The number of tests completed yesterday was 6583

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NEW: UK officials are looking to convert up to 10 more sites across the country into makeshift #coronavirus hospitals similar to the ExCel exhibition centre in London, @SkyNews understands.
My piece with @KateEMcCann

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I find this quite alarming to be honest.

Also City Airport was closed and is now known as RAF Nightingale. C130 planes were performing take off and land drills yesterday.

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I see the Channel islands has reported it's first death

If Dyson manufacture all those respirators, how long will it take to get them to the UK from Dysons factory in the far east? Their manufacturing moved to Singapore didn't it?

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Yes, perhaps a mix of ignorance and careless use of language?

There’s a lot of information available so there’s really no excuse for not getting basic facts right.

 

An interesting interview with Stuart Rose on R4 this morning; you may know he is head of Ocado and ran M&S.  He made the point several times that there’s enough food but the whole system is geared to meeting a certain level of demand. Apparently the major food retailers are cooperating.

He also made the point that the system is built on JIT principles because of the need to get fresh food from farm/factory/port to people’s homes. Gearing up isn’t straightforward.

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2-3 hours to Changi, 2-3 hours to load the container, 14-hour flight, another few hours to clear customs.

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On flightradar24, the drone GTEKV is out over the channel again looking for migrant boats.

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My son-in-law told me about this the other day, but I was sworn to secrecy until it was official.

The NEC in Birmingham is being transformed into an emergency hospital with thousands of beds, as is a big site in Manchester. Since London is the epicentre of the outbreak, the RAF will be used to ferry sick patients out of the capital to the NEC via Birmingham airport.

There will be three emergency hospitals with military involvement - the Excel Centre, the NEC and the Manchester site.

People are whinging all the time about the government, but behind the scenes they are acting fast - the orders for ventilators from the likes of Dyson and other manufacturers are for these emergency hospitals.

 

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The Manchester site is known as Manchester Central, formally known as the G-Mex Centre. An old railway station that often holds the Tory Conference. 

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The other way of viewing it would be that’s it’s good to see them planning in line with the modelling.  Better to have the capacity and not actually need it than see existing hospitals swamped.

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Thanks - I did not know which site was being used for Manchester.

No doubt the Scottish Executive is preparing a similar site in Glasgow or Edinburgh. So that will be four new massive emergency hospitals - we don't need to break new ground for them like they did in Wuhan.

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  The one in the North is where my daughter’s partner was working.  They were tasked to complete two weeks ahead of schedule and they finished their job yesterday!  He is now back home. 

There is a lot of good stuff going on behind the scenes. Too much to keep up with and sadly not being recognised and appreciated by the general public.  People are just far too quick to criticise and pick up on everything negative.  

Patience and understanding have gone out the window!  Of course some people are going to give out the wrong message because one person cannot possibly remember everything that’s happening.  There’s so much being done in a very short space of time.  Let’s have a bit of faith and let them get on with the important things!

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This is very good news.  

My complaints continue to be:

1) Poor communication and mixed messages. It turns out that some MPs and junior ministers really are either stupid, incompetent or both. Anyone who makes it to that level should be able to grasp the basics.

2) NHS front line staff are reporting that some of the equipment is not fit for purpose. For example, surgical masks instead of FFP3.

3) Testing has not ramped up to where it should be by now. NHS front line staff in some cases are self isolating because they can't get a test. I thought one of the advantages of a centralised healthcare system (like the NHS) is that in situations like this a one size fits all approach is beneficial because of economies of scale. That appears not to be the case with testing.

 

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Spot on, Caz.  

Looking back we will be noting just how much was achieved, how many correct decisions were taken and how well everything was implemented.  

Just like in a war, not every detail is done the right way or at the right time but when you’re taking thousands of decisions and implementing thousands of tasks it’s the overall direction of travel that matters, not the odd error.

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London should have been locked down last Friday! It might have spared te rest of the uk from it and prevented a lot of the madness last weekend.

I looked that up and it seems to have flowed several times this century - do people in Berko have very short memories? ;)

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No matter how serious an issue climate change may be, there is surely absolutely no way they can allow the UN conference planned to take place in Glasgow in November to proceed unless COVID-19 is more or less wiped out of existence by that time (a very big "if", as far as I'm concerned).

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/18331354.police-chiefs-hear-safe-secure-cop26-can-happen-despite-coronavirus-pandemic/

 

 

 

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When it comes to testing, according to the MSM this morning, the issue is one of supply of test kits. All countries are buying up all supplies and there are not enough to go round. Another argument for having our own labs for the production of such items for UK use.

The NHS is a clumsy organisation and probably is not the best model for delivering healthcare in normal times, but during an epidemic, it should come into its own - but it cannot do the job if it relies on purchasing vital test kits and equipment from places like China - works during normal times, but we are left with our pants round our ankles at times like the present.

 

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So the real reason is finally revealed:

Why isn't the UK testing more?

The WHO has called on all countries to "test, test, test".

So why isn't the UK testing more people?

It basically comes down to resources. At the moment, the UK doesn't have the capacity to do mass testing - so healthcare systems have to start prioritising.

The government's chief medical officer says the UK is trying to buy more testing kits but points to a current global bottleneck on buying more kits.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-52044452

 

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This is what I was saying yesterday. Instead of the PM going for big statements like 10-25K daily. Square with the public, be honest and clear.

If it’s a worldwide supply issue say that. For two weeks we’ve heard that this will hit 10K in the coming days and this in turns has turned into weeks

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That's just Hope's interpretation.

Another intepretation was that BBC article which said it was fine. 'Essential travel' is also defined as one of those four exceptions anyway. Anyway for me it is local. Nowhere has the government forbade driving 1 mile to a remote area to excercise with the aim of reducing the risk of COVID transmission.

 

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Surely at this stage the anti-body testing is more important than mass (positive/negative) testing. It will perhaps confirm or lay to rest those theories that a massive proportion of the country have already had it.

I would love to believe it , but I really cannot see it being the case that up to 50% of the country have already had it because generally speaking our hospitals/care homes etc are not overrun with cases like some other countries and have not been over the last few months.  It stands to reasons countries that are overrun have a much higher prevalence of cases. Most tests are also coming back negative and have been doing all along.

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There is going to have to be some very big changes post Covid-19 in the way trade is done and how we live.This virus is a warning from nature saying `change your ways or else`. Covid-19 is a highly contagious virus but it is NOT a deadly one with roughly a 2%-4% mortality rate.

We must get our nhs properly funded and equipped,shortages of basic PPE is criminal. And as individuals we all must continue to practise improved personal hygiene ie much more frequent handwashing and general cleaning.This goes for the world over and governments/authorities must hammer this messege home.Standards of food hygiene here in the uk must become the norm in the whole world.

The next pandemic may be both as highly contagious and as deadly as the bubonic plague.

China have reported;

67 new confirmed cases all were imported from abroad
6 new deaths
58 new suspected cases all were imported from abroad

Antibody testing begins in Holland next week if this article is correct:

NEXT WEEK, BLOOD banks across the Netherlands are set to begin a nationwide experiment. As donations arrive—about 7,000 of them per week is the norm—they’ll be screened with the usual battery of tests that keep the blood supply safe, plus one more: a test for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. 

https://www.wired.com/story/researchers-push-for-mass-blood-tests-as-a-covid-19-strategy/

 

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