20 Dec 2020 & new Covid strain makes the headlines

[guest189040]

First detected three months previously this New Strain is more virulent than others but supposedly with lesser symptoms and potentially a lower mortality rate or so sayeth the BBC News.

Apparently there are currently 17 known strains of the virus.

Exports have been banned from Dover to France for 48 hours (just why is unclear).

Flights from the UK have been banned by a number of countries

At present this new strain is mainly in London and the South East.

It just gets worst by the day.

Stay safe everyone.

[Gadget]

To quote Lewis Goodall (BBC Newnight) :

Lewis Goodall
@lewis_goodall
 · 19m
The situation

London and the south east cut off from rest of the country

UK outward freight to Calais cut off

UK travel prohibited for a swathe of countries

More cases reported in last 24 hours than ever before

5 days til Christmas

11 days til the transition ends

[ankerdine]

and I keep saying to OH...... it just can't get any worse.. and it does!

Keep sane everyone.

Judy

[Rena]

I've been looking at a May 2020 map of the covid-19 spread and was extremely surprised.  I'd imagined modern day travel would mean Dover and Heathrow passengers would spread the virus evenly as people made their way home or to places where foreign visitors intended to stay.

What I found was high Covid levels at all the historic cinq ports on the south east coast of England and North Norfolk,. probably Kings Lynn historic gateway for Portuguese and Eastern Europeans.          Cornwall, Devon and the farmland of Lincolnshire stand out as having very low population/covid levels  On another level, should we be worried that Kent, which used to be the fruit growing orchards and farmlands of England seem to have lost fields and have a spread of populations..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_England

[BushInn1746]

The TV mentioned and showed ORF1ab and N genes.

When searched online it gives this link ...

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/adhocs/12690percentageofcovid19casesthatarepositivefororf1abandngenes
 -----------
A Report Preprint mentioned the SARS-CoV-2 "spike protein reduces S1 shedding and increases infectivity"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7310631/
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Added: regarding Wikipedia claiming Covid-19 was first in the UK 31st January 2020, Peter Attwood's Covid-19 illness and death was before this ...
https://www.itv.com/news/2020-09-09/daughter-of-early-uk-coronavirus-victim-says-people-have-died-unnecessarily-due-to-china-cover-up

Mark

[Caw1]

What I want to know is this....
As London is now in tier 4 and people can’t move from there into other areas.... why oh why are the trains still allowing people to pour out of London to other parts of the UK where they’re now going to spread this new strain ALL OVER THE COUNTRY....
Am I missing something here... why are the police allowing it to happen... it makes a complete mockery of this new ruling... I just don’t understand...
Foreign countries are banning flights in and out while we let these people travel all over UK... it’s madness.....

Caroline

[Roobarb]

Couldn't agree more Caroline, we've had enough problems of our own without people pouring out of London. We had to put up with tier 3 long before they did and now it's a case of when the going gets tough  - spread it around! 

[heywood]

Presumably there was no order from the government to stop travel. Tier 4 did not begin until Sunday.

[Caw1]

Presumably there was no order from the government to stop travel. Tier 4 did not begin until Sunday.

Agreed but why were people travelling today then..... makes no sense