Ireland has been experiencing a record number of new daily COVID-19 cases over the last few days. Yesterday’s tally came to a mind-blowing 20,554, although due to limited testing capacity, the true number could be closer to 30,000. I’ve been in close contact with two people who have come down with cold/flu symptoms this week — first, there was S. (with whom I spent Christmas) who managed to get a PCR test that came back negative and my friend CJ (whom I met for lunch on Wednesday) who hasn’t been able to book a test due to the unprecedented demand. I feel fine and have taken a couple of self-administered antigen tests that have come back negative, so I think I’m still COVID-free. The booster rollout programme is accelerating, with third vaccine doses being offered to those aged 30-39 starting December 23rd and as of this Sunday January 2nd they will be offered to everyone 16 and over. Hospitalizations are up sharply, but so far ICU bed capacity has not been strained.
My New Year’s Eve plans have been squashed thanks to omicron. Originally, CJ and I were going to have a movie night at my place with maybe 1-2 other people, but that was canceled once he fell ill. Nevertheless, I was inspired by the idea and decided to invest in a high resolution projector to create a mini home theatre in my sitting/living room. It actually works rather well, as there is a large blank white wall on one side of the room so the “screen” measures around 120 inches. I haven’t had many other social interactions, other than meeting another acquaintance/friend J. for lunch yesterday at a new Taiwanese street-food style restaurant not far from me on Aungiers Street. Then yesterday evening, I enjoyed a few martinis while catching up with my friend B. in California over a long phone call.
The weather has been very unseasonably mild, with highs in the upper 50s F / mid 10s C today. Although there has been more rain lately, most of the days have been dry. This afternoon I took advantage of the nice weather by going on a long round-trip walk down through the Portobello neighbourhood to Rathmines, not quite 10,000 steps. With restaurants and pubs still closing at 8:00pm, I imagine things will be relatively quiet in Dublin tonight.
Until next time….
