Cases of SA variant found with no link to travel

[bathsh3ba]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55534727

I guess it was inevitable but let's hope it doesn't take off like the other variant.

There is no mystery about how the variant came into the country, there have been thousands upon thousands of people arriving in to the country every day and the quarantine requirements have been very badly monitored. People have been allowed to travel on public transport as they leave the airport, too. It doesn't have to have been anyone directly from South Africa either, this variant will be all over the world by now - we saw the same with the "Kent variant" and how quickly it has spread

Exactly. It’s not hard to see.

If you look at countries which use strict quarantine hotels it can still escape. And we’re no where near that. People on public transport even from airport. Then they may stay home but does all family if they didn’t travel.

It’s so easy for it to spread

It is impossible to monitor arrivals when people can also arrive via connections from other airports in Europe. We are a leaky sieve.

Strict border controls probably only slow down spread but thats now the imperative, we need the vaccines out there and to get the nhs able to cope, so god alone knows why we still have open borders.

Anyone got ideas why the govt hasn't acted far sooner?

Travel to /from SA didn't really happen until the autumn because they shut their borders except for repatriation. Since then know a few people who have been back to see family, so reckon it probably appeared around Oct/Nov hence being picked up in Dec. Loads of people fly via Dubai, its usually cheaper.

I can remember saying to DP in the summer that as soon as SA reopen the borders to Europe the cases will surge, which they did. Didn't anticipate this coming back the other way.

I really hope this helps, it would be easy to say this is a pointless exercise as it must be everywhere by now but as far as I can see this is not just about making sure people isolate but also collecting data which presumably can then be extrapolated to understand more about the spread.

I'm not in one of the postcodes, but very close by, and I hope as many people as possible comply. Our rates have been falling fast from a total disaster zone before Xmas.

@lljkk

There isn't such a thing as coincidental identical evolution.

I mean, yes, not coincidental identical evolution. But parallel evolution is a documented fact. Two extremely similar species can evolve on opposite sides of the world, so it’s not a huge surprise that there are two new similar variants.

BBC says these cases have been detected since 22 December, talking of living in the past!

Some probably got better by now and the rest are community spread.

So Hancock's "it is imperative that you stay at home and get a test" message from the briefing. I take that to mean don't leave the house for work? How many people will not have received this message? Thinking about just one of the London postcodes the genie is well and truly out of the bottle.

@MistressoftheDarkSide

I don't think we're allowed to talk about this here......

Why?

I'm interested to know why it's not meant to be discussed too.

The three wards in Haringey with the highest incidences of Covid last week are all N17 - so I'm not really surprised they are going to try and clamp down on this as quickly as possible.

I feel there's stuff we not being told for them to take such drastic testing and track and trace action.
If they only genome test 10% issue could be lot wider.
I guess there's delay in postive test then being genome tested so 1 postive 22nd Dec yet we told 1st Feb that's ages ago.
It appears cases only rising in 4 areas.
The doom postcodes are rates covid high in those areas?
Also addition testing even no symptoms will no doubt up cases in those areas.
I guess will know in few weeks if more widespread than 105.

Putting tests through doors. Unless they're also popping tests in the front seat pockets of all those entering via Heathrow each day, all this testing is a load of pointless bollocks.

Why is the border still open?! We had a 2nd chance to get it right this time and we've gone and fucking squandered it.

Try not to panic. Pfizer and AZ are already reportedly tweaking the vaccine to provide protection against new variants that will be given as a booster.

It's pointless as well if thousands of people are going to be travelling to work.

The doom postcodes are rates covid high in those areas?

Looking at WS2, I’d say so with 605 per 100k although there’s a large hospital within that postcode.

The SA variant is supposed to be in a host of various other countries as well.

So pointless going door to door in some areas, I would have thought!

Pfizer and AZ are already reportedly tweaking the vaccine to provide protection against new variants that will be given as a booster

You dont think there will be other variants coming along soon? @justanotherneighinparadise

I don't think it's that we are not being told stuff.

I think they are actually learning from previous mistakes. Last year they couldn't understand why cases in Kent were not dropping despite Tier 4 - and it was because of the new variant.

This time they are actually ahead of the curve, actively looking for new variants, and then cross checking with areas that have lower drops/high case loads still - and targeting them quickly and efficiently. This is exactly what we want to see happening. It's postive action.

@3asAbird

Not in Kent, no.

Rates have fallen sharply in last 4 weeks.

@bathsh3ba

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55534727

I guess it was inevitable but let's hope it doesn't take off like the other variant.

Meh. Thing is by the time they discover a new variant, it’s too late. It’s already spread. The same as the original Covid.

Last year they couldn't understand why cases in Kent were not dropping despite Tier 4 - and it was because of the new variant

Cases did drop when Kent went into Tier 4 and then lockdown, the mistake was that it was in Tier 2 before the November lockdown and Tier 3 until 18th December, when cases were clearly rising exponentially from September.

This tweet has cheered me up 😔

^And now for the bad news. sigh
It looks like #B117, the more transmissible variant first detected in England, has now picked up the E484K mutation as well. That is the one linked to evading SOME immunity in SAfrica and Brazil.^

mobile.twitter.com/kakape/status/1356359522177179662

I'm worried if we just 'vaccinate and hope' which seems to be the government's whole strategy, we're meeting swing a chance to really make progress.

'meeting swing' = missing

The 10000 tests do sound like action but if it’s in that many areas it’s already out of them surely.