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Coronavirus (COVID-19)


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2 hours ago, welshbairn said:

I don't see the problem if it reduce your chances of getting seriously ill and it's voluntary, it's about the easiest medical procedure there is. 

Except it's completely unnecessary, impractical and a total waste of resources, which is why the scientific discourse is shifting to annual boosters for vulnerable groups each autumn, as per flu. After a three course vaccine, non-vulnerable people are not going to be susceptible to serious illness, if they ever were.

 

33 minutes ago, gav-ffc said:

  • So those ICU numbers…

If there's no data issues then that is astonishing. I fully expect hospitals to empty in the next month or two, but even if it was double that at this point it's extremely good news.

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1 hour ago, welshbairn said:

I'm expecting the passport to be dropped in the next few weeks and internationally by the summer. At the moment the 4th jag is only for the shielded, by the time it's more widely available I doubt it will be much of an issue whether you take it or not.

Agreed, think the passports will be binned in the coming weeks. Generally see all remaining restrictions gone in the coming months. 

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1 minute ago, Thereisalight.. said:

I dont know what's the most surprising news from today - A , Ireland ditching restrictions including vaccine passports before we do, or B a new varient being investigated 🙄

I don't know but i think you will be okay as the new variants are pretty much harmless to most people.

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Quote

More than 30,000 users disabled Scotland’s Covid contact tracing app in the run up to Christmas.

Figures obtained by STV News revealed 31,797 “active users” of the Protect Scotland App switched it off from the weeks commencing October 4 to December 27.

Despite having more than 2.4 million downloads, only 877,550 devices were actively using the app at the end of last year.

Latest figures from the Scottish Government on January 20 state that the most up to date active user figure is 873,590 – that’s 35,757 less users than at the start of October.

The app uses bluetooth to notify a person if they have been in close proximity to someone who had Covid-19 at time of contact.

The country saw coronavirus cases rise during October followed by fears of a more transmissible mutation discovered in South Africa in November.

The first cases of the Omicron variant in Scotland were traced back to a “single private event” held on November 20.

This followed the First Minister warning that new restrictions could not be ruled out.

During the same period as the dip in user activity, more than 50,000 notifications or ‘pings’ appeared on devices.

Some professionals working in healthcare and education were advised by bosses to turn off their app during work as it was causing staffing issues with so many being told to self-isolate.

Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Dr Sandesh Gulhane MSP said: “The SNP’s failures on test and protect continue to mount up. Not only are they presiding over an overwhelmed system, they are simply not doing enough to encourage people to continue to use it.

“It is clear that many simply didn’t want to be caught up in the SNP’s strict self-isolation rules and miss out on Christmas so deleted the app altogether.

“If the SNP had listened sooner to Scottish Conservative calls for the isolation period to be cut to seven days, it’s likely fewer would have done so.”

A Freedom of Information request also found Scottish Government spending on the app nears £1m (£914,844) as of January 21, 2022.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We continue to review the need for digital tools to help suppress transmission of the virus and are confident the Protect Scotland app provides value for money.”

Officials told STV News, that the figures provided show active users by the device and may not be one citizen. As the app is anonymous it could be that one person has it turned on two or more devices.

They added: “It is not correct to correlate a drop in daily active users with a reduction in individual citizen usage in the run up to Christmas 2021. The number of daily active users demonstrates the number of unique devices that are active, and therefore not a count of individual citizen usage.

“The numbers can fluctuate based on a number of circumstances such as users pausing the app because they work in the NHS, the device being powered off or whether they have Bluetooth turned on.

“We’re confident the app is working effectively and it is playing an essential role in the Test and Protect system to help suppress virus transmission.

“Between the 1st and 25th of December 2021 a total of 51,118 downloads of the Protect Scotland app were recorded.”

 

https://news.stv.tv/scotland/over-30000-users-disabled-scotlands-tracing-app-in-christmas-run-up

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Ireland removing vaccine passports and mandatory masks (or did I misread that?) before us changes the game TBH.
If Northern Ireland follows, Sturgeon can't be using the "Ah but it's just the Tories" stick for much longer.

Masks in Ireland will remain until at least the end of February which is a bit better than our annoyingly open ended “ for some time “ that we’ve been spoonfed
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More than 30,000 users disabled Scotland’s Covid contact tracing app in the run up to Christmas.
Figures obtained by STV News revealed 31,797 “active users” of the Protect Scotland App switched it off from the weeks commencing October 4 to December 27.
Despite having more than 2.4 million downloads, only 877,550 devices were actively using the app at the end of last year.
Latest figures from the Scottish Government on January 20 state that the most up to date active user figure is 873,590 – that’s 35,757 less users than at the start of October.
The app uses bluetooth to notify a person if they have been in close proximity to someone who had Covid-19 at time of contact.
The country saw coronavirus cases rise during October followed by fears of a more transmissible mutation discovered in South Africa in November.
The first cases of the Omicron variant in Scotland were traced back to a “single private event” held on November 20.
This followed the First Minister warning that new restrictions could not be ruled out.
During the same period as the dip in user activity, more than 50,000 notifications or ‘pings’ appeared on devices.
Some professionals working in healthcare and education were advised by bosses to turn off their app during work as it was causing staffing issues with so many being told to self-isolate.
Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Dr Sandesh Gulhane MSP said: “The SNP’s failures on test and protect continue to mount up. Not only are they presiding over an overwhelmed system, they are simply not doing enough to encourage people to continue to use it.
“It is clear that many simply didn’t want to be caught up in the SNP’s strict self-isolation rules and miss out on Christmas so deleted the app altogether.
“If the SNP had listened sooner to Scottish Conservative calls for the isolation period to be cut to seven days, it’s likely fewer would have done so.”
A Freedom of Information request also found Scottish Government spending on the app nears £1m (£914,844) as of January 21, 2022.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We continue to review the need for digital tools to help suppress transmission of the virus and are confident the Protect Scotland app provides value for money.”
Officials told STV News, that the figures provided show active users by the device and may not be one citizen. As the app is anonymous it could be that one person has it turned on two or more devices.
They added: “It is not correct to correlate a drop in daily active users with a reduction in individual citizen usage in the run up to Christmas 2021. The number of daily active users demonstrates the number of unique devices that are active, and therefore not a count of individual citizen usage.
“The numbers can fluctuate based on a number of circumstances such as users pausing the app because they work in the NHS, the device being powered off or whether they have Bluetooth turned on.
“We’re confident the app is working effectively and it is playing an essential role in the Test and Protect system to help suppress virus transmission.
“Between the 1st and 25th of December 2021 a total of 51,118 downloads of the Protect Scotland app were recorded.”
 
https://news.stv.tv/scotland/over-30000-users-disabled-scotlands-tracing-app-in-christmas-run-up

I just realised I’ve still got it on my phone. Never once been pinged.
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https://www.scotsman.com/health/covid-scotland-scottish-government-invest-ps55500-to-provide-free-badges-and-lanyards-for-people-who-want-more-space-in-public-3537790
 
There are people who are extremely clinically vulnerable to Covid who have been shielding for the duration - we have a family friend who has a close family member in this position. I’m not sure if this scheme is ideally placed to sort this though. I don’t really know the best way to help people who are extremely vulnerable to get out of isolation tbh.

You can also bet that the scheme will be used by people who aren’t clinically extremely vulnerable but are paranoid about Covid.

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23 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

https://www.scotsman.com/health/covid-scotland-scottish-government-invest-ps55500-to-provide-free-badges-and-lanyards-for-people-who-want-more-space-in-public-3537790
 
There are people who are extremely clinically vulnerable to Covid who have been shielding for the duration - we have a family friend who has a close family member in this position. I’m not sure if this scheme is ideally placed to sort this though. I don’t really know the best way to help people who are extremely vulnerable to get out of isolation tbh.

You can also bet that the scheme will be used by people who aren’t clinically extremely vulnerable but are paranoid about Covid.

It's pretty much designed with the paranoid in mind as much as the vulnerable.  The piece says as much.

To be honest, I don't really see a problem with that.

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3 minutes ago, oaksoft said:

That isn't really happening to any significant degree now. I can't imagine it will suddenly start any time soon.

You're right, but whether that will still be the case when they can wear their badge to get space is still to be seen.

People were very tetchy in supermarkets at first when the one way arrows etc were on the floor / you squeezed by for some beans etc.

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  •  
    • 6,768 new cases of COVID-19 reported. Please note that as of 13 January 2022, this figure includes cases identified using either a first LFD (lateral flow device) or PCR (polymerase chain reaction) positive test
    • 30 new reported death(s) of people who have tested positive.
    • 16 people were in intensive care yesterday with recently confirmed COVID-19* 
    • 1,458 people were in hospital yesterday with recently confirmed COVID-19*
    • 4,405,059 people have received the first dose of the Covid vaccination, 4,102,038 have received their second dose, and 3,245,885 have received a third dose or booster
     

So those ICU numbers…

There’s a health board’s numbers missing for that day. Took me by surprise as well before I noticed.
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