In canada outside of Toronto mask wearing is quite limited and people enjoying life.

We had insane lockdowns that went on forever...so many people became doomers and loners

I finally got Covid. Lots of coughing, but only felt sick for a day. Thought I was over it, and then a few days ago BAM, felt awful and now I'm super tired all the time. Weird disease, never felt like this before. It feels like it comes in waves rather than feeling very sick and getting gradually better like a normal flu. It sucks that I can hardly do any social things anymore. I've had Covid for over 3 weeks now, when will this shit end?

You should not be contagious anymore, but symptoms can last for months
https://coronavirus.providence.org/blog/uf/669939767?streamId=7436536

It does come in waves but overall you should slowly be getting better, less severe 'waves'. My oldest (13) thought he was all better, went back to school after a week and only made it half a day. Then was back in bed for another week with more coughing, fatigue and even the fever came back for a bit.


We're in a BA.5 wave now
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-has-entered-another-wave-of-covid-19-experts-say-1.5973711

Ontario has entered a summer wave of COVID-19 as hospitalizations and wastewater data slowly creep upwards, infectious diseases experts say.

“We’re in one. It’s the real deal. I don't know how big it’s going to get, but it’s here,” Toronto infectious diseases specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch told CTV News Toronto on Monday. Bogoch points to COVID-19 wastewater data as a central indicator. Throughout June, this data has been ticking upward. It follows a steep drop in viral activity discovered in Ontario wastewater through most of the spring.

Along with wastewater, Bogoch points to an increase in the number of people testing positive for COVID-19. While testing is limited, the seven-day average for new cases detected through PCR testing was up 34 per cent week-over-week in the province’s most recent data.


And since my wife is still recovering from BA.2, can't really go anywhere as you can still get BA.5 on top. How long is this disease still going to hold us hostage :( Hope you get better soon!

4 months after my Infection I still can barely taste or smell anything. The only thing that I can taste is vanilla for some reason, so I'm eating vanilla ice cream like a mad man, lol.

and I was already pissed off when I couldn't taste or smell for two days and only very limited for another three days.

Tough, still yet to get one

They're calling it the summer wave now, or 3rd Omicron wave. Predicted to slowly keep building throughout July and peak in August, BA.5 and to lesser extent BA.4 taking over from BA.2

There are also rising concerns about whether hospitals can handle a rise in cases, as emergency rooms across the country are currently facing unprecedented wait times, with some even facing shutdowns.

“The health-care system took a real walloping during this pandemic, and it never fully recovered,” Dr. Christopher Labos, a Montreal-based epidemiologist and cardiologist, told CTV News Channel on Monday.

“You have staff shortages, you have people who are burned out, and you're starting to see emergency rooms being forced to close for weekends or evenings because of staff shortages. And all this is happening in the context of more and more patients getting sick and more and more patients ending up in the hospital,” he added.

“Things are not OK.”


Cases in Quebec are rising as well

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-reports-jump-in-covid-19-cases-hospitalizations-as-province-adds-20-deaths-1.5974774

Quebec is reporting another jump in COVID-19 cases on Tuesday as the province records 20 more deaths and 147 additional hospitalizations in the last 24 hours.

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/covid-19-outbreaks-lead-to-temporary-closure-of-at-least-3-quebec-sleepaway-camps-1.5974947

Parents were scrambling Tuesday to pick up their kids after three sleepaway camps in Quebec were forced to temporarily shut down because of COVID-19.

Most of the infections are among staff – and some were physically unable to work after getting COVID-19, said Raill. As isolating all staff members and implementing new precautions became more difficult, Camp Ouareau decided to temporarily close altogether. The camp is hoping to reopen by July 13.

The virus in some cases was detected too late due to some false negative results from rapid tests.

"The unfortunate part of this year is that there is no allotment for residential camps to use PCR tests. Last year, every single camper, CIT (counsellor-in-training), and staff member had to have a PCR test," said Raill, who said she hopes the Quebec camping association can provide the camp with proper testing equipment in the near future.

Limited testing, unreliable rapid tests, no more social distancing nor mask use, BA.5 will just keep gaining momentum.

There is an emerging BA.2 lineage that might, or might not, have a transmission advantage over BA.4 and BA.5.

BA.2.75 has the core BA.2 spike with mutations at sites K147E, W152R, F157L, I210V, G339H, G446S, N460K, reversion of R493Q. R493Q is also present in BA.4/5, G446S was present in BA.1. Antigenically it's halfway between BA.1 and BA.2 and quite close to it unlike BA.4 and BA.5, which seems to suggest its advantage is just tranmissibility rather than immune escape.

This would suggest BA.4/5 will be replaced before winter, and it'd wouldn't be such a bad deal, since the BA.1 vaccine should work much better against it than against BA.4/5.

I'm sure you've already gone to a doctor about the reemergence but if you haven't it might be worth it. I had a similar sounding situation where I had covid that wasn't too bad, was feeling better for a week, and then started feeling crappy on the third week after getting covid. Turned out while recovering from covid I got a bacterial infection which the urgent care physician I talked to said they saw all the time. Antibiotics helped me clear it up and now a full month after covid I'm finally feeling like myself. 

Weekly update. Looks like the BA.4/BA.5 wave is spreading

In total 6.07 million new cases were reported last week (up from 5.43 million) to a total of 559,674,628
Also another 11,458 more deaths were reported (up from 10,638) to a total of 6,371,455

Europe keeps on climbing, 3.04 million new cases (2.63 million last week) and 3,839 more deaths (3,257 last week)
The USA had a big dip on the 4th of July and stays about the same, 766K new cases (798K last week) and 2,459 more deaths (2,640 last week)

The continents

Asia and Oceania are picking up speed, Africa still in slight decline.

Corners of the world

Japan, South Korea and Iran are rising sharply.
Canada reported 24.5K new cases (up from 19.5K) and 190 deaths (145 last week)

Europe in detail

Austria might be peaking, Norway going back down, the rest all climbing.

I wonder what the real numbers are if testing was still done regularly.

The next stage, bivalent vaccines?
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/the-next-stage-in-the-battle-against-covid-19-bivalent-vaccines-1.5977758

The evidence so far is they can increase antibody levels further than prior doses. But he says there is no clinical data illustrating what, exactly, that means: Does that translate to longer protection against symptomatic disease? Even more protection against hospitalization? How long do the effects last? Will they wane over time?

"There's no guarantees with this booster that is coming," says Chagla. "My guess is it probably will extend the benefits for symptomatic infection more than eight weeks, nine weeks, 10 weeks." He suspects they'll behave much the same way as current COVID-19 shots: induced antibodies will decay over time and people may be infected again.

Complicating matters is the fact that the virus continues to evolve, Chagla adds.

And that's the big problem letting Covid basically run free now. It's still a very nasty disease, for some with effects that last for many months. Next to loss of hearing in one ear, my wife keeps having cramped muscles in one leg, making it hard to sleep. Thus still sheltering, now for BA.5 :/