IOM Covid removing restrictions

[Shake me up Judy]

No use giving us the figures on a weekly basis Alf. That's a dumbshit idea. Look at the variation in the last week alone. The public need and have a right to know. 

[TheTeapot]

Compare if you will this article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-59883962 , in which some of our representatives demand children are ordered to wear masks all day and this one https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59895934 

[WTF]

i can't believe JW folded early , that was unexpected , i may buy a lottery ticket.

[Passing Time]

2 hours ago, AcousticallyChallenged said:

Is there tea and cake to go with this new launch?

The Bees may rustle something up in the new pressure cooker

[hissingsid]

You did not give that lovely lady a pressure cooker for Christmas 🙄 ?

[Happier diner]

3 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

To be fair it's not really comparing like with like.  The UK  figures are based on PCR only, while the Manx ones are PCR + reported LFTs.

The figures are taken from the weekly Surveillance Report  

I know you are our own statto and am not challenging you but "The UK  figures are based on PCR only". Is this correct. Its a bit misleading though , until just recently the UK were still following up at positive LFTs with a PCR. I wonder if they will start including LFTs as we have done now they have changed.

Surely we should all be using the same measure

[Zarley]

3 minutes ago, Happier diner said:

I know you are our own statto and am not challenging you but "The UK  figures are based on PCR only". Is this correct. Its a bit misleading though , until just recently the UK were still following up at positive LFTs with a PCR. I wonder if they will start including LFTs as we have done now they have changed.

Surely we should all be using the same measure

 

They're changing next week, seemingly following us this time instead of the other way around.

Quote

People are being urged to register the results of home Covid tests after the announcement that follow-up PCRs will be suspended for asymptomatic people with a positive lateral flow test in England.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said the shift reflected the high accuracy of the tests and prevalence of coronavirus, which means the chances of false positives are low. However, the new system will rely more heavily on people registering their own positive test result.

 

A spokesperson said: “From the 11th, we would really encourage people to register results, especially if they’re positive, there is a greater need for that.”

Lateral flow test results already feed into official daily Covid case numbers and, in England, represented almost a third of reported cases on 31 December.

 

Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, the chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge, said: “It will become much more important that people report positive lateral flow tests otherwise nobody will know what’s going on. There’s already a problem with daily cases, with people not getting tested or not reporting results.”

The change will apply only to those in England taking routine lateral flow tests who do not have any symptoms of coronavirus, and they must still report their result on gov.uk and self-isolate for the minimum seven days. Anyone with any of the three main Covid symptoms listed by the government, which are a high temperature, persistent cough and a loss or change to sense of smell or taste, must self-isolate, take a PCR test, and await the results.

UKHSA said lateral flow devices (LFDs) were most effective for people without symptoms, with 80% accuracy in finding the people with high viral loads who are most infectious. The agency added that for every 10,000 lateral flow tests carried out, there are likely to be fewer than three false positive results.

The agency added that this approach replicated the one taken between January and March last year, when confirmatory PCR tests were also suspended.

Jenny Harries, UKHSA’s chief executive, said: “While cases of Covid continue to rise, this tried-and-tested approach means that LFDs can be used confidently to indicate Covid-19 infection without the need for PCR confirmation.”

There are a small number of exceptions to the change, including people eligible for the £500 test-and-trace support payment, people participating in research and surveillance programmes, and the 1 million people at risk of becoming seriously ill from coronavirus who have been contacted by the NHS.

The care minister, Gillian Keegan, told the Today programme that the change was intended to reflect the “accuracy and the amount of lateral flow tests” rather than expressly to curb staff shortages. She said there were “no immediate plans” to reduce the seven-day minimum isolation period down to five if a negative lateral flow is obtained, but added that it was “a reasonable question to ask” and one that was being considered by scientists.

About 1 million people are thought to be isolating due to Covid, causing widespread absences and disruption across essential services, including healthcare, police and food processing.

 

Hospitals are reporting that they are struggling to cope with staff absences, with several declaring critical incidents and 17 in Greater Manchester saying they would suspend some non-urgent surgery as 15% of staff were off sick. An internal memo from the North East ambulance service foundation trust suggested that call handlers recommend people suffering from a heart attack or stroke get a lift into hospital from friends or family.

Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, told the Today programme that healthcare absences were averaging at about 10%, with Covid the biggest reason, but that this figure was much higher in some hospital trusts.

He approved of the plans to remove the confirmatory PCR “as long as it’s based on the science” and not on “politics and blind hope”, and welcomed any measures that could ease pressure on hospitals, which are asking staff on leave or rest days, or who are recently retired, to come back.

 This article was amended on 6 January 2021 to clarify that high temperature, persistent cough and a loss or change to sense of smell or taste are the three main Covid symptoms listed by the government.

 

Apologies for the screwed up formatting. 

Link to the quoted article:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/05/covid-uk-follow-up-pcr-positive-lateral-flow-test 

[2112]

The NPM this evening has Alf and the Government dick waving as they led the way over the use of LFDs as compared to PCR testing. 
 

Do IOMG never learn, smugness and boasting  will come back to bite the islands arse, it has happened before. 12 months ago, ex CM Quayle was dick waving in front of the media, television appearances galore. Then came the lockdowns and circuit breakers …………… why can’t we keep quiet and hide any success to ourselves?

[Omobono]

2 hours ago, Shake me up Judy said:

No use giving us the figures on a weekly basis Alf. That's a dumbshit idea. Look at the variation in the last week alone. The public need and have a right to know. 

there should be a daily update  ,especially until the numbers start to drop again , otherwise people will get complacent  and throw caution to the wind , and the back bench MHK,s should stop the silly questions and point scoring  that is clearly undermining common sense ,and causing  even more confusion ,

 

[the stinking enigma]

 I don't really understand why we are still doing 300 odd pcr's a day. Without switching to lft's for the general population not sure how they could have kept up. That said, it seems to have gone smoothly enough in that respect, credit where credit is due so i'd like to congratulate the leiutenant governor for telling alf this is what we are doing.

[x-in-man]

We are a test bed for the UK.

i heard last Autumn that by the start of Feb. the UK with be LFT only, by April this year they will only be testing if you are admitted to hospital/due in for a service.  By May tested if admitted with symptoms only in the UK.

Seems to be following what I was told so far

 

 

 

[Boris Johnson]

6 hours ago, hissingsid said:

Alf was saying for accuracy purposes the numbers may be released once a week in the near future.    I think this is backward thinking, I presume he is trying to stop some people obsessing, which it won’t but many people use the figures as a gauge as to whether to hold an event or not.     I am out, hopefully, to two gatherings next week I am pretty desperate that they go ahead as I am missing my friends but they are both on a we will see basis at the moment by the organisers if the figures start dipping in the next few days we will probably go ahead obviously taking sensible precautions but if we had to wait for a weekly report it would be more difficult to decide ..yes..or no.    This Government is being really wish washy and losing a lot of goodwill it is difficult to make clear judgements without the facts.

Agree

We need some figures to make a risk assessment for ourselves.

My sister has COPD so is far more wary of going out than I am, this is what the figures are useful for.

Also we are near the top of the list for world wide infection per 100,000 - far better  advertising for the island, and free, than a load of stupid fairy houses................................

Edited January 6, 2022 by Boris Johnson

[Paulos The Great]

4 hours ago, Nom de plume said:

The three of them were down near the prom at lunchtime having a right old knees up.

They’ll all be …. 

[craggy_steve]

32 minutes ago, Paulos The Great said:

They’ll all be …. 

Actually impossible to cure in my case

But at least I don't have your problem  

[2112]

1 hour ago, Paulos The Great said:

They’ll all be …. 

Jeez I’ll Surrender.