Are you saying that if you test positive for COVID you’ll avoid them but test negative and it’s OK to visit them?
Nope, I'm avoiding infecting them full stop, its really the last thing they need.
I'm clearly unwell whether it's Covid or not.
My eldest came down with it at the weekend, now I've got it and the youngest went to school moaning about a sore throat today. Usual thing a week or two before christmas for us seemingly...
With regard to elderly relatives one would take the same precautions as in previous years ie with colds, flu etc. However, it may need to be balanced against someone who, for example, hasn't seen or spoken with anyone over the last week, fortnight, month etc. Human contact is so important and only you can decide whether any type of risk is appropriate.
As @Bunnyhop states, washing hands is important as well as using a tissue to cough and then dispose of right away. Basic stuff and common sense.
I wouldn't visit relatives in their 80s, or friends undergoing treatment for cancer, with Covid. I probably wouldn't with a bad cold either (depending on those other factors you mention CG, and if I did I'd take extra precautions), but with Covid...? Absolutely no way.
As @Bunnyhop states, washing hands is important as well as using a tissue to cough and then dispose of right away. Basic stuff and common sense.
Pedantic I know, but disposal of the tissue straight away is not always possible. Dispose of the tissue as soon as you can and in the correct way i.e. a bin!
I may make sure we have a plan B for Xmas day. Supposed to be at SIL's house, but BIL's elderly and very vulnerable mum will be there, so if anyone of us comes down with anything (bearing in mind son is currently rather unwell), we may have to 'pass'.
Interesting. I've been feeling "off" for a few weeks now - easily out of breath, always tired, random head aches. No coughing but I have got this weird dry skin thing going on around my face and ears.
Wonder if I've got this lurgy but dodged the cough somehow. I feel better already knowing it's not just me!
I was going to say flush it as well!
Do not put tissues down the loo. They do not fall apart well in water and may contribute to blocking a drain.
Bin for tissues.
Any preoccupation with tissues, hugging, cuddling or whatever to the exclusion of what the last four years has taught us is somewhat unhelpful in my opinion. Be wary of fomites, but keep in mind that the chances are that your breath will be doing most of the transmission whether or not you have a runny nose. Open the windows and keep air moving through any shared spaces.
Just breathing requires long periods of exposure in a room with closed windows. Saliva, mucus and droplets from coughing are the biggest risk of infection.
Just breathing requires long periods of exposure in a room with closed windows.
Do you have any data to back that claim or is this just Alnwickdotal?
I can get some if you wish but I sat through several strategic meeting during covid, gave advice over the phone to staff and their relatives based on NHS England guidelines and also did virus pathology many years ago when training.
Anecdotal would be me making a claim that I know no one who caught it just sat in a room.
Wife tested positive this morning mid morning after having cold like symptoms this week. I felt fine so went into work unaware, cooked breakfast for 100+ people, then saw my phone with a photo of her positive test on 😬. First time for both of us too.
I was cooking outdoors at least.
As for colds, last one seemed to drag a bit but nothing major.
Possibly the worst cold I've ever had. Horrendous sore throat followed by congestion and then weeks of coughing .
Negative tests throughout
Nearing the end of week 3 with the cough, sore head, body and general fatigue took about 2 weeks to fade.
Mrs F and I both had covid again at end of September, beginning of October. As unpleasant as the first time we had it. I got the cold/cough/chest infection 5 weeks ago and still not 100%. I'm asthmatic and I got steroids and increased dosage asthma meds. Mrs F is diabetic and has previous form for cold, infection throat-closing infections requiring emergency hospitalisation. Mrs F got the chest infection thing a week later than me, and has had treatment and is just getting over it but still lingering. Sincere sympathies to those who've lost family, friends.
Trolls gonna troll. I'll risk a ban.
F*** them. Knobs. I'm tired and angry.
Caught the cough last Wednesday floored me all weekend I tried a 10 mile local ride Sunday and ended up back in bed until Tuesday morning . Im normally quiet bomb proof but this has been awful. Not really snotty as such just a very raspy chest painful cough from deep and headache to boot .
Fingers crossed back on the other side of it now sleep really helped .
At work our kitchen sink is unusable because the macerator is broken.
Boss man has instructed us all to wash any cups , plates and cutlery in the hand basin in the gents.
I don't think this is probably legal and I refuse to. I swill out my coffee cup and launch it out the door.
Seems a sure fire way to get most of your staff off I'll over Xmas to me
It's worth bearing in mind that the current variants do seem poor at triggering the test response; lots of anecdotal evidence to suggest that you can be well into the infection or even improving by the time your antibodies are setting off the test.
So, false negatives are definitely a thing at present. I'm wearing a mask when on a train or passing through a busy indoor space.
Sorry, pedant and all that - but it’s antigen (bits of protein) from the virus that sets off the +ve test on Lateral Flows, not your own antibodies.
It all moot - there are some thoroughly nasty bugs out there at the moment (we’ve had possible norovirus passing through our dept in the last week) - so take care, catch your coughs and sneezes and wash your hands. Just do your best.
So 10 Days into this now, is there any end in sight?
I'm meant to be skiing in 3 weeks but am seriously doubtful I'll be able to manage more than a couple of runs the way I feel!
5 weeks in and it’s still not completely gone.
Son ended up on anti-biotics and a week off with a chest infection. The rest of us have avoided anything, and are keeping it that way. Daughter want's to present swap with her boyfriend, but he's currently running high temperatures and unwell. Not risking it.
Daughter want’s to present swap with her boyfriend
Thats what young folk are calling it these days...
Mrs F's dad is in hospital now. Stubborn git that he is, he's been unwell for 2 weeks plus, not eating, perma-cough, in pain etc. Eventually persuaded Mrs F to get him to docs - doc arranged for assessment at hospital within 5 minutes of seeing him. Looks like he'll be there for Xmas now, which is both a crap thing but a good thing, as at least he'll be looked after with treatment etc. Mrs F does her best. Ironically, Mrs F's coughing fits have returned with a vengeance, but the stubborn git won't do anything about it. Wonder where she gets it from. 🙄
the wife is down with the cold I had about a month ago, starts with light headedness, then feeling shit with a cough and buckets of the foulest tasting phlegm. so that my christmas dinner up the spout 🙁
I'm on a couple of immune suppressant meds which I take to control an autoimmune condition I developed after first having covid, so when I am feeling ill I test myself so I can skip my immune suppressant injections if it is covid and not just a cold.
Appreciate its a bit of a weird case, but I have had covid a few times before and it has been rough but not too long lived. This time I was ill for 4 or 5 days, then took a course of paxlovid antivirals which made me feel fine and test negative, finished them and the covid came back, and lasted another full week in terms of testing positive, and it's now just over a month since my first positive test and I would say I'm just now at 90% health from it.
I didn't leave the house for weeks, I haven't drunk any alcohol for 5 weeks now, resting walking, light duties - really difficult to shift compared to previous years
There's a lot of it out there.
About 4% of the entire UK population are currently in possession of COVID, about one person in every 24.
Our Government denies it's a problem and refuses to issue guidance and additional support to the NHS, although WHO advice is that all front line medics should be using masks or respirators as appropriate.
Nursing council is requesting a formal response to this apparent conflict..
3rd week of it. Haven't got the sweats or stinking cold now, but by christ I haven't got any energy! My joints still really ache and it feels like I've had a headache for ever.
so that my christmas dinner up the sprout 🙁
FTFY
😉
Sounds all very familiar. Tests all negative for covid but mine has developed into Pluresy which has just written off Christmas and a ski trip that I've been looking forward to all year 🙁
My cold/flu symptoms didn't seem to be following the usual pattern so I tested for COVID. Positive for the first time. So avoiding vulnerable parents this Christmas. Was also planning to start Fred Whitton training, that'll have to wait a bit now.
Still knocked down. Not so much a cough now just general cold and post-viral long Covid back. Off the bike for three weeks and festive 50 not 500 more likely!
Covid negative though. So some positives
My Dad has been ill and has tested positive for 2 weeks, but seems generally to be managing. The question is, should we have them here for Christmas?
@molgrips. it's really quite unlikely that he will still be emitting viable virus; mind, the test is for antibodies, so no surprise that he's still testing positive.
I'm usually super cautious, as many will have probably noticed, but on this, at two full weeks, you should be fine.
So how long will I be infectious for, considering I first got symptoms 12 days ago?
Will be visiting my 80yr old mum so wouldn’t like to pass it on.
A rather disturbing twist on the ‘cough’
At Christmas Jnr FD started with a cough, which rapidly turned in to a cough and waking up unable to breath.Went to docs and treated as a chest infection with antibiotics and inhaler. Starts to ‘improve’ but cough starts to be followed by a whoop<br /><br />
Roughly 2 1/2 weeks ago Mrs FD starts with a slight cold, but starts getting a persistent cough, COVID negative, but getting worse, almost well in between horrific bouts of coughing. Rapidly turns to waking up every hour or so in the night with apnea. Doc tells to rest , she will be ok, gives antibiotics
Isnt getting any better, can barely speak and eating food is difficult. so doc appointment via phone . He hears her cough and wants her to go to hospital straight away as he suspects whooping cough.
<br />Get to hospital put in a side room immediately. Doc comes and says yep whooping cough but there is no treatment. Eventually patients can end up being tube fed as the throat becomes too inflamed from coughing. All the docs / nurses who sees/hears her cough are shocked and would come running, but nothing they could do so better at home
Ive been put on antibiotics too, and was advised not to go near anyone until I had had 48hrs of antibiotics.
It’s been reported to public health England as it’s classed as an outbreak. It’s the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Apparently it spreads very easily! <br /><br />
My son either got it at school or on a bus trip for a county football game so it must be out there in the community
We’ve been told that it could be months before Mrs FD starts to feel normal again 🙁
I posted on it about halfway down P1
Very debilitating and definitely a thing, your childhood Vax on this one does wear off after about 40 years so you can get it (again)
My 19 yo daughter has had a bad persistent cough (worse at night), made her sick a few times, since before Christmas.
Seems well enough otherwise, still going to college, nights out and a physically demanding job at the weekends.
Was pressured by family to get a Drs appointment last week, she rang Thursday and Friday but phone just kept ringing.
We filled in an online form and she has got an appointment.......on the 2nd of Feb!
I posted on it about halfway down P1
People need to be aware of the symptoms and the fact that its highly contagious. Any contact should isolate and be on antibiotics regardless of whether they are ill or not.
advice may have changed in the 10 years since I had it, but that's not what we were instructed. I developed the cough at a conference, and if my contacts had to isolate that would have meant several hundred, all from the same company!! That was an interesting call with HR - they had to inform all to watch for symptoms, particularly if pregnant. For confidentiality of course they didn't say who'd had WC at the conference - but it wasn't hard to work out! AFAIK, no-one caught it from me.....
My wife didn't have to take any other precautions, just watch out in case she started to develop symptoms (cold like and then a cough starts a few days after) at which point she would have had a/b given. She didn't get it either. Nor did the kids, although being 9 and 7ish they were well up-to-date with the vaccination, so would have been a major surprise.
Likewise different response with a/b - they can help but only if given early, but they don't really help you, just make you less infectious and less likely to pass on. By the time I'd been diagnosed (I diagnosed myself by google, when I went to the docs with it I had to 'force' them to look it up because their initial response was 'You've been vaccinated, so it can't be' - came as a surprise to them that the vax wore off) - and then as I was so far in they didn't give a/b to me either.
and yes, it is one of the UKHSA notifiable diseases (PHE don't exist any longer). I'm meeting them later this week, I'll ask off the record if there are increases (same as measles, maybe less vax uptake means more in kids where previously it was virtually eradicated which means more for parents and adults to be exposed to?)
Well done vax deniers - taking us back to the good old days you long for. What next - diptheria? Polio?
