Don't they? I thought they all had to be supervised whether virtual or in person.
SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)
- Thread starter Don't Kill Bill
- Start date
Don't they? I thought they all had to be supervised whether virtual or in person.
Sorry, I meant to say needed but, no (pretty sure) they don’t need to be. I’ve heard of people uploading the same test code for the whole family (which I wouldn’t advocate)
But I'm not sure how you can do that?
I flew back yday from the US, and all the pre departure checks are done by VeriFly. You either upload a test QR code which automatically verifies your name & time/date of test or you upload a PDF copy of your results for a manual check.
Seriously, this is infuriating. I must have got pinged back to the “Do you know your NHS number page” page 100 times.
Sorry, I'm confused now. Can I use a home-test kit? or Do I need a lab?
They’re only done by Verifly if you use Verifly
Covid Twitter is an even more weird and divided place than usual right now. Lots of very smart people seeming genuinely cross/disappointed at every bit of good news coming out of South Africa.
Verifly is a standard that BA and the other transatlantic carriers adopted. It's not standard across Europe.
It depends where @Ballache is traveling from, what he'll be able to get. I know that he can't use a free NHS test kit, but hopefully he's got a locally available option.
Guide is at
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-testing-for-people-travelling-to-england
Why is this?
Delete your last hour's history and start again, would be my advice.
I'm flying from Sweden.
The guide is unclear, says LFD but doesn't specify whether it needs to be supervised or not. I'm hoping to get an answer to this soon but if I don't I'm just going to go for a lab.
Everybody's too scared to believe it. If the good news bit holds though we're going to be celebrating Omicron arrival by Christmas!
London is expected to be mostly Omicron cases by the middle of this week. Scotland is probably in the same position. The first Omicron cases are now in hospital. So much we don't know but we'll know a lot more next week.
Meanwhile, it is tantalising to dream:
Read the thread though, not just the first tweet as there's some interesting chat in there.
Last edited:
Is there an argument to be made that Covid becoming irrelevant is bad for the media and twitter experts who would also largely become irrelevant?
Good luck in the queue fights.
Boris doing his best to put people off
Boris doing his best to put people off
Got my booster booked for the 29th but I am gonna try walk in on Wednesday. My partner tried booking after the announcement and waited in a queue only to be given 4th Jan, which is already past his date of getting all adults done by December 31st.
There’s just no way they are gonna do 1 million a day.
There’s just no way they are gonna do 1 million a day.
For some, particularly the ones who've become celebrities off the back of campaigns for more restrictions maybe.
For most of the real virus and vaccine scientists though - no. They really are conscious that this is early data and there might be a real sting in the tail as it moves across the age spectrum or attacks people with comorbidities. They don't want to start the party until we know what we're celebrating.
There's also the question of how mild is mild. If deaths are 1:1000 cases and hospitalisations 1:100 - and the infection rate is maintained we're still looking at 10,000 deaths in January and 3000+/day going into hospital. Which will be pretty grim for something that the rest of us will think is mild. If it's a lot lower than that then it's party hats time. If it's higher then we're in full on crisis.
Plus, outside countries like the UK (high vax rates + most unvaxxed have had past infections) and SA (high infection rates + some vaccination in risk groups) Omicron might not look mild at all.
That makes sense. The last sentence is quite concerning too, especially as Covid has generally been hitting us a lot harder in Ireland than the UK recently
With love, from South Africa
I think there are people, especially amongst those who spend a frequent amount of time online, for whom the pandemic and interpreting data and information produced has become a way of life. There's a Reddit sub which I've visited since early in the pandemic which provides a lot of useful information (rather than just opinion) and some people on there appear (in the sense that they understand data etc.) to have become semi-expert on what's going on and they're on there constantly. There's someone who produces extremely complex graphs from the daily data, every day to the extent that when he wasn't on for a day or two people were worried about him. When it's over they'll have to go back to whatever they did to fill their time before, I suppose.
Can we send it back to Amazon after Christmas if we don't like it?
Any insight from the caf in terms of pregnant women getting a booster? My wife has had two jabs, but question whether she should have a booster whilst pregnant.
The initial commentary last year was that pregnant women shouldn't get vaxxed, but that seems to have changed.
The initial commentary last year was that pregnant women shouldn't get vaxxed, but that seems to have changed.
Thanks @Penna finally managed to get through on a laptop, but damn was it infuriating. I must have been trying for over 2 hours, constantly getting kicked back to the start of the data entry process.
Hi Jojojo,
I want to apologize for [briefly state mistake]. Our team tries to offer the best service, but we failed this time. I realize we [state briefly the impact your mistake had on the customer] and I’m very sorry.
This was likely caused by [add brief explanation], but, regardless, we should have handled this better.
We’re all aware of what happened and will take extra care in future. As an additional apology, we’re sending you [offering]. While we know it can’t exactly make up for the inconvenience we caused, we hope it’ll go some way towards making amends.
Thank you for your patience. Let me know if I can help in any way.
[Your name]
That makes sense. The last sentence is quite concerning too, especially as Covid has generally been hitting us a lot harder in Ireland than the UK recently
Not really. Our specialty is case numbers accelerating from a low starting point very quickly. But our cases per 100k have always been less than the UK.
As well as fewer cases each case is less likely to end up in a death.
In theory, we should be better placed than most European countries to cope with the omicron wave. Youngish average age and a highly vaccinated population. But our relatively low ICU beds per capita means we’re bound to be amongst the most cautious again.
I don't know if this helps you, but:
If you are an EU resident or citizen, you can use the EU Digital Covid Certificate (EU-DCC) to provide proof of your test result. This can be in either digital or paper format.
If you are not an EU resident or citizen, you cannot use the EU-DCC to provide proof of your test result.
My wife has had the two jabs but was advised by her mid-wife to wait until she's 16wks to have the booster (about 3wks away). How far along is she?
For being a cynical oldie I'm still so gullible. That's just the format of replies on trust pilot for the one star reviews of government sponsored, sorry back handed, PCR testing facility Collinson. I was wondering how 'Mya' was replying to so many cases per day.
I was feeling so optimistic reading your post until the last bit!
Glad you got sorted. I had the same problem this year when I was trying to book in Italy, it kept telling me I wasn't eligible for an over-60s booking when I was actually 62. The delete history thing helped me, so that's always an option!
Only 9 weeks. NHS simply says ok for pregnant women. My wife contracted her GP who simply said “refer to NHS guidance”
Weird your wife was told that by her midwife when per the tweet @jojojo posted from Royal College of Midwives, it urges all pregnant women to get it.
Hate these mixed messages people get as you don’t know what to do for the best sometimes.
The queues at St Pancras for tests to leave UK are crazy long.
People literally queue for hours prior to catching their train..... makes me happy to stay home.
People literally queue for hours prior to catching their train..... makes me happy to stay home.
Sorry!
On the plus side, this omicron thing spreads so quickly we’re getting loads of data extremely fast. So hopefully the NPHET gang will have the stones to take a few more risks after chewing through all the data coming out of South Africa and the UK.
Yeah it has to conducted at a lab.
I've probably spent more on tests than I did on the tickets but serves me right for not buying the insurance...
Ah well...
So from reading Twitter and various sources the medium age in Jo’berg is 27!! (So low). Based on this alone it’s easy to see why the UK are being so cautious. The percentage of over 65s is 4 percent also.
You’d think some of the modellers are running some finger in the air hypothesis like if this virus is X5 less deadly but spreads twice as fast what’s the number of hospitalisations.
It’s right to have some caution surely and with the uptake of boosters from the over 50s being especially good the fear is the overall pressure on the NHS which everyone kind of anticipated this winter anyway.
Nevertheless it’s a good way to get people boosted, similar to how world governments reduced the public’s need for masks when they were in short supply, neither a bad thing though.
You’d think some of the modellers are running some finger in the air hypothesis like if this virus is X5 less deadly but spreads twice as fast what’s the number of hospitalisations.
It’s right to have some caution surely and with the uptake of boosters from the over 50s being especially good the fear is the overall pressure on the NHS which everyone kind of anticipated this winter anyway.
Nevertheless it’s a good way to get people boosted, similar to how world governments reduced the public’s need for masks when they were in short supply, neither a bad thing though.
Does anyone know when under 20s can book their boosters in? I assumed from yesterday's messaging that it would be immediate, but looks like it's still just over 30s.
Later this week, the system is already overloaded and they've got big queues now. The walk-ins should all be getting their updated eligibility guidance today though and hopefully we'll see things like vaccine busses, shopping centre popup sites etc make a come back in the next few days.
UK has had at least one omicron death now.
Sadly it was only a matter of time. Seems like we're in for a bumpy ride now for a bit.