Corona Virus - Indian Variation

[Phoenix]

“Clusters of the Indian variants of Covid-19 have been found across England, including in care homes, the Guardian has learned, amid growing fears about the speed with which they are spreading in communities.

The latest update of case numbers of these variants was due to be published on Thursday. But leaked emails seen by the Guardian show the announcement was delayed until at least Friday because of the local elections.

The documents also suggest officials from Public Health England are poised to escalate one of the variants to one “of concern”.

“According to internal documents from PHE, dated to 5 May and seen by the Guardian, the assessment of the ongoing risk to public health from B16172 is “high”.

“Dr Deepti Gurdasani, a clinical epidemiologist and senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, said the variant was “increasing very rapidly” and that “at the current doubling rate it could easily become dominant in London by the end of May or early June”.

The documents reveal 15 cases of B16172 were found in one London care home where residents had their second doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in the week prior to the outbreak. Four of the cases were hospitalised with non-severe illness, and there were no deaths.”

In full:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... -risk-high

[DefTrap]

I'm holding out for the Cowboy variant.

[JackyJoll]

I’ll worry when the Volkswagen Variant hits me.

[Asian Boss]

Don't you worry about all that Covid bollocks, yeah.

[demographic]

Yeah but we've had THE vaccine now and that will protect us from every variation for ever and ever.
Thats how it works isn't it?

[Cousin Jack]

Fairly predictable.

India has major problem, so Boris gives 1 week's notice that travel is stopping. Every flight is instantly full, airlines ask for permission to run extra flights into LHR, and several dozen charter jets from India arrive, some with only minutes before deadline expires.

Australia did it right, ban gave just enough time for airborne passengers to land. If you were not in the air, tough shit, stay in India.

We have a new problem, Australia doesn't.

[Mussels]

Aren't we still in essential travel only? When I hear someone in the news complaining they went to India to get married and now can't get home I struggle to find any sympathy for them. I see the Turkey stop off is now blocked, people will soon be on telly complaining they are stuck in Turkey after being stuck in India.

[JamJar]

The traffic light system is pretty bizarre, we're on the UK red list, but I can fly from my comfortable and safe villa here to any number of shit holes in Africa where there are no controls, then I chill in a third rate resort, take some drugs, catch AIDS and buy a small child for my personal use, hope I don't die, then fly to the UK and they let me in no problems because it's on the amber list. Even though I've just upped my risk profile by about a million percent by taking that convoluted route.

Obviously I wouldn't, but there are plenty from the sub-continent and Africa coming into the UK from or via places totally uncontrolled.

I'm fully vaccinated and it's safer here than most places on the planet, but I can't come back to quarantine in my empty house, but they'll let someone in from Nigeria or Sierra Leone.

Smart plan.

You don't understand the rules, the difference between amber and red is the that you have to self isolate from amber countries and you have tp quarantine in a hotel from a red country, you are still allowed to come here form either.

[Saga Lout]

You missed the point, loads of people from all sorts of places are transiting to the UK via uncontrolled shit holes for 10 days to circumvent having to go into paid quarantine in a hotel.

But our government is following the science. What are you, some sort of science denier?

[DefTrap]

They make rules to catch the majority, who tend to obey the rules.
That you spotted a flaw doesn't make the rule wrong.

Boris's dad it it not so long ago ('interpreted' the travel rules). Keir Starmer's dad didn't.

[Mr. Dazzle]

They make rules to catch the majority, who tend to obey the rules.
That you spotted a flaw doesn't make the rule wrong.

This ^^^

Every law has dumb shit you can do if you work around it. In fact its such a common occurance we have a word for it. Ringgap? Curlspace? Coilchasm? Something like that anyway.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Most people aren't going to get to/from Dubai via Sierra Leone. They could but realistically they're not going to. Not very many anyway.

The point of the policy is to stop thousands of people going on holiday etc. You can work around it but the vast majority won't bother.

Its like those people who take the massive detour around the edge of London to avoid going into the more expensive travel zones on the tube. Yeah you can...but most don't.

[demographic]

This announcing quarantine restrictions a week before putting it into place is starting to look like absolute stupidity.
Think I like the Aussie way better.

[Cousin Jack]

This announcing quarantine restrictions a week before putting it into place is starting to look like absolute stupidity.
Think I like the Aussie way better.

It is almost as stupid as a Chancellor announcing he is going to sell all the UK gold a few weeks in advance. Politicians are not noted for their common sense.

[wheelnut]

.

Obviously I wouldn't, but there are plenty from the sub-continent and Africa coming into the UK from or via places totally uncontrolled.

Bear in mind that you do have to be a UK citizen to get in at all at the moment.

[slowsider]

The point of the policy is to stop thousands of people going on holiday etc. You can work around it but the vast majority won't bother.

It has stopped people going on holidays to these places, but historically diseases travelled around the world with travellers, not with Mr & Mrs Smith who go on holiday for 2 weeks every year in August. So what we have is a situation where the hundreds of thousands of expats or visitors from Africa or the east, that are used to finding ways to get to where they need to get to, can get to the UK no problem and swerve the compulsory quarantine in a hotel, simply by hiding in another country for a bit first, then staying in Air B&Bs in the UK, or with their sister, or even staying in a room over a restaurant owned by their uncle, with no checks at all.

But most interesting in this thread is the change of attitude in some. It's usually always the governments fault, but this time it's the peoples fault for finding ways to circumvent what the government are trying to achieve. Long may this thought process continue and it was worth posting here just for that

The first UK cluster was some Mr & Mrs Smith who went skiing and then brought the virus home to Brighton iirc.
And you were the one who said the (govt) system was easily circumvented.

[DefTrap]

I must admit it had crossed my mind that I could have an unwanted holiday in <war torn African shit'ole>, risk catching the covids, and probably get the shits, just for the opportunity of infecting loved ones in the UK.

I'm used to 50 quid trips on easyJet and Ryanair and half a dozen hours door to door.

[Mussels]

If people want to do their quarantine in another country I don't see the problem for the UK, they are still doing quarantine. It is a problem for those staging countries as they will have an unexpected influx of high risk visitors and end up on the red list as Turkey did.

[slowsider]

The first UK cluster was some Mr & Mrs Smith who went skiing and then brought the virus home to Brighton iirc.
And you were the one who said the (govt) system was easily circumvented.

What's the skiing like in China?

You tell me.
This lot went to France and met up with someone returning from a business trip to Singapore. Hardly ex-pats scuttling about the planet to evade restrictions.

[DefTrap]

Had or hadn't? I'm not sure if you're trying to be sarcastic.

Bit sarcastic.
Although like you I haven't seen my folks f2f for such a long time now, that some "interpretation" of the law is becoming more appealing.