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Post by slowcoach on Dec 29, 2021 15:59:47 GMT 2
^ It is nice to know that there are still places that are undramatic.
Here the paper is telling me that we have patients in País Vasco testing positive for both Delta and Omicron. Come on folks make your mind up.
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Post by slowcoach on Dec 29, 2021 17:34:09 GMT 2
It is widely believed that omicron is much more likely to cause reinfections than are the other variants. So, I was wondering how this affects the reported figures.
There is a problem with PCR tests still showing a positive result several weeks after the last infection. To this end Wales doesn't count a positive as a new case if the same person tested positive less than six weeks ago. In England that period during which a positive test result is not counted seems to be longer. It seems to be forever. Reinfections do not count towards the daily positive test count. That's the way to do it.
FWIW, the UK has not provided a more up to date figure for hospitalisation rates/bed occupancy than the figure for the 20th, nine days ago.
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Post by kuskiwi on Dec 29, 2021 19:57:52 GMT 2
We've now got omicron in the community. Grump. Courtesy of the great kiwi shut down for holidays and fun at Christmas. Limited centre's open but the main thrust for younger ones and boosters doesn't start until mid Jan, meanwhile a musician here for a concert broke self isolation and went bar hopping.
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Post by tzarine on Dec 29, 2021 20:21:05 GMT 2
our neighbourhood has really high rate of infection. & the tourists keep coming & coming
my nurse said it's airborne & people are covid fatigued & so many aren't masking
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Post by Baz Faz on Dec 29, 2021 20:27:26 GMT 2
Our neighbour 2 doors down has Covid.
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Post by auntieannie on Dec 29, 2021 22:09:22 GMT 2
So glad I'm not going to be working at the shop (only very irregularly in case of need) anymore! I was really "fatigued" at people's attitude, too many with the mask half on and too many of them wanting to impose their views on the subject matter. It's not the place.
I wonder how the "mandatory" working from home that started from 20th December is working out in other companies. last week I was barely in the office. This week, management is not in so I went in to ensure care staff had access to the materials cupboards should they need any. They come in with mask on.
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Post by tzarine on Dec 30, 2021 0:37:46 GMT 2
our authorities have told us that 5 day quarantine is sufficient if you have covid members of the medical profession are livid guess the corporations need to bodies for work
the us feels like a dystopian movie - 28 days later? contagion? wild in the streets?
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Post by slowcoach on Jan 15, 2022 15:24:25 GMT 2
our authorities have told us that 5 day quarantine is sufficient if you have covid members of the medical profession are livid guess the corporations need to bodies for work the us feels like a dystopian movie - 28 days later? contagion? wild in the streets? There have been some more publications and it seems: Even those testing negative (LFT) may still be infectious, perhaps 1/ 6. If this becomes the arbiter of whether you are fit to work and obviously sick people start turning up for work then we have certainly lost the plot.
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Post by slowcoach on Jan 15, 2022 15:44:45 GMT 2
This should be good news from the BBC website: 'High confidence' Omicron is less severe in UK.Note the above quotation marks included in the BBC's header i.e. the 'High confidence'
Those marks are not in the body of the article: The bad news is that the phrase 'High confidence' does not appear at all in that latest risk assessment. The salient passages are: Somehow a "no update on the overall severity analysis this week" in a report whose "findings have a high level of uncertainty" has morphed into 'High confidence' Omicron is less severe in UK.Is this journalism? Perhaps the BBC has a new definition of that too. FWIW Don't mention the deaths! Why should you, they don't.
ETA Does the report mention mildness? Yes, but not in a nice way.
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Post by kuskiwi on Jan 15, 2022 23:15:42 GMT 2
Well our Omicron case turned out to be Delta which so far we are managing to keep the lid just a little ajar. Omicron cases coming in from overseas and in MIQ mean it can't be far away but a bit puzzling in some ways as all incomers have to show evidence of a test etc etc etc yet on day 1 in isolation are testing positive. Maybe the time frames for infection to show are not as clear as thought. In the meantime lots of discussions and advice coming out on masks that the basic old Blue surgical masks are basically not sufficient and were only ever designed to stop the surgeons sneezing fit infecting your wound (mmmm) and cloth is only a fashion statement. Now there is a shortage of N95 or P2 type masks. I got 2 from a hardware store -more by luck than anything else. Work have ordered more as we are an essential service but so far still on backorder.
It must hit here soon so I've done a bit of a grocery core items stock up and topped up the medications, both prescribed and non prescribed
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Post by kuskiwi on Jan 16, 2022 9:06:55 GMT 2
Well that peace didn't last long. Miq worker out and about has tested positive for omicron.
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Post by slowcoach on Jan 16, 2022 15:48:47 GMT 2
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Post by Voy on Jan 16, 2022 16:04:00 GMT 2
Kuski - so sorry - but what is a miq worker?
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Post by slowcoach on Jan 16, 2022 16:07:56 GMT 2
Kuskiwi is probably still asleep so let me:
"Managed Isolation and Quarantine"
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Post by slowcoach on Jan 16, 2022 16:10:33 GMT 2
We have many more community cases in the town (pop ~1200) where we go shopping or sometimes we don't.
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Post by kuskiwi on Jan 16, 2022 19:35:09 GMT 2
Kuskiwi is probably still asleep so let me: "Managed Isolation and Quarantine" Thanks Slow.
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Post by rikita on Jan 20, 2022 23:43:29 GMT 2
just calculated that with the current incidence numbers among children, i suppose on average here, there should be at least two new cases per month in every school class.
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Post by kuskiwi on Jan 21, 2022 10:11:47 GMT 2
Our turns coming. This sounds awful in so many ways but thank you to the nations who have suffered so badly but shared their information. We did well for so long but the current we can do this again attitude is scary as this is now a different threat. Our labs have spit tests available 80% accurate which is a heck of a lot better than nothing as PCR tests take three days to get results,but are not approved or accepted by the govt. Our staff are getting nasal swabs often up to 7 times a day to meet client requirements then returning days later with what was then negative but could now be positive, and a dammed sore nose. I'm cross as as the moment the govt is in its Christmas and summer holiday mode so why think ahead. For about a dollar a day each person could do saliva test each morning, sit in the vehicle until results available and save even more disruption and potential heartache. Get real government and stop resting on your laurels.
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Post by kuskiwi on Jan 23, 2022 6:30:47 GMT 2
Well. We've moved to red. Highest restrictions without lockdown. 9 unlinked cases in one family who attended a wedding and a funeral, went sightseeing and a casino in the skytower and flew home and then 3 days later the air crew was positive so 5 flights are contacts. One was to my city. Here we go. Just as well I forced the issue at work last week about moving to n95 masks and the red, blue teams of staff and admin offices not to be entered by techs.
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Post by auntieannie on Jan 23, 2022 9:32:56 GMT 2
hugs kiwi lady. it' worse for you lot, I guess, since you mostly didn't get in contact with the virus before. (at least that's the opinion of an ozzie nurse I spoke to, who was like... it's gonna get worse before it gets better downunder and NZ. And he was very sorry about it)
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Post by slowcoach on Jan 28, 2022 20:30:12 GMT 2
Our turns coming. This sounds awful in so many ways but thank you to the nations who have suffered so badly but shared their information. There is nothing that can take the last two years away from you. From the phrase "our turns coming" I will not infer that we don't ourselves have more turns to come. If we were given the choice, which in fact we were, to forego the vast majority of the disease, trauma, and deaths for two years until we had developed treatments, preventatives, and improved out scientific understanding we would have been fools not to seize that opportunity, which of course we were.
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Post by shrjeff on Jan 29, 2022 11:57:25 GMT 2
from personal experience, the financial and social costs of prevention are so great that we are still trying to recuperate from summer of 2020! in addition, most of those, like us, who continue to protect themselves by self-isolating tend to experience covid fatigue and become lax... this is what was seen in 1918 when the first winter people masked, etc. but later they abandoned the effort.
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Post by slowcoach on Jan 31, 2022 19:14:16 GMT 2
In the meantime lots of discussions and advice coming out on masks that the basic old Blue surgical masks are basically not sufficient and were only ever designed to stop the surgeons sneezing fit infecting your wound (mmmm) and cloth is only a fashion statement. This might interest: Practical Indicators for Risk of Airborne Transmission in Shared Indoor Environments and Their Application to COVID-19 OutbreaksIt is rather too long and unfathomable but near the end it has a handy guide (Table 2). It is the magnitude of the other factors that stands out: For group gatherings, the difference in risk between on one hand silent behaviour, via speaking shouting or singing to on the other hand heavy exercise they give as a factor of 1 to ~70. The difference between a gathering in the open air on one hand through to indoor and poorly ventilated they give as 1 to ~500. Even if these figures are subject to very large uncertainties they would have to be significant.
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 3, 2022 13:39:44 GMT 2
Starting today, no more mandatory work from home and no more contact quarantine.
We will know nearer the time if there will be no more mandatory masks nor no more COVID pass needed after 17th February
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Post by slowcoach on Feb 5, 2022 11:44:41 GMT 2
It appears, to me at least, that the UK government has succeeded in something. It has succeeded in muddying the data and intends to muddy them some more.
The figures published daily show that case rates in the UK dropped substantially before plateauing. The retrospective ONS figures show that drop didn't happen, and the daily ZOE figures indicate that it dropped later and briefly before climbing back to near record levels.
The drop in the official daily figures may correspond to the ~60% drop in PCR testing now that it is no longer required to confirm a LF test with a PCR test and no effective compulsion to even notify the result of a LF test.
Importantly, in order for a COVID death to be recorded in the daily and most publicised figures it must occur within 28 days of a laboratory confirmed (PCR) positive test. Reducing the testing tends to understate both recorded case numbers and reported deaths.
The cheery news is that it may all be over by Easter as that is the date they have pencilled in for ceasing publishing COVID data in the current form and on a daily basis.
Some are concerned that they will be blindsided to any new epidemiological developments.
ETA
Until recently deaths following a reinfection were noticeable by their absence from the figures, they along with the number of reinfections were simply excluded from the figures.
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Post by ninchursanga on Feb 10, 2022 21:57:19 GMT 2
I'm very curious what the government will announce here next week.
At school each classroom is now equipped with a Co2-meter to keep track of air quality. While I always knew that air quality in classrooms is quite bad, it was still a bit of a shocker to see how quickly it decreases. This was even a bit shocking when I think that in my class there are only 12 students and max. 2 adults.
We quickly established new classroom jobs and when the device starts beeping, two kids get up and open the windows. Another one goes and sets the timer to 5 minutes. That part I don't mind. What gets annyoing is that I have to be the cop and spent way to much time to make kids wear their masks correctly. They are all able to wear it the right way, but some obviously have parents who think Covid is a conspiracy and that wearing masks it bollocks.
It's too bad that home-office is not mandatory anymore. There was way less traffic and it took me 20 min. less to drive to work. So yes, I'm all for mandatory home-office, forever.
My parents booked their cruise to Scandinavia for the summer. My dad feels that he's time here is limited and he just cannot wait until it gets better. For him this cruise was a life-long dream and it's now or never.
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Post by shrjeff on Feb 11, 2022 17:37:31 GMT 2
hi nin...
it is absolutely mindboggling how the dark web has generated conspiracy theories about covid throughout the world! about a year ago there was a report that there are only about a dozen people creating these world-wide anti-science establishment ideas.
good for your dad... this summer we are taking a cruise from reykjavik to greenland... this whole covid plague has made us very conscious of our mortality...
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Post by sophie on Feb 11, 2022 18:10:51 GMT 2
Yes.. the conspiracy theories will provide fodder for many different graduate thesis topics in various disciplines for years I’m sure! And Nin.. good for your parents to book it! I really enjoyed my trip through Scandinavia years ago and while it was camp not a cruise, it was a fascinating part of the world. One of my favourite spots was Nordkapp.. and there is a rock carving (petroglyphs) on a huge rock in northern Finland at Alta which was incredible.
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Post by slowcoach on Feb 11, 2022 18:28:21 GMT 2
Jolly Good Thinking! Air quality is not just for COVID.
If we learn anything, and it is an if, surely it will be the importance of clean air when dealing with respiratory diseases.
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Post by Voy on Feb 12, 2022 4:52:08 GMT 2
the importance of clean air when dealing with respiratory diseases. they "got" this message with the early TB sanitariums - in the Adrirondaks and elsewhere ! but it seems to have been forgotten.. Perry
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