General Chat

I have been chatting with a dear friend who has for the 3rd time caught Covid. She is extremely unwell coughing and short of breath.

She works in an Opticians and one of the locums said he had been unwell over the weekend coughing, high temp etc. She asked him if he had done a Covid test and he said " I can do if you want me to!"

So he did the test and it was positive. He said he felt fine but she asked him to wear a mask as he was seeing elderly customers and they are vulnerable, She then asked her boss if it was fair that he should carry on working and possibly infecting lots of others particularly older people. The boss said, he had to work as they had no other person to cover.

My friend decided to tel some of the clients and was told to say he "was poorly" but she felt it was only fair to say he had Covid. Clients were shocked and promptly cancelled. One old lady is recovering from Cancer!

My friends boss is ringing her daily to make her do daily tests to see when she is clear but even if she was clear tomorrow, she is too unwell to work.

Because of staff previously misusing the sickness pay scheme, she now doesn't get paid for the first 3 days of any sickness so is losing money daily and is putting pressure on her to return to work.

The locum was totally selfish in carrying on seeing clients, no mask wearing, shutting the door in a small room and wouldn't have done a test without being asked. Her husband is a type 1 diabetic and she's worried what effect it will have on him and his blood sugars.

She feels, noone cares anymore and was told that Covid is just a bad cold, nothing more!

She is in the South of England and Covid is rising there so fast again, it's at a worrying level.

Is this the way forward now? You get Covid but you're ok with it, so say nothing and carry on working and don't worry about giving it to anyone else?

Florence in the hebrides

That's a very bad situation and well done to your friend for speaking up and asking if he had tested.
Opticians work so close to people and as you say, often in a very small private room and most elderly people will not yet have had their booster flu and Covid jabs, so would be at more risk.
No staff, locum or otherwise should put clients at risk :-| :-0 :-0

We all have to make choices about how far we protect ourselves, but most people have dropped their guard a little and no longer wear masks in shops.
I have done the same, but have continued to wear one, when going to hospital outpatients appointments, as I know several people who have contracted Covid after visiting a hospital.

In a work situation, we all should care about our colleagues and customers.

Many more working days would be lost if the locum infected all the staff !

Gwyn, she felt it was morally wrong not to inform the clients so at least they had the choice whether to cancel or not. She is over 60 and has not had her boosters yet and she's going to be wearing a mask at work regardless if no one else is.

She couldn't get over his attitude of "I'm all right jack, so what's the problem,"

The only thing the boss was worried about was how much money they are losing with clients cancelling and staff sickness!

If they all got Covid, the shop would have to close!

It is so confusing working out if is cold/flu or covid.

I decided to take a test as I have a cold which has activated my asthma and I am due to have my jabs on Saturday. Better be safe than sorry. But the liquid in or test kits has evaporated and there is not enough to squeeze out if the tube. So annoying.

As OH is popping out later he will try and get me one. Convinced it is a cold but ….

I agree the locum was wrong. My optician has bought new equipment so as not to get quite so close into the face but still gets pretty near.

I don't think people test now like before anywhere. Certainly around here the majority of people do not wear a mask . I do think however that if in a place where you are very close to a person like the locum would be then a mask should automatically be worn.

Do your Drs still wear a mask when you go to the surgery mine don't nor any of the staff there .

names, I have a cough and cold too and wondered about testing, but I haven't done so yet. I am keeping away from people though and staying in apart from 'fresh air' walks to get a bit of exercise at quiet times locally.

I hope all will be well for you.

Jabs booked for 7th and 14th October.
I will wear a mask to our surgery, which is a hub for this area.

Edit to say
I was sent some special testing kits to use if i have Covid symptoms. Results from them ( and only them, not pharmacy kits) need to be reported to a helpline and to GP and then I MAY be offered treatment :-S
Seemingly this is because of a particular medical condition, but as they arrived unannounced and unrequested out of the blue after all the country had gone back to 'normal' and no masks, I was somewhat surprised :-S

Gwyn, I don’t think I have covid so am just making sure because if I have then I can’t have the jab on Saturday.. Normally, with the way I feel, I would just let in run the course.

We are going on holiday in a months time and will take a test before we go, hopefully having bought some, just to prove to ourselves we are okay and won’t be passing anything on- can’t say that about other people ;-)

Gwyn my daughter also received unrequested test kits a few months back, she is diabetes type 2 and also had breast cancer and is in remission.

I tested when I had a cold and was negative but I still stayed indoors until I was better, just in case.

Nobody around here seems to be wearing masks, but my friend is in South East England and she said the place is over run with Covid.

I think most of us if we get a cold/flu have the decency to lay low for a few days and keep away from others so you don't pass it on, just common sense and courtesy really.

Forgot to say, when i speak to her next week, will be interesting to see how many of the staff have caught it!

So just a cold.
Now all I’ve got to do is get up early on Saturday. I will try and remember to take a mask. Apparently they weren’t being worn at the surgery last Monday.

Glad you don't have Covid names :-)

We have literally just had an update on the new situation, with Covid on the rise, plus flu and RSV also becoming more common.

The new Covid vaccine has arrived in BC, and should be available next week. They'll be concentrating at first on people in facilities, over 60, children over the age of 6 months, people with compromised health, and health workers.

I was offered my next Covid shot last month, but was advised by my doctor to wait for this new vaccine, so I'm hoping I will get a new email from the health authority,
hopefully soon as we go on holiday on Oct 20!

I do wear a mask whenever I go out of the house, although I take it off inside the physio's office or at the doctor's, some of the doctors are still wearing masks while others are not. The physio will wear a mask if requested.
The major change is that we are going back to waring masks in all medical facilities as from now .... that will include physiotherapists. opticians/optometrists, etc.

My daughter, son in law and two granddaughters have all just had Covid.My daughter was quite ill with a heavy cold and cough. They told both girls schools, but they said as long as they had a negative test every morning, they could still go in. Once they did get it, the oldest one was told that she could only have three days off unless she was too ill to go in. She took four days off, but was probably still infectious when she went back.
OH and I had spent the day with them on the day my daughter started feeling ill. We were in very close contact with her, but amazingly neither of us caught it

My daughter, husband and son went to Ottawa to a family wedding last weekend, along with his parents and sister. My family left on Sunday because they had work and school, the other 3 stayed on for a few more days.

Today daughter told me that her mother-i-l came down with a bad bout of Covid while there, had to go to Emergency 2 nights ago. Now home, and her husband has tested positive. I don't know whether they drove home of whether they had flown there, and went home the same way, about a 2 hour flight ...... hope not the latter :-(

Daughter and OH are trying to support his parents, and keeping their fingers crossed, because not only had they been at the same event, but both their workplaces and son's school have much Covid.

Our daughter in law is a dinner lady at a junior school. Last week one of her colleagues and her daughter, a pupil at the same school, both had covid. When the mother rang in to say she wouldn't be at work and the daughter wouldn't be at school because they had covid, she was told that having covid is not an excuse and they should both attend. That attitude really scares me, I still wear a mask when I go in to any building be it supermarket or a garage, but it's very rare I see anybody else wearing one. Even the doctor's surgery has no precautions at all apart from cutting appointments right down to protect themselves. It may only be a cold to the lucky ones, but it's a lot more than that to everybody else. I don't understand people, I really don't. Covid is really taking off down here in Kent and nobody seems to care.

I think the isolation/ stay at home instruction is now just a ‘guidance’. But personally I do think you have to take into account what your occupation is and how close you have to get to other people especially their faces.

The Health Officer in her announcements yesterday said that "the usual precautions should be taken" ......

........ including staying home even it you think it is "just a cold" until you know definitely that it isn't Covid or have recovered.

She didn't mention anything about test kits being available for private use.

Over here they did away with the testing stations and the free test kits which you can now purchase. Dies Canada have testingstations or free kits?

Accidently came across this from the metro ( link is too long to post.)

So from 'Covid rules for 2023 explained - what if you test positive' there is this about staying off which might explain why Lindas granddaughters were told only to take 3 days off:
....The NHS website advises that you should try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people if you have a high temperature, or do not feel well enough to go to work, school or other activities.

The advice is the same if your child tests positive, although they do advise that if their symptoms are mild and they feel well enough they can go to school or childcare.

If you test positive for Covid
Should you test positive for Covid, you are no longer required to self-isolate.

However the NHS recommends that you should try and stay at home, and avoid contact with other people for five days – three days if you are under 18 or your child has tested positive, as children and young people tend to be infectious for a shorter period of time....