Bonny lasses assemble for the North East support thread 2!

[PennyDreadfuI]

Shiny new thread for all your north east needs.

Hello 👋

@DaddysGirl36 I know. I've been sternly telling myself its coming for a while in the hopes of minimising the lying-on-the-floor-crying I'll do when it actually arrives.

DH had that rabbit in the headlights look of belief when I read this out to him. It's not the fault of excel, ffs. It's the fault of the numpties who didn't consider this likelihood!

I feel so sad about the four teenagers dying in Newcastle. Those girls must have only just left home. Doesn't bear thinking about. I wonder if the lack of Freshers week has made things worse for partying at home.

Also, what is going on with Newcastle cases? I am sure last week Newcastle and Gateshead were about on par, and now Newcastle has triple the cases of Gateshead. I hope it isn't a lack of testing in Gateshead.

Most of the students are living in Newcastle, so that's where their numbers are registered.

The government needs to wake up after the deaths of those four teenagers in our region. This government's response to Covid has a lot to answer for and will have ramifications for the rest of some peoples lives.

ColouringPencils I think Newcastle’s figures are driven by student outbreaks. The most severely affected wards/sections of the city are the ones where the majority of students live. Same thing has happened in Manchester now the missing figures have been added back in, has pushed their rate up to about 500 per 100k There must be more testing of student populations going on for them to have been able to find the 770 Northumbria cases given about 700 of them were asymptomatic so wouldn’t normally have been eligible for testing.

I wonder (if they are to be any) when we'd likely hear about any changes to restrictions now numbers have shot up everywhere!

Yeah I wondered about the Northumbria uni testing. The rest of us can't get a test without symptoms, can we? Are they doing private testing?

reports of 11 schools (County Durham) stating confirmed covid cases just today! Obviously the bubbles close but 1 school has announced EYFS, Year 1 and year 3 isolating!

Durham University have had 69 students & 1 staff confirmed in the last 7 days too.

My DD's school has had confirmed cases every week since they went back, but they seem to be managing it pretty well, eg one case in a class doesn't seem to lead to other cases in that class. (Unless they are all asymptomatic)

@ColouringPencils

My DD's school has had confirmed cases every week since they went back, but they seem to be managing it pretty well, eg one case in a class doesn't seem to lead to other cases in that class. (Unless they are all asymptomatic)

I really really don't want to curse it but ours have been fine so far - the other schools very close by have had cases but none confirmed in ours. 2 different primary & 1 nursery.

I'm going to regret typing this aren't I!

Ha, I thought the same @Shitfuckoh when I typed that my Dd's school was handling it well. Fingers crossed!

We went to Consett and Durham today, both like ghost towns. I found it really sad. The Arnison Centre in comparison was rammed!

Does anyone from Stockton happen to know how busy Teeside Park is these days? I've found some wellies in Next for DS and they're out of stock everywhere other than Teeside Park and trying to plan the best day/time to head there from Durham.

@Shitfuckoh 11 today!! I really hope the north east is reaching its peak and that we'll start to see cases tail off soon.

@Someaddedsugar

We went to Consett and Durham today, both like ghost towns. I found it really sad. The Arnison Centre in comparison was rammed!

Does anyone from Stockton happen to know how busy Teeside Park is these days? I've found some wellies in Next for DS and they're out of stock everywhere other than Teeside Park and trying to plan the best day/time to head there from Durham.

A friend posted on FB over the weekend regarding Teeside Park and apparently it was extremely busy, ''black Friday / Christmas sales busy''.

Hopefully someone who lives near will be able to tell you the best day to head there though.

@ColouringPencils

Ha, I thought the same *@Shitfuckoh* when I typed that my Dd's school was handling it well. Fingers crossed!

We're at Tiny Village School. So far fine but it's so small and with so many siblings between the years that when it gets one case it's just going to go through the whole place.

My son's on the waiting list for some urgent medical testing. I've told myself that the week before the test date when we get one or at our first case they're coming out because I daren't risk missing the test and then being stuck in covid backlog.

@ColouringPencils

Yeah I wondered about the Northumbria uni testing. The rest of us can't get a test without symptoms, can we? Are they doing private testing?

I'd imagine so. Most universities have some capacity to do this. It would be fairly irresponsible if they didn't.

@swg1
I'd pull mine out the week before too if 1 had to have urgent medical testing. I hope you hear about a date soon & that it goes smoothly for you.

[quote Shitfuckoh]@swg1
I'd pull mine out the week before too if 1 had to have urgent medical testing. I hope you hear about a date soon & that it goes smoothly for you.[/quote]
I'm hoping so. It's one of those "this is most likely nothing but juuuuust in case.." tests and every bloody thing that can go wrong with booking it has. At this point I'd happily pay for it privately but Nuffield doesn't do kids and James Cook won't do private because.. covid. On with the chasing again tomorrow.

@swg1
''Because.. covid'' seems like it's become the most used excuse ever doesn't it? Really hope you manage to get something sorted tomorrow.

Apparently the infection rate for Newcastle last week, once the 'lost' positive tests were added on, was 376 per 100,000. I don't think anywhere else has been anywhere near that? It has to be down to the outbreak at the universities but even so. I think I'll definitely be avoiding town for a bit!

Who needs to go to teesside Park? I'm very close and will be heading up to Durham this weekend

Manchester is 495!

@PennyDreadfuI I think Manchester and Liverpool are still ahead? Not that this is a good race to win.

Sorry @Someaddedsugar assumed it had been longer than a few mins! Happy to collect anything and drop it to you as long as you're not too far out of Durham (I'm to the west bu coming up from teesside can go in many different ways)