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Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

One factor is that people saw shortages of toilet rolls in other countries being reported for weeks on end.

Another is they take up a lot of shelf space so their absence is more visually dramatic and there are more obvious limits to how many are on the shelves and taking up store room space.
Suppose I should know this, but is that a fairly standard knee-jerk reaction to a crisis/threatened breakdown in the norm?
 
Suppose I should know this, but is that a fairly standard knee-jerk reaction to a crisis/threatened breakdown in the norm?

I dont know. Maybe. Maybe some situation-specific reasons too, such as rumours in some countries that toilet paper production could be affected by switch of capacity to mask production.
 
I am presently wondering whether the talk and backlash regarding UK switching to only publishing geographical info weekly, and subsequent comments today about how they will still give that info, but delayed 24 hours, was actually about more than just the geography.

I say that only because I dont yet see any signs of the daily UK numbers update which is normally published at 2pm.

This post could obviously become obsolete rather quickly, and I know that an update to the Scottish numbers came this morning. And I might have missed something else today, I'm not exactly on top of the streams of info.

But given the moment we are at, with the threshold of 100 confirmed cases soon to be crossed, or the possibility of quite large leaps in daily figures, I am bound to wonder about this.
 
I am presently wondering whether the talk and backlash regarding UK switching to only publishing geographical info weekly, and subsequent comments today about how they will still give that info, but delayed 24 hours, was actually about more than just the geography.

I say that only because I dont yet see any signs of the daily UK numbers update which is normally published at 2pm.

This post could obviously become obsolete rather quickly, and I know that an update to the Scottish numbers came this morning. And I might have missed something else today, I'm not exactly on top of the streams of info.

But given the moment we are at, with the threshold of 100 confirmed cases soon to be crossed, or the possibility of quite large leaps in daily figures, I am bound to wonder about this.
I was wondering along similar lines. Is it possibly the 24 hour lag they were talking about? I assumed that was just in relation to the geographical information, but it could mean today will be missed out in order to set the timelag going on the numbers as well.

AKA, I don't know.
 
I was wondering along similar lines. Is it possibly the 24 hour lag they were talking about? I assumed that was just in relation to the geographical information, but it could mean today will be missed out in order to set the timelag going on the numbers as well.

AKA, I don't know.
Part of the reason given for the 24 hour delay was to check that all the diagnosis were correct, there was a false positive the other day which meant they gave out the wrong figure and then had to revise later.

If they are now delaying everything while they double check, then logically there won't be any number to announce today
 
I am presently wondering whether the talk and backlash regarding UK switching to only publishing geographical info weekly, and subsequent comments today about how they will still give that info, but delayed 24 hours, was actually about more than just the geography.

I say that only because I dont yet see any signs of the daily UK numbers update which is normally published at 2pm.

This post could obviously become obsolete rather quickly, and I know that an update to the Scottish numbers came this morning. And I might have missed something else today, I'm not exactly on top of the streams of info.

But given the moment we are at, with the threshold of 100 confirmed cases soon to be crossed, or the possibility of quite large leaps in daily figures, I am bound to wonder about this.
Whitty addressed this at the Heath committee hearing:

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Just as an example of where this leaves people, my Mum is in a care home in Bury, where there has been a case linked to Northern Italy and, I think, 2 potential onward transmissions. I saw the info regarding the second 2 on a newspaper site, afaik. I looked on the home's own site and there is nothing at all about the virus, in the absence of which it looks like business/visiting as normal. Yes, I realise the chances of me or another visitor having the virus and passing it on to a specific home are very low, but then the consequences of the virus getting into an environment where all the residents are old and vulnerable would be dreadful. I'm due to drive over to Greater Manchester tomorrow and almost certainly will go. But whatever 'phase' we are in now still leaves individuals making those decisions.

A lot of other people will have more acute decisions to make than mine, things like whether they can afford to self isolate, how they can support vulnerable friends and relatives etc. But it seemed my own case was an example that we are pretty much in a holding pattern at the moment.
 
Presumably partly because people really, really dont want to run out of toilet roll.
Yeah, a given.
Suppose what I was getting at was why they thought that the shops might not be able to maintain supplies...and elbows gave a pretty credible explanation for that.
 
UK cases of coronavirus jumps to 115
The department of health confirmed that as of 9am on 5 March 2020, 18,083 people have been tested in the UK, of which 17,968 were confirmed negative and 115 were confirmed as positive.
 
Maybe it's just the geographical stuff that'll be delayed 24 hours, then - although that makes no sense when the reasons given were to confirm cases - who knows?! :confused:
ETA - or perhaps that number is already the delayed figure?
 
Well I originally only expected it to be geographic data delays, which is why I was speculating that the delay today was due to crossing a threshold.

Cases will have been confirmed by 9am, so they already had hours to double-check.

It is possible that additional delays for checking relate to how many are considered to be cases due to recent travel, as opposed to cases acquired in the community. And on that note, and in regards to the geographical stuff/dashboard:

 
I suppsoe the most obvious remaining hole in UK info is that unlike some other countries, we arent told whether any of these cases were detected in existing pneumonia cases, people already in hospital before covid-19 tested for, etc.

It is too early for me to say whether the lack of info so far means there havent been any cases like that, or something else. I suppose the first we might hear of this is when someone dies.
 
Many, many thanks, elbows for your erudite and informative information which you dispense without hyperbole or scaremongering. You are the Dr John Campbell of Urban and I am promoting your contributions on other forums. Do you know if there is any way to volunteer to help out in some way such as manning phones or such like? I am currently on quarantine with my wife for 14 days after returning from a holiday in Thailand and we have coughs and sore throats which is not difficult for us as we are retired but for the self-employed just making do I can't imagine it's an option. When we left Thailand everyone was screened with a heat camera by a medical team and two elderly gents were 'detained' for further examination no doubt and that's for people leaving the country. At Heathrow - nothing - just a photocopied piece of paper telling us if we have symptoms of a cough, shortness of breath or fever that we should stay indoors and call 111. I fear we are just weeks away from all hell breaking loose in terms of numbers, lockdowns and hospitals under siege, wish it was otherwise but given the inexorable logic of this nasty, vicious virus means it is almost a given. It is now our war, a world war - a war on this virus that will probably last 6 months or more and shape our lives forever.

Just signed up for this...


Encouraging to have this guy in charge - a derided expert no less!

“Thank God he’s where he is to maintain some sense of sanity about all this coronavirus business,” Mabey added. “He’s an absolutely extraordinary, brilliant man. They couldn’t have a better person in charge. He’s exactly the man we need.”


grief! dial the drama down a notch:D
 
grief! dial the drama down a notch:D
I hope you're right for all our sakes paranoid fucker that I am ! Is there mileage in the more hopeful scenario that far more people have this than are being tested and only ones with problems present themselves for testing and therefore the mortality rate is much much lower than some figures suggest? (Currently WHO are saying 3.5%).
 
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I hope you're right for all our sakes paranoid fucker that I am ! Is there mileage in the more hopeful scenario that far more people have this than are being tested and only ones with problems present themselves for testing and therefore the mortality rate is much much lower than some figures suggest? (Currently WHO are saying 3.5%).
Hope you and your wife are okay phillm
 
grief! dial the drama down a notch:D

I think that's rude and patronizing.
Iirc, you have worked/do work in some quite...erm.. extreme environments, so your own barometer of what is normal is a set a little differently to others.
That's fine, obvs - you crack on - but I don't think it follows that you should be so dismissive of how other people are experiencing it.
 
Hope you and your wife are okay phillm
Thanks wilf kind words are always lovely - sorting our stuff around the house and getting over jet lag. It is a nagging worry though and not something probably any of us have experienced in our lives up till now. Having seen the responses in country after country now I think we can assume this isn't just panic but something much more serious as much as I would like to believe this is pretty bad but amplified many times by internet,social media hysteria.

I hope we have one of these in the UK.

 
Well it's certainly affecting people's minds before their bodies.

At the moment we're counting in stupidly low numbers - and panicking over that. The Guardian atm has the totally unsensational headline of "U.K numbers jump to 115." That's not a jump. It's barely a progression. What language (and amount of panic) are we going to see when we start counting in thousands and tens of thousands? The sensationalism is doing nothing for anyone. No amount of panic and fear is going to stop those numbers going up right now. What it will do is help clear the shelves of bog roll and hand sanitiser - ffs, a product not even as good as soap for some sort of protection.

By all means, be wary, and start to think about methods to slow the progress of this virus. But calling for the absolute shutdown of society based on 100 cases (sorry, I think the figure mentioned by someone on here was actually a massive 200 cases) is scare-mongering and leading to what we are beginning to see happening in some supermarkets.

And btw, I'm in the more at risk cohort, and work in a shite school with kids who last saw soap in 2011. And no amount of swapping fear with others will change that.
 
I've been doing personal development sessions around coronavirus this week. So many students have no idea about the difference between numbers that have been tested, have tested positive or who have self-isolated. One student has given himself a nasty rash due to scrubbing his hands in some sort of industy strength cleaner.

So I've been giving them simple facts and advice, and putting the numbers into perspective - not downplaying how bad the effects could get to them, society, college, etc, but definitely introducing some sense into their constant misinformation streams.
 
Soap and water isn’t available when you are out on visits, in and out of homes and meetings and some days barely go near the office. So no, soap is not the only thing needed.
If you can't get hold of any alcohol gel then I would be carrying around anti bacterial hand wash and kitchen roll. Most people have hot water.
 

115 now? It was 90 earlier.

E2a not sure what happened there I checked we were on the last page and wondered why no one had updated the thread since this news broke. :hmm:
 
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115 now? It was 90 earlier.

It gets updated daily for cases in England ('as of 9am', but reported at 2pm - up until today, when it was later) - then there are figures from the rest of the UK, which seem to be updated at different times (Scotland seems to report earlier in the day, for eg).
 
Public Health England said in a briefing on Thursday evening that they’re now treating confirmed cases with mild symptoms at home and not in hospitals. 45 cases are now being treated at home.

It was also confirmed that travellers returning from all of Italy, not just north, were now being advised to self isolate if they have symptoms. The tightening of the advice is understood to have been prompted by the recent surge in UK cases of people who recently come back from Italy, where the outbreak has escalated across the country in recent days.
 
Well it's certainly affecting people's minds before their bodies.

At the moment we're counting in stupidly low numbers - and panicking over that. The Guardian atm has the totally unsensational headline of "U.K numbers jump to 115." That's not a jump. It's barely a progression. What language (and amount of panic) are we going to see when we start counting in thousands and tens of thousands? The sensationalism is doing nothing for anyone. No amount of panic and fear is going to stop those numbers going up right now. What it will do is help clear the shelves of bog roll and hand sanitiser - ffs, a product not even as good as soap for some sort of protection.

By all means, be wary, and start to think about methods to slow the progress of this virus. But calling for the absolute shutdown of society based on 100 cases (sorry, I think the figure mentioned by someone on here was actually a massive 200 cases) is scare-mongering and leading to what we are beginning to see happening in some supermarkets.

And btw, I'm in the more at risk cohort, and work in a shite school with kids who last saw soap in 2011. And no amount of swapping fear with others will change that.

Actually fear is an important component of getting people to adhere to measures such as social distancing and other necessary behavioural changes and acceptance of restrictions.

What counts as panic as opposed to entirely rational response? Some stuff is obviously counterproductive fear and panic, but these sweeping labels tend to be used most by those who favour a far more restrained attitude in general, and I'm not a fan of that approach to this pandemic at all.

And why focus only on the UK numbers when the picture of what is happening in certain other places around the globe that has obviously been a huge driver of attitudes towards this coronavirus?

There will be some inappropriate responses and we should comment on them when they happen. But general complaints about panic and fear and overreaction are just as counterproductive to the battle to minimise the effects of this virus as far as I'm concerned.
 
Public Health England said in a briefing on Thursday evening that they’re now treating confirmed cases with mild symptoms at home and not in hospitals. 45 cases are now being treated at home.

It was also confirmed that travellers returning from all of Italy, not just north, were now being advised to self isolate if they have symptoms. The tightening of the advice is understood to have been prompted by the recent surge in UK cases of people who recently come back from Italy, where the outbreak has escalated across the country in recent days.

Ah, treating mild cases at home was always expected to be part of the next phase, and 100 cases was a phase trigger in previous pandemic plans, so not surprising to hear of this happening now.
 
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