To want to know where new infections come from

[CoffeeDeprivation]

In my neighborhood most people are doing social distancing and other than the random few in the news, I cannot see many people not following guidelines. Where are these new infections coming from? The rates of infection are predicted to rise )as per news today), how are these people going to get infected? I understand many might be key workers who are facing the piblic, but what about the others? How are the others getting infected? I guess what I want to know is whether they have not observed social distancing, or they have been using public transport, they have got it from deliveries, they went to the shop to top up, etc. We have quite a lot of info on number of cases and deaths, but I don't seem to find much on how are people getting infected now, in lockdown. Passed from people in their household who had the virus last week? I think I want to get a proper sense of risk. I am following all advice, but I don't fully trust the media and I was wondering if any of you know of cases and how they got infected. Are there cases who got infected through shopping? Home deliveries? Touching trolley handles? The longer this goes on, the more worried I'm getting about getting infected by some random mishandling of packaging or inadvertently touching a surface. I wanted to hear some first-hand experiences. Do you know of anyone with the virus? How/when did they got infected?

It’s spreading because loads of people are still going to work or going shopping.

You cannot spread the virus by brushing against a shelf that is ridiculous. You're not covered in the virus if you're incubating it. You would still have to cough or sneeze on your hands and even then the risk is low of catching it that way. You also cannot catch it from walking past a none coughing person. Stop scare mongering.

You are still allowed to go shopping. Just wash your bloody hands.

Lockdown doesn't stop the virus spreading. It slows the virus spreading, which is crucial to prevent overloading the NHS.

But I find it bizarre when people say things like they're keeping their children safe at home with them. Yes, keep your children at home, follow all the guidelines. But the reality is still that we should expect that most of us will get CV at some point (and most of us will be completely fine). We just don't want everyone to get it at the SAME point.

It’s spreading because loads of people are still going to work or going shopping

In a sense, that doesn't matter so long as the healthservice can deal with the hospitalisations, we are all going to get this infection, just as we all get the common cold, another coronavirus.

There isn't going to a vaccine any time soon either, so lets hope they develop effective treatments.

So its transmitted through physical contact or touching contaminated surfaces? Just like any other cold and flu virus then.

Mild to no symptoms for most people but can be deadly for those with high risk medical problems? Sounds familiar. Got a dry cough and feel hot? Plenty dry cough and cold medicine in the shops, has been since I was a child

I believe there is a covid 19, I do believe it causes horrific symptoms in people who are vulnerable. So does flu, so does noro virus etc. So why aren't we always social distancing to protect the vulnerable from viruses

@DianaT1969

No, except you can add in a visit to the supermarket on April 1st, and a visit to my office to pick up essential mail (no one else in).

I've alternated between exercising in the home, and a long walk around the houses every other day.

There are still ‘it’s just flu’ people out there? Wow.

@thecats - I had started to think that my routine would mean I wouldn't get it during lockdown, but your experience proves it is possible and so contagious. I hope your symptoms stay mild. Feel better soon.

"why aren't we always social distancing to protect the vulnerable from viruses"

Ispy The viruses to date haven't had the COVID mix of being highly infectious and with a high death rate
haven't had the very high numbers of people needing ICU beds

Italy's health service didn't get overwhelmed by previous flu epidemics and it didn't kill 70 of their doctors and cause over 17,000 deaths within a few weeks

You cannot spread the virus by brushing against a shelf that is ridiculous. You're not covered in the virus if you're incubating it. You would still have to cough or sneeze on your hands and even then the risk is low of catching it that way. You also cannot catch it from walking past a none coughing person. Stop scare mongering

Wel, you don't know any of that.... Spain has just recorded its highest ever daily infection rate, that after weeks of lock down, to me this virus is a lot more contagious than they have told us so far.

Incubation is adverage of 2-5 days ish. A week after symptoms to get into the stage where you need to go to hospital. Then weeks to die in some cases. Then taking turns for the rest of the household to come down with it.

Its not just people out ignoring the rules.

@jomaIone, if that is the case, why does it say this, on my text (vulnerable group).

"you can open a window, but do not go outside. Get others to take the bins out, walk any pets". "Wash your hands if you do go out, even in your own garden"

The evidence shows that the virus can remain in the air for up to three hours, unless it's very hot, that's just with normal breathing.

Which is why some countries are only allowing people out with approved masks on, because it blocks it being breathed out.

I still see people wet their fingers to open carrier bags etc in shops. My pharmacist didn't practice distancing yesterday, she came right upto me to get me to sign my prescription. It's difficult to avoid shop assistants to keep away.

I personally think we should be able to shove people, or hit them with something. If they wasn't near us, we couldn't reach them.
@Ispywithmycynicaleye, we vaccinate against flu. Covid attacks differently than other viruses. Novo etc is more easily managed in terms of infection control, which those of us who are vulnerable practice. It is also more easily managed to prevent death. None of the other viruses are as deadly as this, that we see in the developed world.

I never said it was just like flu. I said it's a nasty virus. So was SARS, so was swine flu, so was alot that the media hyped up and had everyone terrified but it never led to lockdown.

And the severity of a virus is calculated by the percentage of mortality against the ratio of infected. But they are only testing people who are sick enough they require hospital treatment.

Also, how do you know how many people have died from covid 19??

The media gives a figure of people who died after testing positive

Not died from covid 19

So basically anyone who died from cancer, or heart failure from long standing heart troubles, old age pensioners from various problems but tested positive for covid 19, even if they had mild to no symptoms or had it in the past and had long recovered are being reported in the media as having died after testing positive

Lots of examples of the media doing this. That poor poor 21 year old girl is a recent example. She was rushed to hospital and died of a heart attack. The coroner got mixed up and thought she tested positive for covid 19. So instead of ruling her death as a heart attack which it was, they ruled it a covid 19 death.

How many deaths are being pinned on covid 19 just because of a test that shows a patient may have at one time in their life had it.

I could be wrong tho, I'm sure there are figures someone can present where all these thousands of deaths are because of covid 19 symptoms alone.

The people I know who have recently been infected are family members of NHS staff (confirmed via testing to have Coronavirus).

Plus think about Boris. It's just key workers going to work. Whitehall, journalists, shop staff etc.

For the virus to die out everyone in the world would need over a month of total isolation with no human interaction even for health care which is impossible.

Dh and I currently both have mild symptoms. He's on day 6 and I'm on day 2. We are both non nhs key workers though so on days when we had shifts were working in a basement with no windows and ten others. Apart from work we have only been to the local shop for us, my vulnerable mother and my vulnerable sister or into our back garden. Neither of us have been out at all, even into the garden since dh started. WHO report suggests that median to infection after exposure is 5.5days and that 97% of people will have developed symptoms within 11 days if they are going to. Can I recommend the patient uk website? I have found it by far the clearest and most reassuring whenever I get panicky? Link to follow

patient.info/news-and-features/coronavirus-what-are-asymptomatic-and-mild-covid-19

@Ispywithmycynicaleye

True, it would be interesting to see the excess deaths data, even Prof Neil Ferguson (Imperial College) said last week to a commons select hearing that 1/2 to 2/3rds of deaths would have occurred shortly in any case.

Johnson is just someone who ignored his own Govt's medical advice and sought out infection.

It's all those people with huawei phones...or so I've seen on social media anyway, I was remonstrated for buying one as that's apparently why I've been ill

The conspiracy theories have just been ridiculous.

Theres a 4 week lag time (at least) on death figures, so current figures reflect a time when schools were open, people were going to work and massive events were going ahead.
Infection figures seem to be starting to decline and again they will reflect 2-3 weeks ago.
I think its get infection, few days of being oblivious, start to get symptoms, week-10 days at home, then hospital admission and testing, testing takes 2-3 days to get a result.

BoJo probably got it when he was wandering around hospitals shaking hands, shortly after we were told to be washing hands and avoiding close contact, a few days before schools closed. If he were a normal person he may have been admitted later than he was and certainly wouldn't have been tested before he was admitted.

We should expect infection rate to start to slow this week and next and death rates to start to decline end of next week. We need the number recovered to start to outnumber the number of new admissions. Then of course they need to be testing and isolating new cases so they can stop the shutdown.

@LighteningQuietly Truer words have never been written...The care homes/ nursng homes and assisted living homes is where this crap os being introduced into the community. Feom the Aides

My DD works in a care home. Visitors were banned when news of corona first broke. She was self isolating with us because my baby DD and adult DS had a cough and temp and she has just returned to work. So if any of the residents do get it it can only be from the carers. I hope she doesnt bring anything home with her. She gave us all noro twice that year there was the bad breakout.

If it is as easily transmitted as the need for lockdown suggests, many of us have probably had it and been either asymptomatic or just with a few very mild symptoms. So we will have been passing it around pre lockdown and even now there will still be some - albeit lower levels of - transmission from the presumably vast numbers to whom it has already been transmitted but who are asymptomatic or have it very mildly.

I think it is because it can take 2 weeks after being exposed to it to get it then a week to 10 days before it is serious to go into hospital. The figures are only showing people in hospital. There is also a delay in some of the figures being made public. So many people could have been exposed to the virus 3 weeks or more ago before the full lock down.

@Ispywithmycynicaleye If this virus were the same as those other viruses you have mentioned, the NHS staff would not be that overwhelmed and the government would not be opening nightingale hospitals. This virus spreads very quickly and the symptoms can (for some) worsen very quickly, so the health systems are not prepared to deal with this many people needed intensive care.
I think all I need to understand how serious the virus is, is to hear all the NHS staff I know saying how overwhelmed they are and to please stay home. If this virus were as any other, they would be rolling their eyes, but clearly not?