Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[prunus]

Age limit for self-booking has dropped to 21 it seems

Book or manage your coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination

 

[baldrick]

Looks like the national booking system is being updated so people can see availability of slots before they cancel and rebook an earlier vaccination

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Anyone know how this works if you've had a first jab through a GP? It seems to be set up for those who went through the big centres, is it still a case of waiting for the GP to contact you?

 

[cupid_stunt]

Anyone know how this works if you've had a first jab through a GP? It seems to be set up for those who went through the big centres, is it still a case of waiting for the GP to contact you?

I had a text from my GP inviting me to book an earlier second appointment.

 

[MickiQ]

Our local main vaccination centre is (special offer today only) allowing 18+ to drop in for the their first jab. I've texted Youngest Q (aged 19) to tell her but she reckons that she is busy at work and won't be able to get there in time.
But if they're down to letting 21 years old book online then she can't be far off, hopefully she will get both before she goes off to Uni in September.

 

[LDC]

Anyone know how this works if you've had a first jab through a GP? It seems to be set up for those who went through the big centres, is it still a case of waiting for the GP to contact you?

Where I work GP is texted/contacting people for their second jab, think you can book that with them via a few ways, which way seems to be a bit depending on what the GPs have got sorted or need.

 

[strung out]

Anyone know how this works if you've had a first jab through a GP? It seems to be set up for those who went through the big centres, is it still a case of waiting for the GP to contact you?

You can just go in and book. I got my first jab through my GP and booked in for my second 8 weeks later via the main NHS site without waiting for a text from my GP.

 

[StoneRoad]

First jab was just over 20 miles away, in the local market town. For all four of this household. It was located in the GP hub next to the hospital. [two GP group practices share the site]
That was closed a few weeks ago, after the main older / vulnerable cohorts had had their first and some second jabs, as the GPs wanted to get back to being GPs ...

Second jab was a mixed bag, of the older three, one got jabbed at the hub and the other two at the local GPs, using up the supply for that day - phone call was along the lines of "get thisen doown 'ere now !"
That left me waiting (again, as I'm the youngest). A couple of days later I got an invitation text, went online and was offered either the hub (but it had no appointments) or the local GP. So I went there, and got jabbed within a week of the other three.

A couple of weeks ago, I went back into the local market town for something or other and whilst driving up to the car park entrance noticed the "Vaxx clinic signd" were up again. Enquired and found that they were set up next to the GPs that had been the hub.
There had been a suggestion that the cattle market corporate suites or the leisure centre were going to be used, but the access for both of those is worse than usual atm due to nearby roadworks.

It is a good job that most of my team drive, a couple of them were offered appointments nearly two hours drive away !
[paid time off if they wanted, no need to take holiday for that sort of thing]

 

[elbows]

Just a quick update for those who remember the disgraceful reporting about 'zero deaths' on June 1st.

By date of death, limited to deaths within 28 days of a positive test, the number for June 1st is 4 (3 England, one Northern Ireland).

By death certificate the latest ONS figures have the UK number for June 1st as being 9.

And if I swap Englands figure to use deaths within 60 days of a positive test instead of the 28 day limit, the UK total for June 1st is 10 (9 England, 1 Norrthern Ireland).

 

[elbows]

Some London vaccination options via football stadiums:

In north-east London, over 18s are invited to get their first dose on 19 June at West Ham's London Stadium for pre-booked appointments between 10:00 and 18:00 BST

In south-west London, Chelsea's ground will offer Pfizer vaccines to anyone eligible on 19 June between 10:00 and 19:30 BST

At Charlton's ground in south-east London, AstraZeneca vaccines will be on offer on 19 June to walk-ins between 08:00 and 20:00 BST. The club said the first 1,000 people to get vaccinated there would get a free ticket to a game

At Spurs' stadium in Tottenham, in north London, anyone aged 21 and over will be able to get a vaccine on 20 June between 10:00 and 18:00 BST. They are open for walk in and pre-booked appointments.

Thats from the BBC live updates page, 14:12 entry: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-57494788

 

[elbows]

For some reason I can hear the voice of Jello Biafra going on about 'you will be left to fend for yourselves in the marketplace'.....

People will need to use their judgement when it comes to decisions like wearing face coverings once restrictions are eased in England on 19 July, Public Health England's Covid-19 strategic response director has said.

Dr Susan Hopkins says it will be up to individuals to decide whether they wear face coverings in shops, but they could be mandatory in more tightly confined spaces.

"I think there will be a certain amount of social responsibility that people will take, particularly for those that are elderly or immunocompromised or at higher risk of infection," she tells MPs on the Science and Technology Committee.

"I think we will all need to make decisions for ourselves, particularly on wearing masks, using better ventilation, hand hygiene."

From the 13:42 entry of the BBC live updates page https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-57494788

 

[elbows]

And the latest entry on that live updates page right now:

Mass vaccination of 12 to 17-year-old children against Covid-19 is unlikely to be recommended soon, the BBC understands - but certain groups of children may be offered a vaccine.

Official advice from the UK's vaccine committee, the JCVI, to the government is expected on Wednesday.

 

[Teaboy]

For some reason I can hear the voice of Jello Biafra going on about 'you will be left to fend for yourselves in the marketplace'.....



From the 13:42 entry of the BBC live updates page https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-57494788

The mask thing was always going to be difficult to manage, its already fading away fast.

I know this won't be a popular opinion here but I'm pretty sceptical about their effectiveness. I'm not questioning the science behind it more the reality of when they come up against the behaviour of people here in the UK. Just the problems of compliance, not being worn properly, being taken down to speak etc etc - the list goes on.

People are just not wearing them nearly as much as before, even on things like poorly ventilated tube trains. I dunno. Unfortunately they've also become highly politicized which is never a good thing when you're talking about basic health precautions.

 

[cupid_stunt]

New cases have broken the 9k mark, coming in at 9.055.

And, hospital admissions up to 12th June are up a whopping 41.4% on the pervious 7-day period.

Meanwhile, GB News continues to moan about 'Freedom Day' being put off for 4 weeks.

 

[StoneRoad]

Just been looking at the national scale interactive cases map on the gov't dashboard and the daily summary.

It's gone from that nice pale green / yellow over vast swathes of the country [low cases]
to loads of blue and dark blue, meaning case rates of 100 per 100,000 or more.

Even though I'm double jabbed (well over a month ago for the second) I am starting to get anxious again.

I've gone back to carrying or wearing my high quality mask (not just the surgical ones), loads of hand-washing / sanitising and generally keeping away from people.
Our local case-rate (5 days ago) was 0-2 and i haven't heard anything to indicate a spike locally ...

But, I'm still anxious !

 

[glitch hiker]

Depressingly I find myself wondering if, in lieu of the official ending of restrictions next week, whether people just will anyway. Not that many need an excuse to ignore social distancing/masks already.

I see we've just peaked 9k today. Bit grim really. The last time we were in double figures I was not a happy bunny

 

[l'Otters]

For some reason I can hear the voice of Jello Biafra going on about 'you will be left to fend for yourselves in the marketplace'.....



From the 13:42 entry of the BBC live updates page https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-57494788

How much would Jello want for reading these announcements out I wonder. I might actually listen to them if he did.

 

[l'Otters]

I’ve been wondering about the delta variant’s increased transmissibility, now that it’s dominant in this country. All the studies on routes of infection, length of exposure, setting, distance, etc were based on the “wild” variant. I upgraded my masks in January with the Kent variant because it was obvious and doable. I wouldn’t mind having some new basic figures on distance and exposure time, just for personal guidance.

On the same subject, I’m guessing the track n trace app is still basing its alerts on the transmission behaviour of a last year’s variant?

 

[elbows]

For now I can only repeat what SAGE said in a meeting on June 3rd:

The rising prevalence of the delta variant will increase the importance of mitigation measures. If the infectious dose were lower for this variant, this might increase the relative importance of measures to reduce the risk of airborne transmission, in particular (e.g., ventilation). Measures to reduce the risk of nosocomial transmission are crucial and will become increasingly important as COVID-19 hospital admissions increase. Updated guidance has recently been published on this and now needs to be implemented within the NHS.

From https://assets.publishing.service.g...nt_data/file/993106/S1266_SAGE_91_Minutes.pdf

Meanwhile I am starting to see older age groups showing up in hospital admission statistics for the North West. Also starting to see increase in the figures which imply hospital transmission.

 

[elbows]

eg for North West regions daily admission/diagnoses, the rise was first apparent in the very broad 18-64 category:



But is now showing up in the two age groupings above that:



Made using data obtained via the download section of the dashboard.

 

[2hats]

Meanwhile I am starting to see older age groups showing up in hospital admission statistics for the North West. Also starting to see increase in the figures which imply hospital transmission.

The signal has been there in cases for some days now eg

But it wasn't clear if this was an artefact of testing, a reflection of those in those age groups who could not be vaccinated, or inevitable immunosenescence.

 

[elbows]

Yeah. What wont be clear from my graphs is how many of those hospitalised cases are people catching it in hospital.

There is some data for that but its not split by age and likely represents only a fraction of the picture. This is what I have for hospital infections in recent months anyway:



Made by subtracting numbers in one table from numbers in another table of the daily NHS England spreadsheet. Statistics » COVID-19 Hospital Activity

 

[bimble]

I live in a very well behaved mask wearing sort of area and today noticed a little bunch of 3 non masking builders (I was in a builders merchants & a DIY shop and they went to the same 2 places at same time as me). Nobody challenged them or anything, and it’s just a feeling but I think, a short while ago, they would have, screwfix used to be really on the case right from the start last year. I feel like people are just bored & exhausted.

 

[elbows]

 

[Riklet]

Buildery blokes and people doing manual jobs are definitely less cautious IME... probably cos theyve been working the whole way through and are used to it. Thats my observation of round here anyway.

One plumber brazenly walked into my mums house without his mask on all "it's ok love I've got anibodies". Wanker.

So bad the Cornwall stats. Def G7 but also all the holiday makers too nuh?

 

[elbows]

Meanwhile in some parts of the North West they have activated plans to move some patients to other hospitals. This is a combination of covid and non-covid pressures, plus attempts to keep routine surgery etc going and deal with hospital infections.

Hospital at centre of Covid surge appeals for help from nearby trusts as critical care beds fill up

Exclusive: Hospital patient numbers up 30 per cent in two weeks across England, new data shows

www.independent.co.uk

 

[quimcunx]

Also if it's been hot weather and you're sweating your mask can get wet then pointless.

 

[two sheds]

Yep St Ives (thank you G7) and around Falmouth-to-Helston

 

[elbows]

So about 60 fuckwits in parliament voted agains the delay. I havent looked for a list of names yet but I think its fairly safe to presume Philip Davies is one of them.

 

[two sheds]

scientific method is communism I'm glad he cleared that up