Where are people catching it?

[ilkleymoorbartat]

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?

Asymptomatic carer passed to 2 of my relatives who subsequently passed to 2 more - all socialising within guidelines due to vulnerability issues but a waiting game to see if the households of the latter 2 are infected. Luckily those households don't have school age children and are working from home but could see how easily it could snowball if they did.

@NotMeNoNo

I expect it's spreading in families, schools and close contact workplaces where people are together indoors for long periods. Maybe public transport. Not 7 people in a park for a couple of hours, but of course you only see those. In shops I'm sure the staff are at much more risk than customers as their exposure is greater.

Definitely

Could we stop the supermarkets letting family groups in. Why is that even necessary? From all these answers it seems that supermarkets are a bit of hotbed.

If you really need to drive, walk to the supermarket why can’t one person go in?

I work in a hospital and, despite all staff wearing PPE, there are numerous outbreaks on non-Covid wards and many outbreaks amongst staff. We have more Covid wards than the first outbreak, more staff testing positive and many, many more outbreaks amongst patients. It’s awful. I am scrupulous about wearing and changing PPE and good hand hygiene as I’m sure all hospital staff are but this new strain just seems to be so much more infectious,

Going for local walks over the holiday, it has driven my DC bonkers seeing all the families meeting and mixing. We haven’t seen any family at all (T4) but it seems so many people think that being outside means the virus doesn’t transmit at all. It reduces transmission, like mask wearing and washing hands, but nothing is 100% proof!

I was going to post asking the same thing.

Don’t forget the daily results are usually a week behind so I wonder if these correspond to increased testing before Christmas?

If schools are the main cause of spread surely the numbers should start dropping next week?

I’m not sure about the new strain but certainly with the old strain I suspect it is from mixing indoors. Our school had 3 cases in the first week In sept (NW) and no more at all, despite the massive high numbers up here in nov. If schools had been the main cause I feel it would have spread a lot more through the classes.

The people that I know with have most likely caught it from family members at Christmas and carers.

@sparklehead same for me

20% of staff in my trust are off with covid and every single ward has an outbreak!

Very scary

Everyone that I know that has caught it recently has been through their child bringing it home from school or from working in a school, or a couple of people who were admitted as emergencies to hospitals and must have caught it there as they hadn't been anywhere else.

@Sparklehead 2 family members have worked in hospitals, on and off C-19 wards all year and have both come down with it this week - the new varient we have to assume.

Our local health board says car sharing is a common method of spreading.

Personally I don't know anyone that has had it and both my children's schools have had zero cases.

@MargosKaftan

Schools have been shut for over 10 days now in London- any infections from now are not from a school.

Either supermarkets /home deliveries really aren't very safe or lots of people have been flouting the rules.

A 2 week school break over the holidays with everything else closed should have been enough to stop transmission from schools. Unless numbers start plummeting tomorrow in London, I think its safe to say lots of people have met up with family / friends / dcs school friends when banned. (Closing schools won't fix that if the problem is the population have stopped following the rules.)

No they will still be saying it is schools and only schools.

Yes schools are a problem but they are not the only way to catch the pigging virus.

@PrincessNutNuts

In my local Tier 4 garden centre which has been rammed with people all week during "the sales" despite the fact that they sell absolutely nothing I would consider "essential"

My mum's friend went with her mother, her daughter and the grandchildren. She said it was very hot and crowded and they had to queue for ages to pay, but she was pleased with the light up singing reindeer she got at a bargain price.

Madness

@Bathroom12345

Could we stop the supermarkets letting family groups in. Why is that even necessary? From all these answers it seems that supermarkets are a bit of hotbed.

If you really need to drive, walk to the supermarket why can’t one person go in?

Because the schools are shut. Their partner is at work and nobody else can look after the kids

Actually I agree with you most the time it is unnecessary.

Person I know who caught it has outbreak in their offices where people really could have worked from home but chose not to as it’s easier in office

Rest is from schools

25% of infections come from catching it whilst in hospital

@GintyMcGinty

Our local health board says car sharing is a common method of spreading.

Personally I don't know anyone that has had it and both my children's schools have had zero cases.

For now. Hoping you dont eat your words.

All the elderly people we know who caught it have caught it whilst in hospitals or care homes, where it's spreading like wildfire. They've not been out anywhere (most couldn't go out if they wanted to due to their age/illnesses). The ones in hospital caught it after they'd been in a few weeks, so they didn't take it in with them. Same with care homes.

I'm not at all sure that staff are being careful enough. They seem to be using PPE to protect themselves, but aren't changing/wiping between patients. My OH goes to a day treatment unit for regular cancer treatment (infusions) and every time, he has to ask the nurses to change their gloves/aprons and wipe down the equipment (blood pressure cuff and finger oxymeter) when they come to him straight after other patients.

[quote Whenwillow]@TableFlowerss I expect most of the people on the road have just a good a reason as you to be on it
You don't just have to be a key worker to still be going to work. You can be a person who can't work from home. There are lots of those too.[/quote]
Funny how it wasn’t this busy in March - that’s my point!!!!

@Fortherosesjoni70

"For now. Hoping you dont eat your words."

What kind of sentiment is that?

Every single person i know of who has had it got it at work.

I actually mean the woman, man and 2 kids scenario or the couples shopping together because they always have. Of course if it’s one parent with kids that is different, when my kids were younger it would have to be a really essential supermarket trip for me to take my kids but some families even in normal times do a ‘whole family’ trip.

I suspect it’s a day out scenario, everything else shut that is causing this.

Work. Either from schools or working in healthcare. None of my friends or family in either of these professsions do anything but go to work and have food shopping delivered/collected. No one has mixed for Christmas due to the risk of passing it on and I still have colleagues testing positive on a nearly daily basis, same for my siblings in healthcare.

The one teacher at our secondary that had it bad caught it whilst in hospital having an operation.

Before the new mutation they were saying that with two thirds of deaths the patients caught it in hospital. Sorry can't remember where I read that but if true is very interesting.

Dh received his positive test today. He caught it from me who caught it from the school I work in. It takes a while to spread

[quote GintyMcGinty]@Fortherosesjoni70

"For now. Hoping you dont eat your words."

What kind of sentiment is that? [/quote]
A very nasty one