Only two weeks ago the daily case count for Ontario was tipping upward, driven mostly by the newly introduced COVID strains that had mutated first found in the United Kingdom and South Africa. Fully 40 percent of the newly reported cases were being attributed to the variants. The strain first seen in Brazil was also being identified. And now, news that a double-mutant variant that emerged in India leading to that country's soaring case count has also now been found in Ontario.

Two weeks earlier Ontario was reporting highs of 2,000 and over. And  hope was high that persuading people to register for vaccination appointments might begin to meet the challenge of increasing case numbers, even though the country was struggling to obtain enough vaccine doses to begin to make a dent in the fast-growing numbers.

People were complaining that the opportunities to register were complicated by inefficiency and by software that was seeing too many glitches; double-booking appointments so that people who had been issued verification of their appointment were then informed of cancelled appointments so they had to re-apply. That eventually got straightened out and for a few days inoculation procedures were going smoothly.

And then people complained that there were no openings. All the appointments had been taken and they were told to re-apply a few days later. At the very same time, other people were reporting that when they showed up for their appointments they were surprised to find that very few other people were showing up, the vaccines were being delivered to the scant few arms available, and some were going to waste.

Seems that some people, in their zeal to be inoculated against COVID-19 had taken to booking appointments at a number of different sites, and once they were inoculated at one, didn't bother advising the others that they had no further need to show up at the arranged appointment. That being the case, people who could be slotted in at the last moment, were not.Yesterday's reported case count had risen past 4500 people, more than doubling the number of two weeks earlier.

How our lives have been stressed and complicated by these fears and aggravations. All the more so with the grim news that case numbers are exploding, increasing exponentially with the presence of the variants and their community spread, far more communicable than the original virus, and, it would appear, causing far more serious outcomes, with hospitals strained to their limits.

Urban hospitals that have had to move non-COVID patients to other less-stressed hospitals in a near geographic region to make way for incoming COVID patients whose numbers keep growing. Each time we think things are close to being resolved, the SARS-CoV-2 virus undergoes genetic alterations and occasionally some of the resulting mutants learn to evade forward steps science makes. It's a race between vaccinating enough of the population to finally achieve the herd effect, and a swiftly-mutating virus that has the knack of staying ahead of the plans of mice and men.

 

We're beyond fortunate, personally, Not only that at age 84 we were on a priority list for vaccination, but because we live in our own home, have ample privacy, can avoid social groups and still have the opportunity to get to the out-of-doors for relief of mind, relaxation and physical exercise in one fell swoop. As we did yesterday and the day before, again today and will continue to tomorrow, with our two little dogs.

We can take our minds away from the turmoil of the global threat that the virus represents, from concerns over other world events, many of which do touch on our lives, with many more do not. We can share with one another the sights and pleasures that come with the unfolding spring season and the inevitable response of the environment.  Where surprises pop up here and there to make us wonder and delight in nature.

 

Halfway through our ramble through the trails today on a windy, partly sunny, partly cloudy 17C afternoon we realized that trout lilies have begun to make their appearance, the speckled, fish-shaped foliage beginning to emerge from the fecund leaf mass on the forest floor. Later, when we had almost completed our circuit, tiny bright spots of blue/pink caught our roving eye, in the presence of a garden plant that isn't usually seen on the forest floor. Wind-blown seeds from someone's garden of Pulmonaria, more commonly known as lungwort, with their delicate little bell-like flower heads.