The Omicron variant

TobyHolmes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378272#Comment_118378272

you said yourself this was a small group so I wouldnt rely on what they say as definitive - i'd rather listen to statistics and medical professionals which say you have a better chance with this if you are vaccinated.

amandstu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378293#Comment_118378293

Yes,feels like it.

Be there or be square(sorry to be flippant)

Vaccinated30

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378162#Comment_118378162

Do my bit for who? I've done my bit for 2 years. I've got covid and for me it was a cold. It's my turn to be selfish now and live my life not worrying about your nanny I never met. And I mean that with upmost respect, but I don't owe strangers anything nor will I grieve the death of strangers. My family is fine and it's OK to be selfish. No more vaccines. If people are afraid they might catch it from me or others then they can be selfless and stay home

Vaccinated30

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378226#Comment_118378226

That's ridiculous, if they all had covid they should have all been together not isolating.

iwasliedto

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118377775#Comment_118377775

Was talking with an ICU in KK last week, she said that they were very quiet with only 3 virus cases.

lukas8888

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378226#Comment_118378226

Why did you have to take an antigen test to travel to Teneriffe from Ireland.

You do not need one if you have your vaccination cert.

Omicron is absolutely rampant. I’m getting text after text telling me of households coming down with Covid, the latest just being my next door apartment neighbour. At least I can easily leave stuff outside their door. These folk thankfully are not very sick, but isolated because of social & government requirement s. In the middle of me typing this yet another text has popped up. Universally the folk are a bit off colour and tired or sniffly, but nothing serious, and still able to eat, quite unlike eh a typical influenza where even trying to text could be undoable.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378641#Comment_118378641

It is an absolute requirement to regain entry to Ireland (eg from Spain where I was) to have a recent clear Covid test result. I travelled over on 22nd, had an Antigen test at the airport on Christmas Eve, and travelled home late yesterday. If you didn’t have your digital negative Cert you were turned away from either check-in or boarding. The airport staff are up to their eyes overseeing that all boarding jumped through all the hoops.

Yesterday the requirements for me to board Ryanair Tenerife Sur to Dublin were:

Boarding Pass

Passport

Covid Vaccine Cert

Ireland Locator Form

Negative Covid Cert (any type of officially carried out test carried out within two previous days)

I would not recommend travelling with kids. Yes travel as a couple or in a very small group providing you are prepared for this and to be detained if you test positive, be prepared to pay extra for new flights and accommodation. Talk to fellow travellers about strategy if one tests positive and others negative so that ye might part company in isolation. It looks like if you do “abandon” your sick friend or relative you will probably not be abandoning a person liable to become very sick. But it all has to be thought about and kind of planned for theoretically.

Eg, take a young healthy couple both with jobs back in Ireland. One tests positive and required to isolate in another hotel. The other tests negative and proves to be able to return to Ireland and resume work & practicalities etc. There should be an agreement that if this should happen there will be no resentment about the healthy party so doing, once the person left behind is in very little danger of deteriorating with Omicron and should be perfect fly able to get home without difficulty once isolation period ends.

Seems about every third person or so has Omicron. There’s no stopping it. Just let vaccination mostly take care of possibility of significant illness. You are going to get Omicron, this has got to be a given. As my neighbour says they are quite pleased to be getting it done with. Although it may revisit, they said knowing it’s so mild is reassuring and just a minor nuisance. Keep paracetamol in stock, any rehydration salts if needed, and the basics of teabags, tinned food and jax roll.

blade1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378743#Comment_118378743

Don't mention Jax roll ffs!!!

You'll cause a stampede 😂

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378457#Comment_118378457

Well I’m thinking of the practicalities of that. The two families I speak of here were staying in most houses with a fair number of rooms. Those who tested positive stayed within their rooms, but as most rooms had no en-suite it has been necessary to share bathrooms, windows kept wide open etc. downstairs loo in one house designated as for non-positive use. If everyone of those large households is to isolate they’d need to hire a hotel or rent a row of houses.

Perhaps everybody should be routinely not mixing with any other household, and perhaps I should have cancelled my trip. There are no straightforward solutions, except it seems locking stable doors in all countries where all the horses have already bolted and run free seems a bit pointless now.

We are just gonna get Omicron. My own personal belief is that it’s coming time to live with it, though I fully respect different views as we are still learning about it.

MTU

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378451#Comment_118378451

We all just need to hang in there for a few more months. Get vaccine three and four done.

lukas8888

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118378724#Comment_118378724

Thank you,undestand all that i thought you were posting about entry to Teneriffe from Ireland

Buddy Bubs

Ok so here's a question....I tested positive on 23rd December. Antigen and PCR. Symptoms started on 21st. I am fine now, was never that bad anyway. So my isolation ends on 31st.

GF has tested positive today and is sick a bit, but she'll be grand. Her symptoms started yesterday, 26th.

Her isolation will run to the 5th Jan. But what does this mean for me? Am I now also 5th Jan? I don't believe so but just checking....

MTU

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379002#Comment_118379002

Have you vaccine three got?

JacksonHeightsOwn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379002#Comment_118379002

No, you're good to go

Buddy Bubs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379005#Comment_118379005

No, just the original 2. Funny enough I got text for number 3 the night I tested positive which I can't get now.

corkie

I know that most consider the GS Confirm cases not of importance.

Said I was taking a break 24 to 48 hours from posting on Coronavirus (COVID-19) forums here.

It has been over that period and also there was no numbers to report in that time anyway.

https://twitter.com/UKHSA/status/1475531005511536640

45,307 additional confirmed cases of the #Omicron, UK now total 159,932.

UK PDF: - Omicron daily overview: 27 December 2021

With Prevalence* estimate at 90%

No @ECDC_Outbreaks reports yet.

I wonder are the UK figures a combined figure for last two days?

total (worldwide) 249,456 Deaths at 42

MTU

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379028#Comment_118379028

An IT glitch I guess.

Buddy Bubs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379116#Comment_118379116

No, sorry the night I tested positive on antigen, they wouldn't have known. pcr was next day.

TonyMaloney

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118377805#Comment_118377805

This isn't necessarily what I think should happen, but what I predict will happen.

Given the mobility data above, which nphet also rely upon, I'd be surprised if they don't recommend further restrictions very soon.

There's a lot we don't know still, but what we do know is pretty bloody bad.

Only Denmark and two micro states have a higher incidence rate than us. And I have a feeling we'd be topping the charts had Christmas not happened (positivity rate is nearly 50%).

We know our ICU and hospital capacity is lacking, and we know that nphet are a cautious bunch.

I'd be hugely surprised if nphet don't recommend something pretty severe in the next day or so. I would think they'll want something in place before new years.

And given what happened last Christmas, I'd also be surprised if the government don't accept the recommendations.

Again, before you all eat me alive, this is what I think will happen. Not should.

corkie

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/27/omicron-absences-leave-public-services-in-a-perilous-state

Omicron absences leave public services in ‘perilous state’

Unions, school leaders and local authorities warn Covid-related absences are putting staff under pressure

As much as 40% of NHS staff in London alone could be absent because of rising Covid-19 infections under the “worst-case scenario” envisaged by experts, it emerged on Monday.

“We’d hope that’s a worst-case scenario, but because we are already seeing an increase, I think it wouldn’t be unrealistic to expect that to go up significantly,” said Prof Alison Leary, chair of healthcare and workforce modelling at London South Bank University.

London’s absence rate was up by about 30%, depending on the organisation, which included people who were isolating because of positive tests, she told BBC Radio 4’s World at One.

Will we have similar problems here? Or have we reached that point yet?

ACitizenErased

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379182#Comment_118379182

To be honest if we're seeing mild illness then there needs to be a serious serious review of isolation protocol so that the public services can keep running. At some stage you have to prioritise the function of society as a whole.

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379002#Comment_118379002

You're fine on Day 10 (31st). No longer infectious.

No need for booster either. You may well have a more robust immunity than 2 vaccines and a booster provide.

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379116#Comment_118379116

I don't believe the PCR system and Vaccination system are connected.

Buddy will need to refuse the booster himself - by replying covid to the text message I think

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379285#Comment_118379285

Is it true that infection gives better immunity than the booster?

Does anyone know how they actually compare?

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379167#Comment_118379167

So what specifically? Closure of hospitality and 'nonessential' retail?

Questionequals

Do PCR tests distinguish between Omicron/other covid variations. Or are further test carried out on samples to confirm variant?

Seathrun66

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379167#Comment_118379167

You said that only Denmark and two micros states (?) have a higher incidence rate than us. Untrue again - you earlier gave false information on Slovak and Czech testing.

France had over 100,000 cases yesterday, way above our per capita rate. The UK had 98.5k cases today, nearly 15 times our 6.7k cases and above us per capita. There's no need to make up facts, particularly when it's so easy to check and correct them.

Our death rate is also well below most European countries, particularly the ex-Warsaw Pact ones. That's due to Ireland being highly vaccinated and testing very heavily. Many nations' figures are greatly underestimated due to a shortfall in testing. Focus on the death rates.

At the moment I'd assess that we're in a pretty strong position regarding the variant, but HSE staff getting ill will lead to pressure and problems.

MTU

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118379465#Comment_118379465

Vaccine four will. Prevention is better than cure.