into the US, did not fill out the app coming back, and were let back in, so once word spreads that a Canadian citizen doesn't really need to fill that out, the app becomes obsolete.

By all accounts, consistent daily rush-hour traffic is back this September, for the first time since the pandemic (March 2020) in my metro area.

Which is still surprising to some degree as we still have many (most?) Canadian federal public servants living in the area working from home more days than not.

I shudder to think what it will look like if and when most of them go back.

Transit ridership is apparently only still around half of pre-pandemic levels. Which contrasts with Montreal and Toronto which I believe have recovered to 70-80% of pre-pandemic levels.

Peace Bridge traffic between Buffalo and Canada is currently still down 47% from 2019 pre-COVID numbers, although much higher than 2020 and 2021, when it was down by 80% and 71%, respectively. Truck traffic actually increased by 3% since 2019, so passenger cars are responsible for the drop. The Canadian border crossing rules, requiring use of the ArriveCan app for COVID tracking, proof of vaccination, and random (though infrequent) testing when arriving on the Canadian side, has discouraged many casual travelers from crossing.

Anecdotally, I have just recently seen long lines of cars and trucks on the bridge for the first time since 2019. There are also more Canadians shopping at area stores, although not anywhere near the numbers pre-COVID. The exchange rate may also be having an impact on Canadian shoppers.

Houston traffic is near pre-pandemic levels but from what I hear about the Bay Area, traffic no where near as bad as before times. Most people are WFH. My office is dead.

Since the Tuesday after Labor Day weekend traffic in NYC has felt the busiest since the pandemic started. The subway system has also set a number of pandemic era ridership highs over the past two weeks.

School is back in session so traffic has picked up everywhere.

80 in the north bay is back to normal for sure :yuck:.

I'm not looking forward to Peace Bridge traffic being at pre-pandemic levels.

I wonder if some of that construction that they did helps with the lines as well, though.

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/aust...rest-of-state/

My doctor ended all masking requirements in his office, months ago. I was last there in April and he asked me about my mask (Something like: Are you still afraid of Covid?) and said I didn't have to wear it. I was thinking all doctors offices would require it and was somewhat surprised when he said his office didn't require masks. My pharmacy has also removed the clear plastic walls they've had in place since 2020. No more talking around the clear plastic walls and trying to hear each other. I was at the post office last week and noticed the mask sticker on the door was removed, so no more masking at the post office. It's worth noting this is suburban Atlanta. My wife's specialist doctor and our son's doctor still require masks in their offices, as of July. We are talking about switching our son to my doctor, so only my wife Lauren's specialist doctor would require masks. Outside of that twice-a-year visit to her specialist, we wouldn't wear any masks and it won't seem any different than 2019.

I saw a news report that said COVID-19 death totals are now down to the same level as March 2020.

My mother in law had heart surgery a little over a week ago and most of the staff; nurses and doctors weren't wearing them. Only when they walked into her room. Patients or their visitors weren't required to wear them.

My condo's gym can finally be accessed 24 hrs a day starting October 1. The lifeguard supervises the gym & pool during the daytime, and the gym is locked after-hours (9pm to 6:30 am). People would get a key from the front desk every time they want to use the gym after-hours.

Previous to this, the gym was only open when the lifeguard was on duty due to COVID surge and monkeypox concerns. With this new 24 hour policy, we are basically reverting back to the pre-COVID schedule (though with slightly less daytime hours).

Canada is apparently finally dropping vaccination requirements for travel as of October 1st, though will apparently maintain masking mandates on flights, for now.

I wonder when the US will drop vaccine mandates - though the US system of enforcement is a lot less onerous than the Canadian system. US is basically just verbal confirmation at the border with no proof required, while Canada has / will have had an extensive system of needing to download an app, upload proof, random COVID testing, extensive quarantine and fines for failure to comply, etc.

Is the ArriveCAN app going away? I think the data collection from the app is a much bigger concern to most people than the vaccine requirement.

I could imagine. 680 too. Ugh. I have several coworkers who live in the Danville area and their commute is terrible...which is why they only come into the office once a week now.

Do they work downtown? If so I would take BART from Walnut Creek. I always thought BART should expand a line down the 680 corridor.

It lasted only two months and half. Masks are back on São Paulo public transit. I almost forgot mine today. It's back on airports and flights all over the country as well.

Number of daily deaths in the country had dropped to 50 in Oct and now it's on 110. Cases surged from 3,700 to 21,000 daily.