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Coronavirus

Coronavirus - The Poll

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Sorry to double post, but today, it dawned upon me that I think we’re well and truly out of the pandemic phase of this thing, at least in a social sense. Getting off the train in Cheltenham today to go to university was easily the most crowded experience I’ve had since before COVID… exiting Cheltenham Spa station today was incredibly crowded. I was literally rubbing shoulder to shoulder with about 5 other people, and I was the only one wearing a mask that I could see; there was not a trace of social distancing in sight!

It was quite surreal, I’ll admit… I never especially liked crowds like that before COVID, but it felt weird being in that type of scenario again after 2 years. It could have been 2019!
 
Interesting Twitter thread on how Hong Kong are now having a really bad Omicron outbreak with very very high deaths due to low vaccination rates among the over-80s.
 
Yes, it may feel like it's over in the UK but that's not true everywhere.

China have locked down the province of Jilin, affecting 24 million people. It is the first time China has restricted an entire province since the Wuhan and Hebei lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic.

Their "zero-Covid" strategy is proving increasingly challenging to apply with the Omicron variant.
 
It’s definitely raging down here at the moment in Devon. Pretty much most people I know have it many of which had previous strains. In hospital where I work we have shot up from around 30 cases a fortnight ago to 89 today in hospital. A lot younger ages too this time around.

It’s floored our 9 year old in the house today, he’s been in bed all day!!
 
Not been feeling 100% the last few days, with a rather chesty cough. Took LFTs on Monday and Tuesday - both negative. Got out of bed to have a shower and get ready for work, only to find that I was rather unsteady on my feet, which is quite unusual. Took another LFT, which I left to process while I was having a shower, and...Well, it was positive. I mean, it's a really faint line which is so faint that it doesn't show up very well on photos, but compared with yesterday's negative test, there's a clear difference. Got a PCR booked for 9am, so I'll be interested to get the results from that, but I'm expecting it to confirm what the LFT says. I've had three doses of the vaccine, and I'm generally in good health anyway, so chances are I'll be OK. Still sucks that I've finally got it, especially when I've somehow managed to avoid it for the past two years when I've been working in high-risk environments.
 
Genuine question here but what’s the point of doing the PCR test? What difference will it make if it’s positive or negative? If you don’t feel well you should just stay at home until you feel better the same as if you had a bad cold or flu.
We are now at a point when we live with this, testing is now almost pointless, there are no legal restrictions compelling you do anything and we don’t test for a cold or flu we just stay in bed until we feel better.

Hopefully you both will feel better soon.
 
We seem to be going through another wave in our hospital at the moment. Big increase in positive patients we’ve seen the past week and in the particular area I work we’re suffering with staffing.

It’s kind of a strange feeling going out and about without a mask/social distancing, to only work the following day in full PPE, struggling to do your job because we’re short of 5 staff on shift. Like two different worlds!

PCR tests are largely pointless now given rules and restrictions are gone. Still important for some sectors such as care. I agree that covid needs to be treated similarly to the common cold/flu, we’re heading that way now. I imagine future covid booster jabs will be intertwined with the flu jab and limited to the vulnerable, elderly and NHS/care workers. However, covid still remains a threat in hospitals and I think in the care sector we’re a long way from going back to ‘normal’.
 
BigT said:
Genuine question here but what’s the point of doing the PCR test? What difference will it make if it’s positive or negative? If you don’t feel well you should just stay at home until you feel better the same as if you had a bad cold or flu.
We are now at a point when we live with this, testing is now almost pointless, there are no legal restrictions compelling you do anything and we don’t test for a cold or flu we just stay in bed until we feel better.

Hopefully you both will feel better soon.
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I work with a lot of elderly, poorly people.
For some of us, not testing isn't an easy option.
Moral obligations are just as important as obeying the legislation.
 
I'm glad to report that I've had two consecutive negative LFTs. :D Still got a bit of a cough, but that's slowly improving, and I'm sure I'll be fine when I return to work next week (I've got annual leave starting from tomorrow). My parents are still suffering a bit, but not as bad as they were. I'm not even surprised they tested positive a couple of days after me - once it's in the household, it's kinda inevitable that everyone will get it.
 
On this date in March 2020, Boris Johnson announced the start of lockdown on the news.

We can all remember the rules such as... only 2 people can meet in public, only leave your house for essential reasons, don't have visitors in your house etc. However it went too far when started taping up park benches and cordoning off baby clothes in supermarkets because they were "non essential". So glad its all over and we headed back to normal. The sad irony is though is covid is more common now compared with two years ago, whereas at the start of the pandemic it was much rarer.

If you want to test you should still do it, its up to us as citizens to make our own decisions based on common sense now.
 
AltonBuzz said:
The sad irony is though is covid is more common now compared with two years ago, whereas at the start of the pandemic it was much rarer.
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But, and very importantly if you are going to draw such comparisons, not anything like as deadly or impactful on those with it. At this point it's basically not meaningfully the same virus, and thanks to vaccinations we are not really the same people.
 
I don’t wear a mask now but I only go into food shops for Milk, Bread etc with us doing a online order for our weekly shop, I not been in a non-essential shop since the start of 2020 as I got use to buying online over the past 2 years with many places offering free P&P.
I think the uk government has got it wrong with scraping testing for visitors traveling to the uk and holiday makers coming back.
 
Themeparksandy1981 said:
I think the uk government has got it wrong with scraping testing for visitors traveling to the uk and holiday makers coming back.
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The UK has more cases than many other countries right now, testing for people returning from holiday is currently largely pointless.
But I do think the government is wrong to scrap regular testing in the UK at the moment. Knowing you are infectious is a good thing. Although at least now most people who have it do look ill.
 
Just back from midweek Butlins and day at Paultons. Inevitably have tested possitive today.

Butlins was absolute carnage, the most 'back to complete normal' place I've found myself in since the start of the pandemic. Not a complaint, that's as it should be now and people are free to put themselves in that situation or not as they feel comfortable, but it's enviable this will be the result. If there was a single person there that wasn't heavily exposed to covid I'd be amazed.

So far I feel fine. Slight cough and keep sneezing, could be that I also have a cold I suppose. Luckily I've retained my taste buds.
 
Oh dear @pluk; hope you get better soon.

To be honest, I’m surprised I didn’t catch COVID on my way to university during the Cheltenham Festival week last week. There were numerous times where it was so crowded that I was literally rubbing shoulder-to-shoulder with about umpteen other people, and in one instance while on the train to university, I was crammed in the train entrance with about 10 other men, and there was hardly room to move.

Up until last week, I’d still felt that some degree of COVID shielding seemed to be in place within society (in spite of legal restrictions having ceased in July 2021), but similarly to your Butlins experience, Cheltenham station during the festival last week was easily the most “back to normal” situation I’ve experienced since COVID hit; it had huge crowds, there was no social distancing whatsoever, and I was the only one wearing a mask.

I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but it honestly felt like it could have been any pre-COVID day when I was there, which I’m not sure I would necessarily say about anywhere else I’ve been since restrictions were removed.

I know COVID cases are on the up again in Britain, and many other places are still suffering badly with COVID, but it does seem as though most people consider the pandemic over now. Although I imagine that the situation in Ukraine creating a new headline topping crisis could have helped a fair bit there…
 
I know no different. I've been working in an environment where people never stopped rubbing shoulders with each other in the first place.
 
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