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NHS Covid testing - has anyone managed to book one?

Just take this one to start with.

The choice is between two evils. Either you open high schools and universities only when you have a rapid test on demand facility (possibly a long way away, maybe never); or you open schools with a targeted, limited test and trace strategy, the sort of thing they're talking about now. Both routes have very undesirable consequences, I'm sure I don't need to spell them out. They decided to go for the second of these choices.



Hopefully heads will be reassured about the safety and the viability of their schools by whatever is proposed in the strategy about to be unveiled.
I'm not sure I follow you. They didn't do either of these things. There is no targeted, limited test and trace strategy. What they actually did was assure schools that by the time they opened children and staff would be able to get rapid tests, and then they hoped for the best. Schools built their strategy around this and now some at least are barely holding on. They were first of all misled, and then kept in the dark.

The costs of assuming this government is ever acting in good faith are very high. The broader cost to society of having to assume, just to survive day to day, that your government is lying to you in a way that might prove fatal is incalculable, I think.
 
This is true but were told it’s about to change.
Ah, I thought you meant this was how they’d actually gone about things. If they’ve only decided to do it now, in response to the collapse of their actual strategy (lie and hope for the best) I’m not sure strategy’s really the right term. “Rapidly improvised PR damage limitation exercise” might be closer to the mark. If it bears any more relation to reality than their initial offer I’d be gobsmacked. Government vapourware.
 
ITV news reporting that Rome airport can test and give a result in under half an hour.
 
My son has developed a new and frequent cough, and was sent home from school today with instructions to get a test. Once he’s cleared he can go back in. He is very congested and the cough is productive, so I’m 100% certain it’s the same regular cold that loads of people in this area have. We went online to book a test, and received a confirmation of an appointment in Haverhill at 2 - 2.30pm, quoting name, dob, car reg etc. There was no QR code, but the confirmation seemed comprehensive. On arrival we were told they could not test him without a QR code, and that the system must have crashed before completing the booking. They said that they had lots of test kits available but had hardly been able to perform any, because most people turning up had had exactly the same problem we did.

The only option was To go home and try to make a successful booking when new appointments would be made available at 8pm or 8am. I’ve been trying all evening and every time the system either crashes, tells me it is too busy, or that no tests are available. I’ll try again in the morning but this is a massive frustration. There must be a huge difference between tests being ‘made available’ and those actually carried out, and the government have made a massive and dangerous mess of this. Not happy.
 
Update following the debacle yesterday. I tried repeatedly to book a test online from 7 this morning, and had the same result over and over again - the website either crashed or told me there was nothing available. At about 9am it offered me a test in Aberdeen, which would be a round trip of over 1,000 miles from north Essex, so I kept on trying.

I eventually managed to book an appointment at Stansted airport for 2.30 this afternoon. I got a similar text confirmation to the one from yesterday but this time I did receive a QR code, although it disappeared of its own accord.

The test centre was huge, and set up in one of the deserted long term car parks, with multiple coned-off lanes and 8 separate bays for handing over the test kits. We duly performed the swab with no issues and handed it back, so now await the result. Despite the enormous space there was only one other car on site with an occupant being tested. The chap who took the completed test from us said they had been very quiet and had barely seen anyone all day, so why was it so hard to get a test? I’m pretty sure it’s to cover up the true numbers and simultaneously make a healthy profit for some tory donor.
 
Love to spend my mornings queuing up with a hundred suspected Covid sufferers to get my hands on sweet, sweet free tests. Reminds me of the good times before we got the water meter installed: I used to drink like 60, 70 gallons of the stuff a day. I'd be mad not to given it was freeeeeeeeee.
 
27 % of those turning up for tests, have no symptoms.

Free lunch anyone.

Is it not the case that people are being sent for tests where they have been in contact with a carrier? I didn't realise you had to have symptoms. If that's the case we are probably under-reporting quite extensively because many people with the virus won't have symptoms.
 
I'm still waiting for a result from the Tuesday test. Poor little 8 year old has been in a room by herself all week and people shed crocidile tears over childrens' metal health - bl**dy hypocrites...
 
lie and hope for the best .

Have you had a chance to think about Dido’s testimony in committee yesterday about the number of tests - c60K or c150K per day?

I can’t make sense of it. It’s too hard to compare the data - because the lower figure is de-duplicated I think, and just England. I had a head for this sort of stats years ago but I’ve lost the knack.

We seem to have three choices, assuming one of them is true.

The Dashboard figure lies
Dido’s figure lies
They’re both incomparable and both truthful
 
Is it not the case that people are being sent for tests where they have been in contact with a carrier? .
No. And I think this is a major problem - who’s going to self isolate for 14 days, possibly at their own cost, just because they may be carrying an infectious viral load, without even a test to suggest that they’re carrying any viral load?

I
There was something in yesterday’s committee about the degree of compliance with self isolation, I forget the details but it’s very low. France have reduced quarantine to 7 days, apparently following scientific advice. Go figure.
 
Is it not the case that people are being sent for tests where they have been in contact with a carrier? I didn't realise you had to have symptoms. If that's the case we are probably under-reporting quite extensively because many people with the virus won't have symptoms.

According to this we have done as much testing as Italy and Spain combined, though I suppose it all depends on how you handle the data, and whether the data is 'accurate' as the Russians would say.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109066/coronavirus-testing-in-europe-by-country/

I think the other problem as you point out is that people are not sure what the advice is.
The numbers of new cases and rising deaths in France and Spain are worrying trends though.
 
Have you had a chance to think about Dido’s testimony in committee yesterday about the number of tests - c60K or c150K per day?

I can’t make sense of it. It’s too hard to compare the data - because the lower figure is de-duplicated I think, and just England. I had a head for this sort of stats years ago but I’ve lost the knack.

We seem to have three choices, assuming one of them is true.

The Dashboard figure lies
Dido’s figure lies
They’re both incomparable and both truthful
I think droodzilla had some thoughts about this on the other thread. I tend not to listen to the government's own figures: better to wait until they're debunked by a reputable source.
 
No. And I think this is a major problem - who’s going to self isolate for 14 days, possibly at their own cost, just because they may be carrying an infectious viral load, without even a test to suggest that they’re carrying any viral load?

I
There was something in yesterday’s committee about the degree of compliance with self isolation, I forget the details but it’s very low. France have reduced quarantine to 7 days, apparently following scientific advice. Go figure.
I think Whitty's "behavioural fatigue" may have finally have set in. An interesting case of the government making up a scientifically meaningless concept and then creating a social situation where it actually makes some sense.
 
There was something in yesterday’s committee about the degree of compliance with self isolation, I forget the details but it’s very low. France have reduced quarantine to 7 days, apparently following scientific advice. Go figure.

against the advice of the WHO.
 
No. And I think this is a major problem - who’s going to self isolate for 14 days, possibly at their own cost, just because they may be carrying an infectious viral load, without even a test to suggest that they’re carrying any viral load?

I
There was something in yesterday’s committee about the degree of compliance with self isolation, I forget the details but it’s very low. France have reduced quarantine to 7 days, apparently following scientific advice. Go figure.
20% are following quarantine once contacted.
 
I'm still waiting for a result from the Tuesday test. Poor little 8 year old has been in a room by herself all week and people shed crocidile tears over childrens' metal health - bl**dy hypocrites...

Didn't someone earlier in the thread say they phoned and got their results almost immediately after the call? (Telephone number: 119 IIRC). We got our result back the next day (negative thankfully).
 


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