Cases on the rise again?

[Garysmum]

Don't know if it's just me but looking at stats and clicky map - many local areas are on the rise again - some quite significantly so in the 50-100% rise in a week bracket.

I'm SE where there was a huge rise around Christmas which had started to fall but now it's climbing again.

Hospital numbers are rising too, which you would expect.

As I am CV, this is concerning with all the things giving a slither of protection gone.

I wonder what could happen if numbers get completely out of control - if people continually reinfect each other or we get a new variant. I assume most people don't care - they just want to get on with life and won't worry too much unless they are personally badly affected - for example if an elderly relative ends up in hospital or their kid gets long covid and can't sit exams.

@merrymelodies

From over here in Canada, it looks as though England (and possibly the rest of the UK) has gone from one extreme to the other: from total lockdown and fear-mongering to now no masks at all and neither is doing much good.

Wear a mask (preferably an N95 or similar). Get vaccinated and boosted. Keep a 2 metre distance from others. Wash your hands regularly. It isn't fail proof but it's better than nothing at all.

And what do you suggest for primary school teachers, particularly those teaching the 4/5/6 years olds? It's not as simple as wear a mask, social distance. There's nothing we can do to break transmission until the government decides on vaccinations for 5-11 year olds!

SE too and from my observation ( which means nothing really) it was delta before Christmas and now its Omnicron in schools. I think quite a few kids have had it twice in the last few months so hopefully its burning out. Must be really stressful for you. My sons school are sobbing the kids if they sneeze so its rife there because they are picking up every asymptomatic case. Mind you I'm not sure everyone is reporting. We didnt.

My children’s schools are being absolutely slammed with cases right now.

From over here in Canada, it looks as though England (and possibly the rest of the UK) has gone from one extreme to the other: from total lockdown and fear-mongering to now no masks at all and neither is doing much good.

Wear a mask (preferably an N95 or similar). Get vaccinated and boosted. Keep a 2 metre distance from others. Wash your hands regularly. It isn't fail proof but it's better than nothing at all

Ahem, l'm looking at the cases numbers for deaths and cases for Canada and the UK, and after adjusting for population size they look very similar. Not sure those heavy duty masks are making much difference? They may kinda block covid in lab-based experiments, but seem to lose their ability to do this when used in the real world by ordinary people. And as for the rest, like washing hands, UK people are doing all this already for the most part.

@Remmy123

Yes they will be on the rise as schools are back

yes let's all blame the kids again! Schools were only closed for 2 weeks so had no affect at all given every1 including kids were still all mixing over Christmas.

Did cases really decrease or was it just people couldn’t get a PCR test? Now LFT can be used for diagnosis there will also be people with ‘covid’ who don’t actually have it due to the false positive rate.
They’ve been quite slow in getting the 2nd jab into kids which I’m sure doesn’t help infection rates. Not many vaccine centres doing kids and those that are don’t all do 2nd doses

No one suggested lockdowns. Just masks and testing to reduce the risk of CEV catching it. But most people on here give no shits about CEV as long as they can take their "face nappy off."

I do wear a mask and have never used the word "face nappy." But masks and all these nice little "tweaks" don't actually seem to do much re omicron, do they?

Hardcore lockdown plus centalized quarantine, which is what they're currently doing in China, might do it, but the chances of people going along with this is literally zero.

I accept omicron is a crap situation for those with medical issues, but there isn't much we can do about it, as far as I can see. It's like complaining about the fact that an earthquake is worse for clinically vulnerable people than for everyone else--yes, it is, but what can we actually do about it? We can't tell the ground to stop shaking.

@merrymelodies

From over here in Canada, it looks as though England (and possibly the rest of the UK) has gone from one extreme to the other: from total lockdown and fear-mongering to now no masks at all and neither is doing much good.

Wear a mask (preferably an N95 or similar). Get vaccinated and boosted. Keep a 2 metre distance from others. Wash your hands regularly. It isn't fail proof but it's better than nothing at all.

This is exactly what I do. I’ve never stopped wearing a mask (and won’t), I always use sanitiser and keep a distance from others where I can.

The news tonight said that hospital cases were down even though high number of infections. Interestingly, the people on the ward the news reporter visited were ALL unvaccinated. One chap who spent a month on a ventilator and almost died said he was worried about getting vaccinated! Ah, but not worried about what almost killed him. He was still in hospital and on oxygen. The mind boggles at the level of ignorance about what vaccines do!

@Garysmum

Another thought is for teachers etc - if schools have to accept active infections (which seems the plan) - then what about CV teachers/ Teachers with vulnerable household members.

Presumably they are vaccinated. The hospital cases on the news were unvaccinated dopes so who cares about them. Their choice.

But merry - the gov wont let under 12 be vax! And everyone eklse all the parents are busy partying and taking unvaxxed unmasked kids to soft play and parties

Now people are vaccinated the only group considered CEV are the ones eligible for a 3 dose initial course of vaccine. Who are now eligible for anti-virals. Vulnerable 5-11s will be offered the vaccine.

Face coverings are still legally required in the UK, it hasn’t changed yet and when it does they’ll
Still be ‘recommended’ and many will still wear them

@Iggly

I wish people would stop bleating the political narrative and actually engage in the science.

It’s like Brexit “fed up of experts” all over again, and look where we’ve ended up as a result.

There’s a reason that politicians are politician and not scientists. They’re there to make things sound and look good.

Sadly this attitude will come back to bite them (and us) on the arse.

Absolutely. More than that, they don't recognise they are most likely re-bleating messaging from social media bots. Up to half of the active Twitter accounts and probably the same of the Facebook accounts across political and news sites are bots. So this repetitive messaging "It is now just a cold," "The pandemic is over," etc. is a bot speaking.

@Waxonwaxoff0

Well, we can't live in a continuous cycle of lockdowns.

Change the record

@merrymelodies

From over here in Canada, it looks as though England (and possibly the rest of the UK) has gone from one extreme to the other: from total lockdown and fear-mongering to now no masks at all and neither is doing much good.

Wear a mask (preferably an N95 or similar). Get vaccinated and boosted. Keep a 2 metre distance from others. Wash your hands regularly. It isn't fail proof but it's better than nothing at all.

I can understand someone who's CEV still following that advice, but I don't much care if I get Omicron or not. I'm past living my life on egg-shells around this virus.

Presumably you're not in favour of vaccines? Because for you they seem to have made no positive difference to your life, and it's allowing you no extra freedoms or causing you any less fear.

I don't want any restrictions or masks in schools and for them to go on school trips, residentials and have other enrichment activity. DD2 is Y8, her last normal school year was Y5. She is having a ton of anxiety about attending school and I feel like a hypocrite sending her, and wish there was another alternative. School is a fucking shit place to be just now, secondary schools are massively failing our kids.

@altmember

I anticipate case numbers hovering around 100k for several more months, which feels low compared to what we've just been through, but is still higher than we've seen until recently.

I'd be disappointed if they kept at that level of a few months, as it would be the worst of all worlds.

With hospital cases declining, it's far better to let Covid burn through as brightly as we can without services collapsing, and follow the curve trajectory of somewhere like South Africa.

That's better than some kind of "stalemate" where isolations and other residual measures are slowing the spread enough to keep R at around 1 for a lengthy period as we saw with Delta, which has meant we haven't had a period of low infections since the spring of 2021 - which must be particularly psychologically draining for those who are vulnerable.

@HSHorror

But merry - the gov wont let under 12 be vax! And everyone eklse all the parents are busy partying and taking unvaxxed unmasked kids to soft play and parties

And why shouldn't they?

@curlymom

Why so rude!? It's true enough

@HSHorror

But merry - the gov wont let under 12 be vax! And everyone eklse all the parents are busy partying and taking unvaxxed unmasked kids to soft play and parties

Soft play and parties are businesses that allow families to eat and pay their bills!

We should only test those going into hospital, no more tests for anyone else.

So, if you're poorly stay home. If not, don't.
I know this is controversial but it's coming.

Hospital numbers are not rising, based on the 7 day average. I’m not sure why you think that. It’s the key indicator now. Number of new cases are somewhat irrelevant. The point of lockdowns was always to protect the nhs and prevent deaths.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they stop reporting daily figures of new infections soon.

@ILookAtTheFloor

We should only test those going into hospital, no more tests for anyone else.

So, if you're poorly stay home. If not, don't.
I know this is controversial but it's coming.

Having currently for covid and isolating I see where you are coming from.

I think what we need is a shift in attitude to staying off work unwell.

I've had a cold at worst and it's felt more like tonsillitis. Normally with this level of illness I'd have struggled on and probably taken longer to recover.

However as had to stay home I fully rested and drank plenty of fluids and although still testing positive I'm feeling much better. Not 100% but well enough to work without it being an issue.

Sonic people could just stop feeling guilty for needing to take time off, we could do something about the horror of 0 hours contracts and lack of sick pay etc - we could actually come through this with a better system.

But the truth is it won't happen. Those on low incomes and 0 hours contracts will continue to need to work however unwell and need far more care from nhs in later life due to their unhealthy lifestyles.

My youngest secondary now has on-line learning - staff shortages due to covid.

Cases in our area have really dropped - even hospital admissions are hugely down.

DD2 12 is double vaccinated - amoung her peers those who aren't were delayed by getting covid - most got covid last term at some point as at leas twice it ran rampant though the school.

We're in Wales mask are worn all the time in school, it's a new building and all classroom have windows open all day - so kids are sat in thermal underwear and coats and then shoved outside every break even eating lunch outside.

I have two children in exam years third year their education been disrupted still waiting to hear if they will sit actual exams this year and near endless supply teachers or eldest's lessons cancelled.

Maybe it's a last gasp after coming back after Christmas - but yes there do seem to be more e-mails from school saying there are cases.

@BungleandGeorge

Now people are vaccinated the only group considered CEV are the ones eligible for a 3 dose initial course of vaccine. Who are now eligible for anti-virals. Vulnerable 5-11s will be offered the vaccine.

Face coverings are still legally required in the UK, it hasn’t changed yet and when it does they’ll
Still be ‘recommended’ and many will still wear them

Yes. my CEV relative had 3 jabs and a booster. Had Covid over Christmas and got the anti viral drip, came out the other side. There are positive stories.