Lockdown easing in England

[JenB]

Eight and a half million employees on furlough maybe to join the ranks of the unemployed

At the time of Jarrow hunger marches 19.7% of the workforce was unemployed, today more than 25%
of the workforce are looking at that fate.

Your kids?  My kids.  Your grandchildren? My grandchildren?

What is the point you are trying to make?

[LizzieL]

Ponteland was a hangover from when the event was held in Ponteland, and last autumn we left it a bit late to book, so could only get in at Corbridge. If it does go ahead this autumn, will try Hexham again.

[mazi]

Eight and a half million employees on furlough maybe to join the ranks of the unemployed

At the time of Jarrow hunger marches 19.7% of the workforce was unemployed, today more than 25%
of the workforce are looking at that fate.

Your kids?  My kids.  Your grandchildren? My grandchildren?

What is the point you are trying to make?

Another six weeks of lockdown, as some are suggesting, would result in a situation worse than that in Jarrow.


The choice now is between the devil and the deep blue sea,  I wondered what others thought.

Mike

[groom]

The chemist delivery man has just dropped off a prescription (I didn't have to ask and for free),

Mine did that, much to my surprise. I always put in an order online with the doctor, they send it to the chemist and I pick it up three or four days later. I did the same a couple of weeks ago and the next day there was a ring on the bell and someone from the chemist had left the prescription on the door step and was waiting until I picked it up. I wondered whether that was special treatment or if they just decided it was easier than having people picking it up from the shop.

[Roobarb]

In reply to the original question as to whether the government was right to ease the lockdown - I simply don't know but I really hope the figures don't prove that they were wrong. At the beginning of the lockdown there was a lot of discussion about whether the lockdown should have happened sooner. On one of the few programmes I watched about coronavirus a group of eminent scientists were answering such questions. The feeling was that if the lockdown had happened sooner then people would have got sick of it earlier and started taking risks at the time when the infection rate was at its peak.

As for the easing, I don't know whether delaying it would have made any difference, there seems to have been so many instances of people taking the decision into their own hands. Personally, I haven't done anything different as I'm still far too scared to take the slightest risk. There are over four hundred confirmed cases in my local authority area, heaven knows how many unconfirmed cases there are and considering how idiotically some people have been behaving I certainly wouldn't want to encounter any of them.

So I won't be going to Barnard Castle (less than an hour's drive) despite the fact that my great great grandmother was born there, in the Market Place. I'm assuming that means in a house, not amongst the stalls. 

[sonofthom]

Mike, I think the choice is between the devil (continuing lockdown) and normality. Lockdown achieved its aim of flattening the curve weeks ago and should have long since ended. It is clear from elsewhere that there is no second wave and we now know that for most people Covid 19 is far less serious than originally envisaged.

On the other hand the implications of mass unemployment are truly frightening.

[LizzieL]

Lockdown achieved its aim of flattening the curve weeks ago and should have long since ended. It is clear from elsewhere that there is no second wave and we now know that for most people Covid 19 is far less serious than originally envisaged.

I have never understood which curve we are flattening.
People are still dying of the disease - new deaths are reported every day - 412 yesterday after two lower days (due to weekend effect) - Obviously that is far fewer per day than in April but a curve where cumulative total number of deaths is plotted against time is not flat, but it is only rising gradually.
New cases are reported every day - 2,013 yesterday, so again a curve of cumulative number of cases against time is not flat.
And the new cases are only those who have had a positive test which have been reported on that day. Reports are coming in on people waiting several days for results. A delivery man in our local area had to wait seven days from giving his sample to getting his result (negative fortunately). But he had to self isolate for that time and his employer had to find someone else to cover for him.

I think politicians mean we are beyond the peak, which is undeniable, when they say we have flattened the curve. But if lockdown and social distancing are really working at the moment, why are we still getting so many new cases daily? Probably because an estimated 20% of people are not complying with the rules (around 13 million people).

[LizzieL]

A successful rescue off a Cornish beach - this time of a trained life-guard and surf coach

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-52822604

And another chance to criticise the RNLI. 

Looks like another warm weekend coming up, so the usual stampede to the beaches.

[candleflame]

we ( husband and I) had a brief trip to the nearest beach to us last week on a Weekday- about 20 minutes away . We went lunchtime and the car park was socially spaced even though you could park in any bay. We walked down onto the stony beach, there were others around but everyone was being very sensible. A few families with youngsters paddling, one kayaker on the waves. Lots of excited dogs. Back up onto the top and an ice cream van one of the regulars had arrived in the car park so we treated ourselves to a 99. Yes that was a risk having a non wrapped ice cream , but we thought, they are a a local firm been in business donkeys years,  so they'll have an interest in the highest steps of hygiene. Then we drove home. It was lovely to get some sea air into the lungs and a real treat I'd been missing during lockdown. It wasn't a long outing but it was worth its weight mentally.