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Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

France reportedly ‘considering’ banning flights and trains from Uk too now. No mention of lorries.

eta Italy has stopped flights to and from uk apparently.
It’s happening so fast. :(
 
Hoping Mrs. C will be able to get back from France, where she's attending a funeral. There doesn't seem to be anything that suggests you can't travel to your home if you were already away from it.
 
Lord Camomile said:
My friend is over visiting her family, but now very worried she won't be able to get home to Vienna :(

edit: she isolated in a single room of their house for 10 days upon arrival earlier this month, she's very by the book.
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1608468464381.png

:(

To quote me, earlier in that chat thread: I just really loathe this government more with every passing day.
 
Flavour said:
Update : I have arrived in Amsterdam. Every single flight to the UK today is cancelled... Except my one. Apparently. For now. Gonna go talk to the staff.
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Keep us informed. And good luck.

Chz said:
Hoping Mrs. C will be able to get back from France, where she's attending a funeral. There doesn't seem to be anything that suggests you can't travel to your home if you were already away from it.
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Except flight cancellations. Good luck to Mrs C too.
 
I don't think anyone has mentioned this (sorry if I've missed it) so I will.

www.bbc.co.uk

Covid: New coronavirus variant 'in every part of Wales'

There could be a spike in Covid cases after Christmas, even with lockdown, the health minister says.
www.bbc.co.uk

Covid has rocketed in my (nearby) little town in the last 4 weeks. A student friend who works part-time in a care home has it. And three residents of the care home died of it last week.
 
bimble said:
Is it true the new strain was identified in Kent in mid September but we were not told about it for 3 months?
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This slide was doing the rounds on twitter yesterday which appears to show recording of the new variant since the beginning of October, and in yesterday's briefing, one of Whitty or Vallance certainly mentioned monitoring since September.

 
bimble said:
Is it true the new strain was identified in Kent in mid September but we were not told about it for 3 months?
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They discovered it in October, from a sample taken in September, and as new strains are appearing all the time, they had nothing to worry about. Then in November they started to look into WTF was happening in Kent, then last Friday week they concluded the new strain could be the problem.

Only last Friday did the evidence come together to confirm the link with the new strain and higher transmission rates, which was then presented to the government, hence the squeaky bum time over the last couple of days.
 
They clearly erred on the side of not wanting to alarm anyone, including every other country in the world, until they were pretty certain it was a massive problem we have here.
 
cupid_stunt said:
They discovered it in October, from a sample taken in September, and as new strains are appearing all the time, they had nothing to worry about. Then in November they started to look into WTF was happening in Kent, then last Friday week they concluded the new strain could be the problem.

Only last Friday did the evidence come together to confirm the link with the new strain and higher transmission rates, which was then presented to the government, hence the squeaky bum time over the last couple of days.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's certainly the story being told. But, looking at that graph above...if they were able to access that data in real time (?)...it looks to my untrained eye as though it was obvious that something was up (the growing proportion of 'S' variants as a % of total +ive cases) between 2 to 3 weeks ago.
 
I am really not v enthusiastic about the prospect of being stuck in the UK. Maybe I will have to pay a fishermen to sneak me over the channel to get back onto the continent
 
A new strain of coronavirus driving spirally infection rates in London has already spread to every region in the UK, a health boss has warned.

Scientists first became aware of the variant, now identified as VUI 202012/01 in October, after analysing a sample from September.

But it is only this week that experts at the Government's New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) have concluded it is spreading more quickly.
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Dr Susan Hopkins, of Public Health England, said the new mutant strain has been detected in virtually all regions of the UK.

She told Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday: "It has been detected in many other parts of the country.

"Every region has cases but with very small numbers.

"It has also been detected in Wales, in Scotland, we have not had any detected in Northern Ireland."
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www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

New strain of Covid has already spread across country, health boss warns

Dr Susan Hopkins said she hopes people travelling around the country for Christmas will 'reduce their social contacts'
www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk
 
Italy about to close flights. I hope my ex makes it (her flight is 5pm)

Italy’s foreign minister Luigi Di Maio announced on Twitter: “As a government we have a duty to protect Italians, so for this reason, after warning the British government…we are about to sign the order to suspend flights with Great Britain.”
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brogdale said:
Yes, that's certainly the story being told. But, looking at that graph above...if they were able to access that data in real time (?)...it looks to my untrained eye as though it was obvious that something was up (the growing proportion of 'S' variants as a % of total +ive cases) between 2 to 3 weeks ago.
Click to expand...

Yes, they knew something was up, hence doing the research, it takes time to get the results, that (a) the new strain was spreading, and then (b) the rate of transmission compared to other strains. Hence the panic button being pushed, once the data & evidence came together last Friday, that confirmed their worst fears.

That graph represents their research, it wasn't real time reporting.
 
cupid_stunt said:
Yes, they knew something was up, hence doing the research, it takes time to get the results, that (a) the new strain was spreading, and then (b) the rate of transmission compared to other strains. Hence the panic button being pushed, once the data & evidence came together last Friday, that confirmed their worst fears.
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We will probably hear more soon about what if anything they chose to share with other countries and when and whether everyone thinks they did a good job of those decisions.
 
LynnDoyleCooper said:
I'm not sure about the chance of avoiding this latest episode really, short of changing the entire response from the beginning. I also think lots of the pressure for Xmas relaxation actually came from the media incessantly going on about Xmas since October, but I do think anecdotally plenty of people I have talked to have wanted something like that as well.

I also think a sudden change in restrictions when the news of the new variant was all they could do, and I'm not pissed off with them about that, and I do find the moaning about cancelled plans for Xmas, etc. quite ridiculous and selfish in the face of 80,000 dead in this country, and likely many more before this is over. I personally wish they'd been tighter restrictions all the way through, but I recognize that is not what many people want, and they also come with other disadvantages, and I do know that it is a balance between various competing needs in society.

My thoughts from reading and listening to stuff are that this variant is really worrying them (like in March when the modelling came in and forced a sudden change) and it seems clear that Tier 3 isn't enough to control its spread, hence the growing cases in some areas despite being under that level of restrictions. I think we'll see an inevitable spread across the country in the next 1-2 months, and we'll end up in a national lockdown/Tier 4 sometime in the new year. Fuck knows about schools, it's a hill they have chosen to die on.

I think the nightmare scenarios are either (1) the vaccine/s doesn't protect against the new variant, or (2) it causes more severe illness and outcomes in some way. Or both... (I also have some concerns the vaccine take-up is going to be low, and that the rollout is going to get fucked up and delayed in some ways...).

As an aside it doesn't even to have a higher fatality % rate to actually kill more people. If more people just get ill and overwhelm the NHS then more people will die, and/or if more people just get it than might otherwise have before we have a vaccinated population then also more people will die.

It really is going to be a very grim few months I think.
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Sorry, I wasn't very clear in my anger at them. I agree with you about the need for the latest interventions, my rant was aimed at them offering the Xmas relaxations in the first place. It was crazy to say - weeks in advance - that living rooms would be set up as multi-generational virus transmission centres. Crazy to make any kind of promises about Christmas in fact that far ahead.

We've got the worst situation possible now for lonely and isolated people - family reunions that were promised and then taken away. All along they should have been saying 'for the sake of everyone, in a pandemic, let's do Christmas next Summer'. The focus should have been on making sure elderly and vulnerable people have access to technologies that keep them in touch + the state putting more money into befriending schemes and the rest. Fwiw, I'm not personally a fan of Christmas, but I think the virus is taking a real toll on the poorest and most vulnerable. That's what needs addressing, particuarly as we'll all be in tier 4 soon. Of course johnson will do none of that.
 
bimble said:
We will probably hear more soon about what if anything they chose to share with other countries and when and whether everyone thinks they did a good job of those decisions.
Click to expand...

They have been sharing info with the WHO at every stage, according to the WHO expert on the Andrew Marr show.
 
bimble said:
But everyone shutting their borders to us just this morning?
Click to expand...

How bad the transmission rate is only became apparent on Friday, England, Scotland & Wales reacted yesterday, now others are.

But, this strain is probably already spreading in Europe, as per posts on this thread, made this morning.

It has certainly been found in Holland & Denmark, and likely explains the rapid raise in cases, in other countries too.
 
cupid_stunt said:
Yes, they knew something was up, hence doing the research, it takes time to get the results, that (a) the new strain was spreading, and then (b) the rate of transmission compared to other strains. Hence the panic button being pushed, once the data & evidence came together last Friday, that confirmed their worst fears.

That graph represents their research, it wasn't real time reporting.
Click to expand...
That's helpful, thanks...I just don't believe a word that Johnson says and, therefore, suspect that they were aware of this earlier than they're saying but were looking at other economic and political factors.
 
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