Coronavirus

[Rich B]

Mid way through chilling out watching a movie this morning and I got a call from my boys pre-school. There's a case in his bubble and I need to come and get him. Arse. That's my 2 lazy days before Xmas gone!

[dinny_g]

Our Home Corona test kits have arrived and all the notes are saying do immediately etc.

Do you know is this because the kits only have a short lifespan or is it to stop people ordering them and not using them.

We've been asked to get tested to check for the virus before returning to school in January but that's 3 week away ? A better time to test would be in the first week in Jan

[Explosive Newt]

Our Home Corona test kits have arrived and all the notes are saying do immediately etc.

Do you know is this because the kits only have a short lifespan or is it to stop people ordering them and not using them.

We've been asked to get tested to check for the virus before returning to school in January but that's 3 week away ? A better time to test would be in the first week in Jan

Ones you have to send off (PCR) or do-at-home (lateral flow)? There will be use-by-date on the side of the swab vial for the PCR kit or on the test strip pack for the lateral flow. Mine are all June 2021 at the earliest, my guess would be the latter.

[dinny_g]

Thanks mate.

[JonMad]

10/10 for the Scottish reporter on the BBC News last night, talking about Nicola Sturgeon not having her mask on when she stood up to talk to a couple of old people sat away from here at some event. 'It's not like she went off to Stirling Castle to get her eyesight tested'.

Wife has been told to self isolate after one of her hairdressing clients tested positive, after feeling ill the day after coming to get her hair cut. The client was wearing a mask and my wife had a mask and visor on and the window open. So hopefully that lot was worth wearing. Five days into that now and we're all feeling fine. And not that it changes any plans now as we weren't going to have anyone in the house anyway. Her last day of isolation is my birthday.

Local Tesco was out of bread and milk when I popped in the other day.

[Rich B]

Well that was interesting. We had a teams call with the latest announcement. My MD is in South Africa now (due back 30th) and one of my workmates parents are supposed to be moving from SA to uk on Boxing Day....

[scotta]

Our Home Corona test kits have arrived and all the notes are saying do immediately etc.

Do you know is this because the kits only have a short lifespan or is it to stop people ordering them and not using them.

We've been asked to get tested to check for the virus before returning to school in January but that's 3 week away ? A better time to test would be in the first week in Jan

Ones you have to send off (PCR) or do-at-home (lateral flow)? There will be use-by-date on the side of the swab vial for the PCR kit or on the test strip pack for the lateral flow. Mine are all June 2021 at the earliest, my guess would be the latter.

Bear in mind lead times on the post. It took 6 days to get my (Negative) result back last week.

[speedingfine]

Guy at work who has their lunch the same time as me in the canteen is a confirmed case. We were more than distanced but I went hot to the touch last night and a bit feverish so reported symptoms to the app. I have a test today at 12 and have to isolate. Of course I feel fine today and feel like a last day at work skiver

Negative result came through this morning

[DeskJockey]

Excellent result!

[Mito Man]

Some London hospitals so full now that they’re treating patients in ambulances - why don’t they just open up Nightingale again? Isn’t this what it’s meant to be used for?

[Rich B]

Who's going to staff them?

[Mito Man]

They must have thought of that before bothering to build all of these hospitals?

[integrale_evo]

At the time they probably weren’t prepared for how quickly it would affect staff, and how long it would continue to do so.

My mrs did one shift on Christmas Eve and has been told she’s off again until at least the 18th

[Simon]

So we there are now more people in hospital with it than during the first peak on April 12. Yet shockingly, that was 3 weeks after a full countrywide lockdown started (including schools) and yet here we are without a full countrywide lockdown yet, WITH a more contagious variant in general circulation, and with the idiots suggesting schools will return 'as normal' in January (in apostrophes as I know my niece is going back a week late). Even if there was a countrywide lockdown tomorrow the hospital numbers would still go up for 3 weeks based on our previous experience.

This is criminally stupid. Put everywhere into Tier 4 and don't send the schools back (learn from home instead) until this is under control.

[Gwaredd]

It now feels like the whole of this last year has been for nothing and we're starting over. Shitshow.

[Mito Man]

When Michael Gove said that schools will reopen as normal earlier I pretty much took that as a guarantee that they won’t be reopening.
It is the U-turn party after all!

[240PP]

It now feels like the whole of this last year has been for nothing and we're starting over. Shitshow.

Not really. Without the lockdowns and tiers etc there would be have been more hospital admissions and more dead. Plus there have been two vaccines developed in that time. What would have been a perfect outcome of the last year for you?

[Rich B]

They must have thought of that before bothering to build all of these hospitals?

[integrale_evo]

More in hospital in total, but the ‘first wave’ was very London centric which then radiated out, similar to the current tier 4 areas.

I have zero actual statistics but got a feeling its a bit more evenly spread around the country at the moment.

It was always going to rise again when restrictions were relaxed along with people getting more fed up and less complacent, of course the government knew it was going to come back too, all the lockdown measure to some extent are allowing it to spread to build some herd immunity while trying to make sure the hospitals aren’t overrun so everyone who needs healthcare can get it.

Again, damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Half the country wants tougher measures, half wants everything opened up and back to normal.

[Explosive Newt]

Got a phone call on Xmas eve. Corona numbers had doubled and could I come and work 26th to 28th as they are planning to open a contingency ICU ward.

So I came in. 19 covid cases in intensive care, mostly because we act as the surge centre for the region, against a total capacity of 52 ICU beds. The extra ward never materialised however, as there are barely enough nurses to staff our 52, let alone the planned additional 12-22 beds in a repurposed ward.

This is the problem: in the first wave, we had shut down elective surgery, moved things off site, etc etc. This created nursing staff from theatres, other wards etc who while they weren’t ICU nurses could at least be supervised by our guys. But all other activity is carrying on right now so those people are not available, let alone fully qualified and trained ICU nurses.

And of course we didn’t have enough nurses or doctors in this country to begin with. The loss of the bursaries to fund people through nursing training play a large role in that.