Coronavirus

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by jonbxx

Seems pretty harsh of the Welsh Government to fine employees who do not work from home where they can. Often, it's not employees who choose where they work, it's the employers. Employers have the responsibility to create a safe working environment and ensure that their employees work within the rules, not the other way around.

Not quite sure why they have taken this approach as it goes against standard health and safety practice

As with Boris and much of his lot, they are amateurs among other useless attributes.

Originally Posted by nffc

More importantly its the length of time they're in hospital.

It would possibly be useful.

Originally Posted by nffc

20 people admitted and discharged the same day is much less serious than 1 person admitted and discharged 20 days later. But the stats would show the opposite.

I'm not so sure about that.
If your capacity is only 10, then 20 admissions as a problem, regardless of how long they may stay.

[nffc]

Originally Posted by Paul

It would possibly be useful.


I'm not so sure about that.
If your capacity is only 10, then 20 admissions as a problem, regardless of how long they may stay.

True point but it'd be a pretty small hospital to only cope with 10 patients.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Not sure what other countries are doing.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/...o-11-year-olds

That's pretty much been the advice from the start hasn't it?

[Taf]

Walesonline is pretty good at getting the stats out for all to see.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/w...eaths-22542416

[joglynne]

Greater Manchester has an addition figure provided which I have been keeping an eye on. It's reassuring to see that hospital cases haven't yet seen a rise in numbers for those who are on the intensive treatment wards and that, even though there has been a massive increase in the infections in our area, admissions to hospital are only rising slightly.

My borough is now recording the highest infection rate (66% rise) 1109.9 per 100,000 population in the North West of England.

Hospital admissions

In the week ending on December 12, a total of 229 patients were admitted to Greater Manchester NHS hospitals with Covid-19. That is 26 more than the week before, a rise of 13%.

On Tuesday December 14, there were 35 Mechanical Ventilation (MV) beds occupied by Covid patients in Greater Manchester NHS hospitals. That is three fewer than a week earlier.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co...itive-22537676

BREAKING: Omicron variant has 80% lower chance of hospitalisation in South Africa.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...w-study-shows?

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Not sure what other countries are doing.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/...o-11-year-olds

Yesterday, Belgium and France both announced a rollout of Pfizer to 5-11 year olds with underlying conditions - to start later this month.

Since it was approved by European drug regulator at end of Nov, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece and Hungary have vaccinated this age group.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by pip08456

Yesterday, Belgium and France both announced a rollout of Pfizer to 5-11 year olds with underlying conditions - to start later this month.

Since it was approved by European drug regulator at end of Nov, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece and Hungary have vaccinated this age group.

Thanks. Good to know.

This Scottish study sounds encouraging, although a very small number in the study.

COVID: Risk of hospitalisation with Omicron appears to be two-thirds lower than with Delta, Scotland study suggests

A study of 15 people, which has not been peer reviewed, follows separate data from South Africa which also showed a lower risk of hospitalisation with the Omicron variant. The latest study was carried out by the University of Edinburgh.

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-ris...gests-12502277

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Thanks. Good to know.

This Scottish study sounds encouraging, although a very small number in the study.

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-ris...gests-12502277

UKHSA will be releasing their findings later this week or next.

---------- Post added at 20:12 ---------- Previous post was at 19:31 ----------

Imperial have come out with this report on their findings.

Overall, we find evidence of a reduction in the risk of hospitalisation for Omicron relative to Delta infections, averaging over all cases in the study period. The extent of reduction is sensitive to the inclusion criteria used for cases and hospitalisation, being in the range 20-25% when using any attendance at hospital as the endpoint, and 40-45% when using hospitalisation lasting 1 day or longer or hospitalisations with the ECDS discharge field recorded as “admitted” as the endpoint (Table 1). These reductions must be balanced against the larger risk of infection with Omicron, due to the reduction in protection provided by both vaccination and natural infection. A previous infection reduces the risk of any hospitalisation by approximately 50% (Table 2) and the risk of a hospital stay of 1+ days by 61% (95%CI:55-65%) (before adjustments for under ascertainment of reinfections).
High historical infection attack rates and observed reinfection rates with Omicron mean it is necessary to correct hazard ratio estimates to accurately quantify intrinsic differences in severity between Omicron and Delta and to assess the protection afforded by past infection. The resulting adjustments are moderate (typically less than an increase of 0.2 in the hazard ratio for Omicron vs Delta and a reduction of approximately 0.1 in the hazard ratio for reinfections vs primary infections) but significant for evaluating severity overall. Using a hospital stay of 1+ days as the endpoint, the adjusted estimate of the relative risk of reinfections versus primary cases is 0.31, a 69% reduction in hospitalisation risk.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imp...-Report-50.pdf

So basically, they are saying its milder ?

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Paul

So basically, they are saying its milder ?

Yeah but Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland and ( to a currently lesser extent) England, will no doubt ignore that and panic like it’s 1999.

We 'follow the science' as long as the science matches what we want.

Notably, despite the uncertainty in the data, the Edinburgh and Imperial findings are right in the same ball park - a roughly two-thirds reduction in your chances of hospitalisation if you catch omicron, compared to if you caught delta.

There are at least three reports that its milder.

Preliminary studies from Scotland and South Africa appear to indicate Omicron may be milder than other variants, with fewer people needing hospital treatment.

A separate analysis of Omicron by Imperial College London suggests its mutations have made Omicron milder than Delta.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59758784

The University of Hong Kong found Omicron was better at infecting the airways, but worse at getting into the deep tissues of the lungs, where it can do more damage.

The University of Cambridge found the variant was not as good at fusing lung cells together, which happens in the lungs of people who become severely ill.

So basically, its becoming better at its primary goal of surviving.
It can spread more easily, but not kill its hosts off so much (which is bad for it).