Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Caliga]

This whole new strain shit is a nightmare. I sure hope it is just alarmist nonsense because my country just cannot go on like this much longer.

The thing is, the virus mutating to be more contagious is typical so it should have been expected (and probably was by epidemiologists)... the other thing viruses typically do when they start mutating is become less lethal, so there's that to bear in mind as well.

Remember, viruses aren't "trying" to kill us, they're just trying to reproduce, and there's no advantage to killing your host.  They just need to provoke an immunoresponse in order to keep infecting other hosts.

[Syt]

Pictograms from the Covid FAQ of North Rhine-Westphalia.

[DGuller]

I see that they're already doing vaccinations in Germany.

[Sheilbh]

A Lidl shop has found itself straddling Tier 2 (Fareham) and Tier 4 (Portsmouth). I think I read the moment you move from Tier 2 to Tier 4 is roughly the pasta aisle.

[Admiral Yi]

Munchkin says stimulus checks will start arriving between Christmas and New Years.

[Caliga]

Pictograms from the Covid FAQ of North Rhine-Westphalia.

So is North Rhine-Westphalia located near Innsmouth?

[Tamas]

A Lidl shop has found itself straddling Tier 2 (Fareham) and Tier 4 (Portsmouth). I think I read the moment you move from Tier 2 to Tier 4 is roughly the pasta aisle.

I drove past the nearby Lidl yesterday. Parking lot absolutely choke full under Tier 4 as during Tier 2 or 3.

[Sheilbh]

Well people still need to shop and it's 2 days before Christmas so I imagine there aren't many delivery slots left (my mum books her Christmas food months in advance ).

More importantly - what are you doing out driving round Tier 4?

[Tamas]

I was posting a parcel

Drove the wife to work today too. Traffic was as rammed as it was before Tier 4. Nobody seems to give too much of a shit, at least based on that. Also when we had a bit of walk today at the riverside around our corner, saw a friend/family visit just ending with visitors leaving "it was good to see you again". Lockdown my arse.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I was watching "the papers" last night and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown had a good point. Lots of people were planning on going away for Christmas and are now staying at their homes; ergo a big rush on the supermarkets (especially in places like London) to get some decent grub for the next few days.

Presumably there is the other side of the coin; places in the provinces, retirement towns etc etc where retired couples are contemplating a mountain of food and working out what to do with it.

[The Brain]

Is Mr. Christmas still with us, the guy who eats a Christmas dinner every day?

[Sheilbh]

I was watching "the papers" last night and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown had a good point. Lots of people were planning on going away for Christmas and are now staying at their homes; ergo a big rush on the supermarkets (especially in places like London) to get some decent grub for the next few days.

Yes and I thought Jess Brammar made a good point on this:

Jess Brammar
@jessbrammar
Dec 19
know there are a lot of Londoners apparently getting on trains tonight or heading up/down the motorway, but there are also a lot who had a cup of tea or opened a bottle of wine earlier during the presser, had a bit of a cry, called their family and told them they aren't coming
Just so the narrative of this is not all about the people travelling and potentially spreading this new strain - plenty aren't

My area of London is emptier than normal - but busier than it typically is at this time of year. And there's plenty of food in the shops etc so I'm not seeing people stocking up as they apparently in some places.

Presumably there is the other side of the coin; places in the provinces, retirement towns etc etc where retired couples are contemplating a mountain of food and working out what to do with it.

Yep. This was a concern for my mum and the literally kilos of roasting meat she's got in the house for me, grandkids, brothers etc

[The Larch]

So, I've just received a message from my regional health system, communicating me that I've been selected for random Covid testing (they've been performing these tests in my city for the last few weeks), and turns out that this very same week I've developed a bit of a regular cold, which I'm currently "enjoying". Does anyone know if having a cold interferes with Covid testing in some way?

And I just got tested tonight. Got my appointment yesterday for today a bit later than 21h, in a drive-through system they've organized in one of the city's hospitals. Pretty long queue once you got there, ended up getting tested like 15 minutes later than my appointment, and they seemd to be in a bit of a hurry to be done with us all. I'll get my results in 24-48 hours.

As expected, negative. 

[Pedrito]

So, I've just received a message from my regional health system, communicating me that I've been selected for random Covid testing (they've been performing these tests in my city for the last few weeks), and turns out that this very same week I've developed a bit of a regular cold, which I'm currently "enjoying". Does anyone know if having a cold interferes with Covid testing in some way?

And I just got tested tonight. Got my appointment yesterday for today a bit later than 21h, in a drive-through system they've organized in one of the city's hospitals. Pretty long queue once you got there, ended up getting tested like 15 minutes later than my appointment, and they seemd to be in a bit of a hurry to be done with us all. I'll get my results in 24-48 hours.

As expected, negative. 

L.

[Zanza]

I got one of those rapid antigen tests before I went to my parents for Christmas. Not as safe as the PCR test, but together with my quasi quarantine lifestyle the last weeks it seems sufficient.