WHERE are people catching Covid?

[Summerfreeze]

I don't mean where in the country, I mean what settings? I know they lie a lot about it not spreading in schools but is there any data about where they are at least purporting that it's spreading?

@IvorHughJarrs

It's all very well us saying track and trace is rubbish, and I agree it is, but it can never function as efficiently as those in countries like Taiwan and South Korea as the British are very focussed on personal freedom and rights to privacy. I know many people who will not use the app and we have all heard of people giving false details to hospitality so what can we expect? We are getting just what our society deserves

The other big difference though I'd our government gave £12bn to a private company with zero experience and gave the top job to someone because they were a Tory rather than because they were qualified.

I did not get the system I deserved. I got the shit system the government funded.

£12bn given to public health teams would have seen far far better results. Look at the % contacts councils are achieving.

This is the Conservative government's fault and choice.

Dr Williams from Public Health Wales said that people got the virus from ‘chatting indoors,’ mainly in pubs, restaurants and homes. It wasn’t particularly anything about the settings but how people behaved.

Private homes

but arent most universities online now?
so no classroom?
but mingling in their halls/houses and in the pubs

I think the outcome of this thread is that people are catching it from wherever they choose to go to where they interact with other people! You can reduce risk with masks and washing hands etc but not eliminate the risk.

TracK and Trace appears to be a mess.

I know of one nurse who has been paid for making just a handful of phone calls per day (for example, 3 calls last Sunday and a Sunday rate of pay). She is 'Thank you very much' but also 'WTF?'.

Another has signed up to work on track and trace and has done zero work for it. She has had £2000 deposited in her account for the past three months. She has set it aside in case they ask for it back.

Both would like to do the job properly.

My cousin works in a prison. He caught it there and him and his wife have it.
I think 80 prisoners have it too.

I was classed as a key worker and went into the office through the last lockdown. We had no cases at all. Since then we have recruited lots of temporary staff . They are travelling in from quite a wide area. Despite all the measures in place, being told we must not travel together and constant regular cleaning we had 11 cases last week. Have they come from public transport?

i imagine public transport would be a hot bed,
think of a cold, where do you normally catch that?

...our government gave £12bn to a private company with zero experience and gave the top job to someone because they were a Tory rather than because they were qualified.

£12bn given to public health teams would have seen far far better results. Look at the % contacts councils are achieving.

This is the Conservative government's fault and choice.

^totally agree. Tories don’t trust the NHS or local authorities and have squandered so much money over the years contracting out services, and making some individuals very rich in the process.

Private homes. A family friend tested positive, caught at work but then took it home to 4 family members, not all lived in the household. Then they in turn spread it to their household.

Merkel did good job of explaining why Test &Trace only works when prevalence is low. T&T doesn't work when there's lots of covid about.

We have to shut down the schools if that's where people are catching it.

Also, the reason to keep them open would be to make it easier for parents to work, but if there's a lockdown then why bother?

If we can WFH then should can teach online.

Relative is a barber and has recently caught it. I’d imagine that even with a mask and visor, if your client is wearing a shit mask it’s possible. Plenty of ‘face coverings’ let’s through quite a lot of particles. Another family member then caught it from him at home, which is definitely to be expected!

@BertieBotts that article sounds really sensible. Thanks for sharing.

My kids are in secondary school...neither have had it 🤞🏼 but the school has been really affected with more than half the school - teachers and pupils, off either with Covid or because of contact with it and having to isolate.

Looking at the article that Bertie linked to, Christmas is going to be a super SUPER spreader with people sitting together in warm houses with heating on, windows closed, chatting etc.

no you need the schools open
poor children, they need their lives to continue as normal.

[quote Bromeliad]There were 35 cases amongst students in a school near me. Started in year 12 then some from lower years were picked up, many in the lower years were probably asymptomatic.

There was a primary school which trialled the fast test and had to close because there were so many cases. Loads of them were asymptomatic. These were all reported in the local news, but no mention in the nationals so people are still convinced it isn't spreading in schools. It really is!

[[https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/secondary-pupils-isolating-after-35-19080703]]

[[https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/headteacher-warns-parents-over-lesser-19102778]][/quote]
What's the latest on how transmittable the virus is among asymptomatic people? I think that makes a difference with regards the spread in schools. Was there any research testing and following a few schools to see how it was spreading or not?

I suspect the pub/restaurant data is well off just because there were many places not asking for customers details or verifying their details were correct. It would be much less likely cases would get traced back to them unless staff test positive. My daughter's 6th form college had a few cases which were traced to them working in a pub. I never heard of any pubs closing though in recent months. These cases were not spread (symptomatic ally) to anyone else in the college, although all students are wearing masks in lessons and don't linger in the college building beyond their lesson.

i just wish my colleagues would agree to having an open window.

3 people I know currently have it. All nurses, all got it from work. Their families have shown no symptoms including husband's. All mid 40s.

Schools and universities....they should be closed if we're having a national lockdown, including primary schools.
Next care homes.

"We’ve had two cases this week in our workforce of 30."

We had 10 in a week and 5 the next in a workforce of 50. Well 6 if you include me!

There were a further 20 in service users.

No action taken no extra precautions no deep clean no additional testing. You can probably tell the setting I work in.

But on that piechart that still only counts as 1 outbreak.....

I know of two driving instructors who have caught it. Was bound to happen I guess sitting next to late teen/early 20s for hours a day.

Christmas need not be a super spreader event if we all spend it with our own households. I will miss my adult DC and the grandchildren but we had already decided that there would be no big family gathering this year.

Schools are huge hotspots in my experience, although secondaries are much riskier due to the sheer volume of kids and the fact they mix frequently due to subject choices etc.

Primary is easier to control and keep in bubbles BUT it depends on the school setup. A primary that has separate infant and junior facilities eg two yards/halls will be easier to separate than those without.

My fear is that closing everything BUT schools won't slow the spread enough and we'll have to do all this again for longer, risking even more businesses and jobs in the process. Surely even just closing secondaries would help and there would be fewer childcare issues. Realistically though many parents face issues regardless due to needing to isolate the entire family for every cough, if bubbles burst etc.

There are schools locally where whole years, or large chunks of them at least, have had to isolate 2-3 times already. This puts attendance at around 50% at best for many. Also, since the teachers are still teaching those in school, online learning at these times is minimal with just tasks/worksheets at best so many kids are missing massive chunks of learning.

Surely there has to be a better way? In England, they are even refusing to cancel or adapt GCSEs/A Levels and as such year 11/13 kids are really suffering due to having to try and cram in all the work they missed over lockdown plus continually catching up on work after isolation. Their mental health is deteriorating rapidly and they are being utterly failed.

The original approach that it transmitted through droplets is wrong. Being airborne, there is no way to stop its spread. We can only slow it till there is treatment and vaccine.
I am very disappointed that WHO did publish originally that it was not airborne. Some countries were treating much like it was, and we should have started using masks and ventilation during the first lockdown!
Now, we will have to keep away from other people as much as possible

@Floradoras there has been very little information about prisons throughout this whole pandemic hasn’t there? It’s as if they don’t exist.