Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[scifisam]

You'd have to have very severe/uncontrolled asthma to not be able to wear a mask. I would have thought people who are so at risk that they wouldn't be able to wear a mask wouldn't be taking a trip to the supermarket anyway?

I'm embarrassed by how difficult I'm still finding it to wear even a bandana. It's really surprised me. My asthma isn't poorly controlled at the moment - it's bad but I'm not on prednisilone or anything - and covering my face still makes a real difference. Mentally I don't mind it at all (don't have to wear lipstick, don't have resting bitch face , and it can be taken off easily if need be), so it's not panic. Wearing glasses does make a big difference too though, - they steamed up. I still wore the bandana to be a good person and protect myself too, but it was hard going.

I just haven't been out enough that I thought to order in better masks, and planned to just buy some paper ones next time I went out. Yesterday when I went to the supermarket I thought they'd have paper/disposable ones for sale, but they didn't. But because I'm actually doing unusually well physically in most respects - I feel better than I have in ages - I really want, and need, to go out. I'm not talking grocery shopping, because I can get that delivered, but everything else. There's no way I'm not going out when I'm able to. I want a life so I'm going to go out and wheeze through my bandana, but it makes me a little more sympathetic to other people who find it difficult.

The Leyland down the road sells disposable face masks - I'll try to get some of those tomorrow, next time we're planning on going out. They won't look cool but hopefully they won't feel hot

I'd say about 10% of other people in the supermarket were wearing masks, FWIW. And no, I don't think 90% of people have health reasons for it.

I believe you have to be clinically signed off to claim a disability as a protected condition, which is what we were talking about. I could be wrong on that one though.

That wouldn't apply to anyone under 18 or over 60, assuming you mean signed off from work or told that they don't have to seek work (not sure what other meaning there could be). It also wouldn't apply to a lot of disabled people who can still work. Plenty of people with paraplegia still go out to work, for example, but they are still protected if they're discriminated against for their disability.

FWIW, paraplegia can affect one side of the body, too - one of my brothers has been paraplegic down his left side since he was 11 and his right side is somewhat affected, so he wouldn't be able to put on a face mask, but he can still go shopping and is relatively safe to do so. Strokes can have a similar effect. At least usually they are visible disabilities.

Diabetes can mean that you should have reasonable adjustments too, even though you're young and otherwise healthy and completely capable of working. Pub workers, for example, should be allowed to have access to a soft drink behind the bar even if drinking behind the bar is usually disallowed.

FWIW I'd say the number of people in the general populace who can't wear a mask for reasons of breathing difficulties, mobility problems with putting the mask on, or major anxiety issues, is significantly higher than people who work in healthcare or other trades where they wear masks regularly. It's really not a very helpful comparison, TBH.

 

[elbows]

I hope there are some plans for a better test as well. The current one seems unreliable to say the least.

I took part in the saliva test trial recently, which if successful will have some advantages in terms of ease of use etc. I think they also hope it will pick up infections at a stage its easy for the swab test not to pick up on as well, but time will have to tell on this one.

 

[elbows]

Coronavirus: Blackburn and Luton 'areas of intervention'

A spike in coronavirus cases leads officials to postpone the reopening of leisure facilities.

www.bbc.co.uk

Residents in Luton and Blackburn have been told lockdown measures set to be eased this weekend will not be lifted in the towns.

Public Health England (PHE) data released on Thursday showed both had been marked as "areas for intervention" due to a spike in cases.

Leaders of both town councils said they would postpone the planned lifting of certain restrictions.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/903450/Weekly_COVID19_Surveillance_Report_week_30_FINAL_UPDATED.pdf

 

[cupid_stunt]

As expected, due to covid, there's an extension of the flu vaccine programme for this coming winter, so everyone over 50 will be offered it.

How bad will flu and coronavirus be?
Flu, which can be deadly or need hospital treatment, poses additional threats during the pandemic:

• There is some evidence a double infection with coronavirus and flu is more deadly than either alone
• A big flu season combined with coronavirus could overwhelm hospitals
• If lots of NHS or care-home staff are sick with flu, then it may not be possible to respond to Covid-19 in the same way as during the peak in spring.

Who will be offered the flu vaccine?

• people who were required to shield from coronavirus and anyone they live with
• people with some medical conditions including diabetes, heart failure and asthma
• pregnant women
• pre-school children over the age of two
• all primary school children, as last year, and, for the first time, Year 7 pupils
• initially all people over 65, before the programme is extended to the over-50s

Most people in England to be offered flu vaccine

About 30 million people - including everyone over 50 - will be able to have a free flu vaccine.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[SpookyFrank]

Which is bad news for multi-generational households.

Of which there will be more now as people lose jobs and homes and end up living with aging parents.

 

[eoin_k]

Where are people tracking the situation here now that the government have stopped reporting daily figures? I know their data was flawed but it felt like tracking it's rise and fall gave some sense of how things were going. Plus I was really looking forward to UK moving up into third place in terms of per capita death toll. In a morbid way I've found it reassuring to have my own pessimism confirmed about how badly the situation has been handled.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Where are people tracking the situation here now that the government have stopped reporting daily figures?

They are still publishing them here:

UKHSA data dashboard

Overall summary of the respiratory viruses in circulation within the UK

coronavirus.data.gov.uk

And, therefore appear here too:

United Kingdom COVID - Coronavirus Statistics - Worldometer

United Kingdom Coronavirus update with statistics and graphs: total and new cases, deaths per day, mortality and recovery rates, current active cases, recoveries, trends and timeline.

www.worldometers.info

 

[eoin_k]

My mistake

 

[Buddy Bradley]

Effectively 2nd behind Belgium, if you ignore the tiny city-states.

 

[kabbes]

Per capita has its limitations as much as the pure numbers. If you have a large rural, isolated population then your per capita mortality will end up very low, but that doesn’t mean you’ve handled it well if tens of thousands die in your cities.

 

[two sheds]

And, you know, when you say "per capita," there's many per capitas.

 

[8ball]

As expected, due to covid, there's an extension of the flu vaccine programme for this coming winter, so everyone over 50 will be offered it.

Since the Government were so keen on "herd immunity", you'd think they would be offering it to everyone.

 

[phillm]

Indy Sage now live...

https://twitter.com/independentsage?lang=en

 

[phillm]

Ronnie Scott's is re-opening on the 1st August.

COVID Protocols In The Club - Ronnie Scott's

www.ronniescotts.co.uk

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Anyone got a local perspective on the Northampton situation. I got some vulnerable folk working in the office and they are freaking about the idea of local lockdown.

 

[yield]

Anyone got a local perspective on the Northampton situation. I got some vulnerable folk working in the office and they are freaking about the idea of local lockdown.

DotCommunist lives in Kettering or Northampton I think?

 

[LDC]

Anyone got a local perspective on the Northampton situation. I got some vulnerable folk working in the office and they are freaking about the idea of local lockdown.

Freaking out due to the possible local lockdown or the increasing infection rate?

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Freaking out due to the possible local lockdown or the increasing infection rate?

They don't wanna be stuck at home again....

 

[elbows]

Anyone got a local perspective on the Northampton situation. I got some vulnerable folk working in the office and they are freaking about the idea of local lockdown.

Unless a place shows Leicester-like levels of infection, the plan these days is to try to tackle the issue in other ways first, with local lockdown a last resort. This means things like setting up more testing sites in the area, zooming in on particular areas of transmission in the area, and sometimes not pressing ahead with the latest round of relaxations. So there is a long road between that stuff and actually telling everyone in the area to stay at home. For example Blackburn with Darwen and Luton are a step of severity above Northampton, have now been placed in the same broad category as Leicester, but as a result their gyms etc arent reopening now, rather than other very heavy stuff being imposed at this stage.

Leicester was also the first, and at a time when neither data nor enforcement powers had been given to local authorities, and the measures there were imposed from above. So Leicester does not reflect the current template for what is done elsewhere, where there is room for more local actions decided upon locally, and the other stuff is just held as a last resort if the situation doesnt improve.

Conclusion: Keep an eye on it but there is no way that a proper local lockdown in places such as Northampton should be seen as inevitable at all, and other intermediate steps should come first. I cannot give a 100% guarantee about that because there is always the chance they will find really high levels of infection when they increase the testing capacity, but even then I would expect some nuance in the response.

I dont think the Northampton situation is necessarily actually new either, their hospital deaths data sucked in terms of how much it was ongoing well past the peak compared to many places.

 

[elbows]

I probably should also have said that the authorities are keen to evoke the idea that there could be a local lockdown there because they hope such threats encourage people to take the other advice seriously. There are signs of that in this sort of article:

Northampton's health chiefs warn 'we must take action now or risk potential local lockdown measures'

Advice is to work from home, stay off the bus and avoid meeting friends from outside your household in indoor spaces

www.northamptonchron.co.uk

And its not am empty threat, but its not inevitable at all.

 

[two sheds]

What's the situation with people coming from abroad now? I thought they had to self isolate. A neighbour's sister has come from Melbourne, where they were having a resurgence. She said she's from a suburb where there are very few cases but she's come across by plane so I do wonder.

She's staying with her brother who's a delivery driver and so is all over the south west up to Hampshire sometimes. She's said she's not been required to self isolate, and is off on the bus into town on Monday.

I just spoke to her and she said she's fairly young and in good health and felt the response to cv has been "overblown" I said more forcefully than I normally would "I don't. I get bad asthma so I'm not going to survive if I get it". She didn't seem too convinced or bothered by that so I said that you can be asymptomatic so you just don't know whether you've got it, and a church service in South Korea had spread hundreds of cases. She didn't say anything else but from her expression she clearly thought I was exaggerating.

 

[cupid_stunt]

What's the situation with people coming from abroad now? I thought they had to self isolate. A neighbour's sister has come from Melbourne...

Nope we have 'air corridors', and Australia is included as one.

Apart from the latest five countries added to the list, arrivals are exempt from quarantine if they arrive in England, Wales and Northern Ireland from:

Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, Croatia, Curaçao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, French Polynesia, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malta, Mauritius, Monaco, Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Réunion, San Marino, Seychelles, South Korea, Spain, St Barthélemy, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Pierre and Miquelon, Switzerland, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Vatican City, Vietnam.

Covid: Which countries can you now travel to from the UK?

Countries around the world have reopened borders to travellers from the UK. But requirements remain in place.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[gosub]

Out and about in local shopping centre this afternoon, mask wear was up to levels where social conformity should kick in

 

[maomao]

Almost everyone had one one in Lidl (the only person who wasn't wearing one at all was wearing mirror shades and over ear headphones so not exactly approachable if I had felt like having a go). The woman in front of me at the till was wearing it as a chin strap but I used my fight tokens to complain about her not bothering to put the next customer divider on the belt for me.

Got my first bus though. One guy didn't seem to have one at all though when he got up to get off it was clearly in his hand. At least four people just wearing them round their chins and one lady wearing a scarf who made as if she was going to cover her face as she got on then dropped it the second she was past the driver. The only bad thing about wearing them that I've personally found is that mouthing 'cunt' at non wearers doesn't work.

 

[two sheds]

Nope we have 'air corridors', and Australia is included as one.

Covid: Which countries can you now travel to from the UK?

Countries around the world have reopened borders to travellers from the UK. But requirements remain in place.

www.bbc.co.uk

Ta for clarifying that - good to know.

 

[tim]

A fortnight's quarantine for anyone flying in from Spain after midnight tonight.Home - BBC News

 

[The39thStep]

If it wasn't the case that the poorer southern European states didn't rely on tourism they'd be insisting that Brits quarantined for 14 days landing there tbh.

 

[Raheem]

So, it seems Johnson has released something from his air-corridor.

 

[tim]

If it wasn't the case that the poorer southern European states didn't rely on tourism they'd be insisting that Brits quarantined for 14 days landing there tbh.

Plenty of people in the UK including myself are dependent upon South Europeans amongst others coming here to spend their money. This vision of there being vast swathes of poverty in southern Europe is really a cliché from the 1950's. Income from tourism and international education are a central component of the British economy.

 

[Cloo]

More telling people online today not to use Nazi analogies about wearing of face coverings.