SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)

Wibble said:
When my son had to fly from the US to Croatia in the middle of last year you had to have a test conducted in the last 72 hrs to get in to Croatia and maybe to transit through Germany. Given the flight time and the normal 2/3 day turnaround for tests at that time we had to pay US$200 for a 24hr express service or it was impossible to comply.
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I think my nephew has paid well over £1000 for all the tests for the two of them. Test before you leave (Vietnam is virtually Covid-free and they've had no restrictions on movement, even in the capital), then tests booked through an approved UK-provider on days 2 and 8 of your self-quarantine. He's also paid for the extra test on day 5, to get early release from quarantine - but even if that's negative, you still have to have the test on day 8!
 
golden_blunder said:
Man that’s shit
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It is but in the scheme of things we are very lucky.

We live where covid is almost eliminated and our jobs haven't been lost. He is still having a great time and his mate's folks have been brilliant, inviting him to stay at Christmas and holidays. He is now vaccinated and for all the frustrations we as a family are very privileged.
 
Wibble said:
It is but in the scheme of things we are very lucky.

We live where covid is almost eliminated and our jobs haven't been lost. He is still having a great time and his mate's folks have been brilliant, inviting him to stay at Christmas and holidays. He is now vaccinated and for all the frustrations we as a family are very privileged.
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The terminally ill guy thing sound awful. Bound to be many more similar stories. I’m glad you guys are coping ok with the enforced separation but the emotional toll of forcing families apart for so long is always glossed over when zero covid zealots are cheerleading about the Aus/NZ approach.
 
Over 250k daily cases with test positivity rate of nearly 17% here in India.

Does anyone want to extrapolate those to get the actual infected numbers for a population of 1.3bn? Because I don't have the heart to do so.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
The terminally ill guy thing sound awful. Bound to be many more similar stories. I’m glad you guys are coping ok with the enforced separation but the emotional toll of forcing families apart for so long is always glossed over when zero covid zealots are cheerleading about the Aus/NZ approach.
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Poor bloke went back to Ireland to see family and say goodbye to old friends and got stranded. Virtually bankrupted his family in Ireland and stressed out all concerned.

Thanks for the concern but apart from missing seeing someone you love so much, occasionally to the point of upset, we are also incredibly happy and grateful for how easily we have all been able to live through a pandemic. We are the priveledged few.
 
Boris has cancelled his visit to India. The situation in India is horrible & they should have been added to the red list already, but I guess he needs the trade deal sorted first.
 
They’ve opened up vaccine slots to 35-39 year olds in NI on first come, first served if it applies to anyone here. Got mine booked for tomorrow.
 
Wibble said:
It is but in the scheme of things we are very lucky.

We live where covid is almost eliminated and our jobs haven't been lost. He is still having a great time and his mate's folks have been brilliant, inviting him to stay at Christmas and holidays. He is now vaccinated and for all the frustrations we as a family are very privileged.
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I would have hoped the Aussie Govt would accept him being vaccinated and allow him to travel home without having to hotel quarantine?
 
Stack said:
I would have hoped the Aussie Govt would accept him being vaccinated and allow him to travel home without having to hotel quarantine?
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There is talk of allowing vaccinated Aussies to.travel later in the year if we can finally get our vaccination program going. However, there is likely still be a requirement to self-isolate/quarantine at home. His break is only 3 weeks long so it might not be worth it.

How is the NZ vaccination program going?
 
Wibble said:
There is talk of allowing vaccinated Aussies to.travel later in the year if we can finally get our vaccination program going. However, there is likely still be a requirement to self-isolate/quarantine at home. His break is only 3 weeks long so it might not be worth it.

How is the NZ vaccination program going?
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Fingers crossed the systems speed up and the young lad can get home soonish.

Vaccine program here is slow but then the majority of people arent too worried. I think we are even slower than you guys at present. We sit well down the list of urgency to supply the vaccines which is understandable. The current target is around July to have the general population vaccinated but that may change. Also there is a massive training program underway to get enough people trained and set up to deliver the vaccine. The Govt are taking about having it set up so people can walk up to vaccination centers and get it done that way.
The opposition are putting the pressure on to get things done faster, they are the ones who pushed hard for the travel bubble too. Personally I think we should have waited till the majority of the public was vaccinated before opening any bubbles, these new variants are likely to sneak through this travel bubble as far as Im concerned. Im expecting a couple more mini lockdowns before the end of the year, even with the best intentions in the world this virus and variants are really hard to control.
 
Like clockwork, cases see to be surging this week, where I work anyway. We've been relatively unscathed since it started but has a few cases already in the offices yesterday and this morning.
 
golden_blunder said:
Yup and everywhere else. Then we start again
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Isn't this Indian variant like the 4 thousandth+ variant of covid so far? That's just the ones that have been picked up by research. Don't quote the above as fact, I just remember seeing that figure a few days back. So it's a genuine question.
 
golden_blunder said:
Yup and everywhere else. Then we start again
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We have a new case in our quarantine setup where a border worker who had been fully vaccinated has caught covid, apparently from cleaning a high risk plane from India which is of concern.

Up until a month ago the majority of our covid cases caught at the border were from the USA or Britain. We had plenty of people returning home from India but not that many being found to have covid. Since this new variant emerged the majority of cases in the last month had been from India prompting the govt to suspend flights from there.
 
Dumbstar said:
Isn't this Indian variant like the 4 thousandth+ variant of covid so far? That's just the ones that have been picked up by research. Don't quote the above as fact, I just remember seeing that figure a few days back. So it's a genuine question.
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I don’t know is the honest answer but it’s escaping the vaccine so needs to be watched to see how strong it can be
 
Stack said:
We have a new case in our quarantine setup where a border worker who had been fully vaccinated has caught covid, apparently from cleaning a high risk plane from India which is of concern.

Up until a month ago the majority of our covid cases caught at the border were from the USA or Britain. We had plenty of people returning home from India but not that many being found to have covid. Since this new variant emerged the majority of cases in the last month had been from India prompting the govt to suspend flights from there.
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Where are you from?
 
acnumber9 said:
They’ve opened up vaccine slots to 35-39 year olds in NI on first come, first served if it applies to anyone here. Got mine booked for tomorrow.
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Same, booked yesterday, in and done within an hour this morning. Fairly long lines but managed very efficiently.
 
Dumbstar said:
Isn't this Indian variant like the 4 thousandth+ variant of covid so far? That's just the ones that have been picked up by research. Don't quote the above as fact, I just remember seeing that figure a few days back. So it's a genuine question.
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Yeah, I think it’s the fact that the vaccine isn’t effective against it and (possibly) that it’s more deadly.
I do kinda worry that the mutations will become more and more resistant and more and more deadly as time goes on, meaning that this is the beginning of the end for the human race.
 
Sparky Rhiwabon said:
Yeah, I think it’s the fact that the vaccine isn’t effective against it and (possibly) that it’s more deadly.
I do kinda worry that the mutations will become more and more resistant and more and more deadly as time goes on, meaning that this is the beginning of the end for the human race.
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They will tweak the vaccines; which will mean more will die but they’ll get there. In the meantime maybe think about cutting travel to hotspots
 
lynchie said:
Woah, what now? It's not "escaping the vaccine" as far as we can tell so far.

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Hmmm I thought I read a report that said that 2 previously fully vaccinated had caught the India virus. Prepared to be wrong, in fact I’d welcome it!
 


More people need to read articles like these. We still haven’t close to peaked globally.
 
prateik said:
Please tell me IHME are bs merchants .. this cant be right..

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It's possible given that the testing capacity will be significantly inadequate. I'm not sure how their model works - one approach is to look at excess deaths, and then backsolve the number of cases based on 'expected' mortality rates. The key problem with this approach is the 'expected' mortality rate is likely to increase as medical capacity reduces. Overall though, it's safe to assume the cases reported are materially below the actual cases during a wave.
 
prateik said:
Please tell me IHME are bs merchants .. this cant be right..
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We're at a test positivity rate of nearly 20% and vaccine coverage is really low. Therefore I don't think those numbers are really outlandish.

Traub said:
It's possible given that the testing capacity will be significantly inadequate. I'm not sure how their model works - one approach is to look at excess deaths, and then backsolve the number of cases based on 'expected' mortality rates. The key problem with this approach is the 'expected' mortality rate is likely to increase as medical capacity reduces. Overall though, it's safe to assume the cases reported are materially below the actual cases during a wave.
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Here in India there's additionally an extreme stigma to test positive. Vast majority of the infected people are not being tested. People are even actively avoiding even visiting a doctor with mild/moderate symptoms for fear of being asked to test.
 
lynchie said:
Apparently cremating more people than are dying.
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There's queues of ambulances with bodies waiting for their turn at crematoriums and graveyards in multiple cities. Seen a report where they have freshly walled up a crematorium to hide the stacks of bodies awaiting cremation.
 
MDFC Manager said:
There's queues of ambulances with bodies waiting for their turn at crematoriums and graveyards in multiple cities. Seen a report where they have freshly walled up a crematorium to hide the stacks of bodies awaiting cremation.
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Jesus. Stay safe lads
 
The people of India are suffering like hell with this new variant. Our Government are making people returning to the UK if they hold a UK or Irish(!) passport to pay to quarantined in an Hotel from Friday. First off, why from Friday what not from last Monday? Second, what if people cannot afford it, will they be refused entrance? It is a disaster waiting to happe. Third wave guaranteed for mid-May early June with no vaccine protection for the mutation.
 
Offsideagain said:
The people of India are suffering like hell with this new variant. Our Government are making people returning to the UK if they hold a UK or Irish(!) passport to pay to quarantined in an Hotel from Friday. First off, why from Friday what not from last Monday? Second, what if people cannot afford it, will they be refused entrance? It is a disaster waiting to happe. Third wave guaranteed for mid-May early June with no vaccine protection for the mutation.
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With the massive amount of infections, I think we'll soon have multiple new variants. Already reading about a triple mutated Indian variant.
 
How many confirmed variants are there now?

The original Chinese virus, the South African variant, Brazilian variant, UK variant and now an Indian variant?

Is this mutating more quickly than other viruses?
 
stevoc said:
How many confirmed variants are there now?

The original Chinese virus, the South African variant, Brazilian variant, UK variant and now an Indian variant?

Is this mutating more quickly than other viruses?
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The variants are obviously a concern, but compared to some viruses like influenza it is actually mutating relatively slowly. We will obviously have to keep up with them by adjusting the vaccines over the years as it keeps on evolving though.

My understanding is that the three common strains at the moment (UK, SA and Brazil) have some major mutations in common which could suggest there is an evolutionary path which is being followed.
 
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