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Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

Zapp Brannigan said:
Somebody who understands in far more detail than I, could someone tell me why this wouldn't work?

Extend each school half term by another week. So roughly every 12 or 13 weeks or so, when schools would be shut and a large number of people would have been making childcare arrangements anyway; with plenty of advance preparation time, and at a known time to allow for scheduling purposes (for things like non-urgent medical procedures). Shut down, hard. Everyone bunker down for 2 weeks; minimal essential shopping trips only, 1 hour daily exercise again. 2 weeks at a time, months apart.

I've seen a lot of talk around politicians not wanting to use the word "lockdown" again, instead calling it a "circuit-breaker". In that case, do something more than fucking pubs shutting an hour early that actually breaks the circuit - starve the virus of hosts, then the time in between "circuit-breakers" could be managed from a low starting point for transmission with basic restrictions only.
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I have been wondering about this, some people have suggested an extended half term is likely, but as elbows says, it's hard to work anything from such a short change. Also, whether given the Spring Term (Jan-March) is going to be a bad time for infection whatever happens, whether they could/should plan for a shorter term - like 2-week half term, maybe extra week of holiday either end, and then be more likely to be able to open and stay open for summer term and move GCSE/A-level exams to June/July, rather than July/August to allow more time to make up for lost weeks. I'm sure there are all kinds of reasons why this wouldn't work logistically though. And I appreciate we're a household relatively well set up to cope with kids being off school but of course most people aren't as privileged as us and home or work set ups make any time off school a total nightmare.
 
Thora said:
Also - you say people will have made childcare arrangements, would the lockdown still allow for holiday clubs, sports camps and grandparent care to take place?
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Holiday clubs and sports camps, no way.

TBH I'm light on details, more positing the theory that a series of short, planned, severe restrictions every so often would be better than the current theory of half-arsed, ever-changing, borderline incomprehensible restrictions over the long term. Suggesting half-term or similar was just a nod from me toward mitigating a tiny bit of the disruption inevitably caused by a full lock-down. Sorry, circuit breaker.
 
Cloo said:
I have been wondering about this, some people have suggested an extended half term is likely, but as elbows says, it's hard to work anything from such a short change.
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I probably should have said that despite the data lag, they might still try stuff for short periods anyway.

I find it much harder to predict timing and measures this time around than it was in March, and right now I have very few confident predictions. I just know about some of the options they have looked at for months. Lockdowns during (potentially extended) school holidays is certainly an option.
 
Knotted said:
I can and have been working from home but my boss has told me to go in because the CEO has yet to say anything. My union's website has not been updated since August...
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OK the CEO got his act together and said we should work at home if we can and that's what I did today. Except my boss has been on the phone asking me to come in "a few mornings a week" basically so I can talk to people. I asked him when he needs me in and it's "no specific days" and "don't make my life difficult like you usually do." He wants me in so I can help out this key performance indicator box ticking exercise with the client every now and then, nothing actually to do with delivering the work. And it's something he's taken off me and given to somebody who doesn't know what the score is and they need me to explain it all to them. Completely a self inflicted injury. But it's the one thing he worries about because it's the one thing his boss is even aware of.

I can put my foot down and say I've got a phone and I've got Teams if they need to talk to me. Think I'll just take the path of least resistance and come in when he gives me a reason I need to be in.

Not that I'm worried for myself, but it's civic duty isn't it. Plus in going in I'm just encouraging unnecessary office based bull shittery.

Sorry for the rant.
 
rutabowa said:
I went to a house party during the summer, the first one I have been to in years, and it started at 2pm and no pub was involved at all. Therefore I am assuming that is what all house parties do nowadays.
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Sounds like the ones I went to in the 70s then :) From this time on I am assuming that is what all house parties do nowadays too :thumbs:
 
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editor said:
It'll be worse. 10pm is so early people are just going to get tanked up earlier and then have gatherings/house parties.
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Was speaking to mechanic today (whose daughter is a nurse on the local Covid ward). He said the earlier closing has shown some good results in comparable countries.
Also mentioned that while the cases are really high, they only have one patient in intensive care right now (they have 8 nurses and have been preparing for a second wave for a couple of months).

Guess it's a case of wait and see...

In "less good" news, there seems to be a bit of a bash going on at the bar opposite my work...
 
editor said:
Which 'comparable' countries were they? Britain has a fairly singular drinking culture.
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Either France and Spain or France and Italy, I think. Might be wrong, but Western European countries where people like a drink.
Their drinking cultures will also be different to each other.

Like I said, we'll have to wait and see. I wasn't really expecting it to make significant difference here, but that was just an "I reckon".
 
LynnDoyleCooper said:
Given that there's a lag (to put it politely...) with testing those figures are going to be very very low compared to the reality....
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Zoe Covid estimate now 16,130 (was 14,433 yesterday and 12,698 before that).

New ONS survey home test based estimate, covering community cases only, should be out on Friday as always.

I dont take these estimates literally either, and the ONS one has a fair bit of lag (cannot comment on zoe timeliness as I dont know much about it). But they provide at least some guide as to how many cases the daily official number might be missing.
 
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