Possible Jan/Feb cases?

[BuggaLugga]

First of all: Please don't give me a hard time - I'm obviously not relying on this but just wondering - and for context my DP works for the NHS so is at risk every day.

Back at the end of January my DD(10) was ill with temperature and a cough - it dragged on longer than usual and she is rarely ill. I then got 'it' and wasn't too bad and continued working but noticed I felt breathless. I went to my GP and she said my oxygen levels were okay and my chest sounded okay but told me I had a temperature and clearly had a virus. I do t really remember the other symptoms but so remember the breathlessness. I've not had that with a cold/flu before. The feeling dragged on for several weeks, I thought it may be anxiety as news of Coronavirus hitting the UK was coming through then, but it hasn't necessarily coincided with my feeling or being anxious.

A colleague at work got a similar thing with a similar feeling in her chest.

DP then got ill and ended up on antibiotics for a chest infection. It took him quite a while to improve but he wasn't 'scarily' ill, the cough was awful but it wasn't a dry cough. He wasn't right for quite a few weeks.

Lots of other kids were ill around the same time, and parents. It's a very big primary school and fairly international. don't know ANYONE connected to the school who has been ill since lockdown which seems strange (of course they may be keeping it quiet).

We live in a university city near London that attracts students and tourists from around the world, notably China and Italy.

As no one was being tested, who is to says some cases did not arrive earlier than originally thought?

Maybe wishful thinking but I wish we could be antibody tested (particularly with my DP working at the hospital).

I was knocked out in mid February. No cough though, but I was felled for five days. I am quietly wondering too.

DS and his girlfriend live in London and had all the COVID symptoms
starting around 8 Feb. Both ill for about 9 days and are convinced they had the virus.

My DH is convinced he had it in Feb. We flew home into Heathrow from France on 10 Feb, having been at a ski resort a couple of days previously. DH went down with a fever the next day and had a dry cough. He was off work for 2 weeks, had a fever for a week of that, and didn’t fully recover for another couple after that which is unheard of for him.

However, I think he probably just had flu. DS and I didn’t catch it, which would make sense if it was flu because we’d both had flu jabs where DH hadn’t. If covid is as contagious as everyone says surely we’d both have caught it and the likelihood of us both being completely asymptomatic and then not passing it onto any of my colleagues or his nursery friends etc seems very small.

I've just remembered my DP has had flu jab (I'd forgotten this) so his wasn't flu, although could have just been a bad cold that went to his chest.
I wish we knew!

I had the symptoms last week in December and I was very unwell and I'd had a flu jab. I also live where there's a high proportion of Chinese and Italian students/ tourists.

I'd like to know the number of admissions from November onwards for pneumonia and how many died from it, all compared to previous winters.

I'm not usually prone to theories like this but something is gnawing away at me.

I work in a university in London. I have a student who was ill with a high fever and dry cough in early February. It was serious enough that they needed to apply for an extension for an assessment, which is how it was flagged up to me. They eventually went home to China (their home country) in March and was tested and they tested positive. We presume the infection was when they were symptomatic (though, of course, it's always possible that was the flu and then they had a symptomatic COVID infection, who knows?). But I've seen the medical documentation of the test, so I know they did test positive. They were living in London in February and hadn't been home to China (though I would imagine they had lots of contact within the Chinese community in London, so probably with someone who brought it over). This was certainly earlier than reports of transmission happening within the UK, but there is no other way to explain it.

DS2 was really poorly at the end of January and if he was like that now I would be thinking it could be it. Cough, temperature and sleeping all the time. He got better for about 3 days then he had it again for another week before it went.

Or it might just have been a really bad cough and fever. We will never know.

Most of the people who have been tested thought they had it. A large proportion haven't.
We had same symptoms early 2019 and early 2020.
As far as we are all aware it wasn't around in early 2019.
So no, you probably didn't have it.

Most of the people who have been tested thought they had it. A large proportion haven't

There isn't an antibody test yet, no one would know if someone ill in January was positive or not.
The only people being tested (apart from Govt ministers and celebs) are those who turn up in hospital, so stands to reason most wouldn't have it, if your being admitted for non CV reasons.

I came down with something on Boxing Day, it started with really painful sinuses. Terrible dry cough (it sounded very different to my usual cough), sometimes I couldn't catch my breath from coughing (I wondered if it was whooping cough at one point), I was sleeping sat upright downstairs for a week. Also just wiped out for days, chills, aches, fever. All in all, it probably lasted about 3-4 weeks. If had now what I had then, I would assume it was Corona Virus. I remember saying to someone 'that was the closest I've ever had to flu', and she said that she had had similar and hadn't been quite right since. Kids and husband got it, but they were ill just for a few days.

I'm from York, were the first UK case was discovered. But more than likely it was just flu, I guess if it had have been around since then, the death rates would have been noticed if above and beyond normal flu season?

DD2 was really ill for 3 weeks back in Feb. Started with fevers and a cough leading to swollen glands and a sore throat. She had one lot of antibiotics which did nothing and the temps still continued and she had an upset stomach- very little appetite. In the end she was told to go to a and e for an emergency blood test which showed she had a serious infection ( very inflamed tonsils/ throat) thought to be bacterial. Put on stronger antibiotics then came out with a rash which the doctor said was a virus rash very likely glandular fever but when she was tested for this a few weeks later was found not to be the case. She had been working with a little boy who had also been ill and who had recently come back from holiday in France. She basically isolated herself throughout the whole of this and none of the rest of us had anything other than the feeling we were coming down with a slight cold for about a week. It could be a coincidence but I have never seen her so ill for such a long time- the fevers lasted the best part of 2 and a half weeks.

We had a strange illness beginning of Feb. DH had been at a 3 day conference in France last week of Jan (when the 1st cases were being reported in France, I even joked before he went not to bring coronavirus back!). He got back Thursday on the Sunday he woke up with temp going hot/cold shivers and stayed in bed most of the day. He dragged himself to work Monday and Tuesday and by Wednesday he felt so bad by then he had a dry cough was achey and just real flu like. Very unlike my husband who will usually just carry on through colds but was staying in bed not getting dressed or eating properly. I think on the Friday he phoned the GP as had chest pain and was finding it harder to breath (Although nothing worrying where we thought he needed hospital treatment). GP examined him said it wasn’t pneumonia and just viral and got signed off work until the following Thursday. After the weekend he started to improve and felt well enough to go back to work on the Thursday but still had this annoying dry cough which last a good 4 weeks after. A few days after DH falling ill DC1 showed mild cold symptoms but no dry cough but was never poorly with it. DC2 also had mild symptoms, mild temp at night but generally ok. I managed to escape it which amazed me as DH was coughing all over the place. It was very likely to of been a bad cold virus or even the flu which may explain why I never got it and DC had mild symptoms as I had the flu jab, DC1 had the flu nasal Spray and DC2 is still breastfed - maybe passed on the antibodies. Who knows??! But I remember DH saying when he was ill he couldn’t smell or taste anything even though he wasn’t congested with snot.

I really wonder too. I live in London and mid February I became very unwell with classic COVID symptoms. A high temperature that lasted 12 days, exhaustion and loss of appetite (I lost 6 pounds in the first week). Breathlessness kicked in after a few days and lasted 2/3 weeks. I also had random pain in my ribs, chest and back. I had a cough since January that got a lot worse and made me vomit.

I went to the GP twice over 2 weeks and both times they checked me for pneumonia. I was prescribed an inhaler initially (I’m not asthmatic ) and antibiotics after 9 days of a temperature. Neither had any impact on me and it took 3 weeks before I began to feel even slightly normal again. My breathlessness felt like a ton of bricks sitting on my chest. I was very frightened.

But with the timing it was most likely to be a very similar virus and nobody in my house became unwell. I just don’t know.

We too wondered if we had this as far back as late December. DD had a high temperature for a couple of days and nasty cough that went on for weeks, at times she could barely catch her breath and complained of a sore chest. We put it down to a virus and muscle aches from coughing. Despite the cough, she felt well enough to carry on as normal.

A week later DS was sent home from school with a headache and raised temp. A few days later he felt better but developed a slight cough. Returned to school for two days then sent home again with a high temp. Felt better after a few days, back to school for two days and sent home again with headaches, no temperature. Had Christmas holidays off and all ok.

Over Christmas, DM came down with same symptoms as DS plus severe aches and pains, including chest and slight breathing difficulties. She’s a retired nurse and put it down to flu. Her cough and chest infection type symptoms lasted 5 weeks before slowly improving. She couldn’t get a doctors appointment but that’s another story. DS had stayed with DM so I could work.

Over the early part of 2020 DS’s class mates steadily came down with the same ‘bug’, as did staff and pupils at my school. In Feb myself and a coworker developed an annoying cough and headaches but powered on (we had a culture where staff absence was severely frowned upon even if seriously ill). More and more people continued to get ill and work until CV hit the headlines.

DH came down with the same symptoms as DS two weeks ago, as did many of his colleagues (he’s a key worker). Although he wasn’t tested, several of his colleagues have tested positive in hospital, one is critically ill on a ventilator. Everything just seems to point to having had CV, although it is possible that it was something else.

@Weatherforducks I have a friend who was diagnosed with whooping cough earlier this year and she works in York. We initially thought this could have been what we had, as symptoms are reduced if vaccinated, but now wondering about CV.

The current scientific data suggests it started spreading in the UK in late January.

@Cakewineorgin it’s all very interesting. I do usually get a bad cough with any cold, but this was so different - different and worrying enough to ask Dr Google anyway! I guess we will never know unless the figures give us a clue - I don’t Know if they are available, I haven’t looked.

Yes I think it's possible. The Chinese Government say that the virus started in Wuhan mid November. There were daily flights from Wuhan to the UK so there could easily have been an asymptotic passenger on board and then spreading it around here.

I had "flu" at the beginning of Jan. It started very quickly with a high temp and fatigue. I felt like a dead weight in bed. Then three days later I was fine. I've had flu before so I know how it floors me, but I recovered from this very quickly. I have heard that this year's flu strain wasn't very virulent so maybe it was just flu that I had. No one else in our household had it but they all have the flu jab.

Late Feb all of us had colds. Then DS started with a strange cough - like he had frog in his throat. This went on throughout March. I also started having nosebleeds - never had one in my life. I've also heard of other people who have had the frog in the throats and nosebleeds. At around that time I was finding myself getting breathless climbing the stairs (needing to sit down for a minute before speaking).

I have no idea if we've had it but if we have then my DP has been very lucky as he is classed as vulnerable. Guess we have to wait for the antibodies test.

If it had been spreading earlier then presumably some people would have become very poorly with pneumonia, required ITU care and would have had tests. The 'new' virus would surely have been noticed?

The virus started in Wuhan.

It was first reported as an 'unidentified' virus on the 31st of December, with 41 known cases.

It was identified as a new virus and named '2019-nCov' on the 7th of January.

China made the genome available on the 10th of January (new name SARS-cov2)

The first person to die in China was on the 11th of January

The first confirmed case in the UK was on the 31st January when a student in York and their parent who was visiting from China, tested positive. As far as I remember these 2 cases were successfully isolated?

I was ill at the beginning of March with temps, awful headache which lasted for days and mild flu like symptoms for a week or so. Quietly wondered if it was COVID until last week when I did actually have it (I'm NHS staff so tested and was positive). Seems I had flu in March then COVID few weeks later.

I was in Rovaniemi in Finland for a week in January, ending the day they had their first confirmed case in the hospital there - a Chinese tourist. There were loads of Chinese tourists there at the time for Chinese New Year, and we did a lot of activities which involved using tour companies' kit and outerwear, which would have been used by others before us.

For a week after we came back, I had a sore throat, breathlessness, aches all over and was so tired that I slept 12 hours a night and still napped during the day. I did wonder!

DS has a flu vaccine every year administered by his school (primary). Didn’t stop him getting the flu like virus we all had in February for the first time ever. He was knocked out for two days. I still remember him begging to go straight to bed at 6pm before we realised he had a temp as it was so unusual! I thought it was strange as he’d had the vaccination. He had a cough and runny nose for a good 6 weeks afterwards. I’ve still got one 9 weeks in as has DH and our teens.

I had something very similar to the main symptoms of covid.

Followed by a loss of smell and taste, which hasn't returned.

I ended up and A&E because I couldnt breathe. Told I had a chest infection and sent home. Several people in the office had it. The kids also had it.

I guess i will never know unless a good antibody test comes out.

My cough was that bad i was wetting myself, never had this happen before. Everytime i coughed my head pounded and my vision went blurry.

Was absolutely awful.

@BuggaLugga Oxford? I think I caught it from the student population there mid January.

I'm kind of hoping the same sort of thing, I'm asthmatic and about 3 weeks before schools shut I had a persistant cough and breathlessness and the most painful chest. My asthma upto that point was only exercise induced (it used to be bad, years ago as a smoker). Dd2 had a temp (no other symptoms) that was hard to bring down for 4 days (very unusual) and dd1 a couple of weeks prior had a virus - sore throat, temp, lethargic. DH has had nothing but I am hoping and praying that was it, it is the only way I am keeping myself sane and from panicking that I will die and leave my kids behind.

@Shitsgettingcrazy you haven't said when that came on?