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Coronavirus - the new strain IX

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wacko said:
Philippines alone has multiples more cases, deaths and total active cases David.
^ And Thailand is on the EU exempt list. But I do agree Malaysia should be on it too.
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For some reason we don't think of the Philippines as SE Asia, although they are.
Cambodia, Laos and Brunei are completely clear
Singapore has a high daily count in the quarantined off dormitories, very low in the community
 
Tony L said:
Disturbing new evidence as to how hard C19 is hitting disabled folk (BBC). Horrific stats.
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Good grief, I didn't expect to read this:

"New figures also suggest almost two-thirds of Covid-19 deaths in the UK have been disabled people. There are now calls for an inquiry.

" ... latest ONS figures showed more than 22,000 disabled people died from coronavirus, from 2 March to 15 May, making up two-thirds of all deaths."

Jack
 
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mandryka said:
On Wednesday I got an email asking me to volunteer to do the swab test. I said yes and the test arrived this morning, 36 hours after requesting it. I don't have symptoms.

The process of requesting it online is easy, they ask for your NI and NHS number but you can just say you don't know. They check your identity in some way, but they reassure you that it's not a credit check. It takes a few minutes and is no harder than filling in a return form for amazon, for example. They send you a couple of confirmation emails telling you to expect a package, with help line numbers and a brief summary of what you should do when you get it.

The test pack was waiting for me on my doorstep when I got up this morning, with the milk.

There is an instruction booklet. It is in pretty plain English. There are a lot of instructions to follow. It is a bit on the same level as making some flatpack furniture. What I mean is, it's perfectly possible to bodge it, you may think the shelves are fine, but they haven't been made as they should and there are some bits you haven't used, worryingly. With bookshelves it doesn't matter, with this . . . it matters a bit more maybe.

Performing the test itself was uncomfortable for me, but not a major problem. If you panic when the dentist wants to put something in your mouth, you'll find it a very challenging hurdle. But for me, that side of it was fine.

When you've done the test, you still have a lot to do. The swab has to be labelled correctly -- so you have to find the label. It has to go into a container, that container then goes into another container, the second container goes into a third, the whole sealed. and then you have to construct by origami a fourth container to put the other three into -- which in turn to be sealed in the correct way. Worryingly, the origami box didn't really fit the sample in all those containers, I had to bang and sit on it to make it close -- I wonder what I did wrong.

You then have to post it at a designated priority post box, which you find through a Royal Mail website. When you log in, it asks to use your present location, but in my case didn't function correctly (it basically just seemed to construct a postcode at random) so the post boxes it came up with were hopeless. No probs. I have a helpline number -- 131.

131 answered the phone very quickly and a cheerful lady told me some nearby priority post boxes (all very convenient) and then I was just saying goodbye when she said . . . and this is the killer "have you registered your test yet?"

Now, I have many degrees including a doctorate, I have done some mildly responsible jobs without failing, my kids are pretty happy adults, so I kind of see myself as an at least averagely capable person. But if she hadn't asked me I would have forgotten to register and so I would not have received my test results and probably, if positive, my contacts would not have been traced.

But it's all OK because she'll do it for me (normally you're supposed to do it online.) What a palava! She had to type a long code which was my order code (big panic finding the email with it on), a long code which was my test sample code, and a long code which was the postage code. All very long, all potential typo traps.

That process of registration seems to me a major weakness in the system so far. Why it couldn't have all been done automatically I do not know.

Anyway she said 72 hours maximum to get the test results. I'll post if and when they arrive.
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Test placed in post box 5.30 p.m. Friday. Results received by email 11.50 p.m. Saturday. Negative.
 
https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...di-1-covid-19-care-homes-study-report#results

Except for the somewhat startling news that 80%+ of the sampled positive residents were asymptomatic (nobody seems to have followed up to see if they later became symptomatic.), the conclusions are exactly what anybody who thought about the situation for 2 seconds or so could have told you..

covid report said:
Regular use of ‘bank’ staff (healthcare professionals who do temporary work in different settings as needed) is an important risk factor for infection in residents and staff.

Infections in staff are a risk factor for infection in residents and infections in residents are a risk factor for infection in staff. However, the magnitude of this effect suggests staff are more likely to transmit infections to residents than vice versa.

Emerging data suggests that the number of new admissions, and return of residents to the care home from hospital, may be important risk factors for infection in residents and staff. This has only been tested in unadjusted analysis due to a high proportion of missing data across these variables.

Region is an important risk factor for infection in staff and residents, but its effect is different in staff and residents. This may be due to temporal differences in the timing of testing between staff and residents.

Important transmission risk is now likely to focus on staff, who will now be tested weekly via the new whole home testing rollout.
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Mrs ks is searing at the telly again. Sir Simon Stevens on Marr saying that PPE was not diverted from Care Homes to NHS. It was. PPE bought and paid for by her Care company, arrived at docks from China, confiscated for NHS.

Mrs ks was working minimum 14 hour days at start of lockdown, mostly trying to get hold of PPE for her Care homes

Sir Simon sounds like a government apologist
 
Hancock on Marr

At that point [when people were transferred from hospitals to care homes] it was not known about the asymptomatic transmission of that disease . . .
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It is not true to say that we shouldn't take action unless the NHS is going to be overwhelmed; we need to take action to keep the virus under control. I've been against this sort of herd immunity argument that's implied in that right from the start.
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Richard Nichola said:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...di-1-covid-19-care-homes-study-report#results

Except for the somewhat startling news that 80%+ of the sampled positive residents were asymptomatic (nobody seems to have followed up to see if they later became symptomatic.), the conclusions are exactly what anybody who thought about the situation for 2 seconds or so could have told you..
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Would you spell it out for me? I just can't get my brain round it, I didn't sleep well last night. Is it the swab test or the antibody test?

If it's the swab test, I didn't realise that it would identify asymptomatic infected people. Makes me wonder why we don't just give it to all those asymptomatic people who Test and Trace instruct to self isolate.

If it was the antibody test, I don't follow your point about them becoming symptomatic.

Unfortunately I can't find the report, only the conclusions.
 
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