boltonbonce wrote:Thanks Sluffy. Mum's 90, so she can't really self isolate, but she's close enough to keep an eye on. I've got an eye test next Sunday, and a dental check up a fortnight later in Walkden. What fun.
The information I put up is really the best I can find it the public domain but even then you have to allow for other things that are not stated (or at least not clearly anyway).
The first thing to note is that there is some time delay between someone thinking they might have symptoms worth checking or have been in the company of someone else who has been tested positive and been notified from Track and Trace to go for a test themselves - so what I'm trying to say is that folk might be already walking around for a week being contagious and not knowing.
Then on top of that, the test results are not instantaneous and the average time it is taking between being tested and being notified is around 3 days - which is ok if people have self isolated but what we've clearly seen examples of - some simply don't!
And if that isn't enough, the rule of thumb seems to be that for every person tested to be positive, there's another couple or so in the community who are infected and either don't know about it or haven't bothered to get a test.
Even after all I've said the changes are very low of actually catching it from anyone, unless you spend considerable time in their company and in an enclosed space - like inside a pub or in the family home with multigenerational family members.
I've told my own brother that his biggest threat of catching it is probably from his kids/grandkids when they visit him - simply because they will come into contact socially with more people and my brother and his wife are basically living a life in solitary confinement.
A hard thing to contemplate and do keeping your loved ones at arms length (or more!), so when you do (and if you can) try to do it outside in the fresh air or if inside, make it a fleeting visit and possibly even wear your mask!
I know you've got to do what you've got to do - and I've not gone to extremes when seeing my daughter yet but as the new cases grow and the weather for meeting outside becomes less pleasant then I guess I'm going to have to do.
Roll on next summer, it can't come soon enough for me.