Main Coronavirus / Covid-19 Discussion Thread

[Poojah]

When was your last negative test / first positive. Our household caught it last month - I'd say minimum was 7 days, maximum 10 days. Some LFTs gave a negative, but then a positive. Who are you flying with?

First positive was this morning; started feeling unwell yesterday. Flying with BA.

 

[Springal]

First positive was this morning; started feeling unwell yesterday. Flying with BA.

See how you go. Obviously you'll need a negative lateral flow that is monitored to go to the US. Not much consolation but good news is BA will offer you a 'future travel voucher' for the value of your booking which can be claimed online up to 2 hours before departure to give you as much time as possible I guess

 

[Poojah]

So, as per above posts, I’m meant to be flying to LA for work on Saturday, and need to return a negative test on Friday. Here’s a photo of this morning’s test:



Not easy to photograph, but you can just about make out a faint line on the result. Official guidance says that any visible line indicates a positive result, but to anyone more well qualified on this than I, is it a reflection of how much infection is left in your system and is a more sensitive PCR test likely to come back negative?

None of my results have been vivid lines (though they’ve been darker than this), but could that also be an indicator I’ve not been digging deep enough into my brain?

Thanks!

 

[Notters]

My daughters and my wife just tested positive, me negative.

Same thing happened in October, very odd - guess it still might happen in the next few days.

 

[Notters]

So, as per above posts, I’m meant to be flying to LA for work on Saturday, and need to return a negative test on Friday. Here’s a photo of this morning’s test:

Not easy to photograph, but you can just about make out a faint line on the result. Official guidance says that any visible line indicates a positive result, but to anyone more well qualified on this than I, is it a reflection of how much infection is left in your system and is a more sensitive PCR test likely to come back negative?

None of my results have been vivid lines (though they’ve been darker than this), but could that also be an indicator I’ve not been digging deep enough into my brain?

Thanks!

Any PCR should come back positive if lateral flow is positive (theoretically).
Based on this graph you're likely to struggle:

 

[Bozza]

So, as per above posts, I’m meant to be flying to LA for work on Saturday, and need to return a negative test on Friday. Here’s a photo of this morning’s test:

View attachment 146079

Not easy to photograph, but you can just about make out a faint line on the result. Official guidance says that any visible line indicates a positive result, but to anyone more well qualified on this than I, is it a reflection of how much infection is left in your system and is a more sensitive PCR test likely to come back negative?

None of my results have been vivid lines (though they’ve been darker than this), but could that also be an indicator I’ve not been digging deep enough into my brain?

Thanks!

A couple of points...

1. You don't need a PCR to enter the US - a lateral flow (supervised, either in person or over online video) is fine. We used DocHQ for our recent visit to the US. You won't have time to sort similar now, but you may be able to make a face-to-face appointment for an LFT either locally or at the airport (Heathrow, presumably).

2. A PCR can return a positive result long after infection - you are advised to NOT take a PCR until you are 90 days post-infection.

So, in short, if you have a PCR booked, I wouldn't fancy your chances of getting a negative. If you can get an LFT, you may have a reasonable chance.

(There is another option I think, although I've not looked at it closely, and that's a recovery certificate, but you need to be 10+ days post-infection for one of those, and you need to find and pay a company to provide it, as getting one from most GPs is not easy)

 

[LamieRobertson]

Worth a read of one man’s journey

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60621432

 

[nicko31]

My kids were sent home from school today, too many teachers with Covid

Cases are rising rapidly and hospitalisations in some areas of the UK they're the highest they've been since pandemic began.

Just the end free testing, surveillance studies and relax any remaining public health measures.

 

[darkwolf666]

As a family unit we are now pinning our hopes on the latest breakthrough from AstraZeneca, Evusheld - it appears that this has the potential, for people who are immunosuppressed and gain little from the Covid vaccines, to actually give them some protection.

I have my fingers, and anything else that I can get crossed at my age, that this gets rolled out soon, so she (we) can look forward to a bit of a future... as much as I make light of things, it would be nice to be a bit more, well, normal!

https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/medical-releases/evusheld-long-acting-antibody-combination-retains-neutralising-activity-against-omicron-variants-including-ba2-in-new-independent-studies.html

 

[dsr-burnley]

My kids were sent home from school today, too many teachers with Covid

Cases are rising rapidly and hospitalisations in some areas of the UK they're the highest they've been since pandemic began.

Just the end free testing, surveillance studies and relax any remaining public health measures.

Which areas of the UK have higher hospitalisations than any time since the pandemic began? Presumably based on total admissions being less than half the peak, they must be fairly specific statistical anomalies. And are you talking about admissions to hospital or number of people in hospital? How serious are the hospitalisations and what proportion of them are serious because of covid? Does it matter that the number in ventilation beds is 7.3% of what it was at the peak?

I think if we are getting worried about number of cases, we need to look at the context. There is definitely a policy, presumably deliberate, among certain sectors of society (professional who ought to know better included) who choose to pretend they haven't noticed the drop in seriousness of the disease.

One aspect to consider is that if covid had no effect whatsover on health, we would still expect about 6,500 hospitalisations with it in a week. This is based on 5% of the population having it (Coronavirus infection survey) and approx 130k admissions to hospital each week (can be extrapolated from the England figures from Statista). We actually had 13,379 admissions with covid, so that's half of them ruled out purely on law of averages.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...aviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/18march2022
https://www.statista.com/statistics...ptember 2019,the highest number of admissions.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

My kids were sent home from school today, too many teachers with Covid

Cases are rising rapidly and hospitalisations in some areas of the UK they're the highest they've been since pandemic began.

Just the end free testing, surveillance studies and relax any remaining public health measures.

In Scotland they are the highest, but they have a completely different set of rules.

Oliver Barnes
@mroliverbarnes
·
Mar 17
��NEW�� The 'with' vs 'for' question re: Covid hospital admissions is more important than ever with BA.2 spreading so rapidly

Of the 10,097 Covid patients in English hospitals on March 15, an astonishing 5,622 (56%) were NOT being treated primarily for Covid, per new NHS data

I am not sure removing free tests is a good idea, certainly not for some groups - but I dont think having a free test free for all is also the way to go, the cost is massive.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Happy 2 year anniversary of 3 weeks to flattern to curve x

 

[beorhthelm]

In Scotland they are the highest, but they have a completely different set of rules.

Oliver Barnes
@mroliverbarnes
·
Mar 17
��NEW�� The 'with' vs 'for' question re: Covid hospital admissions is more important than ever with BA.2 spreading so rapidly

Of the 10,097 Covid patients in English hospitals on March 15, an astonishing 5,622 (56%) were NOT being treated primarily for Covid, per new NHS data

I am not sure removing free tests is a good idea, certainly not for some groups - but I dont think having a free test free for all is also the way to go, the cost is massive.

we've gone from inflating numbers to underreporting in a month, doesnt really help confidence. hospital numbers should be reporting only those treated for symptoms, and broken down for severity. gives a realistic scale of problem. testing should probably have been phased out to June, with quota number free. its been horrendous cost for millions to check everyday "just in case".

 

[Poojah]

Happy 2 year anniversary of 3 weeks to flattern to curve x

"I give it 2 months, max. I've bought just enough toilet paper and frozen food to see us through".

 

[darkwolf666]

Happy 2 year anniversary of 3 weeks to flattern to curve x

Yep, my wife has now spent 3 birthdays keeping away from people!

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Yep, my wife has now spent 3 birthdays keeping away from people!

Best type of birthday

 

[vegster]

Well after 2 years of dodging Covid Mrs V and I both caught it this week. We were both still wearing masks for a lot of the time despite most people not bothering. Mrs V was not even going to report her case as she though it was not worth the effort but did after I persuaded her to go by the book.

But, how many cases are now going unreported thanks to the vagaries of Government reporting and the increasing difficulty of obtaining Lateral Flow Tests ? My daughter who works in the NHS told me that they hade stopped issuing them to staff a month back? It's almost like the Governnent are suppressing the actual figures by making it harder to confirm a case.

Hilarious statement from Health Secretary Sajid Javid last week.... " We expect infection rates to rise because we have lifted virtually all our restrictions " ! So, combine this with dwindling supplies of testing kits and Johnson has finally got his " Herd Immunity " plan through albeit 2 years late.

 

[beorhthelm]

But, how many cases are now going unreported thanks to the vagaries of Government reporting and the increasing difficulty of obtaining Lateral Flow Tests ? My daughter who works in the NHS told me that they hade stopped issuing them to staff a month back? It's almost like the Governnent are suppressing the actual figures by making it harder to confirm a case.

well there's no shortages of LFT, and education are still dishing them out like sweeties. hope you'll manage though with the virus, now become no more severe than a common cold. from the playground there is a cold bug going round thats hitting the kids (and consequently adults) worse than dose of covid did last month.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Top story on BBC news site currently

'UK Covid infections climb by a million in a week'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60872687

 

[vegster]

well there's no shortages of LFT, and education are still dishing them out like sweeties. hope you'll manage though with the virus, now become no more severe than a common cold. from the playground there is a cold bug going round thats hitting the kids (and consequently adults) worse than dose of covid did last month.

Just seen on a local Worthing FB page that Boots the Chemist are now charging for Lateral Flow test kits. So, a major disincentive if you are doing a poorly paid job with no sick pay, pay for your test kit then lose your meagre salary when isolating ....I wonder what will happen ?