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Covid

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Original poster

New strain is scarily infectious!

54 replies

annie987 · 30/01/2021 22:13

I’m a teacher and we’ve had the odd case of Covid in school since last March but nothing that has spread beyond immediate close contacts. With proper safety measures and isolating it was easy to manage.
We’ve had a few cases since Christmas that have spread like crazy - taking out huge numberS of staff and students that didn’t have particularly close contact with the positive cases.
It’s a totally different beast!

OP posts:

Coriandersucks · 30/01/2021 22:15

How do you know it’s due to the new strain?

TryingNotToPanicOverCovid · 30/01/2021 22:15

Yep. It really is. I'm one of those who hasn't got been to shops/see people and still caught it. I almost didn't test for it too - i suspect theres many asymptomstic/mild cases out there...

Having so many kids in school is crazy

Original poster

annie987 · 30/01/2021 22:19

Am assuming it’s the new strain as it is behaving entirely differently to the cases we had before Christmas and we haven’t changed any of the safety measures and have way way less children in.

OP posts:

Waxonwaxoff0 · 30/01/2021 22:21

And yet 3 weeks ago I was in an unventilated room with 3 positive people not wearing PPE and I didn't catch it. I was tested and was negative.

umpteennamechanges · 30/01/2021 22:23

@Waxonwaxoff0

And yet 3 weeks ago I was in an unventilated room with 3 positive people not wearing PPE and I didn't catch it. I was tested and was negative.

Some people are believed to have some form of natural immunity via T cells but the mechanism isn't really well understood yet.

Original poster

annie987 · 30/01/2021 22:24

Yep that’s exactly what it was like here until these recent cases.

OP posts:

lunalucie · 30/01/2021 22:24

@Waxonwaxoff0 same here. My DP got it and none of us caught it from him and we don't live in a house big enough to isolate away from each other. Slept in the same bed and used the same bathroom. Guess it's either luck, he wasn't ill with it either.

Waxonwaxoff0 · 30/01/2021 22:26

It's all very strange. 19 people at my workplace have tested positive this year but some of us who were in close contact with them haven't got it. (We were all advised to get tested as it was spreading round the workplace).

2boysand1princess · 30/01/2021 22:29

I’ve been in close contact on 3 occasions. Each time negative. (Tested through work)
One of these occasions I was sat well within a metre of the positive person for over 1hr during a training seminar.
This was in December

Quaagars · 30/01/2021 22:39

How would you even know if it was down to the new strain or not?
As in who had what strain etc?

Mindymomo · 31/01/2021 08:50

On the Government briefings, the new variant was responsible for most new cases. It does make you wonder where we would be now if we didn’t have the new variant.

PuzzledObserver · 31/01/2021 08:57

@Mindymomo

On the Government briefings, the new variant was responsible for most new cases. It does make you wonder where we would be now if we didn’t have the new variant.

We wouldn’t be in lockdown, and numbers would probably still be lower than they are now, because the tiers thing was working before the new strain got going.

EloiseTheFirst · 31/01/2021 09:06

I agree. I had it in March (caught from a colleague who insisted on going skiing to the Alps). I didn't pass it to either my DH or DD.

3 weeks ago, DH's colleague came to work with "a bad cold". They're all socially distanced and been fine up until now. Every single person at DH's work caught it. (8 people).

DH then gave it to DD. But I didn't get it - I can only assume it's because I had immunity from before.

Kitcat122 · 31/01/2021 09:13

Yes my class was infested with it the first week back. It spread around all staff members (except me) and 10 children, who then nearly all infected a family member or two. Much more infectious than before Christmas.

samanthawashington · 31/01/2021 09:13

Totally agree. I didn't know one person in the first wave who caught it, but now people are going down like flies. I think the new strain, first noted in Kent, has got up to Yorkshire. 5 people in my brother in laws workplace have gone down including BIl, who is now at home. Waiting for DSis getting it now

KatherineJaneway · 31/01/2021 09:17

At one of the briefings they said the new variant was 30% to 70% more transmissible than the previous version.

Kroptopbelly · 31/01/2021 09:17

It’s weird.
I’ve not had it but I should have had it as I’m exposed daily.
But I know that due to the huge hike in hospital admissions compared to the first wave can only be down to the virulence of it. (Plus people not giving a flying fuck and mixing at Christmas and new year)

Pimlicojo · 31/01/2021 09:19

So you don't actually know it's the new strain, you're assuming it is and calling it 'scarily infectious'. What are you aiming to achieve by this thread?

DumplingsAndStew · 31/01/2021 09:20

@2boysand1princess

I’ve been in close contact on 3 occasions. Each time negative. (Tested through work) One of these occasions I was sat well within a metre of the positive person for over 1hr during a training seminar. This was in December

That was very reckless. You got lucky.

kowari · 31/01/2021 09:24

@Pimlicojo

So you don't actually know it's the new strain, you're assuming it is and calling it 'scarily infectious'. What are you aiming to achieve by this thread?

This

OliveTree75 · 31/01/2021 09:24

That was very reckless. You got lucky.

Yeah she is so reckless going to work....

AluckyEllie · 31/01/2021 09:28

I’m a ICU nurse, we were talking about it at work and it’s what the drs believe is responsible for this second wave. It’s likely why the south got hit so much harder this time, as it originated in Kent. Not all of the diagnosed cases are the new variant though, so you will have cases where it doesn’t transmit as easily (and peoples resistantance- including those who will have antibodies post covid but didn’t know they had it at the time.)

One major point they made is that we are so, so lucky it was not this strain back in March. The nhs would have been massively overwhelmed and deaths would have been huge. Although it may seem unorganised, hospitals have spent the last ten months drawing up escalation plans so when we hit chaos in January it was relatively organised. We knew the next area we would expand into. We knew the staff that would be redeployed. They hired staff to work in the logistics of stock and beds and staff. Also, we’ve bought loads more cpap machines and ventilators. The factories are churning out ppe and commonly used meds (both of which were running very low first wave.)

It’s frightening to think how it could have been last year- but hopefully we are on the home run now.

SirVixofVixHall · 31/01/2021 09:29

Tryingnottopanic How do you think you caught it ? I am being extremely careful, but I am worried about the new strain as I am still a while away from being vaccinated.

QuantumQuality · 31/01/2021 09:30

@Pimlicojo

So you don't actually know it's the new strain, you're assuming it is and calling it 'scarily infectious'. What are you aiming to achieve by this thread?

Oh come on, basics deduction says it’s the new strain. It’s the dominant strain in most of the country now, so purely statistically it will be the new strain. Add in the fact that it is infecting more people than previous cases in the same strain, I don’t think we need to bring Sherlock Holmes in to work this out.

It’s not scaremongering to say this about the new strain when the fucking prime minister and chief medical officer have said it on television. They want people to know and act accordingly.

DumplingsAndStew · 31/01/2021 09:30

@OliveTree75

*That was very reckless. You got lucky.*

Yeah she is so reckless going to work....

Sitting within a meter of people for a training session for an hour. Yes, that is reckless in current circumstances

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