Where are infections coming from?

[ConcernedAuntie]

If you or a family member has been confirmed, via testing, to have contracted Covid-19 during the last 4-5 weeks (ie several weeks into lockdown), has it been possible to identify where the infection was picked up? I am really interested to know how people are getting the virus now. Was it from a work colleague/could it have been picked up on public trasport/has it been gradually spreading through a family unit/followng a hospital or doctors visit/have you only been going out to a supermarket? Just interested really in where extra efforts by the general public/government need to be made to avoid spreading the contagion.

I'm interested too as to where people are catching it now. It was interesting when JVT was last on the briefing, he was asked this question but couldn't answer it.

Any of those things really? You can’t really call it a ‘lockdown’ unless all people in a household are not leaving in a specific period. (For any reason at all, except those mandated by the Government. Breaking these would result in fines. That’s ‘lockdown’.)

My nurse sister who had it recently almost certainly caught it at work. Her partner and adult daughter who live with her also tested positive - her daughter with no symptoms. They are both wfh so it probably didn't spread any further.

We are sheilding, haven't left the house except to run the car around the block once a week. Another shielding household we know contracted covid19, all they can think is from grocery deliveries as they'd seen no one else, statistically unlikely to happen but not impossible. For most people they are still going to work, the supermarket, the petrol station, meeting friends for a walk , possibly wearing masks in some of these places, but not all, staying 2m apart, washing hands often, all these things reduce transmission but don't eliminate it.

It sounds like most of the spread is within care homes so I'm not even sure how many responses you might get. I'm interested to hear too though.

Millions of people are still going out to work, so I imagine that’s the cause of a fair few cases.

I was thinking this too. As well as track and trace to find people you may have contaminated, surely there's value in trying to trace where you contracted it

The only person we know who has had CV reckons the only place they could have picked it up was at the supermarket.

No one is going to admit if they got it anywhere other than work, the supermarket, transport or a routine/emergency visit to hospital. It'd be interesting to know though.

There is some interesting information here about numbers of "outbreaks" where 2 or more people within the same setting test positive and could be reasonably linked.
Care homes biggest, hospitals, schools and prisons in that order plus a fair few "all other categories". Updated weekly.

www.gov.uk/government/news/weekly-covid-19-surveillance-report-published

I tested positive early May and can only guess that I picked it up from going into school and working with a key worker child or colleague who had in asymptomatically having said that nobody else I worked with developed symptoms.

@TheAdventuresoftheWishingChair - I know a girl that works in a care home. She’s not followed any of the rules since the beginning, she’s travelled to her boyfriends, 100 miles away since the beginning. 4 confirmed cases in the home she works in. She’s now 11 weeks pregnant and has tested positive herself. This weekend she was at her mums with the boyfriend having dinner. Her sister who was also there has had a kidney transplant. I dread to think how many people she has infected along the way.

My uncle has just tested positive while waiting in hospital for some tests for his cancer. They swabbed him as a precaution as he may need surgery. Swabbed within an hour of being admitted. No symptoms at all.

That was the first time he’s left the house since the end of February (I saw it coming and told him to stay in). He’s not set foot outside his front door and hasn’t seen a soul in all that time, this was his first planned appointment.

He gets tesco deliveries every two weeks and the pharmacy deliver every four. They are the only thing that’s come into his house from the outside apart from junk mail.

I have a relative who tested positive 4 weeks ago. Caught in a care home and passed on to her DH. The manager of the care home and 2 residents all positobe at the same time.

I think covid is going to be like MRSA in that most infections come from hospitals or care homes rather than "in the wild"

@Pertella

I think covid is going to be like MRSA in that most infections come from hospitals or care homes rather than "in the wild"

4 people have died in my area. Three contracted it in the care home, one in hospital when in for something else.

I think covid is going to be like MRSA in that most infections come from hospitals or care homes rather than "in the wild"

I think so too.

This would be a really good fact to know. It did come up in one of the daily conferences, and Whitty/Vallance confirmed "most" of the current infections are confined to care homes and hospitals, but they don't seem to have the actual numbers on a daily basis.

On other boards, lots of lots MN's seem to be getting tested, including my DD, with results back within 24 hours. Most seem to reporting negative.

I've wondered at this too, and am shocked that @Billyjoearmstrong s uncle tested positive with virtually no contact. That's pretty scary.

I don't disinfect or quarantine groceries or parcels, but maybe I will.

@pinktaxi other relatives have said that he must have picked it up in hospital - pretty impossible as he was only there for an hour before he was swabbed!

He’s not left the house at all since Feb prior to that hospital appointment. Not a step outside, no one has even visited 2m away and deliveries have been contactless from pharmacy and tesco.

Luckily he’s got no symptoms at all. It could have been a false positive I guess.

He was terrified of going into hospital for test/surgery though as there have been a lot of covid cases there, so it’s actually given him some relief that he may already have it and be symptomless.

I've just heard about friend who had COVID recently, and it (plus some other local cases) was traced back to an online supermarket delivery - seems to have been spread by the picker in the supermarket and then delivered fresh to the door!