Covid restrictions over (for us)

[Frank Cox]

Tonight was the last night that I had to deal with face masks and limited seating and social distancing and so on. As of midnight tonight all of the covid-related public health restrictions in Saskatchewan are rescinded and the provincial declaration of emergency is cancelled.

I guess we're declaring the pandemic over in our area. I gather that the thinking is that everyone has now had more than enough opportunity to get fully vaccinated by now, so those who haven't done so are now responsible for their own actions; everyone else can get back to normal life.

I had over half of my seats zip-tied so they couldn't be folded down and used so after tonight's show I spent an hour walking up and down the rows with a wire cutter removing the zip ties. Boy, have I got a bag full of zip ties!

It will be interesting to see if the attendance increases now that people don't have to wear face masks when they walk in the door and when they are in the lobby.

I just realized that I forgot to remove my giant "no gathering in the lobby" sign, so I'll go and get that folded up and out of there right now before I forget about it again.

[Steve Guttag]

Any word on the US/Canada border and if people that live near it can cross freely again?

[Gordon McLeod]

The last that has been said it will open gradually with fully vacinated and a negative test would not have to quarantine but they havent worked out the details yet

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

It reopens July 21st to vaccinated people. Trudeau says not for a long time to the un-vaccinated.... So be sure to have your proof of vaccination card with you,,,

https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzanne...h=748eb92177fd

https://www.reuters.com/world/americ...au-2021-07-08/

[Steve Guttag]

We have a Drive-In right at the border and probably half their audience comes from Canada. When I was up there (Madawaska, ME) for the opening of their season it was just odd to basically see right across but to have no contact.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I don't know if Canadians are allowed here or not yet, and if they do come across what they have to do to go back there. COVID test, or Quarantine?

[Carsten Kurz]

We also just got rid of essentially all covid restrictions in our part of germany. Mask wearing is just a recommendation now here. We have to maintain at least a checker-board seating pattern, though. If we won't and want to assign all seats, we'd still need negative test cert from patrons. Not a big issue for us with the number of seats we have, people still welcome the distancing. We let it to them choosing their seats so everyone feels comfortable.

[Frank Cox]

The Saskatchewan government has advised businesses that they aren't allowed to ask for customer's vaccination status due to health privacy laws. Meanwhile in Manitoba (the next province to the east) they have an actual "vaccine passport".

[Leo Enticknap]

The mask wearing requirement in California is now over, apart from in schools and hospitals (state mandated) and for air, rail, and bus travel (federally mandated). For indoor workplaces, an employer has to be able to prove that the entire workforce at a given location has been vaxxed for the mask mandate to go away, and in LA County at least, they are doing spot checks to enforce that. Private businesses can require customers to wear a mask: a few still are (e.g. my local gas station, to enter the store part), but the vast majority are not.

[Gordon McLeod]

I don't know if Canadians are allowed here or not yet, and if they do come across what they have to do to go back there. COVID test, or Quarantine?

If you have a negative test and fully vaccinated then no quarantine. But they still havent said what level of travel will be allowed. Also the USA still has not said they will be agreeable to it you if they will acknowledge the astra vaccine currently New York state says they dont accept it under there rules for defining vaccinated

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

If you have a negative test and fully vaccinated then no quarantine. But they still haven't said what level of travel will be allowed. Also the USA still has not said they will be agreeable to it you if they will acknowledge the Astra vaccine currently New York state says they don't accept it under there rules for defining vaccinated

That's probably wise not to accept it because it only provides 70% effectiveness on one dose. To further the effectiveness it also requires two doses.Moderna and Pfizer are upwards of 90%. And even Pfizer is talking like we will need a booster shot so it maintains its effectiveness.

https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-ce...ii-trials.html

[Leo Enticknap]

The AstraZeneca issue is going to grow into a larger one if proof of vaccination for international travel becomes the norm. The USA has not approved AstraZeneca, many other countries have not approved Moderna, and some have declined to approve Johnson and Johnson (primarily over concerns about a statistically significant number of cases of Guillain-Barré Syndrome linked to it). AFAIK, Pfizer is the only one that has been approved, and widely used, in most developed world countries.

So if vax passports are going to become the norm for international travel, there will either need to be an internationally agreed list of vaccines that qualify, including some that are approved for use in the origin country but not in the destination country, or anyone who wants to travel internationally will need to get Pfizer shots, even if they've already had another sort.

[Lyle Romer]

That's probably wise not to accept it because it only provides 70% effectiveness on one dose. To further the effectiveness it also requires two doses.Moderna and Pfizer are upwards of 90%. And even Pfizer is talking like we will need a booster shot so it maintains its effectiveness.

https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-ce...ii-trials.html

Pfizer is talking like they want to sell a lot of doses for a booster shot. Thus far, the CDC and NIH are saying they aren't necessary.

[William Kucharski]

To clarify the CDC has said they don't see evidence a third shot is needed yet… but Israel has already started providing a third Pfizer shot to severely immunocompromised patients.

[Marcel Birgelen]

The third shot may be an opportunity to provide more resistance to the new COVID variations. I've seen two mild cases of the Delta variant among people I know, both of them were fully vaccinated with Pfizer/BIONTEC Comirnaty.