Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

Not cycling, but still important.

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Re: Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

Post by Regulator » 3 years ago

My employer has now confirmed that it will not be expecting staff to go back to office based work until February/March next year - if they want to.

They will be opening head office and the regional back office functions in the next couple of weeks, but with significantly reduced capacity, which will need to be booked in advance.

They've also agreed to refund my purchase of a 'sit/stand' desk... :D
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Mister Paul
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Re: Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

Post by Mister Paul » 3 years ago

My employer (local council) does not intend to change the current arrangements - work from home unless it is genuinely not possible- until there's a sign of some resolution to the pandemic. We are able to send Social Workers out on visits if we've tried all other options to complete the required task, and complete a risk assessment. It's very difficult to carry out a capacity assessment on someone with suspected dementia through an ipad, when they can't manage a telephone call.
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Re: Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

Post by LowlifeDes » 3 years ago

I don't think that I will ever go back to working in an office full time.
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Lullabelle
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Re: Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

Post by Lullabelle » 3 years ago

We are back on 'high' :(
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Re: Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

Post by LowlifeDes » 3 years ago

Lullabelle wrote:
3 years ago
We are back on 'high' :(
I can remember a time when that would probably have been a good thing.
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Re: Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

Post by Rutabaga » 3 years ago

I have seen it said (elsewhere on the interwebs) that there are very few cases of Covid19 "in Africa" because "most Africans are under 21. Only 3 percent are over 60". Anyone feel like picking that apart?
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Re: Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

Post by Sonic Budgie » 3 years ago

Rutabaga wrote:
3 years ago
I have seen it said (elsewhere on the interwebs) that there are very few cases of Covid19 "in Africa" because "most Africans are under 21. Only 3 percent are over 60". Anyone feel like picking that apart?
I've not sen that stat, and can't help you with unpicking it, although it's very interesting and possibly rather troubling. But I did want to say that it's been rather quiet here of late and it's nice to see you Ruta :)
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Re: Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

Post by mangaman » 3 years ago

Rutabaga wrote:
3 years ago
I have seen it said (elsewhere on the interwebs) that there are very few cases of Covid19 "in Africa" because "most Africans are under 21. Only 3 percent are over 60". Anyone feel like picking that apart?
I saw that and looked for a population pyramid for Africa
There is one on Page 17 of https://www.uneca.org/sites/default/fil ... ril_25.pdf

I can’t seem to link to the graph itself but the numbers in the quote you give do seem roughly right

Most Africans do seem to be under 21 just about
A bit more than 3% are over 60 but probably less than 10%
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Re: Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

Post by Rutabaga » 3 years ago

Sonic Budgie wrote:
3 years ago
I've not sen that stat, and can't help you with unpicking it, although it's very interesting and possibly rather troubling. But I did want to say that it's been rather quiet here of late and it's nice to see you Ruta :)
Thank you, Sonic, good to see you here too. I hope you are well.
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Re: Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

Post by Rutabaga » 3 years ago

mangaman wrote:
3 years ago
I saw that and looked for a population pyramid for Africa
There is one on Page 17 of https://www.uneca.org/sites/default/fil ... ril_25.pdf

I can’t seem to link to the graph itself but the numbers in the quote you give do seem roughly right

Most Africans do seem to be under 21 just about
A bit more than 3% are over 60 but probably less than 10%
Thanks, Mangaman, I did have a quick google but I get baffled by numbers and statistics very easily and gave up. At first glance it seemed an unlikely statement to me, but what do I know?

The graph seems to be from 2015, so I wonder if there's been much change since then. Also whether Africa is unique in this, and whether the figures really offer any evidence that Covid 19 only affects old people, which I imagine might have been the intention in quoting them?

The idea of hordes of older English people swarming off to Africa, by whatever means, to try and find a safe haven from Covid does strike me as interesting to say the least. ;)
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Re: Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

Post by Regulator » 3 years ago

Countries in Africa are being quite badly hit by Covid19 - but the figures appear artificially low, as testing is not widespread outside the main urban areas.

There are projects underway to increase testing using LFTs rather than lab tests. A British company, Mologic, is one of the leading developers and is getting significant funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, amongst others.

We will not be able to get Covid under control globally unless we support low and middle income countries to tackle it. Lots of countries are involved in efforts to do just that - the U.K. government is taking something of a back seat, as it is preoccupied with Brexit and using the pandemic to enrich its donors and friends.
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Re: Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

Post by Lullabelle » 3 years ago

Ah well here we go again, why do people complain about the restrictions? We are just trying to survive.
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Re: Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

Post by Iris » 3 years ago

mangaman wrote:
3 years ago
I saw that and looked for a population pyramid for Africa
There is one on Page 17 of https://www.uneca.org/sites/default/fil ... ril_25.pdf

I can’t seem to link to the graph itself but the numbers in the quote you give do seem roughly right

Most Africans do seem to be under 21 just about
A bit more than 3% are over 60 but probably less than 10%
The bar chart on page 18 is what you want. 3% were over the age of 65 in 2015 (the date point of the chart), predicted to rise to 20% by 2070.

Although that chart also seems to suggest that between 2015 and 2020 they were predicting a rather startling step change in the age composition of the continent, which could only be achieved by a Herodian level of infanticide or a massive influx of oldies from the rest of the world.

It's possible to predict with certainty how old an individual person will be in 5 years time - they're either dead or 5 years older. And as people age new children are born to prop up the bottom of the age distribution. Which means that as long as immigration and emigration are at their normal, reasonably low levels, age distributions change extremely slowly.
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Re: Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

Post by Regulator » 3 years ago

Welcome to Lockdown Mark II!
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Re: Covid-19 Pandemic Thread

Post by Lullabelle » 3 years ago

Office staff have been asked to work from home where possible, 4 of them are doing a couple of days a week at home, the engineers have declined and are staying in the office, I wasn't asked as I cannot work from home.

Shopfloor is really busy, we have temps and agency bods. We seem to have benefited from lockdown, some of our competitors closed for a couple of weeks when we had the 1st lockdown so customers came to us, a few suppliers agreed to continue to work with us.
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