NWR new zero tolerance covid thread

Just got an email from NHS, actually we CAN report LFT result here using your NHS log-in:
Yes I was reporting a while back. I think a lot of people don’t bother now anyway, must admit I forgot with son two and remembered a few days later but didn’t follow up. With tests here was easy to wait until he was clear then released him :)
 
Reports on the BBC about cases rising. Its difficult to hear anything other than Ukrainian war at the moment. Interest how last year covid was all that was reported.
Is the vaccine waning ?
 
Reports on the BBC about cases rising. Its difficult to hear anything other than Ukrainian war at the moment. Interest how last year covid was all that was reported.
Is the vaccine waning ?
For Omicron we know the immunity from booster will decrease after around 12 weeks in sense of preventing (mainly symptomatic) infection. But in sense of preventing severe illness it is still pretty good, plus Omicron is less virulent.
Lancet paper

Saying that, can this protection last longer than 6 months, and when it would drop to too low a level within the higher risk group, remain to be seen. Surely there will be some data coming (from for example Israel).
 
I briefly heard whilst doing
something else, that the infections are across all age groups which is not as before. This suggests, it was suggested, that it wasn’t waning vaccines but an increase in infection generally, possibly because of opening up etc.
Nothing to worry about probably, Hey look at that big war thing.
 
I started testing positive on Tuesday, but then this morning in bed I had a slightly sore throat. "Oh no, it's come back!" I thought, but no - still negative. It's funny to think that one can get ill (ish in my case) with other things....
 
As far as I can tell, vaccinated people get it very mildly, so no?
Define very mild. I'm now on my fifth day of feeling very rough and staying in bed most of the day, much of it sleeping or snoozing. I've been suffering the most incredible migraine strength pressure/pain in my face, sinuses and eyes, and generally feel pretty enervated and drained. I'm sure this would still be classed as medically mild, but I've certainly had a far more severe case than my brother (who had it 2-3 weeks ago) and Sonia, who's already recovered and tested negative Tuesday.
 
Define very mild. I'm now on my fifth day of feeling very rough and staying in bed most of the day, much of it sleeping or snoozing. I've been suffering the most incredible migraine strength pressure/pain in my face, sinuses and eyes, and generally feel pretty enervated and drained. I'm sure this would still be classed as medically mild, but I've certainly had a far more severe case than my brother (who had it 2-3 weeks ago) and Sonia, who's already recovered and tested negative Tuesday.
Sorry to hear that, Phil. Sonia on the same track as me. Obviously it's going to vary. A member of Swedish side of the family died with it about 4 weeks ago, despite being triple jabbed. However, it sounds like you're a bit of an outlier. From what I've heard, about 90% have it less bad than you do.
 
I started testing positive on Tuesday, but then this morning in bed I had a slightly sore throat. "Oh no, it's come back!" I thought, but no - still negative. It's funny to think that one can get ill (ish in my case) with other things....
Alex
I’m confused. Must be misreading it. Did you have covid on Tuesday but not now?
 
Sorry to hear that, Phil. Sonia on the same track as me. Obviously it's going to vary. A member of Swedish side of the family died with it about 4 weeks ago, despite being triple jabbed. However, it sounds like you're a bit of an outlier. From what I've heard, about 90% have it less bad than you do.
Sonia did well. First negative test for me was this morning. I am officially released by the app at 23:59 tonight anyway.

I’d say I’ve been somewhere between the two. Not as bad as the flu’s that I used to get as a teenager in the 70’s, but worse than most colds I’ve had since then. Triple vaxxed and first time of any covid btw.

A question for Po (probably). I continued to produce faint lines of positive for about four or five days. They would have been something like days 6,7,8,9 on the app which would correspond with something like 9,10,11,12 after the onset of symptoms.

Would I simply be shedding dead virus, or would there still be the possibility that I might be contagious even at that late stage? I suppose the question really is “can an LFT differentiate between live and dead virus?” Or, as usual, is it more complicated than that?

Get well Phil!
 
A question for Po (probably). I continued to produce faint lines of positive for about four or five days. They would have been something like days 6,7,8,9 on the app which would correspond with something like 9,10,11,12 after the onset of symptoms.

Would I simply be shedding dead virus, or would there still be the possibility that I might be contagious even at that late stage? I suppose the question really is “can an LFT differentiate between live and dead virus?” Or, as usual, is it more complicated than that?
Hi Mark,

Sorry to hear that you got some rough time and glad that you are getting better now. From what I heard in the recent weeks, a longer positive period is more common. I doubt that it's because the test getting better, but that the virus load is generally higher in the case of Omicron.

For your question, yes, it is possible that LFT can also pick up inactive viruses, albeit it is a different principle of testing compared to PCR. PCR detects viral RNA and LFT detects viral protein. Note that LFT is less sensitive than PCR, so if you can see signal in LFT, then there is quite some viral protein to be detected, which means there are still many virus particles.

The US CDC suggested:
"The likelihood of recovering replication-competent (infectious) virus is very low after 10 days from onset of symptoms, except in people who have severe COVID-19 or who are moderately or severely immunocompromised.
  • For patients with mild COVID-19 who are not moderately or severely immunocompromised, replication-competent virus has not been recovered after 10 days following symptom onset for most patients.(38,39,54-58) With the recommended shorter isolation period for asymptomatic and mildly ill people with COVID-19, it is critical that people continue to properly wear well-fitted masks and take additional precautions for 5 days after leaving isolation.(59,60) Modeling data suggest that close to one-third of people remain infectious after day 5 and can potentially transmit the virus.(61) Outliers exist; in one case report, an adult with mild illness provided specimens that yielded replication-competent virus for up to 18 days after symptom onset.(62) ..."

However, all those papers cited were from 2020 or early 2021, when there was no even delta strain data, let alone Omicron. As said it was less known that people would have more than 9 days positive in LFT, but nowadays I heard more people having more than 9 days of LFT positive.

I think for a balanced approach, if you want to protect other people, which is a responsible and gracious thing to do (there is no more legal requirement for you to isolate anyway), maybe be extra careful when you still tested positive in LFT, avoid face to face contact without wearing a good facemask, especially if you still have some symptoms such as coughing.

Po
 
Thanks for taking the time to respond Po.

A lot of that information is as I suspected, but I certainly wasn’t aware that even a faint line on an LFT test suggests a lot of virus. The difficulty I had was in finding information about the contagious period of Omicron. Most of the information easily available on the internet seems to refer to much earlier variants. It’s as if nobody is interested in researching this variant (or maybe it’s just a bit early for enough data to have been collected?).

My understanding is that this variant seems to have a shorter incubation time, a shorter duration of “illness“ and I had therefore assumed a shorter duration of contagious period. Maybe not after all?
 
A lot of that information is as I suspected, but I certainly wasn’t aware that even a faint line on an LFT test suggests a lot of virus. The difficulty I had was in finding information about the contagious period of Omicron. Most of the information easily available on the internet seems to refer to much earlier variants. It’s as if nobody is interested in researching this variant (or maybe it’s just a bit early for enough data to have been collected?).

It can be both. Many Covid funding projects have been terminated (such as the one I was working in).

The comparison between LFT test and PCR test:

1647017680298.png

This is an asymptomatic study and not for Omicron, but just for the comparison between these two testing methods it doesn't matter that much. LFT detects N protein, which is not that heavily changed like S protein in Omicron. A faint but visible positive in LFT... I would say it's 60-80% (albeit it's faint, it's a clear positive every time you did it, correct?), and Ct value 19-26 would be a clear positive in PCR test, not borderline kind of.

(That is also the reason why previously the guideline suggested Covid carriers should have two days LFT negative before they finish isolation early)

My understanding is that this variant seems to have a shorter incubation time, a shorter duration of “illness“ and I had therefore assumed a shorter duration of contagious period. Maybe not after all?
Shorter illness is not the same as shorter duration of contagious period. People can be contagious after they "recovered", which is not uncommon for virus infection.
 
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Bluetooth contact tracing still seems to function. Trip to theatre in Chester on Friday to see Fascinating Aida (still as cutting and smutty as ever) and both of us pinged yesterday via the app. No requirement to isolate. We will both test but as I had it in December suspect that’s will be non-issue for me. Still to see whether E has to take any further action as she resisted it at Christmas. A reminder though that it is still lurking.
 
A reminder though that it [Covid] is still lurking.
It's more than just lurking. Rates remain high (a lot higher than the "dashboard" rates that are usually quoted), and are currently increasing. The last I heard was that R is 1.2.

But a lot of us are vaccinated, and omicron is still proving to be a mild variant.

Beyond that, I will not comment.
 
For sure there is massive underreporting. Here, very few people are getting an 'official' positive test, just isolating at home using LFTs.

You cant be part of the statistics without a test by a third party.
 
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