And today’s good news in case you missed it..cos I did and it’s official

[Dowser]

Covid 19 has been officially downgraded

On March 19

www.gov.uk/guidance/high-consequence-infectious-diseases-hcid#status-of-covid-19

Deaths are still rising though. 181 new ones. We are up to 759 now.

I don't think anyone's told corvid though...
It's still going for it

I read that the downgrade is to allow it to be treated in all hospitals, not just specialist centres. It doesn't mean it has become less contagious or less dangerous.

I heard it was something to do with so they can treat at hospital and not in a specialist unit because of how contagious it is (something like that)

That must be good thing.....someone tell the virus.

Have you actually read the link you posted?

Slightly wish I hadn’t read that list of HCIDs ...

But yes, what PristineCondition said.

Quote from the link
*The 4 nations public health HCID group made an interim recommendation in January 2020 to classify COVID-19 as an HCID. This was based on consideration of the UK HCID criteria about the virus and the disease with information available during the early stages of the outbreak. Now that more is known about COVID-19, the public health bodies in the UK have reviewed the most up to date information about COVID-19 against the UK HCID criteria. They have determined that several features have now changed; in particular, more information is available about mortality rates (low overall), and there is now greater clinical awareness and a specific and sensitive laboratory test, the availability of which continues to increase.

The Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP) is also of the opinion that COVID-19 should no longer be classified as an HCID.*

The main issue is that mortality rates are low within the general population, as opposed to something like Ebola where the mortality rates are very high. The number of deaths that were due in their entirety to Covid where people hvpave nonunderlying health issues is extremely low.
It's still a pandemic though.

Explanation here
www.thejournal.ie/covid-19-claims-high-consequence-disease-debunked-5058478-Mar2020/?amp=1

This is quite right. It’s nowhere near as deadly as Ebola or SARS / MERS. It’s still infectious though.

i think there is some misunderstanding here.
or is this meant to be humourous.
it is a techinical definition to permit wider use of limited resources.
it is all hands to the pumps now.
and we all need to support them, and comply with the rules.

I think what I'm failing to understand is why has the whole world locked down if it's downgraded

not remotely good news and nothing to do with the general public, changes nothing and everything is still just as serious

The word "downgrade" is relative and/or subjective. I'm not sure of the benefits of sharing information which some would regard as reason to relax their efforts during the actual crisis point we find ourselves in.

I'm sure the 'good news' is greatly reassuring to the people in intensive care right now and to the relatives of those who've already died.

The UK is second in the world table now for the increase in daily deaths

On the TV news this morning a health care professional was saying that they are using entire hospitals to treat this awful virus, not just specialist units

Double-plus good, Dowser! And has the chocolate ration been increased too?

In times like these, George Orwell talks a lot of sense ....

If it is less deadly than sars then why are we having all this lockdown etc now and not then ? 🤷‍♀️

Yet when you read the ‘definition of a HCID’ in that link it sounds exactly like COVID! Hope this isn’t so they can downgrade PPE for healthcare staff

Fiddle it’s way more contagious than SARS

Ginfordinner - but Italy, France and USA (total for all states) haven't notified their figures yet. And in deaths per 1m of population the UK is 8th. (I take comfort where I can find it).

Monkeypox?!

I think (hope) that it's nearing the peak now, over the next week or so..

The words that make up this statement have an ordinary English meaning that we understand. However it is likely that they also have a specialist context-specific meaning that most of us don't understand.

I certainly wouldn't assume this was good news or that it was bad news as I don't have an understanding of the inner workings of the NHS and Dept of Health

It is less deadly than SARS and MERS in that if you get it, you’re more likely to be okay than you would if you got SARS or MERS. But it’s killing more people than either of them because if spreads fast and lots of people don’t have severe symptoms. SARS and MERS were more likely to put people in the hospital early on - this one can happily spread itself around via people who think they’ve just got a bit of a bug but it’s nothing serious.