Some of our young people are half way through their degrees (2019/20 intake): lockdowns on repeat, light at the end of the tunnel with vaccinations (?) and the legacy of COVID-19

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Previous thread

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose is all I can say!

[icanbewhatiwant]

Ds still has two 24 hour exams. One tomorrow and one next Friday. Then he's finished. He has a summer job that will start mid July. So I guess he will come home then.

[MrKlaw]

DS may want to learn to play the guitar, and his birthday is coming up. I assume with electric ones you can plug in headphones otherwise he won’t be popular with his flatmates :)

[Benjispruce3]

Covid doing the rounds in Durham uni again. DD said lots of her friends have tested positive but none have symptoms.She’s now worried the end of year college celebrations that were planned will be cancelled again . I’m starting to feel we will never be back to normal despite vaccinations. New variants will keep cropping up.

[RampantIvy]

I'm sorry to hear that @Benjispruce3. We have spent the weekend in Newcastle to visit DD, and to bring some of her garden centre stuff home.

Unfortunately, DD was notified last night that two people who were at at a party she went to last week have tested positive, so DD took a lateral flow test, which was negative, and then took a PCR test this morning. Her household are isolating with her until she gets the results.

WE hugged DD when we saw her, and took her to visit clinically vulnerable family, while we were there.

It's such a shit show isn't it. It would be a shame if she had to spend her last two weeks of term being stuck in the house.

[Benjispruce3]

Oh no @RampantIvy. Fingers crossed for you.
I’ve just been reading some reassuring stats to get my positive head back on. I’m ok with delaying full reopening but I feel for the students as they’ll all be home by then.

[RampantIvy]

Thank you @Benjispruce3

[Zandathepanda]

Dd isolating in Newcastle. She was supposed to come home today. She is literally surrounded on her street with positive cases. So upset as she has been following the rules.

[Parker231]

Friends from Edinburgh were due to visit this weekend - they are now isolating. They’ve stuck to social distancing and mask wearing and thankfully both have now had two vaccinations. This new variant is so much more transmissible.

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Really sorry to hear about all the DC having to self-isolate when they should be having fun now that exam season is just about over.

[RampantIvy]

Oh no @Zandathepanda. That's the last thing she needs. What a horrible ending to the year.

Fortunately DD's lateral flow and PCR tests were negative. It turned out that the two positive cases had been to a bar in Newcastle the following day for a bottomless brunch and they were notified by the NHS test and trace app from there, so they were probably covid negative at the party anyway.

[Zandathepanda]

That’s good news RampantIvy - we’ll see what their results are tomorrow/Wednesday. She’s very miserable. Others around her have been and are blasé so it difficult to even judge the source. It is spreading so easily and quickly - she says it’s never been like this before. (Interesting that her little sister’s school has no masks nor bubbles now. There’s over 1000 in her school mixing!!). She just wants to get home now.

[bigTillyMint]

DS says Covid is burning through Durham again @Benjispruce3 - he came back to see his gf on Friday and was due to go back this evening, but his flatmates have been told by T&T to get PCRs from contacts on Saturday (and loads of other friends too) so he has cancelled his train. He will have to go back on 29th though to move his stuff out of his house as that’s when the contract ends, so praying it’s safe to go back by then as we have a funeral immediately after
His flatmates all had covid (PCR and isolated) last year, so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

That’s good news @RampantIvy - perhaps may be the same for DSs flatmates. And fingers crossed @Zandathepanda - it’s quite depressing, isn’t it?

[blametheparents]

DS still in exam mode and not mixing much so hasn’t been pinged by track and trace and doesn’t really know anybody (yet) with a positive test result.
DD, on the other hand, has just been told to self isolate due to being on a coach with classmates that have tested positive. Seven so far from the one coach.
Supposed to be getting my 2nd jab in the next few days. Am testing each day to make sure I am negative before I go and get it.

[Zandathepanda]

At the moment Dd is PCR negative and so are some of her flatmates. They’ve organised the flat into zones. She’d been completely isolating for 4 days (with nips to kitchen and loo) before coming home so she’s glad to come out and see the negative ones. They have a large living room with lots of windows and several sofas which is handy. Hopefully the negative tests continue!

[icanbewhatiwant]

Ds has been invited for his first covid vaccine at the campus university. I'm glad they are getting them done. Good job we don't live that far away as when he gets called for the second one he will be back home for the summer. I'm sure there's a way round it for those who aren't local. He could only book one though.

[blametheparents]

I noticed today that the NHS online booking is now open to age 21.
DS didn’t take a year out and is a baby of the year so he’s got a little while to wait yet, but probably only a few days at the rate it’s going right now.

[bigTillyMint]

Yes DD (nearly 22!) has booked hers in Bristol, and DS gf (23) has had a text to book here in London, so hoping DS will be able to book soon.

[icanbewhatiwant]

@blametheparents Ds was 20 last month. So hopefully not long until they are all offered one.

[Parker231]

DS (21) has booked his today. Now hoping DD will get hers soon although Belgium aren’t get down to the 21 year olds yet.

[ZZTopGuitarSolo]

Update from here in the US - DD's university has just dropped all mask and distancing requirements for vaccinated students. Unvaccinated students will have to continue to wear masks and test twice a week.

The college Covid rates have been very low, and the town where her college is based has hit 70% fully vaccinated which I think was their threshold for making the decision.

[ZZTopGuitarSolo]

@Ragwort

My DS still in Nottingham after finishing exams (only one??), having a great time with his mates and picked to play for the First Team (cricket) so was over the moon . Still no news on Camp America, looking less and less likely so probably back home soon and his local pub job ... which is a great holiday job, tourist pub on the river, lots of young people work there and very well run..... and still looking for a placement year job but may end up trying two or three shorter internships if he can find them. Main thing is that he is remaining positive and cheerful which we are very grateful for as we know so many students are struggling.

We've been anxiously watching the situation with J1 visas from the opposite perspective - we desperately need foreign students coming into the US to do the jobs they do every year. We have all sorts of services and entertainment businesses unable to fully reopen because of a lack of staff.

Here's a story in our local paper about it...
www.pressherald.com/2021/06/13/maine-summer-tourism-relies-on-foreign-student-labor-but-not-this-year/

Maine’s summer camps rely heavily on international staff. About one-third of camp workers come on visas, said Ron Hall, executive director of the trade group Maine Summer Camps.

“It is not because Maine camps aren’t looking for Maine workers – there just aren’t enough,” Hall said.

To work around embassy restrictions, some camps have even paid to fly students to Mexico to quarantine for two weeks in a hotel and get a visa at the U.S. consulate in that country before traveling to America, Hall added.

The loss of the program this year is a triple blow – to employers that rely on those students, students missing a valued experience, and to the U.S., by failing connect with up-and-coming citizens across the world, said Phil Simon, vice president of professional exchange programs at CIEE, a nonprofit international education company in Portland that administers J-1 visits.

“No other government in the world does this program at this scale – it has been hugely valuable for the U.S.,” Simon said. “You are reaching a group of university-educated people – they are going to be parents, teachers, architects, lawyers and politicians. You are building this network of friends in other countries at scale.”

It typically takes at least five months to arrange a J-1 visa, he said. The number of students making it to the U.S. this year will be at most 10 percent of those that came in 2019.

“The businesses in the U.S. and Maine that do such a good job at welcoming these visitors also rely on them for staffing,” he said. “This avenue is just not going to be open to them, which is going to create issues.”

[Decorhate]

I have very happy memories of my summer on a J1 visa!

Just popping in to say I saw this:

The NHS website will now allow adults aged 18 and over to book their coronavirus vaccinations (both doses) - the first page says aged 21 and over, but when you put in your NHS number and date of birth it will accept the booking.

Ds is still hoping for a placement for next year & has a couple of interviews at last. But he has decided to stay in Bath either way - so will either do one locally or go back into 3rd year.

[Ragwort]

That's interesting reading ZZ thanks for sharing, I think my DS will just accept that he can't do Camp America this year and postpone it until next year.

Good news about the vaccine now available for all over 18s.

[Notagardener]

Yeah, another DC here hoping to go for camp America next year instead..

[RampantIvy]

It seems like most of DD's friends have now tested positive, so she is off to get tested again. I hope they don't have to spend their last week self isolating in the house. They had plans to go on various day trips.