Day 9

Wednesday 11th March

Ann is at work today…unlike yesterday…meaning I can freely move around the house….I get up at 0800hrs

Few pings on the Groupchat…in fact I seem to get my news from here…before checking on the BBC website…Apparently the Arsenal v Man City game has been postponed…apparently, the players may have been exposed on the 27th Feb when they played their UEFA cup game…meaning they only need to self-isolate until tomorrow…and then there is the question of whether the players were within 2m of the Olympiakos owner Evangelos Marinakis, who tested positive for the virus.. and spent longer than 15 minutes with them!!…But Cheltenham is still going ahead…as advised by the Chief Medical Officer…Anyhow technically the Arsenal self-isolation is only until tomorrow…meaning that they could have played today…if this article is anything to go by… https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51800707 then it takes on average 5 days to develop symptoms while Anyone who is symptom-free by day 12 is unlikely to get symptoms, but they may still be infectious carriers. The researchers referred to in the article advised people who could be infectious – whether they have symptoms or not – to self-isolate for 14 days to avoid spreading it to others… now will two whole days make a difference? I am not sure people really know. Meanwhile, the Bank of England has cut interest rates to 0.25% from 0.75% https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51831004…now is this a result of the impact the virus is having on the economy? The budget is going ahead…so will be interested to see what happens….What do people who are not earning £118/wk and do not qualify for sick pay do…if they self-isolate.

Breakfast time….The weather is shining out there…I have to say that I am really missing the fact I cannot go outside…there…I’ve got it off my chest…. so even if I am symptom-free by day 12..I wonder if I could go for a sneaky late evening walk when no one is around….A Groupchat member asks if I can go in the garden….This is not clear from the gov.uk websites…I ask this person how their ginormous jigsaw is going…they send a photo…It’s coming on really well. They like me feel hemmed in with all this self-isolation…their affair with the school yesterday has made them feeling frustrated…talking of which…the school get back to them and it appears that the local school only sends out letters if a parent/child or teacher has to self-isolate….meaning they would be sending a few of these out…I cannot understand why the school would not write a sensible letter to all parents with links, which would have provided reassurance to parents and kids….Anyways from current data, this condition does not affect children as much…but then they could be carriers…

On the subject of going into the garden, I want to have a clear conscience…what if a neighbour wants to have a conversation with me? My wife Ann feels that it won’t help if our neighbours know that I have been self-isolating….We have an elderly person living next door..and considering the hysteria that has been recently occurring, and the current climate at my friend’s school, it probably will not be helpful. Someone rang the door yesterday…I chose not to answer…because of the concerns I have…I knew who it was…it was a neighbour coming to collect their post that was delivered to ours…I haven’t even touched it!….Luckily it was dark in the front lounge and I was upstairs so no one would know I was in…When Ann comes back I ask her to take the parcel round.

PING…0855hrs…One of the #SelfIsolation Groupchat members texts in a website from mind.co.uk https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/coronavirus-and-your-wellbeing/#collapsef0341 suggesting that I “listen to natural sounds, like recordings or apps that play birdsong, ocean waves or rainfall. Get as much natural light as you can. Spend time in your garden if you have one, or open your front or back door and sit on the doorstep.”…This is the best news I have had all day!…so guess what!!…I actually did go out in the garden….It was wonderful….It felt like I’ve just used a Virgin Experience ticket…running around my garden and actually seeing what’s out there has been very therapeutic…I wanted to roll around in the grass….but thought better of it…now that would attract attention from the neighbours…Thank you so much to my colleague for finding that website…I would have never even thought about it!. I send it out on twitter for any fellow #SelfIsolators….Ok some have been telling me to get out there and who can I actually infect…As I said…it was a self-conscience thing….I take a photo of some blooming daffodils and send this photo to the group

PING…Text from a friend…to tell me, “People are actually going crazy! My mum went into the supermarket yesterday morning and they told her they’d just restocked their shelves and by 11 o’clock all toilet rolls and soap had already gone again”…what is it with people??? It just so happens, I go into our toilet and note an empty toilet roll resting in the roll holder…I couldn’t resist, I take a photo…put it on the group and ask, “What will I do?”…Cat litter is suggested by the group…. More importantly, however, One of the Group member’s WiFi has just gone down….horror!!!….Self-isolating and no WiFi!!!! I think back to the story I read a few days ago about the person who had to self isolate because they took a radioactive iodine capsule in the 1990’s….no FaceBook, social media…I suppose there was dial-up internet connection….who remembers that?? That was slow..mega slow…

PING….Just been informed that this has been published in the Sun https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11138167/top-brit-surgeon-positive-coronavirus/. Now as a Liverpool fan, I do not read the sun…so why am I interested….It discusses a healthcare worker who has had to self-isolate because…and according to The Sun, “the infected patient had been on the respiratory ward for several days before being transferred to ICU.”. This is totally wrong. I managed this patient with the respiratory registrar on Saturday evening, and the patient was transferred to Intensive Care (High Dependency Unit) in a timeframe of less than 24 hours.. This has irked me…typical media reporting…In my personal opinion, The Sun’s factually incorrect reporting should be dealt with…and we wonder why there is so much hysteria out there…especially when false information like this, only feeds into a lack confidence in the system by the public.

Meanwhile, on the Victoria Derbyshire show, there is a discussion about how a MP Nadine Dorries can get tested immediately when there are others like me who have not…….Although I have received texts from PHE. many texts coming in from healthcare workers questioning why they are not being tested…Meanwhile,

In the world of entertainment, BREAKING NEWS…Matt Lucas is to join Noel Fielding on the Great British Bake-Off https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-51834511. I think he will do a good job on the show.

So today, 373 people have contracted coronavirus in the UK..7 days ago..39 cases! While Korea has half the number of cases as they did last week. Israel has nil cases because they have very strict regulations. Portugal has low number of cases but then they are a few weeks behind the UK. It is strange how the epidemiology of coronavirus has taken a meandering route across Europe. Iran appears to be second worst hit and they have released 54,000 prisoners….to try and stop it spreading. In Italy, you cannot travel inter-city…and today flights to Italy have been cancelled. In Germany, they now have 1.5k people affected. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that according to experts, 60-70% of the German population could become infected with the coronavirus….but they do not wish to close schools as they want people to go to work. This is a tough decision…we know that schools are a high-risk environment…but it causes disruption….but then if parents have the opportunity to keep children at home to home school, is this an option?…but then in the UK this could be challenging considering the regulations and pecuniary measures that can be taken against parents who take their kids out of school….We have not heard much from Gavin Williamson (Education Secretary) on this subject. All we hear is from the Health Department and the chief medical officer…and ironically a health minister becomes the first MP to have confirmed coronavirus. There appears to be a discussion on the pros and cons of this but no concrete decisions being made. This from Twitter did make me laugh…a representation of how ministers might be planning the coronavirus response with a clip from “Yes Minister” https://twitter.com/northmantrader/status/1237393224714481667?s=12

Anyway…back to serious matters…In the US, the number of people infected has passed 1,000 with new cases reported on both sides of the country, rather than just the west coast where the earliest outbreak took place. Dozens of cases have been linked to a conference held at a hotel in Boston in February. Other clusters have emerged nursing homes around Seattle in Washington state. In one of the most drastic moves so far, gatherings of more than 250 people have been banned in the Seattle area. Nationally, there have been five more deaths, taking the total to 31, US media reported. Of the latest fatalities, two were in Washington state and there was one each in New Jersey, South Dakota and California. Nineteen states have declared emergencies, the Washington Post reported https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-51829559.

1130hrs…Chancellor Rishi Sunak walking out of 10 Downing Street with budget box….now what delights are in there and 1200hrs…its PMQs…I am beginning to feel like a day-time TV viewer whilst I reflect on my experiences of self-isolation. 1230hrs.. The end of PMQs…so now to the interesting bit…the budget!…I’m watching Politics Live by the way on the BBC..

Plan

1. Whatever NHS needs…money will be there
2. If people fall ill and need to be off then Statutory sick pay will be paid from day 1 and all those advised to self-isolate…you can also get sick note via 111 and not go to the GP
3. Those who are not in the system will also benefit from 2 (people on zero hours contract etc)
4. Removing minimal income claw on universal credit

Then onto business support etc…Coronavirus loan scheme…well there you have it, a loan scheme named after a virus!…anyhow this is how the BBC reports it…https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/business-51765994

• £30bn pledged to help the economy respond to coronavirus
• Fuel duty remains frozen for another year
• Planned rise in beer, cider and wine duties cancelled
• £5bn for gigabit-capable broadband into the hardest to reach places of the UK
• UK growth forecasts updated: 1.4% for 2020 and 1.6% for 2021
• Government to abolish business rates for small shops this year
• Coronavirus: Chancellor says the government will cover sick pay costs for firms with under 250 staff

Meanwhile…as of 1630hrs…the number of cases in the UK has gone up to 460, after the biggest rise in a single day….It comes as NHS England plans to expand the number of people it can test in a day to 10,000, up from 1,500 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51839106. At 1635, the WHO declares coronavirus a pandemic https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-news-latest-pandemic-who-outbreak-death-toll-a9395021.html. Interesting that the Independent reports the news a whole 5 minutes before the BBC “Breaking News” flashes up on my screen!

Groupchat keeps me abreast of what is going on…but I also love the other stuff too like learning new skills on the phone, e.g. how to do a GIF? Another colleague keeping us up to date on the cross-stitch they are doing…PING…someone shares a message about a kid coming home from school at 11 am. The reason? He has been expelled from school for charging students 50p a squirt for hand sanitiser to protect themselves from coronavirus…His mum tries to discipline him…only for him get a call from his dad calling him a “f**king legend”…not good…although one does have to credit to the lad for his entrepreneurial mind!!…Get the lad on The Apprentice!..

Up until now, I haven’t shared anything on FaceBook..but today I do…..I share a photo on there of me having done 101 stair reps in my house….this will hopefully make up for the 8000 steps I could only manage on the first 5 days of isolation…This took me 20 minutes. I am pleased as it means that I have kept a level of fitness and not lost it.

Quick sandwich and a coffee and off to complete an application to work as a Senior Medical Fellow at East Anglian Air Ambulance. I applied to do a similar role at the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance but was not successful. Apparently I scored maximum points for all essential criteria…but because there were lots of applicants they decided to only shortlist people with ‘essential criteria’…however the positive thing is that the company said that they would like to keep in touch with me and to apply again in 18 months, time. That suits me well as I cannot start until August 2021 when I finish my Anaesthesia training. However, I know someone who works at East Anglian Air Ambulance and having done a medical elective there in 2007, I would love to go back….I complete the form with Netflix going on in the background…’ Drive to Survive’…An in-depth analysis of the Formula 1 season. It documents each team, the drivers and provides an astonishing perspective that one just does not see in the bog-standard program (Sky TV) that is shown on the weekend of the race.

How quickly time flies…Ann is back.. Its 1900…I’ve got dinner in the oven, breaded plaice…But Ann has to have her own as I am self-isolated…and its the Liverpool game tonight…can they get past Athletico? They are a goal down after the first leg in Madrid. This game unlike the one in France has a crowd whilst the game between PSG and Borussia Dortmund will be played behind closed doors….Meanwhile on the Groupchat people are deciding what to tonight…In terms of films there is some feeling that Netflix is not great for films and Amazon Prime is better…but as discussed in a previous log, I think they are on par…there are some good films but more unknowns. I do like the documentaries on Netflix like the one I watched earlier today. I am not really a box-set or a series person….which apparently is better on Amazon….anyway I guess like football everyone has an opinion….Anyhow time for footy…Its raining at Anfield but love the “You’ll Never Walk Alone” anthem!….Oh, forgot, one of the Groupchat members tried their hand at cross-stitch for the first time and they made a bee…in fact, it looked like a Manchester Bee…It looked fabulous.

One more thing…forgot to mention….Our son, who is a tennis player was playing a British Tour today in Edgbaston. He won his first round match 7-5, 6-4…goes to the hotel only for him to see a sign saying, “Due to coronavirus, Can we please politely ask our guests to keep a two-metre distance from the staff, Thank you”… I am sure that the hotel is trying to promote a safe-working atmosphere but at the end of the day, passes have to be given out, forms have to be completed, monies have to be paid…Interesting though…I guess the hotel has decided to escalate to phase two of the government’s four phase plan…i.e. “delay”, meaning social distancing. Anyhow, what did he have for dinner? Pasta! No issue with obtaining pasta by the hotel like some shoppers today.

Liverpool go 1-0 up…1-1 on aggregate scored in the 45th minute

2230Hrs…heartbreak for Liverpool…out of the ECL…1st defeat at Anfield in Europe under Jurgen Klopp…3-2 AET…but credit to Althletico for their resilience, defending…PING…I get a message from the Groupchat..a Man City fan…giving me a bit of stick…but I expected that.

Football shirt of the day from my twitter selfisolatee colleague? S.P.A.L (Società Polisportiva Ars et Labor) Serie A football club, based in based in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna.

Goodnight All