Chat about Novel Coronavirus - 2019-nCoV - COVID-19

I know of a fair few as well.

I think back to the first lockdown and how diligent I was with alcohol gel, washing hands, door handles until my cracked hands kept splitting. Same with most people I knew.

Pretty sure people have got really lax with all this. Don't hear much of a push of the basics, like hand washing, appropriate social distancing etc.

I prefer shopping in a smaller M&S at the moment, not because I'm a snob, but because they have someone outside who monitors numbers inside the shop very carefully, and also wipes down the handles of baskets and trolleys before they are used.

Yes! Especially lots of teens > 20-something children. Very different to March/April where I (and partner) got mild doses but knew no-one else who had got it.

Are false negatives a problem, generally?

anecdotally, quite a lot of people I know have had or have Covid at the moment, anyone else finding that?

Not really. Only one person I know who's had Covid recently and that was Niece #1. However, she's only 11 so apart from a slightly tickly throat for a couple of days she barely noticed it, and has now tested negative. Mind you, out here in the Fens' famous Fens the rates are still pretty low, at least compared to The Smoke.

how many of them have kids of school going age?

It’s only a matter of time if you put yourself in, or your work or commitments force you into, situations in which you could contract it.

A friend of mine was talking about this surge being ‘inevitable’ and it all being a matter of time. This language masks or promotes actions that lead to transmission.

Be vigilant and it’s unlikely you will contract or transmit it.

anecdotally, quite a lot of people I know have had or have Covid at the moment, anyone else finding that?

Yes, definitely. It feels closer to me at the moment, but I presume it's no worse than in the spring, there's just better testing now.

A lot of the people we know with it now have school age kids...

Yes. This time around I know a lot more people personally who have had a positive test (4 in the last two weeks vs 0 during first wave). Although half of it is probably because it's much easier to get a test this time - I'm pretty certain I had it in March but didn't get a test because they were telling people with mild symptoms to stay home so don't know for sure.

It felt like this a month or so ago in Manchester. I think the accessibility of testing this time around makes it more apparent, no one* was ever really quite sure whether they had it back in spring, lots of suspected cases though.

*who didn’t end up in hospital