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Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

elbows said:
Whats the detail? If they are scaling down the national, centralised system in favour of the local ones then my attitude will be quite different compared to them scaling down the entire effort at every level.
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Will find a link. I think they are cutting staff rather than changing the set up sadly.

One of my staff worked for Serco on this. Applied on line, never heard anything back until a laptop, headset and a few pages of 'training' he worked on it for three months and only got sent two people to contact. One was the wrong number, the other never answered. #worldbeating
 
At some point you'd imagine the hotel quarantine will be built in as part of the holiday/travel if companies can try to provide socially distanced entertainment - don't know if that would be possible with cruise ships but you'd think someone would try.
 
two sheds said:
At some point you'd imagine the hotel quarantine will be built in as part of the holiday/travel if companies can try to provide socially distanced entertainment - don't know if that would be possible with cruise ships but you'd think someone would try.
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Cruise ships are fucked. They will force restarting of the industry but were shit with diseases before Covid-19.

As for the travel sector. They will have to use the 'approved' hotels which are mostly Tory donor's so doubt there is much left after G4S have taken their massive slice of the action.
 
Whole cruise ships had to be isolated when they found cases of covid - but they won't do the same for hotels, not sure what the difference should be. But take your point about tory donors and cash left over.
 
Badgers said:
Will find a link. I think they are cutting staff rather than changing the set up sadly.

One of my staff worked for Serco on this. Applied on line, never heard anything back until a laptop, headset and a few pages of 'training' he worked on it for three months and only got sent two people to contact. One was the wrong number, the other never answered. #worldbeating
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Thanks for the detail. I'll have to reserve judgement because the stories only deal with that one aspect, they dont indicate what else may be changing. Because if the local stuff is prioritised instead then its different staff involved so only hearing about the Serco side of things doesnt really give me any clues about that.
 
two sheds said:
At some point you'd imagine the hotel quarantine will be built in as part of the holiday/travel if companies can try to provide socially distanced entertainment - don't know if that would be possible with cruise ships but you'd think someone would try.
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No, I doubt it. It would quickly make a mockery of quarantine. And judging by stuff last year, where every new country added to the quarantine list resulted in people rushing home as if their life depended on it, the length of holiday/amount of time people get off work is a critical factor. People planning a week or twos holiday do not have additional weeks available to quarantine, and I doubt much window dressing exists that would make quarantine appealing.
 
Pah. They're advertising cruises on tv still. They just have to make quarentine into a benefit.

Covid Cruises. Five star food brought to your cabin. Widescreen tv with your favourite films wall to wall. View the exotic harbours of Europe through your porthole window ...

No imagination you people :rolleyes:
 
Badgers said:
Cruise ships are fucked. They will force restarting of the industry but were shit with diseases before Covid-19.
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My experience in 2019 was that they were quite impressive. There were guards who wouldn't let any fucker into the buffet queue without being doused in hand sanitiser. Most passengers thought it a novelty, although they are no doubt much more familiar with such procedures now.
 
elbows said:
No, I doubt it. It would quickly make a mockery of quarantine. And judging by stuff last year, where every new country added to the quarantine list resulted in people rushing home as if their life depended on it, the length of holiday/amount of time people get off work is a critical factor. People planning a week or twos holiday do not have additional weeks available to quarantine, and I doubt much window dressing exists that would make quarantine appealing.
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People able to wfh would be able to do so from a quarantine hotel, just as they were able to wfh whilst isolating after their holidays last year.

(Though I also don't think it will happen, as I do think & hope quarantine & the cost of it, is intended to dissuade people from unnecessary international travel - as you say, it would make a mockery of that.)
 
Jo Whiley has been drawing attention to carers - herself included - being offered vaccines before the people they care for, and before learning disabled people in care homes (who are often vulnerable due to additional health conditions).

Jo Whiley offered Covid jab before sister in care home who later tested positive

According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, 60% of people who died with Covid-19 in England up to November last year had a disability. For people who had a medically diagnosed learning disability, the risk of death was 3.7 times greater for both men and women than for people who did not.
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(Following a covid outbreak at her residential home, her sister Frances is now in hospital)

 
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cupid_stunt said:
Today's update -

First dose vaccinations now just over 16.4m - second doses are now going up, from around 5k a day last week, to 12.4k on Tuesday & 15k yesterday.

New cases - 12,057, overall a drop of 20.3% in the last week - that percentage drop is decreasing a little.

New deaths - 454, which is down 224 on last Thursday's 678, that brings the 7-day average down to around 551 a day, a drop of 26.9% in the last week - that's the lowest average we have had this year. :thumbs:
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Today's update -

First dose vaccinations now just under 16.9m - second doses are now just under 590k.

New cases - 12,027, overall a drop of 20.3% in the last week.

New deaths - 533, which is down 225 on last Friday's 758, that brings the 7-day average down to around 519 a day, a drop of 27.7% in the last week, again that's the lowest average we have had this year. :thumbs: .

ETA - and, patients in hospital have finally dropped below last April's peak, latest figure is 19,392, on Wed 17/2.
 
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hypernormalized said:
Thank you.

Unfortunately, thinking about what other people are able to tolerate doesn't really help me. If I were under Chinese rule I wouldn't have survived to be the age I am now either. I'm not wired that way, I'd have either been dragged off to a camp or topped myself by now. So it goes.

I'm glad you're surviving. :)
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If you were under Chinese rule you would be able to go out clubbing right now if you wanted.
 
FridgeMagnet said:
If you were under Chinese rule you would be able to go out clubbing right now if you wanted.
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Well, no, because I'd have killed myself or been carted away when my flat door was welded shut. Or before then for expressing the Chinese equivalent of "Boris is a cunt".

I'm sure society would tick on without me though, and the majority of people would celebrate my death. I'm happy I don't exist in that timeline, though I can see the tide is turning here in the UK.

The only thing keeping me going at the moment is the fact that our most draconian rules like "you're not allowed to have a picnic outside", "you're not allowed to walk at the beach", "you can't have a single friend over for a chat" aren't actually enforced, they're physically possible to do.

If they were; if we actually lived in the panopticon some seem to want; I would not be alive. It feels bizarre to write this online and know that people treat it as just words on a screen or some bollocks veiled threat, but it's a real thing, I'm hanging on by a thread here. I cling on to the anger in order to get out of bed in the morning and feed myself.
 
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Smangus said:
Meanwhile back at the ranch

Whitty at odds with Johnson over 'big bang' reopening of schools in England
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Ministers and senior policymakers, including permanent secretaries, have attempted to convince Whitty that he needs to make a public statement of support for the policy to reassure parents and teachers about safety, it is understood. But so far he has not provided an endorsement to be included in the media materials to be distributed ahead of Monday’s announcement, sources said.

Instead Whitty has offered support described as “lukewarm” and is expected to say it is down to politicians to make the final call on the timing of school reopenings.

An education source said they believed the row could be resolved, adding: “No 10 will come up with a formulation of words that Whitty can live with.”
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Well it probably isnt the first time this has happened!

A No 10 source said Sage advice on the roadmap would be published “after the event”.
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How long after is the question.

Meanwhile the roadmap announcements timing may not turn out the be the best. Looking at daily reported positive cases and some ZOE report, it seems the period of impressively fast decline in positive cases may well have ended for now.

covid.joinzoe.com

Rapid drop in cases slows down

According to the ZOE COVID Symptom Study UK Infection Survey figures, there are currently 14,064 daily new symptomatic cases of COVID in the UK on average, based on swab tests data from up to five days ago.
covid.joinzoe.com covid.joinzoe.com

Although daily new cases have fallen steadily for 6 consecutive weeks in the UK, in the last few days the rate of decrease has plateaued. This is mainly true in places like Scotland, Wales and the Midlands compared to London and the East. It’s unclear why this is happening, although people relaxing their guard after vaccination or altering behaviour in the cold weather are possible.
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Have we had this yet? High court rules that Hancock unlawfully failed to publish contracts relating to PPE procurement within 30 days. I imagine appeals will follow, and not sure whether there are implications beyond principle, and I suppose influence on any future inquiry.

www.theguardian.com

Matt Hancock acted unlawfully by failing to publish Covid contracts

High court judge rules failure to publish details of contracts within 30 days was transparency breach
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Hertfordshire news but I assume there is similar around the UK :hmm:

The lateral flow testing centres have been extended till the end of June. Guessing that is to support the easing of lockdown (and give the government another way to put blame on the public) and reopening of schools.

Also they have set up a couple of 'Covid Coaches' which will do testing in the villages etc. Apparently there will also be Vaccination Vans (buses) for the same areas.

Really hope there is a megaphone on top of these buses playing a Vengaboys cover :D

THE COVID COACH IS COMING LA LA LA LA
 
hypernormalized said:
Well, no, because I'd have killed myself or been carted away when my flat door was welded shut. Or before then for expressing the Chinese equivalent of "Boris is a cunt".

I'm sure society would tick on without me though, and the majority of people would celebrate my death. I'm happy I don't exist in that timeline, though I can see the tide is turning here in the UK.

The only thing keeping me going at the moment is the fact that our most draconian rules like "you're not allowed to have a picnic outside", "you're not allowed to walk at the beach", "you can't have a single friend over for a chat" aren't actually enforced, they're physically possible to do.

If they were; if we actually lived in the panopticon some seem to want; I would not be alive. It feels bizarre to write this online and know that people treat it as just words on a screen or some bollocks veiled threat, but it's a real thing, I'm hanging on by a thread here. I cling on to the anger in order to get out of bed in the morning and feed myself.
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If you were under Chinese rule, you would be a completely different person in the first place. You can't just take everything you are now and transplant it to a Chinese context without assuming anything about you is different. To this end, using Foucault's concept of "the panopticon" whilst simulataneously ignoring everything Foucault (and those after him) had to say about the implications of a panopticon for the formation of the self just makes you look like a pseud.

This is not just some point of pedantry. The point is that you are formed within the context of the society that forms you and this is a dynamic, ongoing process. In turn, this means that what we collectively do to protect or harm the vulnerable today will affect how we all react to the vulnerable tomorrow.
 
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kabbes said:
If you were under Chinese rule, you would be a completely different person in the first place. You can't just take everything you are now and transplant it to a Chinese context without assuming anything about you is different. To this end, using Foucault's concept of "the panopticon" whilst simulataneously ignoring everything Foucault (and those after him) had to say about the implications of a panopticon for the formation of the self just makes you look like a pseud.

This is not just some point of pedantry. The point is that you are formed within the context of the society that forms you and this is a dynamic, ongoing process. In turn, this means that what we collectively do to protect or harm the vulnerable today will affect how we all react to the vulnerable tomorrow.
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That's a really good point, actually, and one I made in the "Would you fight in WW1" thread on here - basically, I don't know, because I'd be a completely different person if I were born in the late 1800s.
 
:(

Office staff at UK Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency ballot for strike after 535 COVID-19 infections and death of worker

Workers are balloting for strike action at the UK’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)—a government agency under the Department of Transport. Over 2,000 are being forced to physically attend their workplace at the DVLA offices in Swansea, south Wales, with an astonishing 535 members of the workforce (over 25 percent of those in the office) catching coronavirus during the last year.
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Badgers said:
Hertfordshire news but I assume there is similar around the UK :hmm:

The lateral flow testing centres have been extended till the end of June. Guessing that is to support the easing of lockdown (and give the government another way to put blame on the public) and reopening of schools.

Also they have set up a couple of 'Covid Coaches' which will do testing in the villages etc. Apparently there will also be Vaccination Vans (buses) for the same areas.

Really hope there is a megaphone on top of these buses playing a Vengaboys cover :D

THE COVID COACH IS COMING LA LA LA LA
Click to expand...

West Sussex has had a vaccine bus on the road for a few weeks now, touring the villages, and our first 'mass' vaccination centre opened this week in Chichester, which I'll probably opt for, rather than Brighton, if I get an offer from the national programme before I get an invite to my local GP hub.

Although, it would be a lot easier if my SiL just brought a dose home for me, after finishing one of her jabbing sessions over at Chichester. :D
 
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