Just don't go buy any gift cards for them, if they bring up gift cards, run...:p

This is legitimate. You would typically get this in one of two ways: someone you know has had a telephone triage with NHST&T and named you from this (however these tend to result in a telephone call or SMS, but not an email). Or from some contact tracing event where emails were supplied, and obviously flights are in this category, along with hospitality or maybe if you supply an email when registering to a barber.

To check for this, on the URL line in your browser there will often be a small padlock. Click that then Connection is Secure, then Certificate is Valid, and a small certificate box comes up and it should show:

contract-tracing.phe.gov.uk

phe is Public Health England. That is the previous name of the UK Health Security Agency, into which NHST&T reports.

There are indeed loads of scams around, the most popular is one advertising "Covid Passports" or "Covid exemption certificates" and the like. They don't have properly registered domain certificates.

Right, gave 119 a ring and apparently I was in some close proximity with somebody who had Covid. The lady on the phone couldn't tell me where from. Looking back at my week I've had a pretty lousy social life: I went to the dentist yesterday, meeting only the receptionist and the dentist (both of whom didn't do any tests and haven't been contacted). On Sunday last week we flew back from Lisbon, and since then I've been at home, or out cycling. Haven't met anyone besides that as work is taking quite a toll. No one else in the household has been pinged. Probably it's the flight, though it's been a full five days since then.

I guess I'll test myself every day then!

Daily data:

Cases 89,176 (95,787 last Friday)
Deaths 277 (288)
Patients admitted 1,732 (1,988 on the 17th)
Patients in hospital 16,149 (18,013 on the 20th)
Patients in ventilation beds 549 (664 on the 20th)
People vaccinated up to and including 27 January 2022:
First dose: 52,297,579
Second dose: 48,314,633
Booster: 37,157,898

The rolling seven day daily average for cases is now down 2.7% on the previous week and the same measure for deaths is down 2.7%. The rolling 7 day daily average for deaths is 261.1 today. The weekly averaged number people in ventilation beds has dropped to 593 today which is the lowest since 20th July last year.

It'll be legitimate. The gov.uk and nhs.uk bear that out*. However, must you self-isolate? I thought that rule had gone out of the window, at least for fully vaccinated people.

* Always read a suspect URL from right to left and before to hover over it to make sure it's not hiding something nasty.

The email says "Unless exempt, you must self-isolate...if you're exempt, you should take lateral flow tests for 7 days". What it doesn't say in the email that being fully vaccinated is a reason for exemption. It explains exemptions when you click into the link.

As well, if you click the link and go through the process, it'll tell you when the contact was. I got pinged on day 9 of the contact (of which I already knew what was happening, as it was a gathering with friends), so only did one day of a test as I was vaccinated - and if I wasn't vaccinated would have only had to isolate for 1 day.

Daily data:

Cases 72,727 (80,263 last Saturday)
Deaths 296 (297)
People vaccinated up to and including 28 January 2022:
First dose: 52,313,949
Second dose: 48,347,597
Booster: 37,211,022

The rolling seven day daily average for cases is now down 3.6% on the previous week and the same measure for deaths is down 3.2%. The rolling 7 day daily average for deaths is 261.0 today. Scotland did not report cases today. The England figure is the same as last Saturday.

A quick search shows 1600 deaths a day in the U.K., on average. If we estimate 1/25 people have covid each week, that means about 16% of people dying would have had covid in the previous 28 days, no? That’s 250 ish of the deaths a day. Maybe my math is off.

Even if those numbers are off, are a lot of the deaths listed as covid just a coincidence, at this stage?

The numbers do include people who die of something unrelated to covid within 28 days of a positive diagnosis, but they are offset by the number of people who survive more than 28 days before succumbing and who therefore do not appear in the headline figure. Reliable figures regarding covid-related deaths are only available after several weeks, when the ONS has analysed death certificates (and these tend to be higher than the headline figures).

The ONS lead Statistician in this area has given a long version of this, albeit addressing a much more reprehensible trope than that implied by your perfectly respectable line of argument.
https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2022/01/26/t...ly-misleading/

The key question, to my mind, is whether those listed - and they are people not statistics - would still be alive if they had not caught COVID. Our best estimate is that of the 176,813 people officially classified as having COVID on their death certificates, 140,000 approximately would still be alive had they not caught COVID. So that suggests in round terms about 80% of those recorded as dying we should have saved, mostly at the point when vaccines were not available. Now it is the case that with such a high level of Omicron around then a higher proportion of those passing away at this time from other conditions would have the virus now, compared to during the early Summer. But even if you cut the figure down to 60%, which I think is going too far, that still suggests of the 1827 victims of COVID in the last 7 days, 1100 would still be alive but for the fact they were affected by the virus. That would be quite a high level for influenza related deaths in a week, though we typically only have about 4 to 6 such weeks in a year.

This was certainly the case before omicron. I have not seen whether the 28 days remains completely valid for omicron. However, 28 days is a standard which allows some degree of comparison with other countries.

Two years on, it's finally caught me. 😭

It is getting a lot of folks. Rest up and get well soon!

Better omicron than delta I would say. Small consolation though!