The Governing Body Announces That Some In-Person Meetings Will Resume in Select Areas

[hatcheckgirl]

2 hours ago, happiness IS said:

Perhaps low 30's (centigrade) Probably next week, expect temperature to hit the low 40's. Even now Perth is expected to have a maximum temperature of 39 ° C. Wow that's really hot. 

 

It’s 27C at midnight. We start the baking from tomorrow 🥵

[Adam!]

4 hours ago, Bluebell said:

Britain Branch is back on strict lockdown. Only urgent doctor appointments are allowed.

Do you know whether they are allowed to leave their rooms? I know some who went back to see their families in late November/ early December.

[MullumMiss]

9 hours ago, hatcheckgirl said:

In-person meeting for my congregation (not sure of rest of Western Australia) is on hold for Tuesday and Saturday this week. We have mask mandate again due to Omicron cases increasing in the community. But also, we are expecting another week of temperatures in the low 40s, so wearing a mask at the meeting is uncomfortable. 
 

So we are zooming again, and I’m thankful our elders are being prudent and looking carefully at the situation as it changes. The announcement we got said it will be reviewed after Saturday. And we know how fast omicron can spread. A week is a long time. But, we’ll wait and see if the pilot program continues for much longer over here. 

I spoke with a friend in Tasmania and they have discontinued in person meetings indefinitely at this stage.  As we know Tasmania's borders opened a short while ago and the virus cases are steadily climbing there ever since.  

[Bluebell]

46 minutes ago, Adam! said:

Do you know whether they are allowed to leave their rooms? I know some who went back to see their families in late November/ early December.

Sorry...I don't know......

[jwhess]

Our congregation here in the rural areas of Ohio, USA are still getting cases. One more positive test yesterday and one quite sick but no test results yet.

[jwhess]

My daughter who lives about 30 miles west of me just sent me a text.  She said "several" in her congregation tested positive this week.  Our state of Ohio, USA is setting many records in case numbers and so on.  I just looked and Saturday we went over 50,000 cases for the day. with a 7-day average of almost 28,000 (which means our citizens are being infected at a rate of almost 200,000 a week).  And that is just our state, no the country. ...🤒

 

No pilot programs for us.

[Tortuga]

Caleb was in a pilot program..😁

[New World Explorer]

5 hours ago, Tortuga said:

Caleb was in a pilot program..😁

But he crushed! ...is this a prophecy? LOL 🤣

[Dustparticle]

13 hours ago, jwhess said:

My daughter who lives about 30 miles west of me just sent me a text.  She said "several" in her congregation tested positive this week.  Our state of Ohio, USA is setting many records in case numbers and so on.  I just looked and Saturday we went over 50,000 cases for the day. with a 7-day average of almost 28,000 (which means our citizens are being infected at a rate of almost 200,000 a week).  And that is just our state, no the country. ...🤒

 

No pilot programs for us.

 

Why are those friends testing positive? Are they going along with the rules? Is is work related?

[jwhess]

56 minutes ago, Dustparticle said:

 

Why are those friends testing positive? Are they going along with the rules? Is is work related?

In our congregation, the last two sisters have non-witness mates who work in the public.  One sister's brother was in the hospital and died.  She got infected at the funeral from her family. The other sister was infected from her husband.

 

Our local needs part this week was a re-enforcing of the need to be careful, vigilant and on the watch at all time.  the younger brother attends a public high school.  The school closed down for 2 days because of the need for a "deep-cleaning" after a large percentage of students got serious flu infections.

 

My daughter's congregation is in a major city and their city/county is at the top of the record infections in Indiana, USA.  Many opportunities to be exposed at work, school and so on.  Their school system has decided to go back to on-line education for the current time.

[AH173]

1 hour ago, Dustparticle said:

 

Why are those friends testing positive? Are they going along with the rules? Is is work related?

If you had the chance to see many of Dr John Campbell videos on YouTube, you would understand how transmissable omicron Covid-19 is. 

[Dages]

1 hour ago, Dustparticle said:

 

Why are those friends testing positive? Are they going along with the rules? Is is work related?

work or school related, I guess. It's difficult to avoid. It's a miracle my daughter hasn't been affected yet.

[New World Explorer]

4 hours ago, Dustparticle said:

Why are those friends testing positive? Are they going along with the rules? Is is work related?

The virus is everywhere, you go and book medical appointment and someone infected could be attending there, supermarkets are real triggers as "everybody" goes shopping. Not to mention other activities as work. Omicron is simply highly contagious, and there is hardly any place to hide from the virus. (you could lock yourself in a room and refuse to venture outside, but even food delivery is not safe, as the person who delivers your food could be infected as well) 

 

The only safe place at the moment is a Space Station LOL 🤣

[Amygdala]

4 hours ago, Dages said:

work or school related, I guess. It's difficult to avoid. It's a miracle my daughter hasn't been affected yet.

My sentiments exactly. My daughter is in school, and a few have tested positive, quarantined individually and returned to class.

 

Whenever I go grocery shopping, before I take the shopping cart, I clean the handles thoroughly with my own disinfection spray in my purse. I also disinfect my hands after shopping. We have to wear masks here, but I make sure my mask isn't too used or old.

 

But many in my local area and a few in the congregation have gotten it too. Not sure how they got it.

[Adam!]

Just been told that the Sydney (Australiasia) branch is back in lockdown.

[Sofia]

4 hours ago, New World Explorer said:

even food delivery is not safe

Right

omicron transmission through fomites is being disregarded!

7 hours ago, Dages said:

work or school related, I guess. It's difficult to avoid. It's a miracle my daughter hasn't been affected yet.

My sister in law’s son got it in school

he s 14

now all in quarantine 🙈

omicron fortunately 

Edited January 19, 2022 by Sofia

[GeordieGirl]

I have it from a 99% reliable source that some of our local congs have opted out of the program voluntarily and gone back to Zoom permanently. I am having friends over tomorrow from one of those congs so I shall be verifying the rumour. As yet my cong is not one of those, though we have our meeting tonight so maybe we will get further information then.

[hatcheckgirl]

An interesting development here in Western Australia.  Our Premier has changed his mind about opening up the borders on Feb 5 , and that is due to Omicron surge, which wasn't taken into account in the modelling.  It is interesting he said:

 

"If we proceeded with the original plan, we would be deliberately ceding thousands upon thousands of COVID cases into WA and at this point in time that is not what I am going to do.

"Especially when the science says we need to boost third doses and so many young children still need to get their vaccine."

"It would be reckless and irresponsible to open up now, I can't do it."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-20/wa-border-opening-delayed/100771492

 

The planned reopening of Western Australia's border to the rest of the country on February 5 will be delayed indefinitely.  Now that might mean the congregations in Perth and the rest of the state may be able to resume meetings safely, if the sporadic cases of Omicron can be contained.  It's a wait and see situation.

[GeordieGirl]

On 1/20/2022 at 9:43 PM, hatcheckgirl said:

The planned reopening of Western Australia's border to the rest of the country on February 5 will be delayed indefinitely.  

Lots of angry and upset people here at the moment  - not us. The world!

 

No announcement from my cong on Wednesday that we were going to Zoom only, but when my friends came around on Thursday I remembered to ask them about their cong and yes, they voluntarily opted out of the program about 4 weeks ago - when our last mask wearing episode happened. 

 

Mask wearing only happens here intermittently, when there is a possible outbreak in the community.  Currently, it is in all public indoor places, with one annual outdoor festival coming up, where mask wearing has been mandated. There are usually about 250,000 in attendance all around the city.  It will make for an interesting evening for the authorities and I can't see them being able to police that successfully. 🙄

[Sofia]

On 1/19/2022 at 12:53 AM, Sofia said:

omicron transmission through fomites is being disregarded!

Now finally a study that proves my findings on the omicron genome:

 

On the plastic surface, the researchers analyzed the survival times of the Wuhan strain, Alpha variant, Beta variant, Gamma variant, Delta variant, and Omicron variant to be 56.0 h, 191.3 h, 156.6 h, 59.3 h, 114.0 h, and 193.5 h, respectively.

While on the human skin surface, they analyzed the survival times of the Wuhan strain, Alpha variant, Beta variant, Gamma variant, Delta variant, and Omicron variant to be 8.6 h, 19.6 h, 19.1 h, 11.0 h, 16.8 h, and 21.1 h, respectively; with the Omicron variant having the longest survival time. The researchers reported that the half-life values had the same tendency as the survival time.

 

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20220121/Omicron-found-to-have-higher-environmental-stability-among-SARS-CoV-2-variants.aspx

 

be careful, because omicron DOES get transmitted through fomites. 

Objects can carry the viral particles, it´s membrane (outer layer) is stronger that previous variants.

 

[Lee49]

18 minutes ago, Sofia said:

be careful, because omicron DOES get transmitted through fomites. 

So, get back to using hand sanitizer after the grocery store etc.! 

 

[Sofia]

2 minutes ago, Lee49 said:

So, get back to using hand sanitizer after the grocery store etc.! 

 

Yup 😖😖😖😖

[Brother_Bliss]

On 1/23/2022 at 7:27 PM, Sofia said:

... "with the Omicron variant having the longest survival time" .....

 

be careful, because omicron DOES get transmitted through fomites. Objects can carry the viral particles, it´s membrane (outer layer) is stronger that previous variants.

 

 

In other words, let's not neglect the importance of proper hand washing before touching your face.

 

[Ms. Piffle]

My sister, my niece and 5 other brothers and sisters have all tested positive the last couple of weeks.  One of the sisters has been in ICU for about a week now.  They were all very diligent about wearing masks, social distancing, hand washing, etc....With the exception of my sister and niece, all are vaccinated and boosted, including the sister in ICU. This virus is everywhere and very contagious.  More than likely most if not all got the virus from their work place.  The majority of people here do not wear masks.  The few places that do say they require masks, including the clinics, Dr. Offices, etc still allow people to come in without one. 

 

     "Just a little while longer". . . 

 

 

[Mykyl]

My wife has now come down with it. That’s 9 I personally know in the past week and a half. In all cases it’s clear it came from that apparent miracle place that doesn’t spread it otherwise known as a school. 🙄