wuhan - coronavirus

[Faith-manor]

11 hours ago, KSera said:

I think that is happening, but I think as many or more are happening the other direction—people test positive at home and that’s all the testing they do. I don’t know if I would go seek out a PCR if I was positive at home and had symptoms. If I was + on RAT and asymptomatic, I probably would. But positive with symptoms I would assume I had it, though I would see if there was a way to me to report results to the health dept. 

I would PCR test if I could get it simply because if I had it, I would want it to be in my medical records for the future, and it helps with data collection and analysis on the virus. From the standpoint of medical insurance, if I developed long covid, I would not be eligible for treatment being paid for without documentation of having the virus, and the home test would not meet that requirement.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

15 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

 

I think I’d really like to hear just one of them admit that they messed up.  Somehow I’d have more respect for that.

Agreed. 

They went with let 'er rip when Omicron was just new and unknown, but here.

They went with let 'er rip when a large proportion of vulnerable and front-line people still weren't eligible for boosters.

They went with let 'er rip when much of the population had waning coverage from the original vax course.

They went with let 'er rip just at a time when people gather and travel.

 

Just admit that the timing was poor. I get that we can't lockdown and lockout forever. I do actually understand that. But the timing. Goodness.

 

 

[Ausmumof3]

12,226 cases in NSW and 1 death. 746 hospitalised. 63 in ICU.

5,137 cases in VIC. 13 deaths. 395 hospitalised.

[Ausmumof3]

Dec 28 was the highest worldwide cases so far by worldometer data 1,278,291. To some degree that’s likely influenced by not testing/reporting around Christmas. Rolling average is at 947,760.

However deaths are still trending downward at around 6000 a day for the 7 day average.

[Melissa in Australia]

Some possably good news https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-29/covid-19-omicron-variant-may-protect-against-delta/100730746

[chocolate-chip chooky]

1 hour ago, Ausmumof3 said:

12,226 cases in NSW and 1 death. 746 hospitalised. 63 in ICU.

5,137 cases in VIC. 13 deaths. 395 hospitalised.

I'm oscillating between feeling terrified and feeling resigned. 😕

[Ausmumof3]

Forum seems to be swallowing my posts annoyingly.  Hopefully this one will work.

 

[Ausmumof3]

There is also another mouse studying showing reduced severity from omicron.  I think combined with the anecdotal info from South Africa and recent evidence I’m feeling overall more hopeful even with the crazy case numbers.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

@Ausmumof3

Thank you for keeping us all updated. I really appreciate it 🌻

[Ausmumof3]

2,222 cases for QLD and 92 in TAS.

[Ausmumof3]

A two year old covid positive child just died in SA. Again cause of death is not yet determined.

😞 

[Ausmumof3]

I’m seeing some reports of covid positive young kids with croup?  I guess it’s hard to know whether it’s just a separate cause for croup and the covid positive is incidental but if anyone sees more please let me know.  The reports on kids in hospital are worrying me.  I think it’s just a feature of the huge number of cases but ugh 🙁

[Ausmumof3]

for Australians - re close contacts 

“South Australian Premier Steven Marshall confirmed the nation's leaders had agreed to the new definition, whereby a close contact will now be classified as someone who has spent four hours or more with a confirmed case in a household or household-like setting.

Those contacts would only be required to quarantine for seven days.”

And 

Mr Morrison says:

"And the definition for a close contact is as follows: similar to what I said to you yesterday — except in exceptional circumstances, a close contact is a household contact, or household like, of a confirmed case only."

"A household contact is someone who lives with a case or has spent more than four hours with them in our house, accommodation or care facility setting.

"So, you are only a close contact if you are, effectively, living with someone or have been in an accommodation setting with someone for more than four hours with someone who has actually got COVID.

"It is with someone specifically who has COVID.

"Now, a confirmed case would isolate thought seven days from the date.

"So, someone who actually has COVID, from the date that they would took the test, they would have to isolate for seven days and have a negative rapid test, a rapid antigen test, on day six, prior to being able to leave isolation after seven days.

"A closer contact that is symptomatic must have a PCR test, still.

"So, if you are symptomatic, and that goes for anyone who is symptomatic, by the way, if you are symptomatic, then the right test is a PCR test."

 

[Ausmumof3]

This is ridiculous.

We have a more infectious variant and we’re treating it as if it’s less infectious.

There is absolutely no point isolating close contacts in this context at all because it will do nothing to slow things down.  They may as well drop isolation requirements altogether. 
 

[Melissa Louise]

19 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

This is ridiculous.

We have a more infectious variant and we’re treating it as if it’s less infectious.

There is absolutely no point isolating close contacts in this context at all because it will do nothing to slow things down.  They may as well drop isolation requirements altogether. 
 

It's ridiculous. 

[Melissa in Australia]

26 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

This is ridiculous.

We have a more infectious variant and we’re treating it as if it’s less infectious.

There is absolutely no point isolating close contacts in this context at all because it will do nothing to slow things down.  They may as well drop isolation requirements altogether. 
 

Exactly . It is plan stupid.

this is the point that the government is losing the trust of the people in a big way.

Edited December 30, 2021 by Melissa in Australia

[bookbard]

So absurd. I feel like they have one thing only in their mind 'no lockdown' and they're doing anything they can - including 'you lot can work while sick' - to ensure that happens. 

Trying to talk to my other half about this is difficult, because the only info he gets is the nightly news and facebook comments (which tend to be 'it's just a cold'). He's heard of long covid - but doesn't know if it's real. The sudden spike of large numbers has made his disbelief in the whole situation even stronger. It seems unbelievable - how can I believe it?

However, I did reiterate today that I wanted to get the kids vaxxed, and he didn't demur, so that's progress. Haven't mentioned that appt is already booked. 

[chocolate-chip chooky]

If we thought they might backtrack, we are all sorely mistaken. 

And I'm so over hearing about the 'roadmap'. Good grief. You change your itinerary and your route when conditions change. 

I'm scared for the weeks/months ahead. 

[Rosie_0801]

3 hours ago, chocolate-chip chooky said:

If we thought they might backtrack, we are all sorely mistaken. 

And I'm so over hearing about the 'roadmap'. Good grief. You change your itinerary and your route when conditions change. 

I'm scared for the weeks/months ahead. 

Roadmap my foot. It's like driving in a flood and most of us know better than to do that.

[Melissa in Australia]

6 minutes ago, Rosie_0801 said:

Roadmap my foot. It's like driving in a flood and most of us know better than to do that.

good descriptor

[Ausmumof3]

Hospitalisations tracking similar to Delta even with much higher case numbers (so less severe). Higher in kids but unclear whether that’s due to kids hospitalised for covid or incidental 

[TCB]

3 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Hospitalisations tracking similar to Delta even with much higher case numbers (so less severe). Higher in kids but unclear whether that’s due to kids hospitalised for covid or incidental 

Really pleased if Omicron is less severe because I don’t know what we would do if it wasn’t. There are no beds in many hospitals right now so even if there are only as many as the delta surge, despite way more cases, it will be extremely difficult. And the Delta surge hospitalizations were in summer when occupancy is a lot lower from other things.

[ktgrok]

2 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Hospitalisations tracking similar to Delta even with much higher case numbers (so less severe). Higher in kids but unclear whether that’s due to kids hospitalised for covid or incidental 

Was coming to post our graph - funny how I'm not seeing headlines about breaking records, etc like i did last year. No one is really even talking about it, which is scary given that we just started spiking - it likely is going to get worse before it gets better. Our rates tripled in a week!

[Acadie]

NYT reporting FDA will expand booster eligibility to 12-15s next week.

Jerks.

Reactive measures too little, too late yet again. 

Dd15 still quarantined and I heard this morning two more friends' 15 year-olds tested positive, in addition to the dozens of other families we already know with Covid positive 12-15s. 

ETA: I'm happy they're finally doing the right thing. It's just so frustrating because I'd been trying to get dd boosted for a month before she got sick. 

 

 

Edited December 30, 2021 by Acadie

[AmandaVT]

3 hours ago, ktgrok said:

Was coming to post our graph - funny how I'm not seeing headlines about breaking records, etc like i did last year. No one is really even talking about it, which is scary given that we just started spiking - it likely is going to get worse before it gets better. Our rates tripled in a week!

It's really striking how the Omicron spikes look the same everywhere - also scary. I hope it's less severe like they're starting to think. Really not looking forward to going back to school in a few days. I feel like VT has thrown in the towel. 

[Pawz4me]

18,571 cases reported in North Carolina today.

That's about 60 percent more than our previous highest day (11,518), which was in January.

Positivity rate of 22 percent.

According to this article we also set a record of 4,171 people visiting ERs for Covid like illness. I had no idea that was a statistic being tracked. Definitely not good news for the health care system, regardless of whether most of those people have Covid, the flu, or some other viral illness.

 

[Ausmumof3]

NSW 21151 6 deaths. 14.25pc positive.

Vic 5,919 7 deaths 

This is going to have to be way more mild not to cause major issues.

[bookbard]

1 minute ago, Ausmumof3 said:

NSW 21151 6 deaths. 14.25pc positive.

Vic 5,919 7 deaths 

This is going to have to be way more mild not to cause major issues.

And we thought that 25,000 cases by the end of January was scary. It's nearly that now (probably is that, considering most of the testing places are closed till after NY holiday). What will it look like in a month? 

[Ausmumof3]

26 minutes ago, bookbard said:

And we thought that 25,000 cases by the end of January was scary. It's nearly that now (probably is that, considering most of the testing places are closed till after NY holiday). What will it look like in a month? 

It’s hard to know to be honest.  South Africa seem to have peaked very rapidly and be on the way back down.  I’m sort of hoping the same happens here to be honest and we can get a handle on things.  I suspect NYE will generate a spike and then hopefully a drop off. The hospitalisations coming in from the current case numbers are probably going to be difficult.

[Ausmumof3]

SA apparently aren’t listening to the federal guidance on close contacts. We’re continuing as we were for now.

[bookbard]

38 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

It’s hard to know to be honest.  South Africa seem to have peaked very rapidly and be on the way back down.  I’m sort of hoping the same happens here to be honest and we can get a handle on things.  

Oh, I hope that happens! School starts Feb 1st . . . 

[Melissa Louise]

Just read that AU has the fastest growing Covid outbreak. In a week, I went from knowing no-one with Covid to knowing lots of people with Covid! Thankfully, they have all been ok so far. 

[wathe]

We are doing poorly here.

13807 cases in the province today, up from 5970 a week ago.  And today's number is certainly a vast undercount.  Access to testing is poor, and tens of thousands of tests are waiting in the queue to be processed.  Science table co-chair estimates that the true number is at least 5-8 times what's reported.

The province announced a strategy shift today:

PCR tests will be restricted to select high-risk groups (including hospital workers, hospitalized people, long-term care residents and workers, select high-risk communities and individuals)

RATS are almost impossible to find.

Isolation for vaccinated covid positive people has been cut to 5 days.

Contact tracing is DIY.  Public health is completely overwhelmed.

Hospitalizations have more than doubled in the past week.  

We are in for a rough couple of months.

ETA:  severely restricting testing will make our numbers look good tho' 🙄.  Perhaps that's the plan.......

 

Edited December 31, 2021 by wathe

[Melissa Louise]

@wathe sounds v similar to here. I'm sorry you have yet another bad time coming up 🙁

[Ausmumof3]

21 minutes ago, Melissa Louise said:

Just read that AU has the fastest growing Covid outbreak. In a week, I went from knowing no-one with Covid to knowing lots of people with Covid! Thankfully, they have all been ok so far. 

Amazing how when you go from listening to health advice to completely ignoring it things go to pot 🙄 we had it so good and we threw it away.

[Ausmumof3]

So in SA it’s a bit of a debacle (aside from the over 2000 cases and two deaths).  Officially we’ve agreed to go along with the National line of four hours close contacts but the health lady has been on the radio saying it’s still fifteen minutes.  The premier tried to talk his way around it at the press conference but it seems like they are not on the same page. She has been noticeably absent from press conferences this week.

[melmichigan]

5 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

It’s hard to know to be honest.  South Africa seem to have peaked very rapidly and be on the way back down.  I’m sort of hoping the same happens here to be honest and we can get a handle on things.  I suspect NYE will generate a spike and then hopefully a drop off. The hospitalisations coming in from the current case numbers are probably going to be difficult.

I have to wonder.  I keep hearing from people in SA online saying the majority of people aren't testing, that it's too expensive.

[TexasProud]

Just wow. 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/30/health/new-zealand-covid-facility-transmission/index.html

[Laura Corin]

21 minutes ago, TexasProud said:

Just wow. 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/30/health/new-zealand-covid-facility-transmission/index.html

And that was Delta.

[Canadianmumof5]

9 hours ago, wathe said:

We are doing poorly here.

13807 cases in the province today, up from 5970 a week ago.  And today's number is certainly a vast undercount.  Access to testing is poor, and tens of thousands of tests are waiting in the queue to be processed.  Science table co-chair estimates that the true number is at least 5-8 times what's reported.

The province announced a strategy shift today:

PCR tests will be restricted to select high-risk groups (including hospital workers, hospitalized people, long-term care residents and workers, select high-risk communities and individuals)

RATS are almost impossible to find.

Isolation for vaccinated covid positive people has been cut to 5 days.

Contact tracing is DIY.  Public health is completely overwhelmed.

Hospitalizations have more than doubled in the past week.  

We are in for a rough couple of months.

ETA:  severely restricting testing will make our numbers look good tho' 🙄.  Perhaps that's the plan.......

 

Of course that is the plan.  Our province just became Florida 2.0

I am so angry rn and feel gutted for the teachers and HCWs - yesterday’s announcement was a slap in the face to them.  I voted for this govt but for the first time in my life, they wont get my vote in June 2022.  I am hanging on to the hope that our regional health leaders can do something…..anything to make things safer for the communities they serve.
Keeping my under 12 kids home until they are double-vaxxed and this $hitshow with the schools gets settled.  
 

[wathe]

1 hour ago, Canadianmumof5 said:

Of course that is the plan.  Our province just became Florida 2.0

I am so angry rn and feel gutted for the teachers and HCWs - yesterday’s announcement was a slap in the face to them.  I voted for this govt but for the first time in my life, they wont get my vote in June 2022.  I am hanging on to the hope that our regional health leaders can do something…..anything to make things safer for the communities they serve.
Keeping my under 12 kids home until they are double-vaxxed and this $hitshow with the schools gets settled.  
 

It's truly become the every-man-for-himself stage of the pandemic.

My secret dream its for Lawrence Loh to boldly stick it to the government and do the right thing with his section 22 powers, like he did in April.  Or any other Medical Officer of Health - just one of them has to take the step and the rest will copy.  L.Loh has shown he has the nerve to actually do it.  My MOH won't, that's for sure. 🐔,

At the risk of being too political, I think that this is actually the goverment's strategy - under -govern, and let the PHU's do the dirty work and be the "bad guys".  They did the very same thing with mask mandates and the response to the spring wave.  L. Loh might be tired of by now.  I hope not.

[wathe]

I realize my above post might be. a bit opaque to non-locals. 

We have a conservative government.  Who believe in small government.  Anything that looks anti-business or bad for the economy is bad for their base.  Such as public health measures. It's the same story all over the world - I don't think this is particularly political statement, but rather a statement of fact.

Lawrence Loh is medical officer of health for a region that was very hard hit by early waves (lots of essential workers, racialized population, lots of multi-generational families in crowded conditions, high social deprivation index).  He is unapologetic about using his powers to mandate the public health measures that are necessary to protect his region.  Often in the face of the province announcing something different (and less effective).  He's done this several times.  (famously, he shut down a major Amazon warehouse). And he's a bellwether - once he acts, many other PHU's follow, and then the province falls in line.  But nobody else seems to have the nerve to act first. 

We are at a classic Lawrence Loh moment right now in our province.  Will he or won't he?

[SHP]

8 minutes ago, wathe said:

I realize my above post might be. a bit opaque to non-locals. 

We have a conservative government.  Who believe in small government.  Anything that looks anti-business or bad for the economy is bad for their base.  Such as public health measures. It's the same story all over the world - I don't think this is particularly political statement, but rather a statement of fact.

Lawrence Loh is medical officer of health for a region that was very hard hit by early waves (lots of essential workers, racialized population, lots of multi-generational families in crowded conditions, high social deprivation index).  He is unapologetic about using his powers to mandate the public health measures that are necessary to protect his region.  Often in the face of the province announcing something different (and less effective).  He's done this several times.  (famously, he shut down a major Amazon warehouse). And he's a bellwether - once he acts, many other PHU's follow, and then the province falls in line.  But nobody else seems to have the nerve to act first. 

We are at a classic Lawrence Loh moment right now in our province.  Will he or won't he?

I am a bit jealous that you had anyone with the gonads to do anything. 

[Canadianmumof5]

1 hour ago, wathe said:

I realize my above post might be. a bit opaque to non-locals. 

We have a conservative government.  Who believe in small government.  Anything that looks anti-business or bad for the economy is bad for their base.  Such as public health measures. It's the same story all over the world - I don't think this is particularly political statement, but rather a statement of fact.

Lawrence Loh is medical officer of health for a region that was very hard hit by early waves (lots of essential workers, racialized population, lots of multi-generational families in crowded conditions, high social deprivation index).  He is unapologetic about using his powers to mandate the public health measures that are necessary to protect his region.  Often in the face of the province announcing something different (and less effective).  He's done this several times.  (famously, he shut down a major Amazon warehouse). And he's a bellwether - once he acts, many other PHU's follow, and then the province falls in line.  But nobody else seems to have the nerve to act first. 

We are at a classic Lawrence Loh moment right now in our province.  Will he or won't he?

I live in Loh’s region and I really REALLY hope he does the right thing here.  For the first time, I am jealous of Quebec.

[Canadianmumof5]

Ya know what is shocking to me - when a medical officer of health tells all of us that we are in for a “very rough 6-8 weeks of omicron” but then tells everyone schools must re-open to protect the economy, we can’t test anymore or even report on case #s, ICU rates are stable, everyone who tests positive can go back to work/school after 5 days (thanks CDC even though you have zero to do with Canada) and finally, that they will try and get N95s to teachers in the next few weeks and 3-ply cloth masks for all the kids!  
 

Oh and kids sports are all still a go….

 

We are sacrificing these kids for our economy now.  #hopeless

[WildflowerMom]

If this has been asked, I’m sorry— coming down with migraine. 

nephew21 has Covid and is recovering except that for the past three days he has had a rash, head to toes.  Itching.  Benadryl helps the itch, but after three days, rash is still there.  Can he do something else besides Benadryl? 

[Ausmumof3]

Ukhsa latest report is out - seeming more settled that severity is well down - this thread is a summary of the info in the report. Estimate is 60-70pc less severe and post booster vaccines are about 88pc effective at preventing severe disease.

[Ausmumof3]

Also I think vaccine effectiveness at two doses against severe disease is still at around 72 pc which is encouraging for us here in Aus.

[TechWife]

On 12/26/2021 at 5:07 PM, bookbard said:

Exciting research on a universal booster. As Omicron COVID cases continue to surge, the race is on to find a variant-proof vaccine - ABC News 

Makes me think about all the possibilities for other illnesses, from diabetes to cancer. It is just amazing the amount and quality of medical research over the last few years. 

Yes, and researchers have made huge strides with an mRNA HIV vaccination in recent months as well. 

[TechWife]

23 hours ago, Pawz4me said:

18,571 cases reported in North Carolina today.

That's about 60 percent more than our previous highest day (11,518), which was in January.

Positivity rate of 22 percent.

According to this article we also set a record of 4,171 people visiting ERs for Covid like illness. I had no idea that was a statistic being tracked. Definitely not good news for the health care system, regardless of whether most of those people have Covid, the flu, or some other viral illness.

 

This came out as well - 

“Roughly 400 Duke employees have tested positive for the virus over the last week, though not all of them clinical staff. But with 150 of them testing COVID-positive on Wednesday alone — the highest number for the pandemic — the hospital is scrambling to care for the crush of new patients. ‘People need to really move away from the idea that this is mild,’ said Dr. Cameron Wolfe, a Duke professor of infectious disease. ‘It’s not mild for us. We have to cancel surgeries. You can only defer a bypass surgery a few days before people run into trouble.’

Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article256940662.html#storylink=cpy