Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[weltweit]

I genuinely at a bit of a loss at what to say to my elderly parents , (both late 80s), about the virus. My natural instinct is to offer reassurance but I fear the reality may prove to be very bleak for the elderly.
I suppose I'm most concerned that if they both fall ill together, they will look to the NHS to come to their aid and, who knows...by such a stage...we may be well into rationing by cohort and, as for the oldest...well...hmmm.
Apols if this is all a bit dark...just not liking the look of this.

I know exactly what you mean. My parents have long since passed and I am on my way to being one of the at risk groups myself but looking at my friends, there are people who are high risk, I joked with one of them recently - stay away from the Italians they laughed but they are very aware that they are at risk.

And perhaps worse, because of the nature of the incubation who knows when or whether we ourselves could be carriers and infect the very people we want to protect.

 

[Duncan2]

I genuinely at a bit of a loss at what to say to my elderly parents , (both late 80s), about the virus. My natural instinct is to offer reassurance but I fear the reality may prove to be very bleak for the elderly.
I suppose I'm most concerned that if they both fall ill together, they will look to the NHS to come to their aid and, who knows...by such a stage...we may be well into rationing by cohort and, as for the oldest...well...hmmm.
Apols if this is all a bit dark...just not liking the look of this.

Am in a similar situation-mother is eighty-nine and needs my help on a daily basis.However I work with two hundred others at fairly close quarters every day.If I get infected it seems my chances of kicking the bucket are one in a hundred.If I infect my mother it seems her chances of suffering a similar fate maybe closer to one in seven.At some point it may be that the best thing would be for me to stay away.

 

[brogdale]

Am in a similar situation-mother is eighty-nine and needs my help on a daily basis.However I work with two hundred others at fairly close quarters every day.If I get infected it seems my chances of kicking the bucket are one in a hundred.If I infect my mother it seems her chances of suffering a similar fate maybe closer to one in seven.At some point it may be that the best thing would be for me to stay away.

Yes, I fear many of us will be faced with some very difficult decisions over the coming weeks/months.

 

[quimcunx]

My dad (retired, but still loves a bit of sticking his oar in) has just asked this, can your brother shed any light?

View attachment 200450

I'll ask! My brother certainly complains every time I see him about the continual changes in working practice and how each one is not an improvement!

He also said they were told the move to edinburgh was 'political' though at what level who knows.

 

[kenny g]

79 year old father with smashed lungs but a very active social life and fighting fit. Currently they are in India and back in a week or so. Going to be really difficult for them to restrict their lives, especially as they haven't done it for almost 80 years.

 

[quimcunx]

My dad (retired, but still loves a bit of sticking his oar in) has just asked this, can your brother shed any light?

View attachment 200450

Can you copy and paste rather than post as an image?

 

[weepiper]

Can you copy and paste rather than post as an image?

Sorry, I don't seem to be able to do that on my phone.

 

[Yata]

shelves absolutely rinsed clean of anything with antibacterial in the name at tescos

 

[quimcunx]

Sorry, I don't seem to be able to do that on my phone.

It's ok. It went ok now.

 

[quimcunx]

My dad (retired, but still loves a bit of sticking his oar in) has just asked this, can your brother shed any light?

View attachment 200450

" everything in it is true except we are getting results in about 36 hours, a good whack of that is the time it takes to transport the sample to the testing centre, only one delivery per day,leaving at 4 pm"

I asked for clarification because I was confused. *

"We send all samples once a day at 4 pm using a special courier that can comply with the transport of dangerous goods by road act, so if a gp takes a sample on thurs that doesnt get to us till friday it wont get to glasgow till saturday morning then it has to be tested and someone has to phone the results out"


* I dont always listen very closely

 

[Callie]

My dad (retired, but still loves a bit of sticking his oar in) has just asked this, can your brother shed any light?

View attachment 200450

That might be the case for an established PCR assay but this is a novel virus with a new assay. It's not well established. It's not available in every laboratory. Not every laboratory has the training or equipment to perform PCR.

initially testing is performed by public health laboratories this is for epidemiological purposes and they often perform R&D to either produce an assay to distribute to other UK labs to do the testing OR they look at any commercially available assays and verify how well they work so they can make recommendations to UK laboratories so they can make an informed choice on which assay to include in their testing repertoire.

Public Health labs are struggling with the numbers to test. Testing is now being rolled out to more local labs.

Samples are being processed at Biological Safety Containment Level 3 currently which is a step up security/safety wise from your average microbiology lab so fewer places can do this. I feel this is a precautionary measure while we learn more about the virus. We are still learning.

I do not believe it's taking a week to get results. My experience is 48hours at most.

I don't think it's bad organisation but I think in terms of capacity for the numbers being tested we have been struggling but we are now moving to a phase of increased testing but less restricted options for where the testing can be done (roll out to more labs, more testing outside of the specified case criteria).

Hope that makes sense!

 

[weepiper]

" everything in it is true except we are getting results in about 36 hours, a good whack of that is the time it takes to transport the sample to the testing centre, only one delivery per day,leaving at 4 pm"

I asked for clarification because I was confused. *

"We send all samples once a day at 4 pm using a special courier that can comply with the transport of dangerous goods by road act, so if a gp takes a sample on thurs that doesnt get to us till friday it wont get to glasgow till saturday morning then it has to be tested and someone has to phone the results out"


* I dont always listen very closely

Thanks!

 

[weepiper]

That might be the case for an established PCR assay but this is a novel virus with a new assay. It's not well established. It's not available in every laboratory. Not every laboratory has the training or equipment to perform PCR.

initially testing is performed by public health laboratories this is for epidemiological purposes and they often perform R&D to either produce an assay to distribute to other UK labs to do the testing OR they look at any commercially available assays and verify how well they work so they can make recommendations to UK laboratories so they can make an informed choice on which assay to include in their testing repertoire.

Public Health labs are struggling with the numbers to test. Testing is now being rolled out to more local labs.

Samples are being processed at Biological Safety Containment Level 3 currently which is a step up security/safety wise from your average microbiology lab so fewer places can do this. I feel this is a precautionary measure while we learn more about the virus. We are still learning.

I do not believe it's taking a week to get results. My experience is 48hours at most.

I don't think it's bad organisation but I think in terms of capacity for the numbers being tested we have been struggling but we are now moving to a phase of increased testing but less restricted options for where the testing can be done (roll out to more labs, more testing outside of the specified case criteria).

Hope that makes sense!

That is helpful, thank you

 

[quimcunx]

That might be the case for an established PCR assay but this is a novel virus with a new assay. It's not well established. It's not available in every laboratory. Not every laboratory has the training or equipment to perform PCR.

initially testing is performed by public health laboratories this is for epidemiological purposes and they often perform R&D to either produce an assay to distribute to other UK labs to do the testing OR they look at any commercially available assays and verify how well they work so they can make recommendations to UK laboratories so they can make an informed choice on which assay to include in their testing repertoire.

Public Health labs are struggling with the numbers to test. Testing is now being rolled out to more local labs.

Samples are being processed at Biological Safety Containment Level 3 currently which is a step up security/safety wise from your average microbiology lab so fewer places can do this. I feel this is a precautionary measure while we learn more about the virus. We are still learning.

I do not believe it's taking a week to get results. My experience is 48hours at most.

I don't think it's bad organisation but I think in terms of capacity for the numbers being tested we have been struggling but we are now moving to a phase of increased testing but less restricted options for where the testing can be done (roll out to more labs, more testing outside of the specified case criteria).

Hope that makes sense!

I was going to tag you! But thought that might be rude. I'd already had some of this explained to me the other day but couldnt remember the details.

 

[elbows]

Thousands of intensive care patients to be tested for Covid-19

NHS bosses in England ramp up efforts to detect virus amid fears it is circulating in ICUs

www.theguardian.com

The move came to light in a letter sent to all NHS organisations on Tuesday by Prof Keith Willett, the senior doctor co-ordinating NHS England’s efforts against the virus. In it he told trusts: “In recent days, new Covid-19 infections have been diagnosed in intensive care units in a number of European countries, without any epidemiologial links to high risk areas.

“Nosocomial [hospital-acquired] transmission has occurred in these units affecting other patients and staff. It is essential that we detect cases admitted to intensive care at the earliest opportunity. We are requesting that all intensive care units and severe respiratory (Ecmo) centres commence case detection.”

Adult and paediatric ICUs should test any patient whose “presenting condition is an acute community acquired respiratory infection of any kind, regardless of known or suspected causative pathogen and clinical features”, the nine-page letter said.

 

[kazza007]

Will there be much help for self employed contractor if they are sick or need to quarantine or job is cancelled by the firm :/

 

[SpookyFrank]

Will there be much help for self employed contractor if they are sick or need to quarantine or job is cancelled by the firm :/

I only get paid if a cancellation is within 24 hours. If I'm off sick, I get nothing. I don't claim UC but if I did then a few weeks off either through illness or cancelled work might have them deciding I was non longer 'gainfully self employed' and that I needed to be doing 17 hours of jobsearch activity per hour or get nothing.

Best to get the precarious workers' rent strike movement started now IMO.

 

[Marty1]

Will there be much help for self employed contractor if they are sick or need to quarantine or job is cancelled by the firm :/

I doubt it, I’m technically ‘self employed’ - will probably be left to rot if coronavirus temporarily shuts down the country.

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Panic buying update!!

As well as hand sanitizer, loo roll, tinned soup, baked beans and UHT milk I can add Fray Bentos pies, corned beef and dog food.

Apparently the shelves of Waitrose have been "decimated" (according to local Facebook groups) which probably tells you all you need to know about the demographic of Maidenhead

 

[two sheds]

Now here's a surprise, and you can hardly blame them:

Majority of retired NHS staff don't want to return to tackle Covid-19 crisis

Some former workers say going back would threaten their mental and physical health

www.theguardian.com

 

[andysays]

Johnson has just announced that people will get SSP from the first day of corona virus related absences, rather than the 4th as currently.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Its very slow moving this pandemic, with sort of 5 new cases a day ish in the UK. I'm surprised it doesn't follow an exponential type shape with 5 then 25 then I dunno a big number. Given how much people move around and come in to contact with other folks I'm surprised at the slow pace of spread.

Maybe there are lots of unreported cases as people just think they have a cold?

 

[Baronage-Phase]

I have 60 days sick leave.
Terrified of this virus .. kidney and liver failure plus on immunosuppressants. I tick quite a few boxes on the "in mortal danger" list.
Wondering if I should just stay away from work for 2 months? And hope that summer hits with high temperatures in May.

 

[extra dry]

Good luck is all I can say, to everyone.
2 packs of ramin noodles here only

 

[sptme]

Coronavirus: Cases in UK jump to 87

The UK reports its largest daily increase in cases, as two patients on a hospital ward are diagnosed.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[not-bono-ever]

I’ve got a couple of 50 packs of masks was issued with a couple of years ago and never took away with me. Time to start the profiteering...

 

[Baronage-Phase]

Panic buying update!!

As well as hand sanitizer, loo roll, tinned soup, baked beans and UHT milk I can add Fray Bentos pies, corned beef and dog food.

Apparently the shelves of Waitrose have been "decimated" (according to local Facebook groups) which probably tells you all you need to know about the demographic of Maidenhead

I added 6 double packs of custard creams to my shopping list last week.
They're in storage in the "Brexit/Covid-19/munchies" box.

 

[Edie]

Its very slow moving this pandemic, with sort of 5 new cases a day ish in the UK. I'm surprised it doesn't follow an exponential type shape with 5 then 25 then I dunno a big number. Given how much people move around and come in to contact with other folks I'm surprised at the slow pace of spread.

Maybe there are lots of unreported cases as people just think they have a cold?

From a JP Morgan Covid and US election briefing document I have, top graph shows exponential

 

[Wilf]

UK cases up by 34:

Italian educational institutions close as Covid-19 deaths pass 100 – as it happened

Outbreak continues to spread with Italians in India testing positive. This blog is closed

www.theguardian.com

Not sure when we get into active emergency/governmental panic mode, mass school closures etc?

 

[bimble]