I admit this is a stupid question...

[Upsidedownfrown]

But I'm curious. At the moment, it seems all cases of coronavirus in this country are being transferred to one of the specialist hospitals. Is this because they're really poorly or to stop it spreading or to enable hcw to keep a close eye on their health?

What happens when these specialist hospitals have no more room? Do they only hospitalise those who are more poorly? Will they eventually stop testing those with mild symptoms and tell them to self isolate?

Sorry, that's lots of questions. It was a discussion I had with a group of people in the staffroom today and we all had quite differing opinions of how it would play out if we saw a large increase such as is currently happening in Iran/Italy/South Korea.

I would imagine should the situation develop then it would be like any other disease with a range of severity in symptoms.
Those with mild symptoms will be given self care advice and those that require hospitalization will be hospitalized.

I wondered this too.

If it became widespread and hospitals had no room people might be told to self isolate at home. Not sure how they would keep up with testing everyone with respiratory symptoms if it was circulating widely in the UK.

Not stupid at all.
At the moment we are in the "containment " phase where we are trying to stop the virus dead in its tracks. So everyone diagnosed with it is put in isolation in hospital (no matter how ill they are) as this is the best way to stop it spreading. There is also quite a bit of testing going on and tracing (trying to work out how each person was exposed) to give us figures of how and how fast it is spreading.

If, as seems likely, containment fails and we start getting a lot of person to person transmission in the UK, we will get to the point that working out where people caught it from wont matter. As numbers increase it will no longer be possible or sensible to keep every infected person hospital and we'll move to a model self isolation at home, with only the very sick being cared for in hospital.

Thanks! Can't believe how heated the discussion got earlier. Tbf it was a group of people who don't always see eye to eye anyway but some things that were being said just baffled me (people thinking we have the capacity to hospitalise every single case). I work in a school and dh works in a hospital (but not patient facing) so whilst we're not worried as such, we're very much aware. There's also been a couple of confirmed cases today down my way

In a way, if 70% of the population are predicted to get it, it would be better to catch it now when there are still enough resources to help you.

Imagine 3 months down the line the NHS will be completely over whelmed.

@LizzieMacQueen I like your thought process!

Except you can get it twice...

As far as we know the vast, vast majority of people do not get it twice.

Twice would just be really crappy luck wouldn't it?

your OP is exactly why people are worried.
people who need oxygen therapy need to be in hospital.
there is no slack in the system ordinarily.
more people needing hosp will lead to rationing.
with scarce resources, hosp care, given not to those most ill,
but to those most likely to recover.
hence the old, disabled, immuno-suppressed, ill, weak are worried.
and anyone who has a heart and knows or cares for such a one.

I’d be interested to know at what point does it change from ‘suspect Corona if you feel unwell following travel to etc etc’ to ‘if you have symptoms suspect Corona’

I have CVD, a slightly crappy left ventricle and a moderately floppy mitral valve, BHF advice says seek treatment early...

I would think when the known cases are in the thousands (meaning the unknown cases will be in the 10s of thosands) Bunny. Currently, if you haven't travelled to an infection hotspot and arent a medic or, say, work in an airport youd be bloody unlucky to cross paths with the virus. In a few weeks the odds may not be so much in your favour.

I have a question I'd like answered.

If i wash my hands the recommended 20 seconds, should i them dry on a completely clean (ie unused) towel or kitchen roll?

Presumably using the same towel as one of my family (at home I'm talking about) negates the clean hands.

Same towel is fine, unless you know one of them is infected. Maybe change it frequently.

If one of them is infected you wont need a towel to catch it.

Thanks @Porcupineinwaiting

I'm rarely out the house these days but today I did visit a coffee place, washed hands before sitting down but then had to open the toilet door with newly washed hands.

The handle I suppose I could've used my elbow for but the catch? Had no option but to use my clean hands.

@LizzieMacQueen you can take a piece of toilet paper for the catch.

i'd be careful of toilet paper. that may be contaminated. with anything.
this is another reason why we all need to carry lots of paper tissues.
you can, still, at the moment ! get those little packets of folded tissues in a big wrapper of say 20 packs. the packets that fit in a shirt breast pocket.
they are quite thick. and by keeping a few extra packets about our person, we can offer a packet to people on buses who are coughing. thats a nice way to do it. to be prepared and try to be constructive.