COVID-19 — Coronavirus

[BigJoe#1]

Then folks will complain that privileged politicians have jumped the vaccine queue :-D

Very true.

 

[Summerbuzz]

They'd be better off getting Ant and Dec to do a celebrity vacc-a-thon, where the celebs do video diaries afterwards.

 

[Healdplace]

Greater Manchester scoreboard:

As you will see the high numbers are starting to reverse the Weekly Pop falls we have had for past week or two.


Manchester 360 - down from 443. Total cases 24, 761. Weekly 2265. Pop score up 65 to 4479. Weekly Pop up back over 400 to 410.

Bolton 258 - up from 225 to be second highest in GM again. Total cases 13, 195. Weekly 1375. Pop score up 90 to 4589. Weekly Pop up to 478.

Wigan 248 - down from 321. Total cases, 14, 315. Weekly 1667. Pop score up 76 to 4356. Weekly Pop up to 508.

Oldham 231 - down from 308. Total cases 12, 812. Weekly 1601. Pop score up 97 - most in GM today - to 5403. Closer to Blackburn who had a better day. Weekly Pop up to 675.

Salford 220 - down from 273. Total cases 11 419. Weekly 1313. Pop score up 85 to 4412. Weekly Pop up to 508.

Rochdale 201 - down from 242. Total cases 10, 758. Weekly 1261. Pop score up 90 to 4837. Weekly Pop up 567.

Bury 180 - down from 205. Total cases 8511. Weekly 1045. Pop score up 94 to 4456. Weekly Pop up to 547.

Tameside 172 - down from 188. Total cases 9068. Weekly 980. Pop score up 76 and enough to take it into the 4000 club at 4004. Leaving just Stockport and Trafford in the 3000s and safe there for a week or two. We hope! Weekly Pop up to 433.

Stockport 168 - down from 201. Total cases 9258. Weekly 1058. Last two days puts it back over the 1000 leaving just Tameside and Trafford there. For now. Pop score up 57 to 3155. Weekly Pop up to 360.

Trafford 133 - down from 181. Total cases 8001. Weekly 911. Lowest in GM again. Pop score up 56 - lowest in GM today - to 3371. Cuts gap to Stockport for overall Pop by 1 to 216. Weekly Pop DOWN to 384. Only borough who had a good enough day to fall. Cuts in half the weekly pop lead of Stockport to just 24. These two are now the only ones with Weekly Pops in the 300s.

 

[ultimateharold]

What a surprise - NOT.
It's why lockdown 2.0 will have minimal effect.

It's the blindingly obvious action to take closing schools for the time being.

Yes, kids need education, and it's gonna be less than ideal, but such co-mingling of asymptotic kids then heading off to hundreds of houses, repeated hundreds of times across the country is clearly going to keep this going. I don't know what the long term solution for education would be, but until this is sorted we'll be pissing into the wind.

 

[Healdplace]

Week to week UK cases 23, 827 v 27, 301 today.

All settings deaths 355 v 376 today.

 

[Marvin]

If there was no vaccine, and we ignore susceptibility, Dec 21st would be at or near the high mark of wave 2. Note in South Africa how the epidemic collapses shortly after their winter solstice. It really is no surprise that the ancients worshipped the stars and the seasons for in the (apparent) motions of the stars everything is foretold.

The vaccine and the Spring will destroy Covid (touch wood).

 

[Healdplace]

Testing wise the news is good.

Yesterdays 33, 470 cases - however they arrived - came from a then record pillar 1 & 2 test number of 353, 383

Today's lower cases - 27, 301 - came from another new record high of 362, 291.

So 6169 fewer cases today from 8908 more tests

In England alone the 1 & 2 tests were from 318, 532 today v 315, 854 yesterday - so not quite so much of an increase.

There were 6303 fewer cases in England (24, 540) versus yesterday (30, 843).

 

[zerox]

why is 24, 540 written so?
instead of 24,540

 

[lancs blue]

That's quite clearly not true. Every winter we hear of capacity warnings and 6 hour wait times at A&E. Hospitals being busy in winter is totally normal.

Waiting longer in A&E, while serious enough, is not as life threatening as not being able to provide an ICU bed to a critically ill patient.

 

[Healdplace]

why is 24, 540 written so?
instead of 24,540

I think that is a question that W.H.O. are convening a summit to debate as it is of such moment to the ongoing pandemic.

Boris is appointing a comma expert and Zoom is initiating a global discussion.

He will hold a press conference next week to give the UK the decision on where to put the comma from now on.

Apparently it will save zero lives.

Seriously? Just a habit to try to make it easier to read in a huge list of numbers.

 

[AlgarveBlu]

I think that is a question that W.H.O. are convening a summit to debate as it is of such moment to the ongoing pandemic.

Boris is appointing a comma expert and Zoom is initiating a global discussion.

He will hold a press conference next week to give the UK the decision on where to put the comma from now on.

Apparently it will save zero lives.

Seriously? Just to try to make it easier to read.

I think he was taking the piss - well I hope so anyway

 

[Summerbuzz]

This isn't much like the first lockdown from what I can see.

Then: Traffic was down. Handful of cars sometimes at the major lights. Now, seems exactly the same as normal. Queues everywhere.

Then: Supermarkets queuing orderly outside, quiet inside. Big shops only. Now, it's exactly the same as normal.

Town & About: A handful of people sitting in public places. Now, there are people everywhere.

I really think that people might have been a lot more focused for a two-week circuit breaker, shut it all down. This is just a bind for most people, who are going about their lives to all intents and purposes.

God knows what happens now. I'm not really going to suggest we need a stronger lockdown. Better, more positive messaging, sure. Show people putting on masks, taking steps. Do it publicly and with a thumbs up.

 

[True_Blue69]

Well ,yes they are normally at capacity in winter so thousands of additional covid cases in there too need to be avoided.

That's not what the OP said. They said other illnesses don't normally overwhelm the NHS when the fact is they do, every year according to the NHS. Covid hasn't overwhelmed the NHS at any point so far hopefully that remains the case.

 

[Stoned Rose]

It's the blindingly obvious action to take closing schools for the time being.

Yes, kids need education, and it's gonna be less than ideal, but such co-mingling of asymptotic kids then heading off to hundreds of houses, repeated hundreds of times across the country is clearly going to keep this going. I don't know what the long term solution for education would be, but until this is sorted we'll be pissing into the wind.

Schools being open is like blowing your nose to get rid of your germs then eating the tissue.

 

[Two Gun Bob]

Schools being open is like blowing your nose to get rid of your germs then eating the tissue.

An excellent analogy.

 

[PannickAtTheDisco]

It's the blindingly obvious action to take closing schools for the time being.

Yes, kids need education, and it's gonna be less than ideal, but such co-mingling of asymptotic kids then heading off to hundreds of houses, repeated hundreds of times across the country is clearly going to keep this going. I don't know what the long term solution for education would be, but until this is sorted we'll be pissing into the wind.

get the schools as close to Christmas and then shut them early for a month over Christmas would be my guess.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

That's not what the OP said. They said other illnesses don't normally overwhelm the NHS when the fact is they do, every year according to the NHS. Covid hasn't overwhelmed the NHS at any point so far hopefully that remains the case.

I can’t remember the NHS turning away emergency patients in my lifetime if that’s what you mean by overwhelmed? People do get redirected to other hospitals

With Covid, increased surge capacity is getting filled up.

Also, in normal / strained years / winters elective care is suspended by some hospitals for some services. You don’t get close to a blanket suspension like was saw in the first wave.

 

[Stoned Rose]

An excellent analogy.

A glowing review from our resident music guru :)

 

[blueparrot]

That's not what the OP said. They said other illnesses don't normally overwhelm the NHS when the fact is they do, every year according to the NHS. Covid hasn't overwhelmed the NHS at any point so far hopefully that remains the case.

They don’t normally overwhelm it, what they do is run it close to capacity. They don’t usually cause postponement of other treatments, nor elective surgeries. Covid at the level of hospitalisations in spring on top of that would overwhelm it.
As an example in April my daughters hospital had turned 6 wards over to covid all elective operations were cancelled, some theatres were closed as their recovery rooms were full of icu covid patients. In the summer they got got it down to just one covid ward and almost back to normal.
Now they are back to 3 covid but the other 3 wards are also being used for regular treatments and will be very difficult to turn back to covid wards.
So they can probably manage at present levels but couldn’t cope with any return to spring levels. That’s also working on the presumption vaccination and social distancing keep seasonal flu levels relatively low through the winter.

 

[True_Blue69]

I can’t remember the NHS turning away emergency patients in my lifetime if that’s what you mean by overwhelmed? People do get redirected to other hospitals

With Covid, increased surge capacity is getting filled up.

Also, in normal / strained years / winters elective care is suspended by some hospitals for some services. You don’t get close to a blanket suspension like was saw in the first wave.

With hindsight, would they do that again? I doubt it and the fact they aren't at the moment backs that up. It was 100% the right thing to do at the time in not debating that as we didn't know which way it would go.