I received a notification yesterday that I could book my third covid shot, and had the great luck to find an open slot already for this morning reasonably close by. Someone must have just cancelled their booking.

For future me, here’s the covid status as of now. The omicron variant is taking over and now accounts for 90% of all sequenced cases in Sweden. It leads to less severe symptoms but spreads faster than the previous dominant variant, delta. The vaccines are much less effective against it, but a third vaccine dose probably gets the efficacy up again.

Meanwhile covid is spreading everywhere. Right now half a million Swedes per week are estimated to get infected, out of a total population of 10 million. In Stockholm, 22% of staff in the city’s schools are home sick, and 19% of pupils. The authorities have been forced to relax quarantine rules (for people who have a covid infection in their household) so that essential activities such as water and power supply, police and public transport etc do not get disrupted due to lack of staff.

Public events are limited to 500 persons and require proof of vaccination. Restaurants have to close at 23 and groups are limited to a maximum of 8 people. Travelling actually seems mostly possible right now, and I still have hope that this year I might actually get my spring ski tour.

I got my previous two doses at Kistamässan, a shiny, large convention hall. Today’s appointment was in a scruffy school gym. The school itself appeared to be closed. The post-shot waiting area at Kistamässan had carefully spaced chairs with ropes to ensure that people keep their distance, and a large clock to help people stick to their 15 minutes, and staff keeping an eye on people. Here the waiting rooms were barely signposted (the first room slightly too full because the second one was not very discoverable) and haphazardly furnished.

The clinic was short-staffed (you can guess why!) so there was a longish queue. I’m glad I had an early spot – the queue was about 30 people long when I got there (in advance of my appointed time) but had grown to twice the size when I finally got out, an hour later.