Everyone with coronavirus symptoms should report their symptoms and everyone should be tested

The instructions from the beginning, and still unchanged, are to stay home for seven days if you think you have coronavirus symptoms and only report to NHS24 if the symptoms worsen after seven days. How will the R value and case numbers ever be determined if the only cases that are counted are people who are already so ill that they most likely are sent to hospital and in the meantime could have infected more people? And if everyone isn't tested, how will we ever know how many people are carrying the virus and can potentially be transmitting it without knowing that they have it? If we are basing all decisions just on cases that are severe enough to require evaluation or hospitalisation, will we ever know the true numbers to be able to make the correct decisions which aren’t solely based on estimates?

Why the contribution is important

I don't think we will be able to make the right decisions if we don't know the true number of people who have the virus.

by Cwoods on May 11, 2020 at 05:00PM

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Based on: 3 votes

Comments

  • Posted by CathyBenson May 11, 2020 at 18:40

    And there should be a lot more monitoring of people before they ever become serious cases, as I believe happens in Germany and Cuba. In Cuba, medical students go from door to door, checking whether people have respiratory systems. They may not have enough tests for everyone, but they are certainly able to keep track of who is symptomatic and thus to isolate people.
    I fear that the high death toll in the uK, including Scotland, may be due to people not getting treatment early enough, as we are instructed to wait for at least 7 days and only contact NHS Scotland if our symptoms worsen.
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