Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Salvo Montalbano]

Given it's in the corridors for literally minutes between periods there won't be a teacher in sight. Probably school kids as split as the rest of society on the mask issue. "Mass brawl between periods 3 and 4 headmaster...maskers v antivaxers"

Can't speak for all schools of course but we have always had staff in the corridors and crush areas during period changeover and at break etc. and there has been a visible increase in staff outside making sure pupils are following the one-way system and adhering as much as possible to social distancing measures (while waiting to get into a class etc.) so I wouldn't say "there won't be a teacher in sight". We are already getting the arsey kids arguing back when asked to follow the one way system and not to move seats once they are in class so I can imagine we'll get even more when marks become mandatory. It's all part of the fun and games if course, but if there was a serious anti-mask issue I'm not sure what we are meant to do about it. It's hard enough removing disruptive pupils anyway without parents phoning in and complaining that Lennon had been sent home for not wearing a mask but "masks are against my human rights and by the way don't you know it's a conspiracy to get Bill Gates access to our medical records".

Schools in Fife making the rules up about the need for testing as they go along. Whod have thought it. Public sector. Scot govt better get them told today.

Also the stupidity of the real new mask rule. My son is in S1 and still 11. Does not need to wear a mask as rule has been defined afaik for 12 years and up.

Again can't speak for all schools in Fife but my school certainly isn't - guidance remains that if you have one or more of the three main symptoms (new, persistent cough et al) then you should self isolate and get tested. Anyone who is ill but not showing those specific symptoms can still attend but they aren't going to be chasing folk up for being off if they are a bit nervous and want to get confirmation from a doctor or a test. If parents don't understand or don't want to know the difference between Covid-19 symptoms and those of a cold or other virus then I'm not sure how it falls on the school office staff (who are not medically trained, and often have kids in the schools themselves) to hold their hands. Whatever happened to personal responsibility?

[TheGreenElves]

1 hour ago, MixuFruit said:

As I read this tweet my mind was going HAHAHAH OF COURSE HE HAS IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME HE BROKE THE RECORD BY WAY TOO MUCH TO NOT BE... oh coronavirus.

https://mobile.twitter.com/business/status/1298447762648895490

 

To be fair it was clear that he had been infected, look how much he'd changed 

[invergowrie arab]

1 hour ago, Todd_is_God said:

It really helps if you read the full conversation before climbing on your high horse, champ.

The cough, as you can see if you take the time to read, is not persistent.

The issue here is not so much the school being overly cautious and going above public health guidelines, it's the knock on effect doing that has.

 

So if the cough isn't persistent why is the bairn off school?

[D.A.F.C]

There seems to be a pattern of politicians making decisions on both sides of the border that just cause more problems.
Everyone back to work tomorrow with no notice, everyone onto one or two trains.
Everyone do shopping online, online shopping crashed.
Everyone get tested if told, not enough tests.

They don't seem to be able to plan or prepare for anything.

[Todd_is_God]

2 minutes ago, invergowrie arab said:

So if the cough isn't persistent why is the bairn off school?

 

I get that schools are between a rock and hard place with symptoms etc, but we cannot have situations where parents cannot go to work unless they take a 6 hour round trip (assuming they can drive) to get a test simply because a school demands a test each time a pupil has the sniffles and coughs.

It's not sustainable and, unless everyone is on the same page, it's only going to get worse

[Gaz]

I've no idea who this Kev Williamson is, so I've no idea how reliable he is, but six days ago we were given an appointment, with 8 hours notice, at the Edinburgh Airport testing centre. We were there for an hour and counted about four cars in all that time. Has testing increased so exponentially in six days that a person from Edinburgh now has to drive to Inverness to get a test?

[PWL]

I imagine the schools will all be being over cautious just now to avoid the inevitable "Head allowed kids to return to plague cursed school" tabloid headlines when/if we see a school as a super cluster. 

Hopefully it will settle soon. 

 

 

[Todd_is_God]

5 minutes ago, Gaz said:

I've no idea who this Kev Williamson is, so I've no idea how reliable he is, but six days ago we were given an appointment, with 8 hours notice, at the Edinburgh Airport testing centre. We were there for an hour and counted about four cars in all that time. Has testing increased so exponentially in six days that a person from Edinburgh now has to drive to Inverness to get a test?

Possibly, tbh. It was only on Monday of this week that NS was asked about why someone was told to go Belfast for a test.

A glitch was given as the explanation at the time, but it would certainly appear that there is an underlying capacity issue.

The constant references to outbreaks "linked to schools" in the media over the tail end of last week and the weekend will certainly not have helped.

Edited August 26, 2020 by Todd_is_God

[vikingTON]

2 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

I get that schools are between a rock and hard place with symptoms etc, but we cannot have situations where parents cannot go to work unless they take a 6 hour round trip (assuming they can drive) to get a test simply because a school demands a test each time a pupil has the sniffles and coughs.

Last time I checked the government was still recommending that people work from home wherever possible so many of them should in fact be working without leaving the house. We literally locked down an entire country for three months earlier this year so they can get off their cross for sitting in the house for a fortnight. 

Barely two weeks into the new term and it seems that some of the parents who were shrieking for the schools to go back full-time are now bitterly regretting that folly as merely the first, summer wave of respiratory illness wrecks their full-time mummy/full-time professional idyll. Which is a terrible, wee shame for them. 

Spoiler

 

[Coldo]

I think it's a system error more than capacity.  My daughter had a cold, and as said earlier, the school won't entertain anyone with a cough at all, so we went to book online and it was giving us Portree as our Test centre - we live in Balloch, Loch Lomond.

Phoned up the helpline no. on the Gov website and after about half an hour got someone and she booked us into Glasgow Airport Test Centre that day. Got the Test results back this morning - negative as expected, but still keeping her of school as she is still a bit bunged up and would no doubt draw attention from Mumsnet in the playground.

[Todd_is_God]

2 minutes ago, virginton said:

Last time I checked the government was still recommending that people work from home wherever possible so many of them should in fact be working without leaving the house. We literally locked down an entire country for three months earlier this year so they can get off their cross for sitting in the house for a fortnight. 

Barely two weeks into the new term and it seems that some of the parents who were shrieking for the schools to go back full-time are now bitterly regretting that folly as merely the first, summer wave of respiratory illness wrecks their full-time mummy/full-time professional idyll. Which is a terrible, wee shame for them. 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I don't know why i'm entertaining you as I know you are just as aware as I am that there are plenty of people who cannot, and have not, been working from home.

[ICTChris]

10 minutes ago, Gaz said:

I've no idea who this Kev Williamson is, so I've no idea how reliable he is, but six days ago we were given an appointment, with 8 hours notice, at the Edinburgh Airport testing centre. We were there for an hour and counted about four cars in all that time. Has testing increased so exponentially in six days that a person from Edinburgh now has to drive to Inverness to get a test?

Kev Williamson is a publisher and author, his firm published Trainspotting in 1993.  He's also been involved in politics, I think he was a member of the Scottish Socialist Party back before they all fell out about swinging.

I think that the return to school will be driving a lot of testing tbh, as has been said.  I was joking earlier but my son got a sniffle after going back to nursery, it'll be the same for kids who are now back in large groups after several months.  Add to that the caution, which is fairly understandable, from schools and parents about outbreaks and a rise in testing is inevitable.

[Todd_is_God]

5 minutes ago, Paco said:

I went through the process there to book a test as an experiment and was offered Aberdeen Airport. I’m in Edinburgh.

I tried there and was offered Sanquhar. Better than Aberdeen, but the Time Capsule is 10 minutes away at most.

It said there were 101 spots available over the next 5 days. That really isn't very many.

Edited August 26, 2020 by Todd_is_God

[Raithie]

Wee man still off today. Spoke to his school this morning. As expected only to request COVID test if displaying one of the main symptoms. If simply a cold then send him back when he's well enough. On top of that she said if when he returns he displays anything that they feel is a COVID symptom that they'll stick him in an isolation room until someone can pick him up (no qualms with that). I can imagine any cough and that'll be it, into the isolation room you go. Wifey also said if displays sickness and diarrhoea to get him tested as this is an apparent symptom of COVID now in children....

[vikingTON]

25 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

I don't know why i'm entertaining you as I know you are just as aware as I am that there are plenty of people who cannot, and have not, been working from home.

I wouldn't say that there are 'plenty' at all, given that public transport ran a skeleton service for fully three months of lockdown and even that provision was empty. It was only after lockdown restrictions were eased that commuters started barging back on every morning train to Glasgow for a few weeks under the delusion that getting to their physical place of work was somehow critical to turning the economy around. The country will effortlessly cope with a minority of workers staying at home to watch children who are by any definition ill of something. This culture of martyrdom is unsustainable in the middle of an epidemic. 

23 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

Kev Williamson is a publisher and author, his firm published Trainspotting in 1993.  He's also been involved in politics, I think he was a member of the Scottish Socialist Party back before they all fell out about swinging.

Clearly a key worker whose contribution to society must revolve around leaving the house everyday while his wean has a contagious disease. Fire him to the top of the priority list!

Edited August 26, 2020 by vikingTON

[Jacksgranda]

17 minutes ago, Raithie said:

Wee man still off today. Spoke to his school this morning. As expected only to request COVID test if displaying one of the main symptoms. If simply a cold then send him back when he's well enough. On top of that she said if when he returns he displays anything that they feel is a COVID symptom that they'll stick him in an isolation room until someone can pick him up (no qualms with that). I can imagine any cough and that'll be it, into the isolation room you go. Wifey also said if displays sickness and diarrhoea to get him tested as this is an apparent symptom of COVID now in children....

They might need more than one isolation room...

[Melanius Mullarkey]

188 slots in Dundee over the next 5 days.

I think the UK Gov website is fucked.

Who has their IT contract again...

[Todd_is_God]

3 minutes ago, virginton said:

I wouldn't say that there are 'plenty' at all, given that public transport ran a skeleton service for fully three months of lockdown and even that provision was empty. It was only after lockdown restrictions were eased that commuters started barging back on every morning train to Glasgow for a few weeks under the delusion that getting to their physical place of work was somehow critical to turning the economy around. The country will effortlessly cope with a minority of workers staying at home to watch children who are by any definition ill of something. This culture of martyrdom is unsustainable in the middle of an epidemic. 

The idea that most who cannot work from home would need to use public transport to get to work is absurd.

Public transport was (and still is) quiet because those office workers that use it can work from home.

Tradesmen, shop workers, hospitality workers, NHS workers etc will either have a van, or use private transport due to a number of reasons, including starting / finishing shifts outwith the times our (as i've previously mentioned) inadequate public transport system operates.

[Todd_is_God]

3 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

188 slots in Dundee over the next 5 days.

I think the UK Gov website is fucked.

Who has their IT contract again...

7 day average total tests in Scotland are currently 15,154

The current capacity in Scotland is listed as 15,500 on STV https://news.stv.tv/politics/more-than-14500-scots-tested-for-coronavirus-in-day

7 day new people being tested average is 7,049. That average is over 1,100 higher than what was, until last Thursday, the most new people tested in a single day.

That suggests that the UK Gov site is fine, but that demand for tests, particularly in the central belt, is outstripping capacity.

 

[vikingTON]

10 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

The idea that most who cannot work from home would need to use public transport to get to work is absurd.

Public transport was (and still is) quiet because those office workers that use it can work from home.

Tradesmen, shop workers, hospitality workers, NHS workers etc will either have a van, or use private transport due to a number of reasons, including starting / finishing shifts outwith the times our (as i've previously mentioned) inadequate public transport system operates.

Tradesmen and hospitality workers are really not essential to the functioning of the economy though: if they have to self-isolate for two weeks because their child has a contagious illness right now then that's just tough. Key workers like NHS staff and shop workers on the other hand have had a queue jump privilege since lockdown began: if they need their child tested to get back to their job, they are likely to get one as soon as they cite their key worker status, certainly when contacting by phone. 

The only reason why key workers might struggle to get a prompt and convenient test facility right now is due to the widespread selfish behaviour of parents in non-essential jobs who are desperate to get a wean with a runny nose tested so that they can fire them back into school first thing tomorrow morning. 

Edited August 26, 2020 by vikingTON