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Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

I've just commuted from Cumbria to London and I've got to say the country seems to be doing this lock down thing really well. We should be proud of ourselves for just how much staying in, or socially distanced going out, there is.

I haven't been within meters of anyone over the last 6 hrs. The streets are deserted.

Thanks Supine :)
But the above conforms with most of our (anecdotal!) impressions.
I haven't been put of Swansea since Sunday 22nd March ( :oops: at prior to that :oops: ), so travel's not relevant for us.
But we've seen utterly tiny proportions of arseholeish behaviours over the limited stretches of time that we've been out.
The vast majority of people round here are staying in, judging by the miniscule numbers of people we see whilst out.
In supermarkets, pretty much everybody (and they seem to be there in small numbers) appears to be doing their absolute best to conform with the distancing rules.

SO : I've been catching up with the past seven or eight pages of this thread, and I think those posters fingerpointing at individual arseholes that they see, might have a calmer experience by focussing much more on how much people are conforming to the rules.
Not to condone the arseholes at all, and I fully appreciate there's no consistency about how many blatant rule-breakers there are in different areas.
But most people in most places are, probably, conforming very well.
Let's hear a bit more appreciation on Urban of them :cool: :)
 
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Is that Palmer Park or TV Park chilango ? Either way looks like the good people of Reading are being sensible because either one would have been heaving today in normal times.

TVP.

Palmer Park is a little busier, but still easy to stay a good 10m plus away from anyone else.

ETA: That's on the path. the inner grassy bits are even quieter.
 
Does this include Tesco?

I tried twice this week. I found out Tesco slots come on at midnight. We have a cheap subscription, meaning we can get slots on Tue, Wed, Thu. So I logged on at 11.55 to get a message telling me I was in a queue. At 12.12am I got through - to all slots gone for Wed.

So I tried the next night. Logged on at 11.20pm. I was in. But of course the slots weren't up. At 11.50pm the message came up again about being in a queue. At 12.25am I was through - to no slots available again.

Coincidentally the next morning I got an email saying my subscription was on hold, they are giving money back for March, but I can still get slots for free within my subscription time frame (Tue, Wed, Thu).

Yeah. Course I can. :hmm:

These slots are for 3 weeks from now.

And yeah, just to add, Tesco have withdrawn their customer services email. So you have to ring them. And when you ring them you get two minutes of garbled computer message followed by a swift cut-off. So, they're uncontactable.

Utter fucking wankers.
 
Mind you, Sainsbury's phone number gives you at least 10 minutes of pressing 1 for 'do you wish to register for our vulnerable service' while repeating the message that you heard first time in case you didn't hear it and then (once) gives you a phone number really quickly for the number you actually need to dial but you don't have a pen at that point and they don't repeat it and then they hang up :mad:
 
On our infrequent walks we've found the best place to walk and keep furthest away from others is the golf course just down the road! Huge open space, loads of sunshine, plus the grass is lush and green. You can walk on long grass and short grass, or sand, over little hills etc. Great fun :)
 
The Department of Health said on Sunday there had been 621 more coronavirus-related deaths in the UK in the past day.

The latest deaths include 12 more in Wales, seven in Northern Ireland and two in Scotland.
Out of interest, why are the death numbers so low outside of England? 15% of the UK population, but only 3% of daily deaths. Is it just London having a disproportionate impact, or are they actually doing anything different?
 
Out of interest, why are the death numbers so low outside of England? 15% of the UK population, but only 3% of daily deaths. Is it just London having a disproportionate impact, or are they actually doing anything different?

Something about there's delays in reporting at weekends for some regions.
 
Mind you, Sainsbury's phone number gives you at least 10 minutes of pressing 1 for 'do you wish to register for our vulnerable service' while repeating the message that you heard first time in case you didn't hear it and then (once) gives you a phone number really quickly for the number you actually need to dial but you don't have a pen at that point and they don't repeat it and then they hang up :mad:

Fuck yes that was as annoying as fucking hell.

Especially as the first 2 times I spent 10 minutes on hold and they then told me they couldn't help and hung up on me. That 30 second constant repeat of "have you tried online" was at the right tempo to give me a panic attack as well.
 
The Department of Health said on Sunday there had been 621 more coronavirus-related deaths in the UK in the past day.
The latest deaths include 12 more in Wales, seven in Northern Ireland and two in Scotland.

Out of interest, why are the death numbers so low outside of England? 15% of the UK population, but only 3% of daily deaths. Is it just London having a disproportionate impact, or are they actually doing anything different?

My maths is terrible :(, but to what extent are those Wales,, NI and Scotland figures proportionate to their populations?
And is the England figure disproportionately high by comparison, in population numbers terms??

Something about there's delays in reporting at weekends for some regions.

I'm sure that's a factor, but I'd be surprised if it's the only one.
 
Fuck yes that was as annoying as fucking hell.

Especially as the first 2 times I spent 10 minutes on hold and they then told me they couldn't help and hung up on me. That 30 second constant repeat of "have you tried online" was at the right tempo to give me a panic attack as well.

Indeed :mad:

but having said that ...

<breathes in and out in measured fashion >

it was an 0800 number and I was trying (but failing if I'm honest) to do things at the same time and I've got a wine and grocery but mainly wine delivery coming tomorrow

I forgive them :)
 
From the end of this Times article**, posted up by Hollis earlier :

**seems to be free to read

The Times said:
Other modellers have drawn similarly dire conclusions. One of them is Osnat Zaretsky of DataClue, a company that has helped Israel, which has seen only 40 deaths so far, draw up a response. He believes Britain’s modellers have grossly underestimated the pandemic and predicts that Britain will see 95,000 deaths by May 1, rising to 288,000 by late June.
“The numbers are extremely alarming —they are doubling every couple of days and this is what our projections are based on,” said Zaretsky, a UK-born Israeli whose research suggests that the UK is not even counting deaths accurately. “There seems to be a vacuum of reliable information in the UK. It’s apparent that many sick people or even ones that passed away showed Covid-19 symptoms but have never been tested. This creates a false sense that the curve and the spread is far lower than they really are. As soon as the UK ramps up testing we’ll see a sharp increase in diagnosed cases.”

I get his general point about unreliable numbers, but are those projected (and bolded) figures for deaths realistic??? :confused: :eek:
 
My maths is terrible :(, but to what extent are those Wales,, NI and Scotland figures proportionate to their populations?
And is the England figure disproportionately high by comparison, in population numbers terms??



I'm sure that's a factor, but I'd be surprised if it's the only one.

England has roughly 10x the population of Scotland, 17x population of Wales, 34x NI. What are the figures? don't seem to be separate on worldometers.
 
Cid : I was only going on the figures posted above (in my post #6559, they'd been put up earlier in Buddy Bradley 's post).

ETA : And thanks for those population percentages, which (on a very quick read/headcount) do suggest the Wales and Scotland are a lot lower .... who knows why :confused:
 
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