Well since my last post ...thing have taken a turn for the better....Thanks to the compliance of the general population...we never hit an Italian or Spanish like surge. Back in March...when we got our first C-19 patients it looked ominous...but we sustained a medium level below our increased ICU capacity and never went higher then about 60% by my reckoning....
While it was busy and certainly uncomfortable with the PPE, it was manageable. We had a number of our own local staff out sick and a few hospitalized but thankfully nobody died....so far.As I write we are seeing the fruits of our extreme lockdown coming to fruition. Less people are presenting to hospitals now then before and total ICU admittance is now below a crucial number for over here...And most significantly...the transmission "rate" is below .5 and falling. We begin to ease some restrictions this Tuesday (Bank holiday this weekend here) but the general lockdown has been extended by another two weeks...There is a map ahead for opening up the economy but post virus...so many businesses will struggle to reopen and even fail. But others will grow.
On a more optimistic note as well....it would appear the the virus is not re contactable after once having contacted it. This was a worry for the medical scientists investigating the virus..so far. It appears that many of those such cases from China, Japan and S Korea were false negative results. The tests didn't pick up that the virus was in its shedding phase rather then its active phase.....which is also a worry, regarding testing.
I have noticed this even in our ICU...where someone tested comes back as a double negative...only to be proven to be positive through a Bronc Scope test. This highlights the fallibility of some tests. Many are done to hit number targets without been accurate...Don't mind scammers out there trying to get your bank details (although be mindful of them as well)but be careful about buying home testing kits.
Anyway...we are now leaving the suppression stage...however the next stages are the harder ones to confront...
But such is life...or death...
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