Covid 19 Part XXXV-956,720 ROI (5,952 deaths) 452,946 NI (3,002 deaths) (08/01) Read OP

It's not just the teachers union. There are large sections of society that just aren't getting it yet. The need for a test for every little symptom is gone. Until they shut these test centres down people will keep using them.

They have no option but to let it rip through the schools because they have not got the capacity even they wanted to test them. 500K kids in school and 25K capacity would take 5 weeks to give every kid in school a test and that is without anyone else getting one.

You are contradicting yourself there .

Cases in hospital and ICU , as I said before , are NOT stable as you claimed , but rising !

Quite a bit in the last week. Over 20% .

Many HCWs by now , including myself , are into the probable waning time of vaccines, having had our jabs with the high risk categories , with nothing as of yet about boosters for us , although it is likely that if it is going to rip through unvaccinated as you and seamus said, that that will adversely affect everyone in healthcare .

I frankly don't want to see vaccinations required for everybody as it is unnecessary at this stage but I don't want to be nursing rising cases without adequate protection .

The more HCWs get infected the more pressure the hospitals will be under , and that will be in the next few months over winter , unless NIAC says something soon about vaccinations for high risk and HCWs, not just immunocompromised and over 80s .

So when you say that unvaccinated people have made their choice , so if they get it, tough , maybe spare a thought for those that have to look after the rising numbers of Covid patients , on top of everything else .

From everything wrote on it, the waning relates to it's effects on transmission. It still covers serious illness grand, but that's not really useful if a bunch of HCWs are going to end up transmitting it in hospital to people with comprised immune systems in there, or for hospitals coping with sick leave.

Based on the last 18 months we can go to 2,000 cases in hospital if necessary but then everything stops. There doesn't seem to be any huge concern over our current hospitalisations at present and I've no idea at what level they might cause alarm.

Wasnt that when the private hospitals were taking non Covid patients and taking surgical cases from the public system .? As far as I know that arrangement is no longer in place .

Hopefully. Always a bit difficult when symptoms are so similar. Only real difference is the lack of taste/smell one. Coughs, sore throat, congested nose etc are pretty common across a bunch.

Let's hope we don't get anywhere near that again.

Yeah it seems to be 12 months or where certain metrics are reached. Story from March.

Yep. Flying around at the moment.

A lot of UK media have picked up on it; https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/sep/24/return-of-the-common-cold-infections-surge-in-uk-as-autumn-arrives

Our own media are tentative to talk about it, largely because they're concerned that people will stop getting tested for covid. Back in February/March NPHET said there was nothing else going around, so if you feel sick, it's probably covid. But tens of thousands of children and parents who returned a negative test discovered that in fact, there are still colds in circulation.

And they always ramp up when the kids go back to school. Go get a test, but it's more than likely just a cold. Especially if you have kids.

Right, getting closer to addressing the elephant in the room

What happens if the ICU numbers keep rising ?

No point saying "new normal", "learn to live with it", "let it rip" if our health service cant cope.

Should the long term solution not be turning a facility like Citywest into an ICU/ventilation centre.

If not then the only other card our government have to play is Lockdown#4.

70% in ICU are unvaccinated. Maybe put the antivaxxers into lockdown? Would that be a good suggestion for your lockdown box?

LOL. This thread is about posters constantly looking for arguments for lockdowns. Thankfully these threads don’t reflect the reality out there with people moving on with their lives, including myself. Life couldn’t be better.