How are the NHS going to know how many cases there are if we're advised not to ring?

[user49er]

Just that! My ds is displaying symptoms.. NHS website states
Stay at home for 7 days if you have either:
• a high temperature – you feel hot to touch on your chest or back
• a new, continuous cough – this means you've started coughing repeatedly
Do not go to a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital.
You do not need to contact 111 to tell them you're staying at home.

So how are they supposed to keep track of cases? I've tried the number btw.. unlikely I'm going to get through for a good while!

I would assume they are extrapolating from the number of cases in hospital. If they know 10% of cases need hospital treatment and they are testing everyone who's admitted with any respiratory problems, then the number infected in general will be 10 times higher than the confirmed number.

They aren’t.

Then the government can say our cases are low and their plan of ‘washing your hands’ is working.

They’re not. Simple as that. They will take a guess. They also don’t know how many people get a lot of other illnesses until they are bad enough to need additional treatment

Just wash your hands and sing happy birthday.. the government are not interested in numbers / testing or stating the real facts.

I wondered that too.

Im in Ireland and our health service has changed its policy re what to do if you think you have the Coronavirus.
I think they were inundated with calls when sending testers ( humans in protective clothing ) out that it became impractical and a waste of resources.
Now we have to ring the gp.
Obviously it's an evolving situation not seen in Europe in modern times so reactions / protocols will have to evovle too.

@WoollyFoolly but that's the point no one does really know the figures! It's ridiculous that we'll never know the full extent making statistics useless.

I know 2 people who have been to Italy, are displaying signs but they aren't being tested. The figures could be so different if we knew fully how many people had it rather than guessing

Problem is there are lots of viruses and colds around anyway: I was really ill for a week (in bed two days) with a chest infection, headache, sore throat, temperature and weird light cough plus short of breath. This was about three weeks ago.

Now I have a sore throat and stuffy nose. Do I have to self isolate again? If I'd been rested it would be much easier to do this.

I think people are going to stop if they don't know what they have

It's absolutely unfeasible at this point to field calls from people who only have mild symptoms and to test everyone. It will use so many resources that can be deployed elsewhere to better need.
No one should be calling 111 unless their symptoms worsen and they require medical assistance. Calling to tell them you or your child have a cough or feel unwell is not only pointless but taking resources away from people who do actually need them.

Well in that case it's going to carry on with people not isolating because they don't see it as serious enough. Yesterday in town loads of people round me were coughing every so often - should they be at home? If I'm walking past them how do I know it's a one off or regular cough?

Other countries are testing.

I have calculated today the true number of cases, which is around 17500. I was corrected on one of the forums that it is actually higher.

Boris wants to make sure that the numbers don't make him look shit.
Didn't he say at the press conference that 10,000 people have probably had it ? It could be that they have a way of calculating the numbers from a small sample

Back to the coughing point- what is the definition of persistent? Even when I've had bad coughs I wasn't coughing all of the time. They really need to say x coughs per hour

The labs testing for this are overwhelmed. There is no benefit to confirming the cause as the coronavirus if the patient is clinically well enough to be at home. If they self isolate, they don’t spread it to anyone else, but it isn’t necessary to confirm that it was definitely coronavirus as long as the symptoms match.

It’s better that the testing labs concentrate on inpatients, so that isolation beds can be freed up as soon as possible. Managing our hospital resources is the priority now.

I disagree. If I'm well enough to manage at home but have a mild cough which could be anything, I'm more likely to stay at home if I get tested. I'm not likely to stay at home for weeks on end every time I get something that matches the vague descriptions. I doubt very much I'm the only one thinking this way.