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Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

Correction, it appeared to have been officially finalised yesterday.

But it should have been clear over a month ago that at least some delay was needed because of the Delta/Indian variant spreading as fast as it was (and still is).
And I don't think a month is going to be enough, unless a huge number of vaxx are done (and both doses at that)
 
This decision was finalised at least 10 days ago. It's a disgrace that it wasn't communicated to businesses then and there to stop them hiring staff, buying stock etc.

Business have tended to do things ahead of the government since the start, many businesses started rolling out wfh policies up to a month before the first lockdown, the city slowly draining before the government finally got its head out of its arse.
 
This decision was finalised at least 10 days ago. It's a disgrace that it wasn't communicated to businesses then and there to stop them hiring staff, buying stock etc.
I agree that it should have been made and announced at least ten days ago, if not more, but I'd be interested to see what evidence you have for stating quite so categorically that it was.
 
They've known things were going wrong for ages but it was only 1 week ago that cabinet was presented with worrying modelling etc by Whitty etc.

In terms of signs that there would be delays, May 17th featured a big one, when the government started to indicate that the social distancing review conclusions that they hoped to unveil by the end of May would be delayed.
 
Just a few snippets from BBC live updates page in regards the approaches of the four nations. Well I havent bothered with England.

In Scotland, caution has been the watch word.

The hope had been the whole country will be down to what’s described as level zero two weeks today on 28 June, but that’s increasingly in doubt now.

Yesterday the Scottish health secretary said it was fair to question that everybody would get to level zero by then.
But it’s important to say that level zero is not a full return to normality – it’s not the full easing of restrictions. There are still limits, for example, on the number of people who can meet up. Nightclubs and adult entertainment venues have to stay shut, there are still rules on social distancing and you’d be expected to wear a mask in a shop or on the bus.

Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford has always been made out to be the most cautious of all the nations leaders.

His last review was a week and a half ago, where he set out what could be eased on 21 June.

But the Welsh Government has never set a date for end of restrictions and has never said 21 June would be the end of restrictions in Wales.
There is still no hint of sign of a “freedom day” here.

The easing of restrictions across Northern Ireland was always planned to be more cautious, at a slower pace, certainly compared with England.

The 21 June date was never going to be the date when all restrictions would be removed here.

Northern Ireland has already been looking at a date further off towards the end of July.

 
Is it possible to find historic local infection rates? I want to know how bad things are in the north west compared to other high points of the last 15 months.
 
Is it possible to find historic local infection rates? I want to know how bad things are in the north west compared to other high points of the last 15 months.

Well there are a bunch of different ways to present such data, but the official dashboard goes all the way back and you can look at regions or more local areas, Here for example is the North West:


Just keep in mind that due to woeful testing capacity the first wave is not well represented by such data. Have to use estimates, population testing surveys etc for that first wave instead.
 
I’ve got a feeling they’re going to announce some sort of new restrictions, but somehow try and dress it up as nothing changing.
I wish there would be more of a crackdown on masks. I had a horrible journey yesterday with multiple individuals and groups of people without masks. And no, I don't accept that they are all medically exempt. There was an effort in New Street station with staff handing masks out, but I'd say around 50% of people there didn't bother at all.
 
I wish there would be more of a crackdown on masks. I had a horrible journey yesterday with multiple individuals and groups of people without masks. And no, I don't accept that they are all medically exempt. There was an effort in New Street station with staff handing masks out, but I'd say around 50% of people there didn't bother at all.

Yeah, I've been on a couple of trans and tubes over the last two days and about 50% sounds right. That is 50% wearing masks properly the others just being word badly or not bothered with at all.
 
Well there are a bunch of different ways to present such data, but the official dashboard goes all the way back and you can look at regions or more local areas, Here for example is the North West:


Just keep in mind that due to woeful testing capacity the first wave is not well represented by such data. Have to use estimates, population testing surveys etc for that first wave instead.

Thanks!
 
The one thing that makes me feel slightly better about masks is my Italian student, who worked in an office with someone who got coronavirus. He didn't catch it, and he thinks it's because he always wore a decent mask (not a cloth one!)

The coach was particularly awful. Didn't even want to take my mask off to eat my snack.
 
I wish there would be more of a crackdown on masks. I had a horrible journey yesterday with multiple individuals and groups of people without masks. And no, I don't accept that they are all medically exempt. There was an effort in New Street station with staff handing masks out, but I'd say around 50% of people there didn't bother at all.
The whole "medically exempt" thing has always been a bit sketchy though, no clear definitions of what counts and certainly no move towards certification (and there are actually good reasons why).

It's been kind of left to the individual to decide whether they consider themselves exempt, and while on one level that's probably a good thing, it obviously means that some people can take advantage.

Personally, I try (not always successfully) not to get too worried about non-mask wearers, unless they're doing other stuff which increases risk, like standing too close etc.

And there's also the issue of who "enforces" mask wearing. It's one thing to check people as they enter the station, but they can easily take their mask off when they're sat on the train, and there are reasons why other passengers might feel uncomfortable about challenging them.

So while I understand you calling for a crackdown on mask wearing, I'm not sure how such a thing could work.
 
Not saying this is a good idea, but in Turkey, police patrol, and there are on the spot fines. Masks were required from the beginning and there are no exceptions. Here it's all been so wishy washy that there is no chance of getting people to comply now. I try not to get bothered, but when you're on a coach which is completely full, with no windows that open and boiling hot, it bothers me. The last time I took a coach about a month ago, the policy was one person (or group) per double seat. Don't know if that was just that company, but the coach yesterday was packed and horrible. As I was travelling to see my mother, I was trying to be as careful as possible. I'll find another way to travel back, I think.
 
IME people who don't wear masks also don't give a damn about keeping any spatial distance from you and also DGAF whether you were in whichever part of the shop first or are keeping a distance from the person in front of you at the veg stand / fridge / whatever it is you want to get. I've been finding it a lot more of a challenge this last couple of weeks, end up just giving up and walking out half the time. Not a single person with a mask on in the last 4 shops I went in.

It's been an absolute shitshow with no clear messaging and like many other things, no extra resources given to implement them, just handed off to the shopkeepers, pubs etc to deal with it.

As far as enforcing it goes, how would that even work, I've seen signs up on train stations etc saying if you don't wear a mask there's £x fine, but how would they prove that the person wasn't exempt? It's not on to interrogate people who are genuinely unable to wear one, so the whole thing is just unworkable.
 
I wish there would be more of a crackdown on masks....
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a couple of students where i work have tested positive since the changes to masks in school when we hadn’t had a positive result in a while. IMO it has led to confusion amongst staff and pupils which I think then leads to inadvertently letting down your guard regarding general precautions around COVID particularly at when there’s a new variant
 
Why has nobody asked about rates under current restrictions, whether we need to go back to tighter restrictions, and if we stay at this level what does the modellng show re: hospitalizations and deaths?
 
Well, we have daughter's Bat Mitzvah on 26th, having delayed from last year - a date we were given well before this Freedom Day bullshit. Johnson is huffling and pfeffeling about some kind of extra numbers allowed for family dos, but still no clue what this means. I think the service remains limited and I'm happy with that - the way it's done now is pretty covid safe, but higher numbers would not be.

That is if we even make it that far due to Johnson letting Delta Variant get it's grip on things - awaiting a test result from this morning after son had high temp yesterday (but fine today, so fingers crossed), but even if we make it past that, we have a week and a half in which either of our kids could get a contact and we all have to isolate and cancel the day itself, which seems not unlikely as friends and their kids are getting contacts or symptoms left, right and centre. :facepalm:
 
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