Supermarkets and Schools most common for catching covid

[Orangeblossom7777]

Supermarkets most common exposure setting for catching coronavirus in England
Supermarkets are the most frequent common exposure setting for those catching Covid-19 in England, new data from Public Health England suggests.

The data was collated using the Test and Trace app, and by analysing the contacts and retracing the steps of the 128,808 people who reported they had tested positive between November 9 and November 15, revealed the most frequent locations people with the virus had been prior to testing positive.

Supermarkets have remained open for shoppers during the lockdown in England, and the data suggests they are now the primary setting where those who had tested positive for the virus reported to have been.

The second most common location were secondary schools, followed by primary schools, and then hospitals and care homes.

• seen in the news today. Interesting considering the recent lockdown

@JassyRadlett

I read that nearly everyone who tested positive had been in their homes multiple times in the week before testing positive. Time to close homes?

😂 No food and no homes. Bleak winter ahead.

I suppose a supermarket is somewhere that every household goes to whereas schools are only attended by staff and pupils.

I don't know how much of an arsehole you'd need to be, to dismiss the health of supermarket and school workers. I mean, my compassion is at it's lowest ebb now but I have utmost respect for my fellow key workers and believe they deserve every protection.

So the only places you can go are the places most people had visited when their steps were traced.

Clearly a slow news day if that's breaking!

Well it’s going to be even more impossible to get a delivery slot now 😭

I hate going to the supermarket during normal times but during covid it’s made my anxiety even worse. People seem to think because they are wearing masks they no longer have to distance, have also noticed that people have stopped wiping trolleys down before going in.

I try and do most of my shopping online but since last week I have been unable to get a delivery slot so today I had to go to the supermarket, no one was keeping their distance, had to ask several people to move because they were stood chatting in the isles.

@travailtotravel

This is a moment to reflect on the difference between correlation and causation.

Exactly. I've just been fighting this battle on my local Facebook page where everyone's ranting about statistics that don't remotely mean what they think they mean. It's exhausting and depressing.

I’m more concerned about the numbers of people who happy to admit they are visiting friends and family the week after the new lockdown began, and long after it was banned in many areas of the UK. FFS.

I tried to point out that if you stopped anyone in the street and asked them where they'd been in the last two or three days, at least 18% of them would say the supermarket. Same for any one person with Covid.

Nowhere do these stats say that because they went to the supermarket, that's where Covid+ caught it.

Sometimes I wish these studies weren't published. The media simply have no ability to explain what they mean, so they just cause needless anger.

Some let need to go back to school...

@WindChimeTinkle

Some let need to go back to school...

Eh?

The reason for attributing contracting covid to supermarkets is purely down to people having been in one in the 7 days prior to testing. Ffs, that isn't evidence.

I think that, if people have not complied with the rules, and have contracted covid somewhere they should not have been, they are hardly likely to tell NHS track and trace the truth.

OMG everyone who has caught covid had been drinking water in the week before they caught it!! Water must cause covid! Everyone stop drinking water!

As a previous poster said correlation is not causation.

I also assume no-one is fessing up to popping over to Maureens for a coffee either.......

Hold the press!

The most common place for people to have gone in the past week is either a supermarket or a school, or both, whether or not they caught Covid.

Oh FFS that’s the only two places I go!
So I suppose it is rather unlikely I would catch it anywhere else 😅

Citation needed.

Common sense says it's more likely to spread where you have the same people sharing the same space for a significant length of time - schools and offices

Does that include people who are positive and who actually work in the supermarkets? I would assume the workers are at more risk than the shoppers.

@Softpebbles

But supermarkets have been open throughout so I can’t believe they are the issue. People may have been to the supermarket but the chances are they have a child that have been to school.

This, a thousand times this. I honestly think dc are presenting with random symptoms so not being tested, then their parents present with classic symptoms and test positive. The only place the parents have been is the supermarket, so it gets the blame. I struggle to believe many are actually catching it there, surely most are wearing masks, distancing and washing their hands?

This is the latest graph

They're the only places which are open so obviously...

Also if a supermarket has thousands of customers per day, some of them will test positive within the next 2 days. They didnt necessarily catch it there

That graphs looks really odd too. If an average household is 4 people then how are people actually catching covid to bring it into their household and share it with that may people in their household?

That graphs looks really odd too. If an average household is 4 people then how are people actually catching covid to bring it into their household and share it with that may people in their household?

That’s reported contacts though isn’t it? So it’s already dodgy from an evidence POV because it’s self-reported, plus relies on people knowing accurately who they’ve had high-risk contact with.

The contact graph is bound to be skewed to households. If you got Covid tomorrow, how many people that you came into contact with could you name?

I'm going to guess pretty much only the people in your household, or, if you work, your colleagues. And if you're a school child, those you sit near.

I can't name a single person I passed in Tesco, or who queued behind me in the Post Office. Could you?

Contact reports can only ever be people you know well enough to name. It's a useless graph.

I think the report is badly worded.

Yes they would be on top of the list as most households go to a supermarket and with schools.

However it also shows how with remaining settings open the virus will still have some spread.

Supermarkets are massive. No ventilation. Thousands of people in daily. The virus is airborne so will be in air in building for a while.

They can't close of course they can't we need to eat.

To me it just shows and it's a load of rubbish that much more covid secure settings, shops, hairdressers etc have had to close.

I still don't understand how you prove that somewhere is "covid secure". Surely this is just a made up expression to make people feel more confident at taking risks. How could it possibly be evaluated medically?
The fact that people, apart from workers, spend less time in supermarkets means that they are less likely to catch covid there than in their workplaces. However, for the sake of supermarket workers, shoppers should be wearing masks, sanitising hands and trolleys, and keeping 2m or more from others.