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Original poster

Where are people catching it?

447 replies

ilkleymoorbartat · 29/12/2020 16:51

Presumably people in Tier 4 are hardly using public transport, the buses in London are empty. Schools are off, pubs are closed. Everyone I know is obeying the rules, possibly going for outside walks with one other person. Where is this massive spread coming from?

OP posts:
Shayne45 · 30/12/2020 23:25

Schools, university anc college opening back up then when everything opened again depending on what tier you were in back November everyone decided to go out etc.
Should have kept the pubs restaurants shut all over the country and kept essential shops to remain open then maybe this virus won’t spread as much. Peope dont care anymore having parties gatherings etc when they shouldn’t and not obeying the rules. The ones who obey the rules etc suffer while the other selfish ones not obeying the rules causing the pandemic to spread even more putting lives at risk.

SkySports · 30/12/2020 23:34

Social mixing....
Schools have been shut since 17th here and sp more mixing of family groups now

Poppydot3 · 30/12/2020 23:47

My husband caught COVID after he was taken into hospital having suffered a brain haemorrhage four weeks ago. He is still fighting COVID.

Lillibee4 · 31/12/2020 00:36

Poppydot3. I am not surprised as I know a ward sister who had been in contact with a friend testing positive for COVID. Went to work and was refused a test because they didn’t want her off work!!!!

Lovemylittlebear · 31/12/2020 02:48

Sorry bullet points not cleared. The two people I know that very sadly died were in hospital when they caught it in the first wave and then they died @donewithitalltodayandxmas. One only 60 having an op following chemo and another an elderly lady with an infection.

My bil caught it from his parents potentially at Christmas. They are all ok so far. Just nasty flu like symptoms.

jennybluetree · 31/12/2020 06:13

Schools.

hopefulhalf · 31/12/2020 07:28

*17:58CrisPbacon

I work in the field. We really don't think there is major spread in for example big supermarkets or restaurants because they've got it pretty well organised.
Schools, anywhere where people get drunk and massively house hold groups and friends are the culprits. We all have a "stranger danger" inbuilt alert, but in reality meeting friends and family, being too polite to distance, thinking it'll be ok "just this once and I won't stay long" the inadvertent 2ft distance which feels like 2 metres but isnt are the danger. The likelihood of catching from somebody you don't know is far less than the likelihood of stranger infection.
I'm in a rural area, it's on all the local farms because they see it as an urban problem and they KNOW each other; why would they infect me? I've known them all their life.....*

Thank you for this, this is/was my impression but I worrying that the "new" varrient was so transmissible that we would all be catching it on our daily walks or in the supermarket.

Chottie · 31/12/2020 07:52

Does anyone else find that there are some joggers who suddenly appear from behind and overtake and cut in very close when you are out walking? I've taken to stopping and holding my breath for 10 seconds.

n.b. this is not all joggers, some joggers pass by on the road and if I see a jogger approaching I stand in the gutter or in someone's garden to give them space.

Oysterbabe · 31/12/2020 07:56

My brother works in a shop and caught it there and passed it to his family. A friend of mine works in a gym and caught it there and another caught it in hospital taking her mum to chemo.

LifelsAPigsty · 31/12/2020 08:30

@Mamanyt

Supermarkets have become superspreader hubs in some places, especially since you invariably run into someone who is too precious to wear a mask.

Here in the USA, the White House is a good place to catch it. I haven't heard that it's a classier version, though, and just as deadly, unless you have the hundreds of thousands of dollars for the cutting-edge treatments. And those don't take care of everyone.

Perhaps they're exempt, not 'precious'.
LifelsAPigsty · 31/12/2020 08:33

@Chottie

Does anyone else find that there are some joggers who suddenly appear from behind and overtake and cut in very close when you are out walking? I've taken to stopping and holding my breath for 10 seconds.

n.b. this is not all joggers, some joggers pass by on the road and if I see a jogger approaching I stand in the gutter or in someone's garden to give them space.

My DH does this (the breath holding thing, not the jogging!). If a jogger 'sheds' covid on you though surely it'll be on your skin/clothes/hair anyway? I'm sure I've seen the joggers shedding thing ruled out as a risk though. It would be nice to think so because you're right, so many of them just seem to materialize, puffing and panting and sweating, out of nowhere.
HeronLanyon · 31/12/2020 08:35

chottie I too have felt some joggers to have been my biggest risk walking along as they suddenly come close panting etc. Totally admire everyone (including joggers) who is keeping fitness (partic lung fitness) good at the moment.

Kazzyhoward · 31/12/2020 08:41

@Chottie

Does anyone else find that there are some joggers who suddenly appear from behind and overtake and cut in very close when you are out walking? I've taken to stopping and holding my breath for 10 seconds.

n.b. this is not all joggers, some joggers pass by on the road and if I see a jogger approaching I stand in the gutter or in someone's garden to give them space.

Yep, I walk a lot alongside a canal which is a narrow footpath, that gets even narrower under bridges. Walkers stand aside so we dont have to pass too close under the bridges - joggers just barge through, often brushing past you as they won't slow/wait. I've even had joggers spitting on the ground as they pass. Same with cyclists who barge past on narrow bits too. It seems people are too obsessed with their fit-bits or whatever to beat their records rather than give a toss about others.
Vinorosso74 · 31/12/2020 08:43

Supermarkets must be a big part of the spread. A lot don't bother limiting the number of people in store; masks being worn under the nose or chin.
There's clearly a lot of households mixing who shouldn't be. These people then go to work/school/shops.
People not isolating when they should do.
Why are garden centres able to open in Tier 4? My elderly parents like others like a wander around a garden centre.
Our local post office!

MargosKaftan · 31/12/2020 10:28

@Vinorosso74 - you could ask not why are garden centres open, but why are your parents chosing to take the risk of wandering in one?

This is one of the issues - the general public seem to have stopped being bothered.

Vinorosso74 · 31/12/2020 10:48

The issue with my parents is because the government allow certain places to be open, they believe it's okay. If they, like other non essential retail were closed then they wouldn't go.

Kazzyhoward · 31/12/2020 10:52

@Vinorosso74

The issue with my parents is because the government allow certain places to be open, they believe it's okay. If they, like other non essential retail were closed then they wouldn't go.
Exactly, like last Summer when the govt "allowed" foreign holidays - people took it that it was safe and being encouraged so filled their boots. Just because something is allowed doesn't make it safe or advisable.
Schoolisback1973 · 31/12/2020 11:25

I caught it from my DD after she was asked to self isolate.
My friend is currently going through it. Her son caught it from school.

user1472151176 · 31/12/2020 12:02

Everyone i personally know who has it, is linked to a school

donewithitalltodayandxmas · 31/12/2020 12:40

@Lovemylittlebear thats so sad , catching it in hospital seems quite common as must be so hard to contain.

donewithitalltodayandxmas · 31/12/2020 12:43

Supposedly round here one of supermarkets have quite a few staff off with it , in the last week or so
But most of supermarkets here are now a bit of a free for all and many have abandoned the tight restrictions they had IN march
Other ones I know of have been school children, caught from school.
And a couple that have no idea where they got it , wife got it first then her husband

Delta1 · 31/12/2020 12:46

I know 4 people who've had it. None have any links to schools or school aged children. All have, I believe, been a little too relaxed with social mixing ...

RedMarauder · 31/12/2020 12:52

Since the end of November people I know who have got it in tier 4 have got it from school and workplaces, then it has spread in their household.

Incidentally in some workplaces due to the nature of the work e.g. hospital, prison you can't socially distance. In other workplaces people were not strictly following the socially distancing and masking rules. I've been into an office a handful of times and I have had to be masked up, not allowed to stand near let alone sit near anyone else and not allowed to share food yet one of the workplaces I know where it has ripped around the place people have ignored these even when pulled up repeatedly by management and union reps.

froggywentacarolling · 31/12/2020 14:17

Public transport in London is completely jam packed and has been jam packed since about May. The only time I saw tubes and buses empty was during the first couple of months. I took a bus last week and it was heaving.

expatinspain · 31/12/2020 16:05

Unless you live in a sanitised bubble with no contact with the outside world, it's possible to catch it anywhere.

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