Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[editor]

Good job nobody was doing anything like that in parks up and down the country yesterday and there’s not a hot and sunny bank holiday weekend coming up... oh.

I'm not sure what your point is. Two households are now allowed to gather outside so you'll be seeing a lot more of that. I'll probably be joining some people too.

 

[maomao]

Good job nobody was doing anything like that in parks up and down the country yesterday and there’s not a hot and sunny bank holiday weekend coming up... oh.

Weather for the bank holiday weekend looks shit to be honest

 

[teuchter]

My strategy from now on is just to accept that people are going to gather in large groups outside, and cases are going to go up again especially in younger age groups. I will simply avoid going anywhere crowded until I've had my vaccination, although I'll take some measured risks using trains and so on. I don't think much transmission will take place while groups are sitting in parks; it'll happen when they get drunk, it gets cold, and they decide to all go back to someone's house.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I'm not sure what your point is. Two households are now allowed to gather outside so you'll be seeing a lot more of that. I'll probably be joining some people too.

My point is that considerably more than 2 households are going to meet up, as evidenced by yesterday.

 

[editor]

My point is that considerably more than 2 households are going to meet up, as evidenced by yesterday.

I don't think mass, packed-in gatherings are going to be that common - I was in Brockwell Park yesterday and there was plenty of smallish groups of people sat on the grass, but nothing that was taking the piss. I expect some people will go back to smallish house parties afterwards and I imagine that's precisely what you and I would do if were 20 years old now.

 

[Sunray]

We will see what happens over the next 5 weeks, 17 May is the next date to see how it's going. If those crazy scenes had any effect. I suspect not.
Hospital admissions need to stay on their downward trend, nice to see most people are being discharged.

UK Campsites are making me laugh. Pretty much all there is for a holiday. Current guidance from the 12th April is no holiday lets with shared facilities. Loads of campsites are going 'surely this doesn't mean toilets!'. The Gov has been opaque at times, but 'shared facilities' is pretty clear and would include toilets. So unless they give everyone their own portaloo, possible, you will have to bring your own until the 17th May.

 

[Cloo]

Weather for the bank holiday weekend looks shit to be honest

This is possibly as well - or maybe not as people will end up indoors together.

 

[existentialist]

We will see what happens over the next 5 weeks, 17 May is the next date to see how it's going. If those crazy scenes had any effect. I suspect not.
Hospital admissions need to stay on their downward trend, nice to see most people are being discharged.

UK Campsites are making me laugh. Pretty much all there is for a holiday. Current guidance from the 12th April is no holiday lets with shared facilities. Loads of campsites are going 'surely this doesn't mean toilets!'. The Gov has been opaque at times, but 'shared facilities' is pretty clear and would include toilets. So unless they give everyone their own portaloo, possible, you will have to bring your own until the 17th May.

A local (ish) campsite is saying "self-contained units only" - they have to have their own toilet and washing facilities. No tents, no "vans" (ie, Transits with a bed in)

 

[Boudicca]

A local (ish) campsite is saying "self-contained units only" - they have to have their own toilet and washing facilities. No tents, no "vans" (ie, Transits with a bed in)

I think different campsites are interpreting the rules differently. A lot of campervanners bought portable toilets & toilet tents last year. The debate is whether a toilet tent counts or does it have to be 'onboard'. Also whether campsites should be dictating how you wash your body/what's wrong with a sink and flannel.

So some campsites are happy if you bring your own toilet and others are being more fussy.

 

[existentialist]

I think different campsites are interpreting the rules differently. A lot of campervanners bought portable toilets & toilet tents last year. The debate is whether a toilet tent counts or does it have to be 'onboard'. Also whether campsites should be dictating how you wash your body/what's wrong with a sink and flannel.

So some campsites are happy if you bring your own toilet and others are being more fussy.

Pencarnan (the site I mentioned) won't allow toilet tents. I think they've interpreted the rules pretty strictly. And this is Wales, where they may be subtly different anyway.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Good job nobody was doing anything like that in parks up and down the country yesterday and there’s not a hot and sunny bank holiday weekend coming up... oh.

Thankfully not!

 

[Artaxerxes]

I think we've moved on a bit as science has progressed. Outdoors has been seen to be pretty safe

Thats really not stopped the media, the twitterscape or indeed anyone vocal complaining about it.

 

[Boudicca]

A comment on our local news FB page referred to the 'Staycation Apocalyse' coming our way.

 

[two sheds]

How long does the nose swab take to get results? Friend has just had one done this afternoon at the hospital and is assuming he's ok because they've not told him it's positive. I see that it normally takes 5-7 days for results though.

 

[cupid_stunt]

How long does the nose swab take to get results? Friend has just had one done this afternoon at the hospital and is assuming he's ok because they've not told him it's positive. I see that it normally takes 5-7 days for results though.

Not sure where you got 5-7 days from, most are turned around in 24-48 hours.

 

[two sheds]

Not sure where you got 5-7 days from, most are turned around in 24-48 hours.

Not within a couple of hours though even at a hospital? He's not actually got any of the symptoms but I'm seeing him tomorrow

 

[maomao]

How long does the nose swab take to get results? Friend has just had one done this afternoon at the hospital and is assuming he's ok because they've not told him it's positive. I see that it normally takes 5-7 days for results though.

Whenever we've had them done in hospitals this year (particularly my son who's probably had 10-15) the results have taken 2-4 hours.

 

[two sheds]

Reassuring, ta

 

[cupid_stunt]

Not within a couple of hours though even at a hospital? He's not actually got any of the symptoms but I'm seeing him tomorrow

A couple of hours would be pushing it, my SiL that used to head up the labs in our local hospitals before retiring, but went back to help last year, said they were turning them around in 4 - 12 hours, partly down to which of the three hospital sites in the trust carried out the test, as only a lab at one site was processing them.

Some trusts don't even have their own lab(s) processing tests, so they take longer.

 

[zahir]

BBC One - Panorama, Undercover: Inside the Covid Testing Lab

Panorama goes undercover inside a lab analysing Covid-19 tests.

www.bbc.co.uk

Panorama goes undercover inside a lab analysing thousands of Covid-19 tests per day. Secretly filmed footage reveals a failing service with shoddy practices, where staff complain they are under pressure to meet targets despite the lab often running well below capacity.

The programme discovers there have been three outbreaks of coronavirus among staff and that social distancing is poorly maintained. Test samples sometimes arrive poorly packaged and labelled, with equipment frequently malfunctioning, leading to contamination of results. The programme also discovers that tests, including some intended to find new variants of coronavirus, have been wrongly discarded or lost.

 

[blameless77]

A couple of hours would be pushing it, my SiL that used to head up the labs in our local hospitals before retiring, but went back to help last year, said they were turning them around in 4 - 12 hours, partly down to which of the three hospital sites in the trust carried out the test, as only a lab at one site was processing them.

Some trusts don't even have their own lab(s) processing tests, so they take longer.

Mobile lamp - lab in a van - is speeding that up.

 

[MrSki]

 

[elbows]

In some settings lateral flow positive tests may then be checked by doing a PCR test, but it sounds like this is now going to become broader policy, in part so they can do genomic analysis:

PCR testing to be used in England to confirm positive results from rapid tests

The move comes as part of efforts to quickly detect new and emerging ‘variants of concern’

www.independent.co.uk

 

[elbows]

This sort of thing is one of the reasons I expressed some concern about the giddy nature of the vaccine rollout/ media coverage and messaging about it.

One in 25 Covid hospitalisations in UK since December have received vaccine

Data suggests people may ‘wrongly assume they are immune’ shortly after first jab

www.independent.co.uk

Data submitted by the Covid-10 Clinical Information Network (CO-CIN) showed there were 1,802 recorded cases of vaccinated patients admitted to hospital with the virus in the UK as of 5 March - equivalent to 4.2 per cent of all Covid-related hospitalisations since 8 December, when the UK’s vaccination programme began.

The report found that the median time between vaccination and onset of Covid symptoms for these patients was five days. Immunity after a first vaccine jab for all the available vaccines develops around three to four weeks after the dose.

The CO-CIN report also noted: “Elderly and vulnerable people who had been shielding may have inadvertently been exposed and infected either through the end-to-end process of vaccination, or shortly after vaccination through behavioural changes where they wrongly assume they are immune.”

Also note the last possibility mentioned in this bit:

They may also have been infected shortly before getting vaccinated, during the vaccine appointment, or that the jab triggered Covid symptoms in people who had been infected but were asymptomatic.

 

[teuchter]

They may also have been infected shortly before getting vaccinated, during the vaccine appointment, or that the jab triggered Covid symptoms in people who had been infected but were asymptomatic.

They are doing vaccinations at my local pharmacy but I'm a bit dubious about the setup.

If you are just a pharmacy customer, then they are allowing two customers in the shop at a time. So you wait outside. But then when you go in, it's you, maybe another pharmacy customer, plus two (or maybe three) people waiting to get their vaccination. Everyone is probably 2m apart but they are all in the same internal space with unknown ventilation. I don't really understand their thinking. The people waiting to be vaccinated are likely the ones to be most at risk... so why do they not wait outside until it's time for their vaccination? They've obviously decided it's feasible for people to wait outside because that's what they are asking regular customers to do.

 

[Brainaddict]

I was astonished to learn that people are generally not verbally told that they must wait four weeks for the vaccine to be effective. They are given a leaflet but the natural home for all leaflets is the bin and I can't believe this isn't understood. Do they think people read instruction manuals too ffs? Seems to me that verbal explanation - both of the four weeks until it works and that vaccinated people can get infected and spread it - should be part of the vaccination process, however boring it would be for those doing it.

 

[cupid_stunt]

I was astonished to learn that people are generally not verbally told that they must wait four weeks for the vaccine to be effective. They are given a leaflet but the natural home for all leaflets is the bin and I can't believe this isn't understood. Do they think people read instruction manuals too ffs? Seems to me that verbal explanation - both of the four weeks until it works and that vaccinated people can get infected and spread it - should be part of the vaccination process, however boring it would be for those doing it.

I was told that verbally at my GP surgery, and my SiL who's checking people's details before their jab, at an NHS vaccination centre, says it's part of what they discuss before sending them over to a jabbing station.

 

[Orang Utan]

I was astonished to learn that people are generally not verbally told that they must wait four weeks for the vaccine to be effective. They are given a leaflet but the natural home for all leaflets is the bin and I can't believe this isn't understood. Do they think people read instruction manuals too ffs? Seems to me that verbal explanation - both of the four weeks until it works and that vaccinated people can get infected and spread it - should be part of the vaccination process, however boring it would be for those doing it.

Is it four weeks after the first or the second? Not sure what we’re supposed to do with that information anyway

 

[LDC]

I was astonished to learn that people are generally not verbally told that they must wait four weeks for the vaccine to be effective. They are given a leaflet but the natural home for all leaflets is the bin and I can't believe this isn't understood. Do they think people read instruction manuals too ffs? Seems to me that verbal explanation - both of the four weeks until it works and that vaccinated people can get infected and spread it - should be part of the vaccination process, however boring it would be for those doing it.

I tell people after the jab before I explain possible side effects etc., but was never told to tbh. I agree it does seem slightly bonkers, but it's hard as retention of info by patients with something like this is very, very low, so a leaflet is the way round that, but aIso agree people rarely read them.

 

[LDC]

Is it four weeks after the first or the second? Not sure what we’re supposed to do with that information anyway

It builds up after the first over about 2-4 weeks, the second dose boosts it up and prolongs it further.

Not really supposed to do anything, for me it's a reminder to them that they're not invincible when they step out of the vaccine place and that they should continue to follow the guidelines etc.