Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[Orang Utan]

QR code is just to identify a venue. otherwise it’s supposed to ping you if the owner of a phone nearby has registered a positive test. as in your device was near someone who’s told us they had a positive test recently. not without obvious flaws. no pun intended, I live in a flat, on my own, why would you have it turned on at home. That’s asking for trouble.

i don’t think you can turn it off. you can turn bluetooth off but my bluetooth is on all the time cos i use it to listen to music and podcasts

 

[elbows]

I've already told people not to be surprised if there is a peak far sooner than some mainstream sources, models etc have been implying. This does not mean I am predicting an early peak, but I am certainly not ruling one out.

And the reason I keep mentioning it is because I'm trying to say at least a few things that people may not hear from many other sources as soon. And Scotland certainly influences my decision to keep mentioning it, although obviously the timing of when their wave got going, when they went out of the Euros and when their schools finished for the summer holidays is different to Englands.

When peaks become visible I am likely to focus on them in terms of the different regions of England, rather than England as a whole, unless the timing ends up being similar in most regions.

 

[elbows]

I wonder if some of the absurdities of this period will be even greater because the wave is entering a dangerous stage at the same time as summer silly season where loads of politicians and people in the media go on holiday.

 

[elbows]

The FT have stuck this on their front page but the timing of all this bothers me because really the time to stop such a risky situation developing was months ago.

One of the things I most despise about the roadmap was that it dragged a lot of people along in terms of control over the narrative. And even those who are set up to challenge poor government pandemic decisions found it easier to keep looking ahead to the next set of relaxations instead of dwelling on step 3 which when combined with Delta caused the current situation. There is nothing wrong with people focussing on concerns about what step 4 would mean, but step 3 was bad enough and that step should have been where the maximum pressure to u-turn happened if we wanted to avoid a ridiculous percentage of the population being infected at the same time.

 

[elbows]

And all the wank about fiddling with the app or turning it off or deleting it. Every newspaper etc that put front page effort into making that the agenda rather than trying to reduce the number of infections is probably delighted.

Meanwhile on that front....

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

i don’t think you can turn it off. you can turn bluetooth off but my bluetooth is on all the time cos i use it to listen to music and podcasts

you listen to podcast and music in your worl locker?

 

[Orang Utan]

you listen to podcast and music in your worl locker?

no, at home and while commuting or shopping and pretty much any time i'm not working. can't usually bear dealing with my own thoughts, so distraction is necessary

 

[FridgeMagnet]

i don’t think you can turn it off. you can turn bluetooth off but my bluetooth is on all the time cos i use it to listen to music and podcasts

You can turn it off from within the app. It nags you once to turn it back on but it doesn't turn it on again automatically.

 

[Doctor Carrot]

N95 Masks Can be Rotated, 1 Mask Every 3–4 Days​

Use 3–4 masks, numbered on the outside as 1–4, for each day. They can be used each day in numerical order. All SARS-CoV-2 viruses on the mask will be dead in 3 days (2). Masks should be kept at room temperature (21–23°C [70–73°F]) and 40% humidity. There is no change in the mask's properties.

From here:

N95 Respirator Cleaning and Reuse Methods Proposed by the Inventor of the N95 Mask Material

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The bloke who actually invented the masks so I think I'll stick with this method. If it's good enough for health workers dealing with severe covid patients then it'll definitely be appropriate for shop workers and for going into crowded places.

 

[redsquirrel]

Is that literally it though, the variant I mean? They are all as open as we are?

There's a summary from the BBC here and here (though they are about as light on detail as all BBC news seems to be these days). Short story UK is not the only country seeing cases going crazy but is #1.

 

[MrSki]

 

[cupid_stunt]

Because of fears over both covid & flu this winter, they are expanding the flu vaccination programme.

Similar fears last year saw flu vaccine eligibility expanded to all adults over 50 and children in Year 7. This year the plans are even bigger, with secondary school pupils up to Year 11 included in the roll-out.

From August 31, free flu jabs will also be offered to all children aged two and three , primary school pupils, people with certain health conditions, unpaid carers, pregnant women and frontline health and adult social care staff.

In total, officials expect the jab to be offered free to more than 35 million people. By comparison, a record 19 million seasonal flu jabs were administered in winter 2020.

Free flu jabs offered to 35,000,000 people amid warnings of NHS winter crisis

Medics fear as many as 60,000 people could die from flu this winter as Covid and seasonal viruses put the NHS at risk of being ‘unable to cope’.

metro.co.uk

 

[zahir]

COVID-19: Bulgaria bans British travellers from same day it moves to UK's green travel list

The move comes into effect on Monday, meaning that Britons who had booked to visit the country from the UK will need to cancel.

news.sky.com

Bulgaria has banned UK travellers from entering the country due to concerns about the growing number of coronavirus cases in Britain.

The ban comes into force on Monday - the same day Bulgaria moves to the UK's green travel list, meaning quarantine-free travel for passengers arriving in the UK from Bulgaria.

The southeast European nation has put the UK on its high risk "red zone list" along with Cyprus, Spain, Fiji and Kuwait, health minister Stoycho Katsarov confirmed.

It will mean that only Bulgarian citizens, long-term residents and their immediate family members will be eligible to enter the country from the UK.
[...]
Aviation analyst Alex Macheras indicated that Bulgaria may be the first of many countries to refuse entry to British travellers as coronavirus rate continue to rise.

 

[MrSki]

COVID-19: Bulgaria bans British travellers from same day it moves to UK's green travel list

The move comes into effect on Monday, meaning that Britons who had booked to visit the country from the UK will need to cancel.

news.sky.com

The first of many I expect.

 

[brogdale]

So on Monday I can do me day-trip to Calais, but have to self-isolate for 10 days on return...however it being Johnson's 'freedom day' I won't have to wear a mask on the train up from Dover.

Well thought through.

 

[glitch hiker]

Indie SAGE dont know when it will peak. They may well describe certain scenarios with that timing of peak but they dont know when it will peak, and they have certainly seen Scotlands numbers start to fall like everyone else has seen.

Lockdown timing heavily influenced peoples thoughts on the timing of previous waves peaks. We dont have that this time. And there are lots of factors, which I went on about lots already so wont repeat now.

Tim Spector has spoken of a plateau because thats what his apps data is showing him. But some segments of society are underrepresented in their apps users. On twitter he acknowledged that survey+test methods of surveillance is struggling a bit at the moment so people need to combine multiple views of the situation to form a picture, This doesnt stop him saying things at times in his videos that I consider unwise.

Its also not possible to tell quite how messy this wave will be in terms of how long plateaus drag on for, whether things go down and then back up again later, etc.

I've already told people not to be surprised if there is a peak far sooner than some mainstream sources, models etc have been implying. This does not mean I am predicting an early peak, but I am certainly not ruling one out.

It was Dr John Campbell that first mentioned the September/late August peak. Of course he wasn't saying that for certain for the same reasons. I haven't heard anything different except from Tim Spector.

 

[StoneRoad]

A new FF2 mask comes into use tomorrow ... to add to the three I've already got on the go.
I'm working away from home for two days, for something that has been put off several times so the client is getting a bit fed up the job ain't finished yet [and still further delays as waiting for more parts from Spain] - travelling out Sunday and back Tuesday. About six to seven hours in a hire car, hope the air con works !

 

[ska invita]

im looking for stats for uk vaccination by age range , can anyone help. ive tried but failed

 

[Supine]

im looking for stats for uk vaccination by age range , can anyone help. ive tried but failed

the indy sage presentation yesterday had a slide on this, and they always have a web link at the bottom to the data

 

[crossthebreeze]

i posted elsewhere - the day centre for people with ld / autism i work at is meant to fully open in a couple of weeks with no covid policy in place. no restriction in numbers, no mandatory mask wearing, etc etc. most of our client base have been cut most if not all support over the last few years and are classed as highly vulnerable. a quick survey showed that roughly half of them have not been vaccinated. not because they are not eligible, but because they don't get the support to access services.

Is there a vaccine bus or mobile clinic in your area? Could it arrange to visit your centre? Of at least a gp/public health worker with info/support for people?

 

[cupid_stunt]

im looking for stats for uk vaccination by age range , can anyone help. ive tried but failed

The dashboard has stats, see the heat map towards the bottom of this page, and hover over the age groups, to see percentage uptake.

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/vaccinations?areaType=nation&areaName=England

 

[ska invita]

The dashboard has stats, see the heat map towards the bottom of this page, and hover over the age groups, to see percentage uptake.

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/vaccinations?areaType=nation&areaName=England

thanks...so according to this in the 70s and over bracket 90-100% have had at least one vax, am i reading that right?

 

[cupid_stunt]

thanks...so according to this in the 70s and over bracket 90-100% have had at least one vax, am i reading that right?
View attachment 278939

Yep, that looks right, bit depressing once you move down the age groups.

 

[two sheds]

They need to reverse this opening up now - if not now, then when?

 

[Doctor Carrot]

im looking for stats for uk vaccination by age range , can anyone help. ive tried but failed

I screenshot this from a YouTube video so sorry if image quality is crap.

I was surprised how low the second dose rate is for people up to 45. Plenty of people in their 40s end up in serious trouble with this. I'm sure there will be many more after Monday.

 

[ska invita]

Yep, that looks right, bit depressing once you move down the age groups.

perhaps explains a fair amount about the current wave,,,
hard to read the colours, but looking at the 40-50s bracket looks like 80-90%

 

[cupid_stunt]

View attachment 278942

I screenshot this from a YouTube video so sorry if image quality is crap.

I was surprised how low the second dose rate is for people up to 45. Plenty of people in their 40s end up in serious trouble with this. I'm sure there will be many more after Monday.

They only recently reduced the period for second doses, for the under 40's, so I expect that will soon start changing. .

 

[Cat Fan]

The first of many I expect.

It's not the first. For example Norway and Sweden have had a ban in place for UK tourists for ages now.

They also don't seem to currently have a problem with Delta so it's worked well for them so far.

 

[cupid_stunt]

perhaps explains a fair amount about the current wave,,,
hard to read the colours, but looking at the 40-50s bracket looks like 80-90%

Up to 15th July, uptake by age -

55-59 - 88.32%
55-54 - 85.75%
45-49 - 80.78%
40-44 - 74.67%
35-39 - 68.02%
30-34 - 62.37%
25-29 - 57.80%
18-24 - 57.39%

 

[Brainaddict]

I'm part of a political group that earlier this week met indoors for the first time since the pandemic started, somewhat nervously, with everyone wearing masks. We asked everyone to get a lateral flow test before coming, and someone got a faint positive line on theirs and didn't come as a result. She's now confirmed positive with PCR and feeling quite ill. I've been a bit sceptical of the LFTs but I'm now very glad we used them - fifteen people including me would now be self-isolating if we hadn't. Not sure we'll be meeting indoors again any time soon tho. It makes me think though, maybe it would be good if the government proposed that people did LFTs before meeting up with big groups of friends or family. Might be one way of reducing the 'pingdemic', as the crap newspapers are calling it.