Covid-19 discussion thread

[Lencoboy]

If it is to become enforceable in law, it will have to be approved and ratified by Parliament first; the first opportunity for that to happen is tomorrow.

In other news: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-59450988

Blimey PM. I was just about to mention that on here but you beat me to it!

Good on you though.

[Carys]

Beat me to it also ! LOL

[Lencoboy]

According to the BBC News website, a third case of Omicron has been detected in England (in central London), BUT...........................................
.................................................. .....................the affected person has since left the UK, so in effect, no longer counts as an 'active' case within our shores.

Said case was also reported to be linked to SA.

Meanwhile, on a more positive note, dashboard cases (counting all 4 UK nations) have decreased again today.

37k today vs 39k yesterday (Saturday) and vs 40k last Sunday (21st Nov).

Deaths also are down on last Sunday, despite the fact that they're always lower on Sundays anyway.

The ZOE cases have now levelled off at around 80k for the past 2-3 days, plus very oddly still not a dickie bird just yet from Mr Spector and Co about Omicron.

[pulisa]

What is there actually left to say though? Nobody knows yet.

[Pamplemousse]

That's pretty much it, P. All we can do now is watch and wait and see what the researchers say about this new variant - and until then, wear a face covering where appropriate and keep your distance from others where possible. I'm going to get some more FFP2 masks for when I go shopping or on public transport as I know the idiot quotient will be high.

[pulisa]

Me too, PM. Maybe there should also be some advice re how to wear a mask correctly too? Too many chin diapers for my liking.

Ban "bought" exemptions too.

[Catkins]

I went to the supermarket this morning and yesterday's announcement doesn't seem to have made any difference to the level of mask wearing.

[Lencoboy]

Whilst I don't in any way intend to be a stirrer concerning this current situation, I'm surprised Phil hasn't yet piped up over the 6 Omicron cases now detected in Scotland.

On another more positive note, no Omicron-related Covid deaths have been reported anywhere in the world so far, despite the variant actually believed to have been around for about 3 weeks at the very most (in SA), and mostly affecting zero and single-jabbed persons so far.

[Lencoboy]

I'm mega surprised Tim Spector and Co still haven't uploaded any articles to the ZOE site about Omicron.

Although the overall cases have gone back up to 42k today (in part due to Wales playing catch-up), it's still less than last Monday's cases of 44k (and in all 4 UK nations). Also, deaths and hospitalisations are still lower than last week.

[Lencoboy]

I'm mega surprised Tim Spector and Co still haven't uploaded any articles to the ZOE site about Omicron.

Although the overall cases have gone back up to 42k today (in part due to Wales playing catch-up), it's still less than last Monday's cases of 44k (and in all 4 UK nations). Also, deaths and hospitalisations are still lower than last week.

BTW, I'm not in any way accusing the team at ZOE of burying their heads in the sand over Omicron, just miffed that they're still yet to even mention it.

Nevertheless, I'm dead impressed with all the speedy responses to the variant so far, including our own genomic sequencing, and not forgetting the efforts of the experts in SA itself so far.

A far cry from Delta, which reportedly originated in November last year, but it took about 6 months for the world to fully wake up to it!