Kent cases SPIKING - 0.6% infected!

[Dongdingdong]

646 out of every 100,000 people in Kent are infected with Covid apparently - massive numbers. Should we ban Christmas in Kent?

@DrunkenKoala I’m also Medway 👋🏼 Agree with all you’ve said!! I barely see anymore without a mask in shops etc

Im in kent, medway to be precise, pretty much every school around me has several bubbles out or are closed, i thibk shutting the schools would really help in driving it down. Most schools are a 3 year intake so a high amount of people moving around daily. In my part of the area everyone is wearing masks, i had to pop in to town yesterday to the pharmacy and there was hardly anyone out but those that were had masks on.

I think it's the schools, due to the grammars. Children travel to get to them, usually on public transport, and their brothers and sisters who didn't get in are at different schools. So an infection in one family will often hit two schools. If both of those schools are five miles from where the children live, then that's three areas affected.

I'm in Swale (Faversham), and while numbers are currently low here they do seem to be going up, both secondary schools have a year group closed now. I think it was Sheppey initially, then Sittingbourne, now Faversham. So I imagine it might be Canterbury, Whitstable, Herne Bay next because of school connections

Before half term we were low. Complacency set it and half term was a free for all, as was the period just before lock down.

There were playdates and sleep overs....my son (10) was distraught as I wouldn't allow him to go on a sleepover with 3(!) of his friends. These families had older teens etc - so it is fairly obvious that spread could happen, if this was replicated elsewhere.

The figures where I am (mid Kent) have just started to go back down again as the lockdown is probably now taking effect (lag).....

I've heard the Kent grammars blamed for much but blaming them for Covid rathertakes the biscuit.

Definitely the schools as well, the grammars are all single sex - so many families will have teens at different schools.

It's is very possible that transmission was brought into the prisons from outside , I know some of the staff have been bollocked about car sharing from another hotspot in Margate .Staff are now tested everyweek so that should start to go down . prisoners can't galivant about spreading it so its only staff . Another major spreader is schools and none of the parties wants to address it .

Looking at the figures on the data thread Swale has a positivity rate of ~15% and my area ~10%.

With that and the hospital situation it's worrying.

Maybe we'll get mass testing

My DD is at a Kent grammar, they’ve had one case since the schools went back. We are in west Kent though, the picture in east and north Kent is very different to here.

Faversham grammar and Chatham/Clarendon aren't single sex I believe.

Good point, I know Barton Court in Canterbury is co-educational too.

Ah, well in the Tonbridge/Tun Wells /Maidstone areas they are. So in my area kids would typically go in any of the three directions and to separate schools.

@DrunkenKoala @Wingingthis

I was in Medway for 10 years, Strood, now mid Kent, but DH still works there.
I'll be amazed if a) the schools make it to Xmas/kids aren't sent home again and b) we're not Tier 3. All my colleagues/friends and I are getting almost daily emails from the school re cases. Mask compliance is variable- almost 100% in local Aldi and shops, but school is a bit of a mixed bag

I think whilst the schools are open it's less "why Kent?" And more "why not everywhere?"
I'm not advocating for school closures, btw, but I do think there is a shit tonne of denial about schools and spreading

@Wingingthis. I’m glad you’ve noticed about the masks, it seems most people are doing their bit when out and about. (What they are doing in their own homes I have no idea).

I'll be amazed if a) the schools make it to Xmas/kids aren't sent home again and b) we're not Tier 3.
Ds’s school is currently closed, he’s due back on the 7 Dec, which gives him two weeks back - we’ll have to wait and see if that happens. I think we’ll be in Tier 3. (Tbh I’d think something strange was going on if we weren’t placed in it) I know hospital capacity plays a part in deciding. I don’t know anyone who works at the hospital so I’m just hearing/reading info either out in the local community or on here but it’s very worrying about the hospital struggling.

I doubt it’s the grammar schools. Kent experienced the same deep into lockdown spike in the first lockdown, when schools were closed. It’s down to poor general compliance.

@Dongdingdong

646 out of every 100,000 people in Kent are infected with Covid apparently - massive numbers. Should we ban Christmas in Kent?

This is a joke, right? Especially with the title done like a tabloid headline?

Sorry, I’ve reached the stage where I honestly can’t tell.

My grandson special school shut till 30th, our stats slowly creeping up, dreading tier 3

I hope so as I would love a quiet Christmas this year.

Kent tier 3 sister works swale council already received notification

So we're all in 3 together then

Some Kent council leader apparently blames it on "wilful disregard of restrictions"

I’m concerned: an elderly and vulnerable relative from West Kent is meant to be travelling to Canterbury for hospital tests in a couple of weeks - I’m not normally paranoid but in this case I’m almost hoping it gets postponed (tests are important but not urgent on the scale of cancer scans). I know Canterbury isn’t as bad as the North coast though.

I don’t understand how Slough can be cut from Berkshire and placed into T3 while the same can’t be done for Swale and Thanet can’t be in Kent.

Kent is a huge county. I’m in a commuter town where numbers are approx 130 per 100,000 weekly and Swale is approx 530,000 weekly. Mask compliance is very high where I am. My primary school has had no known cases and yet we’re tier three, crippling many small businesses on the brink of survival in the festive season. Sigh.