Corona Virus

[Poppy]

[JennyMorgan]

Southern Ireland and Italy have now gone into lock-down, schools and tourist attractions being closed. The US is closing its boarders to Europe. How long before the UK follows their example?  Perhaps we should have taken the lead on these actions.

[marshman]

I am not a doctor or an expert on infectious diseases - I am very happy to leave the decisions to those who know better than I do.

I doubt whether the "experts" in either the US or Ireland are necessarily any better or wiser than those in this country. I suspect we will follow but willing to let them decide the timing.

[vanessan]

They’ll be damned if they do and damned if they don’t, and that applies to any decisions now and into the future. We mere mortals can only follow the advice given and just hope the ‘experts’ have got it right. Only problem is there seems to be an awful lot of experts! 

[grendel]

from the looks of todays news some schools may close as soon as next week (20 march) and extend the easter holiday period, by issuing home learning packs to the children, meaning the schools would be closed for a month

[ExSurveyor]

The government has said there are no plans for mass closure of schools yet,

The knock on effect would hinder vital services as many may be parents.

The child care would move to grandparents, some of whom are over 60 and caring for their own parent.

My eldest granddaughter is off with a Strep throat and cold. Matron has her in one half of the house and her 95 year old mother in the other. fortunately she has done a lot of barrier nursing and knows how to deal with it. Me, I have self isolated to Norfolk for a long weekend

[Polly]

I think they may extend the Easter Break to create a one month closure, but I do not see how it helps. 
On the whole I do think the government is treading a fine line and doing OK. 
Our daughter has called off travelling into London daily now and is WFH. That is a big relief as she is asthmatic.   

[YnysMon]

My boss has suggested that I work from home as much as possible, as I’ve been ‘bought-out’ of my normal job, and it doesn’t matter so much if I’m not in the office.

Mind you, yesterday I had to attend an all day presentation featuring a couple of Dutch guys who had flow in the day before to give us a demo of an IT system. Whoever did the room booking crammed us into a room designed for half the number. We were like sardines. Just what you need when a virus scare is ramping up!

Sigh.

[YnysMon]

Oh, and to make things worse, it was one of those rooms without an opening window but with two air-conditioning units on one wall. They switched on for half an hour or so until we were freezing, then switched themselves off, so the room got warmer and warmer until we were almost at the boiling point...and repeat.

Very healthy environment! (Not!)

[Paul]

3 hours ago, grendel said:

from the looks of todays news some schools may close as soon as next week (20 march) and extend the easter holiday period, by issuing home learning packs to the children, meaning the schools would be closed for a month

Whilst sitting in the Dentist Sky News were debating the outcome of the Cobra meeting including a statement for Scotland from Wee Jimmy Krankie which confirmed their were no immediate plans to close schools because of the disruption this would cause to the work force, including those in the health service and that it might lead to less regulated gatherings of young people outside of school. She went on to say that if schools were to close it would be a long term closure, there is no merit in closing schools for a period of weeks but that they would be unlikely to reopen until the pandemic is in decline, which is not expected until the summer months. 

The actions now be taken are changing from those intended to contain the disease to new policies intended to delay it's peak impact.

[rightsaidfred]

As someone who considers myself to be pragmatic I think generally we are handling things pretty well, its  a fine line between whats right or wrong but over reaction is not going to help.

Fred

 

[ExSurveyor]

I have taken the precaution of only booking jobs for half my work teams at any one time for the weeks after Easter,

If they are all well, I will add jobs or double up teams, if any are unwell I won't have to cancel work.

Well that is the plan.

[vanessan]

Instructions/advice is emanating from all corners in respect of what to do if you have COVID19 symptoms, ie isolate yourself. Nowhere have I seen any advice on how to treat your symptoms ie how to bring your temperature down or what you can take for the cough. I think it would be nice to have some guidance. 

[ExSurveyor]

Plenty of fluids and paracetamol for the fever.

The cough is a 'dry' non-productive one,

Not much you can do for that other than fluids and some honey.

Without complications, the virus is usually clear within 7 days.

And WASH HANDS,

I haven't shaken anyones hand for two weeks now, the first few days people were confused and unsure what to do, by the end of last week nobody even offerd a hand shake.

What is strange is how often we touch our faces without realising.

 

[Ray]

I thought governments were supposed to avoid causing panic, Boris' latest comments are hardly likely to do that. A lot of people in the more at risk position could be quite frightened I think by his words today.

Keep calm and carry on!

[JawsOrca]

Shame this is on the NBN..

I'm not ashamed to admit that I have severe anxiety, like I'm afraid of my shadow on a good day but one thing I've learnt is (try) not to panic  ( ) but put things in perspective:

Quote

 

Public Health England told ITV News: "The number of flu cases and deaths due to flu-related complications varies each flu season.

"The average number of deaths in England for the last five seasons, 2014/15 to 2018/19, was 17,000 deaths annually. 

 

Taken from: www.itv.com/news/2020-02-06/how-does-the-wuhan-coronavirus-compare-to-seasonal-flu/

The main thing everyone can do keep calm and WASH YOUR BLOODY HANDS! I'm using the gels each time I have potentially touched anything anyone else has, if we all try to do that hopefully this will put an end to this asap. 

 

[NeilB]

We started restricting travel about a week ago, only allowed to travel if we can show it’s business critical and has to be approved by very senior management.  Our customers appear to be taking similar precautions which is good.

We can all work from home if necessary but our customers cannot as it’s a bit tricky to build a boat from home!

My kids school have mentioned moving the Easter break earlier but nothing confirmed yet.  My wife works at the same school so if if closes at least childcare will be ok for us, not so good for lots of others who cannot work from home.

[HEM]

Six months ago I had booked a week's vacation  to Mallorca / Majora to start tomorrow & was really looking forward to it until family members started putting pressure on me to cancel it (of course with loss of payment).  That & the not unreasonable fear that there could well be a total lock-down in Europe during the week I'd be there led (forced) me to cancel.  Grrr.

[SwanR]

43 minutes ago, JawsOrca said:

I'm using the gels each time I have potentially touched anything anyone else has, if we all try to do that hopefully this will put an end to this asap. 

I’ve been looking in lots of places for these hand sanitisers but still haven’t found any so I wish it were that simple. We have been talking about what we should do if one of us were to catch this. Avoiding each other completely and living separate lives in our house would be almost impossible. 

 

15 minutes ago, HEM said:

That & the not unreasonable fear that there could well be a total lock-down in Europe during the week I'd be there led (forced) me to cancel.

Such a shame about your holiday HEM. We do count ourselves very fortunate to have had these few days away. But we have still been visiting pubs for lunch every day where we could have come into contact with the virus. Both of us are now thinking about what sensible steps we should take to minimise our risk. 

[ZimbiIV]

Having watched the special broadcast, all I picked up was.

We are all going to get Corona virus but the powers that be are going to ration it!

As it is a new virus, until the vast majority have had it and built up resistance to it. the rate of spread with get faster so stay clean until (hopefully) they find an preventative jab.

paul
 

[vanessan]

1 hour ago, SwanR said:

I’ve been looking in lots of places for these hand sanitisers but still haven’t found any so I wish it were that simple.

None whatsoever around where we live either. 

1 hour ago, SwanR said:

We have been talking about what we should do if one of us were to catch this. Avoiding each other completely and living separate lives in our house would be almost impossible. 

Just look after each other, if one of you gets it from the other at least you’ll know its pedigree! 😷

[ExSurveyor]

1 hour ago, SwanR said:

Avoiding each other completely and living separate lives in our house would be almost impossible. 

Jean, that is easy, if he catches it you make him live in the shed, if you catch it you make him live in the shed.

Apparently using alcohol as a hand rub is a ineffective if it is below 60% proof, using anything above 60% is a waste of a good drink. 

I did find the Chief Medical Officer's words useful. The average recovery is within 7 days.

It is all unknown territory at the moment.

 

[grendel]

a bar of soar (other than dove which is a detergent) should work as well as the hand sanitiser as you physically remove the virus from contact by washing it down the sink. (just not as convenient when out and about)

[ExSurveyor]

I have given up on hand sanitizer and passed my bottle on to one of the surveyors who had run out. I have a large spray thing of Dettol anti bac spray that does 99% of germs and viruses.  It gets sprayed over the car interior, my mobile and hands. It must work well as my skin is as dry as a washer womans hands.

[Polly]

It is confession time! I am a toilet roll squirrel. In my defence I must add that the big pack I got at Waitrose today, one of many on display, was bought because I vaguely thought we had got through a lot of the last pack I bought. Turns out I must have thought that last time too, so now there are two jumbo packs in the store! 🤪