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

Lots of places on twitter are saying the same thing.

First time I’ve been back to London since March 12th.

Been here literally 5 mins and a pigeon just shat in my motorbike jacket.

Here’s to another 5 months of going nowhere near the place.

That's not a London pigeon way to say hi? ;)

Meanwhile in NI: Outbreaks popping up all over the place, and restrictions coming on indoor/outdoor meetings.

But not on pubs. OK... logic right there. Now only pubs that serve food are open here, so not all.

I don't get it, they want to re-open the schools, and it is not yet clear if pubs are the cause so maybe it really isn't pubs, but they aren't ramping up enforcement either. Maybe it's really not pubs over here (again, meat plants have had several outbreaks...) but I just don't see how you can keep everything open AND open schools.

Well, we have to wait and see. The school miniwestland is going to enforces masks and he's OK with wearing one, but am expecting The Ronas to be visiting us at some point once schools open again.

in

stop kidnapping pigeons you degenerate!

That’s where I’m going wrong.

*Update

Looks like the fix your bike scheme incorrectly gave out two vouchers to each applicant.

So they deleted all the vouchers and have now re-issued just one voucher per applicant.

Total balls up - going to try and use mine before they delete it again.

Wow. Do you have an online reference to that? I can’t find anything online to send to the bosses.

G/f’s friend got a positive and she was visiting her in Birmingham.

Fortunately I and her tested negative but odd when she have to quarantine for 14 days but not me.

You wouldn’t as a cat II contact.

Reinfection case confirmed

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3098551/hong-kongs-third-wave-losing-momentum-city

A 33-year-old man from Hong Kong was infected again 4½ months after he first caught the coronavirus

Covid-19 is likely to continue to circulate in the human population as in the case of other human coronaviruses, HKU researchers say

Based on a sample size of precisely one, I'm reserving judgment on that front.

It's nothing new. Immunity is not binary. A small proportion of people will always be able to get a disease twice (sometimes three times). Plenty of people get chickenpox more than once for example.

It it possible to get infection/fatality numbers on specific (postcode) locations? I'm sure someone posted a link a while back.

This goes down to pretty small areas but not quite individual postcodes
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=47574f7a6e454dc6a42c5f6912ed7076

cool. that's precise enough. cant seem to see a way to view cases over time. perhaps that isnt possible, but must be stored somewhere

You can see cases over time by local authorities here : https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/cases?areaType=ltla&areaName=Lewisham

cool, thanks

https://twitter.com/VirusesImmunity/status/1297890418168860674

What's the go with music gigs?

I had a gig booked that was set for April but was rescheduled to September, but they're surely not actually happening are they?

Don’t think so in the UK. They are here but they’re odd. Seated only. Social distancing. Went to one, spent most of the time socially distancing at the bar.

Yeah, I've not received any update either way for this thing. Can't imagine it going ahead but maybe in some weird way they'll let it happen.

This is the guidance that the government publishes for who has to isolate when returning from abroad and who does not.

Context is that I’m in Switzerland right now, which is exempt from isolating on return to the UK, but is expected to go on the list of non-exempt countries this weekend.

Question - I think the government guidance is open to interpretation.

It says “ You do not need to self-isolate if you’re travelling from an exempt country and have been in an exempt country for the last 14 days.“

Now, if we leave Switzerland whilst it is still exempt, and travel to Germany, which we anticipate will remain exempt, and then travel back to the UK, then I would say that we fulfil the criteria of having been in an exempt country for the past 14 days.

However, could the government consider that because we’ve been in a country within the last 14 days that lost its exempt status after we left, then we need to isolate?

I think no, as those who got back into the UK ahead of the ban on France didn’t have to isolate, but keen to hear opinions on this.

I guess it depends how much you trust the guidance in the first place? I'd quarantine for two weeks or get tested, just in case. But that's me. I'm sure some completely disregard all the quarantine advise regardless.

Don't try and interpret the guidance, if you want to do that have a look at the laws. I think the relevant one is The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (England) Regulations 2020 but it is amended which makes it muddy.

I think the current requirement is to fill out a Passenger Locator Form which includes "any other country or territory they have departed from or transited through in the period beginning with the 14th day before the date of their arrival in England" and if any of those aren't on the exempt list you have to self isolate.

Oddly enough I was reading the guidance the other day. I'm sure I read something saying if you leave the non-exempt country to an exempt one and then travel home you should isolate for the remaining days to take you up to 14 days since you left the non-exempt country.
So if you were to leave France* today, spend a week in Germany seeing the sights and generally having a nice holiday and come home you'd have to isolate for one week after returning to the UK.

The isolation period only applies from whenever the deadline is to leave the country. Leave before the deadline (generally seems to be 4am on Saturday) and no quarantine is required. So in your example of leaving Switzerland before the country becomes non-exempt (and Germany remained exempt) you would not need to quarantine.

The form jellybaby mentioned has to be completed within 48 hours prior to travelling back to the UK, not after getting home.

*I know you're not in France but for this example let's pretend you are as it's simpler.