To wonder what the current guidelines/conventions around Covid are?

[Jjiillkkf]

I have no idea where we are with Covid, it's not easy to track down a test and they're £2 each! Are people testing if they're unwell - what are workplace policies like? Stay at home until negative? Are people really testing everytime you feel unwell?

@HelloMiss they do their best
We have me and 3 other staff that can't go in if someone with Covid is in work so they try and balance it
I mean they wouldn't call the police but everyone is aware if they suspect they have Covid or they have a positive test then WFH (it's not a big deal, most of us WFH some of the week anyway)

We have a colleague who has a 5yo with cancer, a colleague who is newly back in work after a lung transplant, me, and another colleague. None of us want to expose them to covid
My manager will supply a test for anyone who would like one

It's very easy - WFH, go out at quiet times, mask up if there's a risk of coming within 2m of a stranger.

I test if I have symptoms or a "cold" which tbh is rare I've tested 3 times in about 18 months. I've an immune suppressed elderly parent so I like to test. I don't think there is any rules anymore it's just the same with any illness it's sensible to keep it to yourself.

I don't feel so bad then!

Go out at quiet times? When are these quiet times?

I test as I’m vulnerable and entitled to anti virals. I also keep away from people when I’ve tested positive as I don’t want to knowingly infect someone else.

NannyandJohn has NC’d. They were rather authoritarian as I recall.

Do you have children?

So tou never go to a restaurant or a gym class etc?

Ah, that makes sense now.

I and family test if we have symptoms because my mother is 86 so obviously don't want to make her ill when we visit if it can be avoided. I had cold symptoms a couple of weeks ago, tested twice, both negative. Ended up in a and e with breathing difficulties and a chest infection and they tested me again in the hospital, still negative.
The nurse said the number of people testing positive was sky high and they had 30 people in hospital being treated for it at the moment which was the highest in a long time.
I wear a mask on trains, in crowded cinemas and theatres.
I bought the tests in Boots, hardly difficult to track down!

Yes, they're grown up.

No restaurants (DH and I are both proficient cooks), we have a home gym. 🙂

Too ill to work or go out then don't work or go out, regardless of the cause. Otherwise carry on as usual.

I wouldn't know where to get a covid test. I chucked out the last few I had because they were out of date, and I haven't heard anybody mention them outwith this site in Lord knows how long.

I haven't taken a Covid test since March 2022, when they ceased to be a requirement. It wouldn't occur to me to buy a test if I felt ill. I'd probably assume it was Covid, as I know it's circulating a lot at the moment, and would mope around at home until I felt better.

I definitely wouldn't visit an elderly relative or go to a care home if I knew I had a virus of some kind, Covid or otherwise. That's common sense, in my opinion, as elderly folk are more vulnerable.

@NAndJIsLockingDown

According to official data for week ending
2 August

13.6% of deaths involved flu or pnuemonia

2.2 % involved Covid

I work in a school. It’s the same as any other bug. You go in unless on deaths door. Nobody is testing and there is no requirement to so nobody does. If you had Covid you’d still be expected to go in if you felt well enough.

Any chemist. I picked some up from Morrisons recently as I get them free

You must live in a tiny village.

Because you can't catch viruses from people you know? 🤔

That's very high for flu - all the more reason to take precautions then!

I do get this, but unfortunately people with cancer or post-transplant can be hit hard by any infection. So if you have symptoms but test negative do you go in? Makes it all a bit pointless.

i don’t see there’s any need to do anything - I have extremely vulnerable family members, all of whom have had covid multiple times. One is on immunosuppressants and had anti virals first time they caught it but didn’t need them subsequent times. We should always have been careful around such people but there’s no special need now due to covid, which is a mild illness for the vast majority now.

I think people are just getting on with things unless they're really ill then they're staying home like any other illness.

What an isolating way to live. I genuinely mean that

We do live rurally yes.

I can see the argument for treating it the same as any other virus which you would try not to pass on to anyone - especially anyone vulnerable.

However ... DH and I are in our 60s and had it recently. I tested because I was curious and we had some left over tests. DH tested because he was due to go and stay with a vulnerable relative.

DH mentioned to our GP on a visit about something unrelated that he'd had Covid and the GP was quite sniffy about him having tested - no need apparently.

I was quite annoyed about this for 2 reasons. The first is that there seems to be more anecdotal evidence about the prevalence of long-Covid than there is similar with other viruses. So this made me more careful about not passing it on than I would have been if it was some other virus. And also I was careful not to push myself as I got better.
Secondly, knowing we've had Covid means - I think - that we will have built up some immunity so needn't worry about having Covid jabs for a while.
We were both quite ill with it (I've had it before; dh hasn't)