Wales to ease Lockdown rules

[Greensleeves]

Thanks Skoosh 

And another point for Guy who claims I am making 'political points'.  Perhaps he needs to check the definition of 'political' but I'll save him the effort:

political (adjective)  - relating to the government or public affairs of a country.

So how can any comments or opinions regarding the current administration's performance NOT be 'political'?

Good point Groom - yet another failure which we're supposed to overlook in case we are accused of being... political?

[LizzieL]

Austria is now doing "while you wait" testing at Vienna airport arrivals. Voluntary and costs passenger 190 Euros, but if negative avoids them having to go into quarantine for 14 days.

[groom]

Austria is now doing "while you wait" testing at Vienna airport arrivals. Voluntary and costs passenger 190 Euros, but if negative avoids them having to go into quarantine for 14 days.

So if they can do that and get instant results, why can’t we?

[LizzieL]

Precisely. And if Germany, who did far more testing and isolating at early stages than most other countries, had had to wait a week plus for a result, their death rate would have been in the top places in the Euro league too.

[suey]

You still can’t get a test here unless you think you have symptoms, would these tests show if you are a carrier? And what do you do if you discover that you are?

[LizzieL]

You still can’t get a test here unless you think you have symptoms, would these tests show if you are a carrier? And what do you do if you discover that you are?

Our local milkman got a test (UK), he didn't have symptoms but had been in contact with someone who had tested positive. Took him over a week to get results back (negative thankfully), during that time he was off work self isolating. If we had the quick turnaround they have in Austria, a lot of anguish and inconvenience for him would have been saved.

[Gadget]

Apparently 50,000 tests are now being sent to US labs for testing  because of some problem.

What a mess 

Around 50,000 coronavirus test samples have been sent to the US after “operational issues” in the lab network caused delays.

The Department of Health said sending swabs abroad is one of the contingencies to deal with problems in rapidly-expanded testing system. The test results will be validated back in the UK and communicated to patients “as quickly as possible”.

The department said that work was ongoing to resolve the issues, and that testing capacity is quickly being restored.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, the samples were airlifted to the US in chartered flights from London’s Stansted airport.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “The expansion of the UK’s coronavirus testing network has involved setting up an entirely new ‘Lighthouse’ lab network to process test swabs.

“When problems arise, we have contingencies in place which include creating extra temporary capacity for our labs or sending swabs abroad to partner labs for completion. Of course, our partner labs must match our high standards.”

[Guy Etchells]

Incoming travellers to the UK will  be quarantining for their own safety, if the reckless idiots in this country carry on the way they have been this weekend 

However the government had been pushing the VE Day commemorations knowing that people would go out and party.  Was that a cynical ploy to get people to mix and find out what the infection rate will be in two weeks' time?  A trial run for re-opening England at the beginning of June?   The BBC certainly was encouraging people to go out and party and as the booze flowed the chairs got closer together.  One wonders what all those who gave their lives in WW2 would make of the situation.

Yes we should all copy the Welsh example

[groom]

I'm sure we could all post photos from all over the country showing people breaking guidance yesterday , so "Yes we should all copy the Welsh example" could apply anywhere.