Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[elbows]

They finally published the details of who will still be eligible for free testing:

Government sets out next steps for living with COVID

New guidance outlines free COVID-19 tests will continue to be available to help protect specific groups once free testing for the general public ends on 1 April.

www.gov.uk

 

[pbsmooth]

I think this might be the peak so far of 'people I know with covid at the same time'

Agreed. Especially in London.

 

[prunus]

They finally published the details of who will still be eligible for free testing:

Government sets out next steps for living with COVID

New guidance outlines free COVID-19 tests will continue to be available to help protect specific groups once free testing for the general public ends on 1 April.

www.gov.uk

Interestingly if actually followed this should mark the end of the Lemsip business model get yourself into work whatever presenteeism. They are explicitly saying avoid other people if you have any respiratory disease symptoms. I wonder how this will be played out in actual workplaces - no legislation, but official govt guidance is to stay at home if you have a cold. Interesting ammunition for an employment tribunal should employers kick up a fuss.

 

[Mation]

I see, will try and reach windrush square in time tomorrow or thursday, I only just noticed this morning that they had dismantled the test centre outside my estate despite walking past it yesterday morning.

e2a: the medisave website where I get my FFP2 from have tests for sale, not cheap but I'll need some for work as I'm not sure contracting for the NHS in a face to face role entitles me to their testing regime.

I got mine from Windrush Square, so they're definitely doing them.

 

[teuchter]

Interestingly if actually followed this should mark the end of the Lemsip business model get yourself into work whatever presenteeism. They are explicitly saying avoid other people if you have any respiratory disease symptoms. I wonder how this will be played out in actual workplaces - no legislation, but official govt guidance is to stay at home if you have a cold. Interesting ammunition for an employment tribunal should employers kick up a fuss.

The way it is worded seems to leave room for going into work with child symptoms, if you don't have a temperature or "feel unwell".

updated guidance will advise people with symptoms of a respiratory infection, including COVID-19, and a high temperature or who feel unwell, to try stay at home and avoid contact with other people, until they feel well enough to resume normal activities and they no longer have a high temperature.

 

[bluescreen]

The way it is worded seems to leave room for going into work with child symptoms, if you don't have a temperature or "feel unwell".

Child symptoms? Being small and crying when things don't go your way? Arguing?
You are being more than usually combative here.

 

[_Russ_]

Not sure if yer trolling bluescreen, but Id imagine its a typo, try 'mild'

 

[gentlegreen]

Curiously, though my BS5 plague pit is heading in a favourable direction, there are other parts of town - including some posh suburbs that are going in the opposite direction.

I assume my sister's mild case fully-cleared-up because she posted a photo of herself alongside my 85 year old mother ...

I will have a bit of a dilemma in a couple of weeks' time when I'm hauling fence materials through my next door neighbours' house ... they have children and she is a teaching assistant ... but the grandparents are in and out to act as litmus paper ...

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

my half empty glass outlook reads this

Although COVID-19 infections and hospitalisations have risen in recent weeks, over 55% of those in hospital that have tested positive are not there with COVID-19 as their primary diagnosis.

as
Over 44% of those in hospital that have tested positive are there with COVID-19 as their primary diagnosis.

 

[cupid_stunt]

my half empty glass outlook reads this

as
Over 44% of those in hospital that have tested positive are there with COVID-19 as their primary diagnosis.

That's true, but most are not 'serious cases', and are often only in for a few days on oxygen, there're 'only' 363 on ventilation, compared to a peak of over 4,000.

 

[prunus]

my half empty glass outlook reads this

as
Over 44% of those in hospital that have tested positive are there with COVID-19 as their primary diagnosis.

With maximum pedantry, you can't actually infer that from the figure you quoted...

But yes, probably fair!

 

[elbows]

I post those figures quite often, but I wont repeat that right now as the next weeks worth should be out tomorrow. I might post them per region since there is really quite a lot of regional variation, with London having an especially high proportion of 'not primarily for covid' in this wave.

I also tend to go on about how a really notable chunk of the 'not primarily covid' hospital cases are people who caught the virus in hospital, which is hardly a satisfactory state of affairs.

These days in the media, including the BBC, the proportion of cases that are not there primarily for covid is used as something else to talk about instead of actually getting into the detail of how much the primarily for covid cases have risen in this wave. I'll say more on this when tomorrows figures are available.

 

[Mation]

they have children and she is a teaching assistant ... but the grandparents are in and out to act as litmus paper ...

Edifying!

 

[teuchter]

Child symptoms? Being small and crying when things don't go your way? Arguing?
You are being more than usually combative here.

It was autocorrect and should have said "cold symptoms".

 

[bluescreen]

It was autocorrect and should have said "cold symptoms".

Sorry - yes, that is what I suspected but failed to resist the temptation to be flippant.

 

[StoneRoad]

More "live with it" crap ... this time the bbc attempting to say "it ain't that bad now, stop whinging and get back to work ..."
with a slight sop to say don't spread it to the most vulnerable [e2a - despite the limited "spring" booster program].

Covid: Why are so many people catching it again?

As Covid continues to spread rapidly, are many people catching Omicron for a second time?

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[teuchter]

I don't see anything wrong with that BBC article at all. Nothing in it that isn't a reasonable description of the current state of play.

 

[StoneRoad]

I don't see anything wrong with that BBC article at all. Nothing in it that isn't a reasonable description of the current state of play.

Despite what the gov't are trying to pretend, including that both BA2 and "Omicron" are less severe than previous variants, I don't think that the pandemic [especially worldwide] is anything like over.

 

[StoneRoad]

Bit more government hypocrisy ...

Covid: Sacked test centre staff 'thrown to wolves'

Staff at Covid test centres say were given very little notice that their jobs would disappear.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[xenon]

Despite what the gov't are trying to pretend, including that both BA2 and "Omicron" are less severe than previous variants, I don't think that the pandemic [especially worldwide] is anything like over.

They are less severe though. To those who have had a full vaccination. This does not mean everyone who gets coronavirus will have mild symptoms though.

 

[rubbershoes]

They are less severe though. To those who have had a full vaccination. This does not mean everyone who gets coronavirus will have mild symptoms though.

Deaths are still more than 100 a day

 

[xenon]

Yes. But these variants are still milder. Saying otherwise isn’t true.

 

[xenon]

I mean if they weren’t, with the infection rate would be seeing thousands of deaths a day.

 

[teuchter]

Despite what the gov't are trying to pretend, including that both BA2 and "Omicron" are less severe than previous variants, I don't think that the pandemic [especially worldwide] is anything like over.

What's the problem with the BBC article though? It doesn't claim anything about the pandemic being over.

 

[StoneRoad]

I mean if they weren’t, with the infection rate would be seeing thousands of deaths a day.

Much of that is, imo, down to the protection offered by a full course of the three vaccinations and the drug treatments available.

 

[elbows]

I mean if they weren’t, with the infection rate would be seeing thousands of deaths a day.

A combination of the properties of Omicron, vaccination rates especially in older people, boosters including the timing of boosters and that the the boosters with non-AZ vaccines overcoming some of the possible limitations of the AZ vaccine. And a range of drug treatments. Also degrees of immunity via prior infection, and the sad fact that a proportion of those most vulnerable to covid death already died in previous waves.

There is no denying that in plenty of countries including the UK, Omicron waves have featured a very different number of people requiring mechanical ventilation.

Putting all these things together means that the consequences of widespread talk about Omicron being milder have been modest here. All the same, some people are still dying every week as a consequence of the current agenda and of perceptions about the severity of the disease. Its just that many more people are prepared to accept that there is a balance to be struck between those deaths and everyone else leading more normal lives again.

In countries where the immunity picture is quite different, such as Hong Kong, the potential of Omicron to cause terrible population death rates is still on vivid display.

Longer term population health consequences from allowing staggeringly huge waves at this stage is somewhat unclear. And in theory by allowing huge numbers of infections, we are promoting the speed at which the virus might be expected to evolve further, with the consequences of future variants also currently unknown.

 

[elbows]

Here is the data I said I would post. Sorry its a bit messy due to me including the per-region numbers and not having time to tidy up. Patients with Covid in hospital beds in England, data goes up to March 29th despite what the labels say.

Data is from the Primary Diagnoses Supplement spreadsheet from Statistics » COVID-19 Hospital Activity

Despite the positive impact of the factors discussed earlier, we can see that there are more people in hospital 'primarily for' Covid in both peaks of the Omicron wave compared to the levels during the prolonged Delta wave. Obviously this is down to the much larger number of people who have caught the virus in the Omicron waves. London is the obvious exception during the Omicron BA.2 wave, if we are only counting those labelled as being in hospital 'primarily' for Covid.

 

[Artaxerxes]

NHS are going to send me LFTs apparently

 

[wtfftw]

So people who buy lateral flows can't log their results? I'm fuzzy brained today but have I read that right?

 

[Artaxerxes]

So people who buy lateral flows can't log their results? I'm fuzzy brained today but have I read that right?

Yes, its absolutely as clever as you'd expect from something thats been announced literally 7 hours before free tests come to an end.