Where will it end... 12th September as it happens

I have absolutely no experience of it thankfully and if you are having trouble with it you have my sympathy but I don’t think here is any different to other parts of the world

 

A rarity on the subject. An actual informative and balanced article by the mainstream media.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53656852

Worth a read if a bit of perspective is needed.

 

I've already made the point about increased new cases being mostly down to increased testing numerous times so thanks for that link. It reinforces what I've been saying since new cases started increasing again on the back of increased testing. The ONS household survey, that was designed to statistically track prevalence in the community rather than being a tool to attack local outbreaks, has yet to show any significant increase. It is less timely but more representative.


Food factory outbreaks in Ireland. Eastern European workers again?

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/kildare-meat-plant-suspends-work-for-two-weeks-after-surge-in-covid-19-cases/ar-BB17KGzT

 

You have said that and you're 100% right. The increased testing is discovering more which is exactly what it's designed to do and despite the stick that T&T sometimes gets it shows it's at least having some positive effects. Still need to be extremely cautious though, 1,000 cases a day is still 1,000 cases and we all need to try and keep a lid on it.

Who knows about the European workers? Could be? Even if it is then it would only be positive info if the infections were ONLY spreading amongst people who have recently entered the country but no indication that's the case.

 

If it is then it doesn't look to be ones that have recently traveled over.

https://www.thesun.ie/news/5761780/obrien-fine-foods-advertising-jobs-days-after-confirming-first-positive-case/

"They told the Irish Sun no workers have been hired following the GAA recruitment drive and that no new staff have been taken on since the end of June"

If there is any mention if it being restricted only to new migrants it will be very very interesting though.

 

So why is the virus causing repeated outbreaks in the EU meat processing industry? The virus is raging in Eastern Europe at the moment and Eastern Europeans are being used to fill most meat plant jobs.



https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-farmworkers/from-poles-to-filipinos-uk-food-industry-needs-post-brexit-workers-idUSKBN1E1245

"For example, the British Meat Processors Association says 63 percent of workers in the sector come from other EU countries and in some plants it can be as high as 80 percent. The proportion has risen partly due to increased demand for more labor intensive products such as boneless meat. Association members have found it impossible to recruit the additional employees needed from Britain, the BMPA says. "

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/10/i-feel-worthless-workers-tell-of-gruelling-life-in-dutch-meat-plants

"The Netherlands is a food powerhouse and the second largest exporter of agricultural products after the US, despite being less than 0.5% its size. It is the largest exporter of meat in the EU, and home to Europe’s largest meat-processing company.

But the dark underbelly of that success story has been exposed, say union representatives, by the coronavirus pandemic. Roughly 80% of the industry’s workers are from central and eastern Europe and employed by temporary agencies rather than directly by meat companies. According to John Klijn from the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation (FNV), they are treated as “second-class workers”.

Temporary contracts and a lack of regulation have left workers hostage to the contentious conditions imposed upon them by agencies, while enabling meat companies to escape liability."




So, there are specialist job agencies set up to provide meat plants in wealthier EU states with cheap Central and Eastern European labour. They organise workers on temp/agency contracts. Working conditions are so bad there that there is regular staff turnover so there is a constant flow of new workers. The virus is raging in Romania and Poland at the moment so there is a pool of as yet low immunity EU workers in our meat plants and a flow bringing the virus in from abroad where it is very active.

 

Working conditions causing very close proximity for an extended period of time? Low pay causing other proximity issues such as cramped housing and public transport usage?

If offices were back up and running properly we'd probably see the same issues. It just so happens that it's only key workers such as manufacturing plants where there conditions are seen.

Yes they use a lot of cheap labour, many if which are migrant by nature, but I'd like to see something.....anything......that suggests the outbreaks are restricted to just the people who are newly into the country. Despite all the publicity there is zero coverage that suggests it.

If the "migtant" workers have been in the UK for the whole period of the outbreak or the transmission is also spreading to the "locals" then there's no link at all.

 

Sorry. Also forgot to say. Meat processing has been an issue since the beginning and across the world, not just after the Eastern European peak has started and not just in locations that use labour from those areas. The conditions therefore must simply be prome for outbreaks, which is what everyone from politicians, to unions, to medical experts to management is saying.

 

Are the correct answers...at least to my way of thinking. I don't suppose meat-processing plants are much different around the world; we have had -- and continue to have -- outbreaks across the country in various such plants, and when they show the processing lines, one really does see the workers standing shoulder to shoulder at their jobs. We also have a goodly number of migrant workers coming in from Mexico and the Caribbean to do seasonal work on the farms and vineyards; there have been several outbreaks amongst these workers as well. With them it's more a case of the living conditions -- they are housed in large dormitories, with very little spare space. And so, by nature of their work or their housing all these people can't help but be in close contact with others (defined as being within 6' (2m) of someone else for 15+ minutes).

These are workers in the country legally, but most of their pay gets sent home to improve their lives there. And the employers do not as a rule want to spend money on better living conditions, or even -- as has happened lately -- on testing. There is also some element of coercion applied in some instances, so that the workers end up afraid to reveal any illnesses for fear of losing their jobs. I expect these concerns apply also to such workers around the world.

RCB

 

This self-reporting website now has several regions reporting zero as the trend starts to fall again following a modest rise in Juy.

https://covid.joinzoe.com/data

 

If I've made no mistake, Bradford's Pillar 1+2 new case numbers combined since available from 3rd of July is:
32,28,14,31,39,26,22,30,27,21,29,36,38,33,32,27,27,33,35,50,30,23,39,38,41,44,46,57,31

From August 1st
20,60,24,41,47,54.16,73,29

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/128-new-cases-coronavirus-yorkshire-18748058

 

This report shows nearly 300k EU nationals went home when service industry jobs closed down in the UK. Many of those 300k or similar EU replacements will have come back as those service industries reopened. The virus has been raging in Eastern Europe recently like it did here in March and April. If we reckon 150k came back in recent weeks and 10% were carrying the virus - most asymptomatic and not testing positive initially, as was seen in Bangladeshis flying into Rome on a series of charter flights in July - then perhaps 15k new cases will have come back into the UK from Eastern Europe in the last month or so - call it 500 per day. What would that do to UK new case figures which were down to 500 per day at the end of June? If the virus continued to generally fade in the UK, it would show a significant rise for 3 or 4 weeks and then return to the previous trend - just what was shown in the self-reporting website a couple of posts ago. Pillar 1 and 2 figures might be showing the same trend of slight rise then easing again if testing had not risen nearly 50% last month.

Https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-11/eu-nationals-flee-u-k-workforce-as-covid-crushes-hospitality?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=business&utm_medium=social

Https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/26190/bangladeshi-migrants-in-italy-stigmatized-over-coronavirus-certificate-scam

 

Where does it say they all went home?

 

Also that seems like a bit of an overestimate.

Poland has 14,000 active cases at the moment (551 yesterday) which is about 0.4%of the population so why would we be estimating at 10% of the people coming back are carrying the infection?

 

Yorkshire Live understands that fixtures for all four divisions in England will be released on the same day - Friday, August 21.

 

You are quite right to be fair.

Theres a coronavirus thread in general chat which is probably a better place for stuff that doesn't relate directly to the football.

 

Getting back to @Bigrod's latest post, Celtic should forfeit their mid-week game due to their player Boli's stupidity.
Aberdeen's players shows us that it would be a good idea not to have a session out with the lads, not in this climate.
No doubt it has cost those clubs extra money for more testing.

Can easily happen to L1/L2 clubs so the hard word needs to be publicised to the players/coaches etc.