1,007 Days and Still With Us

1,007 days after the first confirmed case of covid-19 in Wales and your blog author has succumbed. 

1,007 days and it started with a mild soar throat. I'm now feverish, tired, achy, paroxysmal coughing. Within the incubation period, I've once been coughed over in the street, sat very near the mayor while she was coughing and been on a bus with a coughing passenger close by.

1,007 days ago, on February 28th, 2020, Dr Frank Atherton confirmed the first case was someone who'd returned from Italy. Said he, 

'I'd like to take this opportunity to assure the public that Wales and the whole of the UK is well prepared for these types of incidents. Working with our partners in Wales and the UK, we have implemented our planned response, with robust infection control measures in place to protect the health of the public'

1,007 days later and viewed with hindsight his words seem just a little empty, even though it's probably what we needed to hear at the time. 

Days ago	Milestone
1,105	First case confirmed in world (that's 3 years 9 days ago)
1,031	The first confirmed cases (2 no.) in the UK
1,007	The first confirmed case in Wales
989	The first confirmed case in North Wales (Maelor Hospital)
978	Lockdown begins
0	Your blog author succumbs

1,007 days later and I'm one in 65 people currently estimated to have covid-19. On this basis, there are approximately another 90 in Rhuthun/Ruthin with it, too. Yet, the number of *confirmed* cases in *Denbighshire* 13th - 19th November was 13, a reduction of 35 per cent from the previous week. Confirmed cases are very different to household test results that are not reported. The R is estimated at between 0.7 and 1.0 in Wales, suggesting that infections continue to fall. 

Day 1,011 update: While day 1,007 was unpleasant and almost flu-like, I'm pleased to say symptoms thereafter were reasonable, no doubt thanks to four vaccinations. Provided I took things easy, this bout of covid-19 wasn't a problem, thiugh who knows about the longer-term consequences. But I was conscious that I should not exert myself and I took plenty of rest. Still feel tired and not sure what I'll face when eventually I am no longer contagious and thus can get out of the home. 

One interesting symptom of covid-19 as yet unreported in the media is the sudden growth of fingernails... or perhaps this is just because covid-19 has rendered it impossible to do anything manual that would naturally wear them down.

In the news on January 6th, 2023 was the statistic that covid-19 infections had doubled in December to be the highest since the summer.