Covid-19

[emma_p]

That is crazy!

Liv's friend was sent home with a cough on Monday - I saw her mum today and asked if she'd been able to get a test. She said no but the school had given her one of their and her test was negative so she's back. Phew.

[Mountain Goat]

What is testing availability like in other countries?

I don't know much, but in the past few days I've read reports of people flying to both Italy and Germany, being tested on arrival as standard, and getting the results within 30 minutes/ by the time their baggage has got to the carousel. But obviously ours is WORLD BEATING.

[Hazey_Jane]

What is testing availability like in other countries?

A quick search for my town reveals this (see photo)

At the Centogene place it costs 59 euros which I don’t think is bad at all

[Mountain Goat]

Do you always have to pay, Hazey?

[smalex]

I don't think I agree with paying if that's always mandatory!

Well, apparently that patronising oxygen vacuum JRM says we should all stop 'carping' about the lack of testing and celebrate the phenomenal success of increases in testing. They should put him back in whatever cupboard they hid in him for the election.

[Ruby]

What is testing availability like in other countries?

I don't know much, but in the past few days I've read reports of people flying to both Italy and Germany, being tested on arrival as standard, and getting the results within 30 minutes/ by the time their baggage has got to the carousel. But obviously ours is WORLD BEATING.

In fairness, apparently these aren't PCR tests and are not at all accurate. There was a Twitter thread about it yesterday. :vague:

[Texaco Shirley]

I don't think I agree with paying if that's always mandatory!

Well, apparently that patronising oxygen vacuum JRM says we should all stop 'carping' about the lack of testing and celebrate the phenomenal success of increases in testing. They should put him back in whatever cupboard they hid in him for the election.

Didn’t he say yesterday that his child had got a test last week so it must all be fine?

[Kleio]

I see every child attending Eton managed to get a test whether they had symptoms or not.

[Ella77]

Gosh, what are the odds of that ?

[Flora Poste]

I see every child attending Eton managed to get a test whether they had symptoms or not.

They paid for private tests.

[Ella77]

No shit .

[Mountain Goat]

What is testing availability like in other countries?

I don't know much, but in the past few days I've read reports of people flying to both Italy and Germany, being tested on arrival as standard, and getting the results within 30 minutes/ by the time their baggage has got to the carousel. But obviously ours is WORLD BEATING.

In fairness, apparently these aren't PCR tests and are not at all accurate. There was a Twitter thread about it yesterday. :vague:

Ah ok.

[smalex]

The government keep claiming we're doing more tests than any of European country, and the BBC seems to back up this claim. But we don't hear about testing shortages in other countries, so are the government's numbers dodgy (always a possibility)or are we turning up more diligently for testing than other countries (even ones like Spain with higher numbers than us)?

[Mountain Goat]

I think we massively game our numbers. We count tests instead of people, we count the number that are sent out, not the number that are processed, and are we still counting each test as two (one nasal swab, one throat swab)? I know that was a thing a while back but not sure if we still do that? We also include antibody tests in our total, apparently (which other countries don't do). I don't know whether other countries are necessarily innocent in this either though, they may also do similar.

ETA: Also I read an article in the BMJ that said that comparing number of tests was completely pointless, not just because it's not very comparable across countries, but because it doesn't tell you if those tests are actually effective. They suggested that the success of testing should be measured by how quickly a test can be accessed, speed of results, and whether the testing was hooked up to a conversation with a healthcare practitioner and with contract tracing. Otherwise you can do loads of tests and get nowhere.

ETAA: https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3497

[ParisGal]

I've just looked at the French government site https://www.gouvernement.fr/info-corona ... et-donnees and although I don't see it being stated explicitly, the number of tests carried is divided into negative and positive, and the most recent results are from the 13th. So I assume only tests with results are being counted. Definitely only nasal swabs (we don't do throat here).

[Rebel Pebble]

My Uni friend had it really badly in April and still had antibodies only a few weeks ago, so she volunteered for plasma donation. And was frustrsted to find she couldn't, because of her weight, which is too low for it. She's a perfectly healthy weight for her height and was amazed because, in her words "she's never been too thin for anything!"

It's about body volume apparently. She's only about 5ft 4 and to be able to give plasma she'd actually have needed to be overweight by BMI. If she was taller, it would be different. Other Uni friend who's a doc said they have to take twice the amount of blood to extract a useful amount of plasma than a normal blood donation, so that's why.

[Hazey_Jane]

Do you always have to pay, Hazey?

I don’t know how it all works to be honest.

Heavily edited- if you fly in for a risk area there is mandatory testing at the airport and its free. There was talk about it closing after the summer period but seems it’s being continues. You have to produce a boarding card as proof. But what I don’t get is you can go back within up to 10 days after your flight. This would make sense if you arrive back very late and the centre is shut since it’s not 25/7 but honestly I wonder how many people are truly going to bother going back, especially if you live some distance from the airport.

[rosy]

My hairdresser is Greek Cypriot and her mother lives in Cyprus; she was here at the start of lockdown but obviously wanted to go home. The airline said she had to have had a test in the 48 hours before the flight, which she did, but when she got to Larnaca they wouldn’t accept the result because the text/email didn’t have her name on it. So she had to fork out 60€ to repeat the test at airport. World beating.

[maya]

My Uni friend had it really badly in April and still had antibodies only a few weeks ago, so she volunteered for plasma donation. And was frustrsted to find she couldn't, because of her weight, which is too low for it. She's a perfectly healthy weight for her height and was amazed because, in her words "she's never been too thin for anything!"

It's about body volume apparently. She's only about 5ft 4 and to be able to give plasma she'd actually have needed to be overweight by BMI. If she was taller, it would be different. Other Uni friend who's a doc said they have to take twice the amount of blood to extract a useful amount of plasma than a normal blood donation, so that's why.

The same thing happened to me! I’m 5ft 5 and have a normal BMI - I thought it was very odd but I suppose that makes sense about the amount of blood needed.

[Estrella]

What is testing availability like in other countries?

Testing is readily available over here. Covered by Medicare, so free to us. We are encouraged to get tested at the sign of any symptom. And turn around on results is less than 24 hours.