France on “dark amber” list

[PersephoneJames]

You have to quarantine if coming back from France, doubly vaccinated or not.

@DottyHarmer

I don’t understand - people were (rightly) mad for the delay in quarantining travel arrivals from India, this allowing us to be overrun with the delta variant. But now there’s the South African variant coming from France it’s “political”.

If it’s true (as is reported) that most of the French Beta cases (fewer than in Germany remember) are in la reunion (the small French territory in the Indian Ocean) it’s the equivalent of having another lockdown in Britain when the falklands gets an outbreak. It would also mean that there are currently more or at most equal numbers of beta cases in the UK.

Just read on another thread that 20% of cases in Spain are Beta.

@DottyHarmer here is tje data for Spain.

70% alpha (kent)
15% delta (Indian)
Beta (South African) and gamma (Brazil) - between 0-6%

No accounting for the rest.

[quote PersephoneJames]@DottyHarmer here is tje data for Spain.

70% alpha (kent)
15% delta (Indian)
Beta (South African) and gamma (Brazil) - between 0-6%

No accounting for the rest.[/quote]
Beta is 21% in Spain.

Well rtve is the equivalent of bbc so no idea why they’d be lying, but if the beta is 20% in Spain then why the Jeff has boris put France on amber + and not Spain?

And why are people okay with it? Because it serves people right for booking a holiday?

What are the checks they will do during the 10day isolation? (Or 5 days if you do the early release thing?)

@PersephoneJames

Well rtve is the equivalent of bbc so no idea why they’d be lying, but if the beta is 20% in Spain then why the Jeff has boris put France on amber + and not Spain?

And why are people okay with it? Because it serves people right for booking a holiday?

That's a very good question. In France beta is much lower 4.2% and it looks to be decreasing.

www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/covid-19/situation-updates/variants-dashboard

Beta variant is not a problem in mainland France (Europe). The figures quoted by UK government are from La Reunion & Mayotte (Indian Ocean). Complete farce.

Whatever next? Anybody who went to Calais for the day will need to quarantine when back in UK because they found Brazilian variant cases in French Guiana in South America!

Do people really believe what UK government is spinning? best to get the atlas out ,,

DottyHarmer

The South African did not originate in France! The South African variant is not coming from France!

@Lico

Beta variant is not a problem in mainland France (Europe). The figures quoted by UK government are from La Reunion & Mayotte (Indian Ocean). Complete farce.

Whatever next? Anybody who went to Calais for the day will need to quarantine when back in UK because they found Brazilian variant cases in French Guiana in South America!

Do people really believe what UK government is spinning? best to get the atlas out ,,

Exactly! People don’t realise that this isn’t about schadenfreude over cancelled holidays.

If the government are this insanely incompetent, they can do insanely incompetent stuff that will affect you and your kids, even if this round doesn’t.

I really dread of thinking there are still another 3 years with this government (Boris).

Thank you both and I'm really sorry for everyone who's in a similar situation. I just put in a super long annual leave request covering both leave years. A colleague told me that this can be approved, it just needs to be taken to the division head, so I'm hopeful, although will cry if not approved.

My direct line manage is generally lovely and if it was up to her I'd get the leave. I took so much sick leave last year that I'm hesitant to take more, as I don't want to take the piss out of a strained public service, but not seeing him might make me genuinely ill.

@Whoarethewho

I said at the start of this pandemic shut the bloody borders and stop faffing around. We live on an island it should be easy like NZ to keep out the virus.

We don’t live on an island, Northern Ireland is part of the UK.

There are so many reasons why we couldn’t shut the borders like NZ eg lorry transport bringing in essential goods

@Return2thebasic

I really dread of thinking there are still another 3 years with this government (Boris).

To be honest labour wants to close borders … so I prefer bojo with his u turns

@EasterIssland, I think I'm just overly disgusted by him as a complete selfish axxhole and a top idiotic attention seeker to be the top man in charge of a country.

Thought last year's ICU experience might change him a little bit. NO. Back to the same old BJ as usual. No pay rise for NHS workers. Clap for the heroes? Just disgusting.

BTW, I'm not working for NHS. Just feel gutted by the whole thing, when these politicians all pocketed god knows how much in their own pocket one way or another.

I live in France and I'm currently recovering from covid.
Everyone who tests positive has to have a PCR test to determine the variant.

I tested positive in an antigen test done in a chemist and they wouldn't give me my health card back until I provided evidence that I had booked a PCR test. It showed that I have the delta variant.

The French health service called me every day for 10 days to see if I was OK, needed a nurse or a home help and to check that I'm isolating. They also organised my documents for sick leave from work so I didn't need to bother my doctor (they also notified him).

I feel very taken care of and I'm very impressed by the whole thing.

So in my opinion the rumours that France isn't sequenceing are untrue.

The system’s pretty good.

The arguments about sequencing is going to run and run…as you say the French authorities are sequencing but it’s claimed by some not to the extent they are in the UK.

Maybe the amount of sequencing in the UK allows their error bars to be tighter but TBH (this POV is from somebody with a non medical stats background from years ago) I’m not convinced it makes a heck of a lot of difference to where we go from here and if rumours are to be believed any advantage the Uk gets from a higher level of sequencing may well be offset by the inability of some policy makers to differentiate between “France metropolitan” and the “French Republic”.

If they are sequencing as a matter of routine, then why aren't they reporting the results to the GISAID?

According to this FT article, only 1% of Covid cases were being sequenced in France in June, vs 30% in the UK:

www.ft.com/content/d4abbe5e-8650-4a76-9fea-2d3efa2ed52b

@Beachcomber

Everyone who tests positive has to have a PCR test to determine the variant.

A PCR test doesn't determine what variant you've got, it just confirms the diagnosis of Covid.

Well I read the FT bit with interest because last I’ve heard, French sources last month, was that roughly 5% of all positive tests in France were being sequenced, which as I understand it just, only just about enough for the authorities to have a handle on the distribution of the variants but not in the detail that a higher percentage of screening would give.

Obviously there’s obviously a big push on here to improve the amount of screening done…

Of course fundamentally when it’s a question of resources there’s the question of how much data/sequencing is enough to get the job done….

. You could get pretty much 100% accuracy with 100% sequencing of all positive tests but then that still ultimately leaves what to do as a result of the perhaps almost perfect data set in the hands of the politicians…..

I think they're testing for variants with most PCR tests now (on the passe sanitaire, in the tests bit, the variant comes up with the positive tests).

@DottyHarmer

Don’t be silly. I haven’t seen my family for nearly two years either.

If we start to be felled with the Beta variant would that be worth it so we can “make plans” ?

Presume you are totally against lifting of restrictions/and having new ones here, as this will increase the spread of ALL variants.

@notimagain

The problem with this government is that they've done lots of things in secrecy. Nobody knows the decision making process and they don't intend to let the public have the information either.

Are you confident in they making decisions solely for the benefit of this country, regardless for economy or for health? I don't have the confidence.

@Return2thebasic

Are you confident in they making decisions solely for the benefit of this country, regardless for economy or for health?

Which country’s government?