So, coronavirus...

[salanya]

119k cases

Well, Boris can congratulate himself on another record.

It may be less severe, but these numbers negate that. Poor NHS staff must be bricking it.

[SaintK]

119k cases

Well, Boris can congratulate himself on another record.

It may be less severe, but these numbers negate that. Poor NHS staff must be bricking it.

They appear to be dropping like flies, poor bastards!

The number of NHS staff off sick because of Covid is soaring, new figures show, raising fresh fears about how hospitals will be able to respond to any Omicron-driven surge in patients needing care.
One health service leader said the NHS was now facing “a double emergency” of growing numbers of people hospitalised with Covid alongside increasing sickness absence on the frontline.
The number of staff days lost to Covid across the NHS in England hit 124,855 last week, a 38% jump on the 90,277 seen the week before, according to the latest “winter sitreps” data published by NHS England.

[dpedin]

119k cases

Well, Boris can congratulate himself on another record.

It may be less severe, but these numbers negate that. Poor NHS staff must be bricking it.

SAGE warning on 20th December that testing behaviour and testing capacity may be affecting case data and that is problematic making interpretation of trends difficult - Sky News.

[Ymx]

So I’m day 5/6 after symptoms. So far it’s been a mild cold for me. Just a bit sneezy (not surprised it’s so infectious), but carried on working (from home of course). Others I know currently also similarly little affected. This is compared to others I know in from much weeks/earlier months (with no doubt delta) where it wiped them out.

So from my tiny sample set of experience, it’s very mild. Hopefully it gives me immunity from delta, although I’m fully vaxed as well, so fingers crossed I’m looking alright.

[Ymx]

I think it’s a sound move to reduce to 7 days based on consecutive days on negative lat flow. Should hopefully help the country in action better, esp NHS hospital staff, which i suspect is likely to be more an issue (staff in isolation) than any modest increase in the numbers going to hospital.

[Ovals]

So I’m day 5/6 after symptoms. So far it’s been a mild cold for me. Just a bit sneezy (not surprised it’s so infectious), but carried on working (from home of course). Others I know currently also similarly little affected. This is compared to others I know in from much weeks/earlier months (with no doubt delta) where it wiped them out.

So from my tiny sample set of experience, it’s very mild. Hopefully it gives me immunity from delta, although I’m fully vaxed as well, so fingers crossed I’m looking alright.

Good to hear you're on the mend and haven't suffered too much. Sounds like you'll be good for Xmas.

[dpedin]

119k cases

Well, Boris can congratulate himself on another record.

It may be less severe, but these numbers negate that. Poor NHS staff must be bricking it.

They appear to be dropping like flies, poor bastards!

The number of NHS staff off sick because of Covid is soaring, new figures show, raising fresh fears about how hospitals will be able to respond to any Omicron-driven surge in patients needing care.
One health service leader said the NHS was now facing “a double emergency” of growing numbers of people hospitalised with Covid alongside increasing sickness absence on the frontline.
The number of staff days lost to Covid across the NHS in England hit 124,855 last week, a 38% jump on the 90,277 seen the week before, according to the latest “winter sitreps” data published by NHS England.

Staff absence a major problem for coming weeks. Hearing of 6% nursing absence from covid alone in big board up here in Scotland - put that on top of nursing vacancies of 8-9% plus annual leave and other 'usual' sickness then it is pretty awful. Also care homes and wider social care sector the same so patients can't be discharged out of hospitals so causing major flow problems from the front door with large number of patients backing up in A&E.

[Sandstorm]

So I’m day 5/6 after symptoms. So far it’s been a mild cold for me. Just a bit sneezy (not surprised it’s so infectious), but carried on working (from home of course). Others I know currently also similarly little affected. This is compared to others I know in from much weeks/earlier months (with no doubt delta) where it wiped them out.

So from my tiny sample set of experience, it’s very mild. Hopefully it gives me immunity from delta, although I’m fully vaxed as well, so fingers crossed I’m looking alright.

How do you know you’ve got Omicron? Did anyone confirm it?

You might have Delta and be hard as nails!

[Ymx]

So I’m day 5/6 after symptoms. So far it’s been a mild cold for me. Just a bit sneezy (not surprised it’s so infectious), but carried on working (from home of course). Others I know currently also similarly little affected. This is compared to others I know in from much weeks/earlier months (with no doubt delta) where it wiped them out.

So from my tiny sample set of experience, it’s very mild. Hopefully it gives me immunity from delta, although I’m fully vaxed as well, so fingers crossed I’m looking alright.

How do you know you’ve got Omicron? Did anyone confirm it?

You might have Delta and be hard as nails!

Only indications being the symptoms seem consistent with it. But also that a contact I had pinged needed to take lat flows for 7 days. Opposed to when they ironically pinged us several weeks back before, and we were not asked to take lat flows after the PCR test.

[Sandstorm]

Well it sounds like you’ve got the new variant Sigma. First one out of the box. Good luck.

[Ymx]

Well it sounds like you’ve got the new variant Sigma. First one out of the box. Good luck.

Although I hear in the not too distant future the WHO might be releasing a new model in ‘22. Though I wouldn’t take it early as it’s likely a bit buggy. And hear they are having manufacturing issues out in China.

[notfatcat]

Is this one of the posters on here shown on the Beeb lead story?

Looks a bit tall and skinny so maybe not.

[Slick]

Is this one of the posters on here shown on the Beeb lead story?

Looks a bit tall and skinny so maybe not.

uncanny/not uncanny

[laurent]

Need to get tested tomorrow of all days

[Ovals]

Need to get tested tomorrow of all days

Bummer. Hope it's clear - Best of luck

[Sandstorm]

Need to get tested tomorrow of all days

Bummer. Hope it's clear - Best of luck

Good luck Laurent

[laurent]

Cheers

I have no symptoms and contact was around the 15th so hopefully nothing.

[Blackmac]

Last week I had a horrific cold which was so bad it caused me to twice do LFT tests, both of which proved negative. On Sunday I got my Moderna booster and lied through my teeth about no Covid symptoms, good health etc. My advice is, for the love of god don't. I think I had the most miserable 48 hours of my life. Absolutely horrific reaction.
Of course none of it was helped by my nurse wife constantly tutting and say "I told you so you stupid prick"

[Blackmac]

119k cases

Well, Boris can congratulate himself on another record.

It may be less severe, but these numbers negate that. Poor NHS staff must be bricking it.

So far Omicron itself has barely registered any uptick at my wife's hospital with regards to patients. It's the staff absence rates causing the problems. Just about every nurse with a school aged child seems to have it.

[Mahoney]

London admissions not looking good. > 40% rise between 18th Dec and 21st Dec.

Screenshot 2021-12-24 at 09.35.56.png (126.3 KiB) Viewed 1282 times

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details ... o_hospital

[Ymx]

From your link. The rise needs some perspective.

[Blackmac]

London admissions not looking good. > 40% rise between 18th Dec and 21st Dec.
Screenshot 2021-12-24 at 09.35.56.png
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details ... o_hospital

London seems to be driving the nationwide statistics. Astonishing to see how low the vaccine take up is.

[Ymx]

Useful site Mahoney.

And those needing ventilation

[Torquemada 1420]

Wrong. In London the hospitals were screaming to send patients there. The doctors who set up the nightingales mentioned over and over about lack of staffing but were told just to get on with sorting out the infrastructure. When they opened very few staff were transferred over. If they had been staffed the london ICUs would have emptied themselves into there and there were plans for them to be an A&E type triage reception for new patients.

That this didn't happen was purely down to the lack of staffing.

Edit. Source - I used to play rugby with one of the clinical directors.

Interesting. I had a couple of friends who were in there as part of FANY. Their comments echo yours i.e. plenty of ancillary staff but a marked shortage of senior medical staff. I can't recall the exact patient nos. during their tenure but it was single figures!

Looks like it was a rob Peter to pay Paul scenario i.e. without magically creating more senior staff, the Nightingales were nothing more than isolation camps.

[Torquemada 1420]

London admissions not looking good. > 40% rise between 18th Dec and 21st Dec.
Screenshot 2021-12-24 at 09.35.56.png
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details ... o_hospital

FFS. 300 across the entirety of London. A rise from 1 to 2 is a 100% rise........

[I like neeps]

London admissions not looking good. > 40% rise between 18th Dec and 21st Dec.
Screenshot 2021-12-24 at 09.35.56.png
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details ... o_hospital

London seems to be driving the nationwide statistics. Astonishing to see how low the vaccine take up is.

There's a very good argument for regional restrictions in London. Will never happen as the country is so London dominant but it should.

[Mahoney]

London's hospital admission numbers need to be seen in the context of rises in cases, and hospital admissions lagging cases. It's a reasonable assumption that what we are seeing in admissions on the 20th & 21st December is the filter through of the dramatic rise in cases on 13th December, so it's the first UK evidence of the link between omicron cases and hospital admissions.
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details ... cimen_date

[laurent]

Came back negative.

French app says i don't need to isolate (triple vacc)

I think I'll talk this with my mother and see what she thinks (we are all vaccinated bar the youngest).
My mother was a Nurse before you all go mad.

Merry chrimbo ya feckin' Virus

[Calculon]

If Omicron does multiply 70 times faster in the bronchi than Delta, as well as the increased transmissibility, you might expect a shorter time between positive case and potential hospital admission.

[Ymx]

If the hospitalisation reduction is down to 30% on omicron

For equivalence
50k cases delta = 167k cases omicron

In terms of hospitalised.

In terms of ICU and deaths, the factor is much larger I understand. But didn’t see that number.

[sefton]

122,000 cases today, it best lead to at least 70% less hospitalisations or at this rate we’ll be in the shit in a week.

[Sandstorm]

122,000 cases today, it best lead to at least 70% less hospitalisations or at this rate we’ll be in the shit in a week.

Just close the hospitals until January. Problem solved.


Shit, does Raab lurk here?

[Rinkals]

Lockdowns were a tool for a very specific issue - viral pandemic with no effective remedy. We have one now - vaccination - that seems to be stopping critical levels of death. Lockdowns aren't a standard tool and have catastrophic side effects. No more of them please.

It's not often that I agree with you, but this is one of those rare occasions.

[convoluted]

So this morning's paper told me that just one booster is insufficient protection against Omicron. You need two boosters.
'UK mulls fourth jab to combat Omicron'
The same article describes the consequences of that strain: 'The scientists said people ill with the variant usually feel a sore throat, then develop a runny nose and headache'.

Blaring headlines the last week at two Omicron deaths, one in London who already had severe comorbities and was ready to cark it anyway, and one in Israel also with bad health i.e. both dying with Omicron rather than from it.

Yet apparently, to protect the protected from me inflicting a runny nose on them, I should do the decent thing and get two more of these experimental concoctions so Nancy Pelosi can get her cut from my two jabs and increase her $100 million personal worth.
As poster JM2K6 would hiss at me: "It's for the greater good."

[sefton]

So this morning's paper told me that just one booster is insufficient protection against Omicron. You need two boosters.
'UK mulls fourth jab to combat Omicron'
The same article describes the consequences of that strain: 'The scientists said people ill with the variant usually feel a sore throat, then develop a runny nose and headache'.

Blaring headlines the last week at two Omicron deaths, one in London who already had severe comorbities and was ready to cark it anyway, and one in Israel also with bad health i.e. both dying with Omicron rather than from it.

Yet apparently, to protect the protected from me inflicting a runny nose on them, I should do the decent thing and get two more of these experimental concoctions so Nancy Pelosi can get her cut from my two jabs and increase her $100 million personal worth.
As poster JM2K6 would hiss at me: "It's for the greater good."

[TheFrog]

I think some of the PR resident weirdos have migrated here.

[sefton]

I think some of the PR resident weirdos have migrated here.

I’ll bet the mentalists were still at it yesterday.

[sockwithaticket]

I think some of the PR resident weirdos have migrated here.

Unfortunately, convoluted has been here for a while. I only have them and refry blocked on here.

[tabascoboy]

Well, predictably this is causing outrage on Twatter (origin is the Daily Fail )

Door-to-door Covid jabs as Boris considers New Year restrictions TOMORROW but vows to keep schools open:
SAGE warns new Omicron wave hospitalisations could be higher than last winter
Ministers are planning to send teams armed with Covid vaccines to the homes of unvaccinated Britons

[Sandstorm]

Well, predictably this is causing outrage on Twatter (origin is the Daily Fail )

Door-to-door Covid jabs as Boris considers New Year restrictions TOMORROW but vows to keep schools open:
SAGE warns new Omicron wave hospitalisations could be higher than last winter
Ministers are planning to send teams armed with Covid vaccines to the homes of unvaccinated Britons

Surely it’s easier to weld their front doors shut?