Covid - coming out of Lockdown 3 - no politics, less opinion and more facts and information.

[AY Mod]

The previous topic was closed due to tribal opinions and combat.

 

After a topic reset please pay attention to the title to avoid future derailments.

[rocor]

13 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

The previous topic was closed due to tribal opinions and combat.

 

After a topic reset please pay attention to the title to avoid future derailments.

 

Er!. All students to return to school and college from 8 March and what you need to know: 

 

https://dfemedia.blog.gov.uk/2021/02/22/all-students-to-return-to-school-and-college-from-8-march-and-what-you-need-to-know/

[monkeysarefun]

Ive got one!

 

From midnight tomorrow I'm allowed to dance at weddings.

 

[AY Mod]

And no Aussies winding others up.

[Matt C]

5 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

And no Aussies winding others up.

 

 

Hmm thats cricket out as well then 

[Bernard Lamb]

36 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

And no Aussies winding others up.

I thought that was the national occupation.

Surely we can cut them a bit of slack just this once when they appear to be doing something better than us.

Bernard

[monkeysarefun]

Sorry. No one seemed to have posted in your new thread and I just wanted to cheer you up.

[StuAllen]

Had some emails from school this afternoon - they are testing all pupils before everyone goes back on the 8th, then twice a week once back. My son is in year 9, their testing slot is Thursday 4th, each form has it’s own time slot. Seems like a sensible idea to me, would be interesting to see if other schools are doing this. 
 

TBH, I’m impressed with how his school has dealt with lockdown, all pupils have iPads so all lessons take place over Teams, even the practical ones like PE and food tech - they had a baking competition today so plenty of fairy cakes in the house now.

[AY Mod]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

Sorry. No one seemed to have posted in your new thread and I just wanted to cheer you up.

 

They're not intended to. 

[Paperlad]

Well, I’ll put an early post on, maybe get things going?

 

I’m feeling quite optimistic about the coming year, we’ve all got an idea about the plans to ease ‘lockdown’ (I now detest that word!), the vaccine programme appears to be going spectacularly well (I had my first dose {Pfizer} last week) and it generally seems that infections, hospital admissions and deaths are all markedly reducing. Spring and summer is just around the corner so it’s looking much better than this time last year.

 

All simply my opinion.

 

Best wishes to all.

 

PL.

[beast66606]

22 minutes ago, StuAllen said:

Had some emails from school this afternoon - they are testing all pupils before everyone goes back on the 8th, then twice a week once back. My son is in year 9, their testing slot is Thursday 4th, each form has it’s own time slot. Seems like a sensible idea to me, would be interesting to see if other schools are doing this. 
 

TBH, I’m impressed with how his school has dealt with lockdown, all pupils have iPads so all lessons take place over Teams, even the practical ones like PE and food tech - they had a baking competition today so plenty of fairy cakes in the house now.

 

I was offered the chance to be a tester at the local school but had to turn it down as it's a full 5 days and I'm bone idle I had committments for some of the time, and they wanted someone who could do a full week.

[PatB]

4 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Ive got one!

 

From midnight tomorrow I'm allowed to dance at weddings.

 

You sure the ban was due to Covid, or was it just for general good taste? 

[hayfield]

 

A bit of a worrying report on the BBC news,  which is perhaps something of what we have been seeing

 

"Is Covid at risk of becoming a disease of the poor?"

 

Like a few others I have been watching reports of infection rates both where I live and where relatives live, when you go into the detail it seems certainly with the initial variant, both high population density and where there is housing overcrowding turned out as breeding grounds for the initial waves. The Kent wave seemingly caught on to groups meeting together, who perhaps were less affected by the first wave, but whilst it seemed most arear were adversely affected these higher populated areas.

 

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/interactive-map

 

Looking at the interactive maps, which a few weeks ago in the south east were mainly red, areas now are showing much lower rates of infection, which we have not seen since summer last year, again many of the least affected areas are those less populated, though in rural areas income is less of a factor

 

The good news is everywhere seems to be improving, vaccine take up in most groups is well above initial expectations, with a few groups causing concern

 

The other fact that has gone a bit under the radar is a large reduction in vaccinations this week, seem to have caught the back of a report which expected supplies back to normal next week ?

[MJI]

It is good to see how well vaccination is going in the UK.

 

I have just had first Biontec.

 

Got a few of the side effects but they are already starting to wear off.

[Bernard Lamb]

1 hour ago, hayfield said:

 

A bit of a worrying report on the BBC news,  which is perhaps something of what we have been seeing

 

"Is Covid at risk of becoming a disease of the poor?"

 

Like a few others I have been watching reports of infection rates both where I live and where relatives live, when you go into the detail it seems certainly with the initial variant, both high population density and where there is housing overcrowding turned out as breeding grounds for the initial waves. The Kent wave seemingly caught on to groups meeting together, who perhaps were less affected by the first wave, but whilst it seemed most arear were adversely affected these higher populated areas.

 

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/interactive-map

 

Looking at the interactive maps, which a few weeks ago in the south east were mainly red, areas now are showing much lower rates of infection, which we have not seen since summer last year, again many of the least affected areas are those less populated, though in rural areas income is less of a factor

 

The good news is everywhere seems to be improving, vaccine take up in most groups is well above initial expectations, with a few groups causing concern

 

The other fact that has gone a bit under the radar is a large reduction in vaccinations this week, seem to have caught the back of a report which expected supplies back to normal next week ?

Take a look at Edinburgh John.

The published rate per 100k dropped to the low 40s a while ago and has been steadily increasing for the last 3 weeks and is now over 80. If you look back they peaked at around 225 when my local borough rate was over 1000. Considering that they have been subject to a tighter lock down than in England and have been  a few weeks in front of the Home Counties area it is worth watching to see of it becomes a more general trend.

 

Another disturbing report from the WHO that I have just read is that they do not consider vaccine passports to be adequate for opening up travel. They say that quarantine and testing will still be needed.

Bernard

[hayfield]

 

Bernard

 

I think if you look at infection rates there are bounce backs after a fall, locally we reached a peak in infections about 7 weeks ago, it continued to fall dramatically (90%) for 3 weeks and over the following two weeks rose. For the past week is dropping again.

 

At its worst we were at the worst we were nearing 1800 cases per 100,000, now down to about 77 per 100,000

 

I have just looked at the heat map further north, whilst  mainly dark blue there are still red pockets spread through the Midlands, North and Scotland. I think they got the Kent variant later so are later coming out or the last spike. But its concentrated in the more populated areas. I think you will find that it a couple of weeks it will be a lot better is it reacts similarly to the south east where this strain emerged. 

 

Whilst this latest stage has been awful, than God the first wave was far less deadly. I think  humanity dodged a bullet by having the less virulent strain first. 

 

Some how we need to change some groups way of living, or certainly their attitude in reducing their risk of infection

[Neil]

3 hours ago, hayfield said:

 

A bit of a worrying report on the BBC news,  which is perhaps something of what we have been seeing

 

"Is Covid at risk of becoming a disease of the poor?"  ....

 

There have been suggestions by the Runnymede Trust think-tank, reported in the Guardian yesterday, that door to door vaccinations may be needed to combat this problem. My elderly parents were vaccinated at home as my Dad has serious mobility issues but as yet it appears not to be common practice to extend this facility beyond those who would struggle to attend a clinic.

[caradoc]

1 hour ago, Neil said:

There have been suggestions by the Runnymede Trust think-tank, reported in the Guardian yesterday, that door to door vaccinations may be needed to combat this problem.

 

That would be very helpful; When my 90-year Mum received her vaccines in January it was at a local health centre, but still required two buses there and the same back (twice !). Fortunately she is fit for her age and was able, and happy, to make the journeys, but of course not everyone can.

 

 

[john new]

10 hours ago, caradoc said:

 

That would be very helpful; When my 90-year Mum received her vaccines in January it was at a local health centre, but still required two buses there and the same back (twice !). Fortunately she is fit for her age and was able, and happy, to make the journeys, but of course not everyone can.

 

 

Two options for the GP led injections here - one 200 yards from a bus route/stop the other around 3/4 mile from nearest bus service so effectively car borne attendance only. Both much easier to do than the 60+ mile round trip to the nearest one offered via the NHS letter (in Poole) I guess it depends on the available resources and also where you live, locally urban public transport varies from excellent to non-existent in some parts (not necessarily rural)  well off the bus routes. Luckily my Mum , almost identical in description to yours, got a lift from my sister who lives much closer and with my B-i-L is her support bubble. [My wife and I got our jabs this afternoon.]

 

For those living locally in the very steep parts of the Island, and off the bus route which only does the main road, this service will be ideal. Hope it happens nationally. 

 

Edited February 25, 2021 by john new
Updated the bracketed entry

[woodenhead]

Manchester Central Nightingdale reaching the end of the line (pardon the pun)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-56194378

 

The Birmingham one is still shown as non operational - so hopefully it too will stand down soon - opening the doors for a possible Warley in November ()

[The Johnster]

3 hours ago, Neil said:

 

There have been suggestions by the Runnymede Trust think-tank, reported in the Guardian yesterday, that door to door vaccinations may be needed to combat this problem. My elderly parents were vaccinated at home as my Dad has serious mobility issues but as yet it appears not to be common practice to extend this facility beyond those who would struggle to attend a clinic.

I would welcome this for the less able to get about, often the same people as those, like me, required to shield due to other medical factors.  I had my initial Oxford jab 3 weeks ago tomorrow, and it entailed a two-bus journey in each direction.  Quite stressful on the buses, because one passed me full with the maximum allowed passengers with social distancing.  Luckily I'd left an hour earlier than I needed to because I don't trust buses (for good reasons linked to bitter experience).  I have a Welsh Assembly Government bus pass, but otherwise would have bought a 'day' ticket, which is £5.50, not cheap for a poor pensioner but the journey would have been 4 times that much by taxi.

 

One has to establish a definition of 'those who would struggle to attend a clinic', and if this is based on GP's records of who can attend surgery and who needs home visits, there is a difference between walking about a quarter mile to a GP's surgery and a 3 hour expedition in cold weather on buses. 

 

Because of the bus timetable I got to the Leisure Centre half an hour early, and was able to be 'seen' within 10 minutes; one got the impression that they didn't want you hanging around more than you needed to.  You sit for a further 10 in case you go wobbly, and I left at about the time I was supposed to arrive, having been injected and told about the possible side effects by a very pleasant Army nurse.  I was out of the house for 3 hours (bear in mind I am on the 'extremely vulnerable' list) on a rather bleak and cold day, and when I got home was close to exhaustion; went to bed and stayed there for the next 5 hours until I'd recovered a bit.  I regard myself as fairly mobile for my age, but can see how attendance at some vaccinations centres might be an issue for some elderly folk or those with some underlying issues. 

 

I am prone to panic attacks and social phobia/agoraphobia, and was able to avoid a wobble, but not by much.  Stress and exhaustion makes matters much worse; this is of course an 'invisible' problem.  I also suffer stress because I  wear glasses, and with a face mask have a choice between not wearing them and not being able to see properly, or wearing them and not being able to see at all.   I have some difficulty with hearing as well, and the gymnasium in which the vaccination centre had been set up was, as they usually are, a bit of an echo chamber, so it was very difficult for me to understand what the nice Army girl was instrucing me to do or answer her questions.  She was very patient and understanding, but a less patient, or more rushed or stressed nurse, might have caused me real problems.

 

This is not written in any sense of ingratitude; I am aware that the NHS is under extreme pressure in this matter and grateful that I was called out and seen in much less time than I thought I'd be, but I think that home injections should be investigated for those who find difficulty getting to the centres, and those who, like myself, have been asked to spend as little time as they can in public places and then have to undertake a couple of hours in fairly close proximity to other passengers on the bus.   There are plenty folks less able to cope with this sort of situation than I am, and some require carers to accompany them which doubles the risks.

[Metr0Land]

Johnster, for your 2nd jab it might be worth asking whoever sent you the original booking to see if they can help with transport.

 

About a month ago my friend in Narberth had an appointment letter out of the blue to attend in Tenby about 8 days later on a Sunday.  She's 76 with a heart condition, doesn't drive and is fairly newly moved into the area so doesn't have anyone local who can help (it's a 60 miles roundtrip from me so I couldn't easily help).

 

The leisure centre in Tenby is about 10 miles on the bus, and the bus doesn't really go near enough for a 76 year old to walk.  However it doesn't run on Sundays anyway so the point is moot.  Needless to say her letter came on a Saturday so she couldn't ring anyone to talk to.  The following Monday she rang the national call centre.  It took some time to get through however.... when she did get through someone took her details.  The following Weds (ie 2 days later) someone did get back to her offerring an appt in Haverfordwest on the Thursday saying someone would be in touch re transport.

 

Fair enough 30mins later she had a call from a lady in the fire service offering her a lift and in due course took her there and back.  My friend was her only call that day but it was clear it's something they'd been doing a fair bit of in the area.  Might be worth a bit of pleading next time to see if the authorities can offer anything.

[MJI]

I left with plenty of time to get there, good job I did.

 

Road closed from city centre to vaccination place, 2 mile detour.

 

So bypass on way home, lots of roadworks.

 

Side effects down to 1 joint pain and occasional headache

[TheQ]

Just been pfizered, no effects yet.

 

I know round here there are volunteers, on patient delivery service If required. There is no bus within a mile and a half here,  and on a Sunday hardly any there. It would take one Change of bus to get there after you've walked that 1.5 miles.

Our centre is in a village hall 10 miles away ,all very well organised.. majority being vaccinated were couples.

 

You only get a letter here if they can't contact you by phone.. no revaccination date given today, they contact you again.

 

Up in Scotland my dad can't travel, so he got vaccinated at home some time ago, because of that mum was done at the same time.

[Free At Last]

I had my AZ vaccination Saturday before last then on the following Tuesday I had my annual blood tests. The doctor phoned on Thursday as some of the tests were showing odd results, I remember something about proteins and antibodies amongst other things. I mentioned I had recently had the Covid vaccination and she said that was possibly the cause. I have to have the blood tests done again in two weeks time.