Coronavirus In Care Homes...

[Mozz71]

...seem to be off the scale. If anyone is still bleating on about the lockdown being lifted, open your eyes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52455072

[Gromit]

4,300 Care Home Covid-19 deaths in a fortnight,

But they were people who did not go out and followed lockdown.

[AuntPollyGrey]

And they were very old people with multiple underlying conditions making them more prone to succumbing to Covid-19.

[tiggerblue10]

This is why I believe that many of us will have unknowingly had the virus back in Jan/Fed and even December for it to circulate so far and wide.

There may have also been deaths caused by Covid but attributed to other illnesses in Dec/Jan/Feb, if that's possible. When did Covid testing start and would coroners have identified it at the time?

[AuntPollyGrey]

My daughter swears she had it early January -caught she says at a conference in Leeds. It floored her for 5 days literally , she had all the symptoms before they were published. I think CV-19 has been around since the middle of January, brought back by Chinese nationals who had gone to China for the Chinese Holidays

[Zacs-Master]

Maybe you caught it from her then, APG?

[tiggerblue10]

I had mild cold like symptoms in Jan/Feb and so did a couple of my colleagues at the same time. We're based in South London so pretty much in the thick of it.

[AuntPollyGrey]

Zacs no I didn't. She doesn't live with us.

[Zacs-Master]

Oh, ok.

[roopower]

A friend of mine thinks she had it over Christmas, albeit in a mild form.

[grumpy01]

Lack of PPE definitely the problem.Advice last year to stock up not adhered to.

[jno]

tiggs, mild cold-like symptoms are usually just a cold. Anything worse than that would have been diagnosed as manflu.

[Apc2604]

My husband had exact covid symptoms in in early January and ended up in A&E with a rash that was diagnosed as his immune system fighting something nasty. A&E was full of people coughing. I caught it from him with milder symptoms but ended up with a chest infection. Covid 19 wasn't known about then so wasn't being looked for! Deaths would be pur down to flu or pneumonia.

[tiggerblue10]

That's what I put it down at the time, Jno, but who knows. It seems that mild cold-like symptoms are listed as lesser common symptoms of the the virus.

[tiggerblue10]

Also poses the question of a possible, deadlier mutation of the virus somewhere along that timeline. If this has indeed been proven.

You can test for the virus but it would be good to distinguish between the strains as well.

[tomus42]

It seems inevitable because once it gets into one of those places there's a whole bunch of vulnerable people that can't really go anywhere else to be safe from it.

[exarmy448]

I agree with many of the comments posted. I suffer from COPD and have had a quadruple bypass and was admitted into hospital in December where I spent nearly two weeks being treated for pneumonia and pleurisy. When I was admitted I had many of the symptoms of what is now known as COVID 19. I now believe that I may have had the virus but of course I will never no.

[youngmafbog]

Care homes have been letting people in - and yes I do know what I am talking about my daughter works in one.

And yes, I will bleat all I like to save the lives of many more people in the future who will die from poverty, stress and mental illness giving rise to murder etc.

[Rosetta]

gromit @13,44. These residents have care worker interventions at least

[tomus42]

// 4,300 Care Home Covid-19 deaths in a fortnight,

But they were people who did not go out and followed lockdown. //

What's your point? Are you suggesting that they would have been better off if they had gone out? How would that work for people that live in care homes? I'm wondering where they could have gone.

[fiction-factory]

This is an example of why we need to be careful not to just aggregate all deaths. Yes, the total is clearly extremely important but we need to consider the different components.

Sadly, much of the damage has already been done in the care homes. The residents are often sitting targets, with the virus being brought in by care/health staff who go from home to home and some family visitors . The only way to control that now is through testing and ensuring as much isolation as possible from other residents and visitors. I'd have though sadly that the chances of survival once infected are low so the key must be to isolate to stop further spread.

Loosening the lockdown for the non-care home population would not have much impact on the level of care home deaths over the coming days and weeks apart from where care/health staff and visitors are coming in. Some sort of relaxation outside care homes is not too far away (starting mid- late May, phased over several months with social distancing still in place).