Covid-19

[Rosa]

Crazy.

I'm really concerned about the Florida situation. Three of the boys' sister's friends have tested positive following a party. Fortunately she wasn't there, but my ex said most people are still carrying on like nothing's happening.

[Loralei]

How is you ex handling the situation, Rosa? (If you don't mind me asking.) It must be even harder there to judge what's sensible when so many people are acting as if nothing has happened.

[Rosa]

OK I think. He has a couple of businesses there which he's continuing to run as safely as he can. They wear masks when they're shopping, and are turning down all invitations to socialise in a non-safe way. Currently (as olive mentioned) anyone can fly in, from anywhere else in the US, for a nice little holiday with no checks at all (and then fly out, again without checks). I think Disney World is about to open up too.

[olive]

That must be really worrying, Rosa.

I couldn’t believe that Universal is already open. That can’t be helping. T’s friend has already been out and spent 4 days there and he has Disney booked for his birthday in August. His dad hasn’t social distanced throughout and has been grabbing cheap flights to various Florida beaches.

A lot of families we know have already been out, are planning to go or are there now despite the numbers.

[rosy]

I have seen memes suggesting that if people are forced to wear masks, within a couple of years they'll be forced to wear burkas. Also someone running for congress who said that muslims would make death threats if statues of Mohammed were pulled down /

Statues of Mohammed. I bet they’ve never even wondered why there are no such things!

I hope your ex and his family stay safe, Rosa.

[Marth]

The news from the states is so worrying

[nineseven]

Leicester might be getting a localised lockdown

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-l ... e-53206506

[Pippedydeadeye]

Schools close on 10th July here anyway, and most kids aren’t even back in school. I wonder how else they’ll lock down? I work in the north west of the city, we also have hospitals in the centre & east (where they say the outbreak is centred). It’s a densely populated, mostly south Asian area. The hospital numbers were quite low when we last updated (under 100, where there were 250+ at the peak).

[nineseven]

Schools close on 10th July here anyway, and most kids aren’t even back in school. I wonder how else they’ll lock down? I work in the north west of the city, we also have hospitals in the centre & east (where they say the outbreak is centred). It’s a densely populated, mostly south Asian area. The hospital numbers were quite low when we last updated (under 100, where there were 250+ at the peak).

Back to the Stay At Home style lockdown, I suppose. Pubs, hairdressers etc not opening.

[Pippedydeadeye]

I guess so, but I’m wondering how it would work practically. How local is local, city or county, that sort of thing.

[nineseven]

The article says just the city of Leicester.

[Mountain Goat]

I wonder if the councils have even had any guidance yet on how to do this. Quite likely they're having to make it up as they go along.

[Froozy]

It’ll probably be like the school approach where they say ‘you have the autonomy to work this out the best way that suits your buildings, staff numbers, childrens’ needs but here are 41 separate requirements you must follow while you do that. Oh, and we’ve given you three days notice, ok?’

[Mountain Goat]

I imagine so. Not long ago councils were saying they had no guidance, no powers and no money to do local lockdowns so I'm not sure if that has improved in any way but as you say, if it has, it will be both vague and impossibly demanding.

[nineseven]

It’s the New Tory way

[Mountain Goat]

Is that a tiny Johnson?

Pun intended.

[happyhighlandcoo]

Wow, local lockdowns will be so complicated, especially in urban areas where there might be estates and streets which are at local authority boundaries. For example, a local school is on a boundary so has children from two authorities. Would they allow children from one but not the other? And will they have checkpoints for people crossing out of one area to get to shops in the next area and stuff. That's a very very hard thing to manage.

[nineseven]

Is that a tiny Johnson?

Pun intended.

It was a shrugging woman emoji on my phone but does look quite like him. Fortunately not his johnson.

[Little My]

We have differing lockdown phase areas. People in those higher risk areas are asked to respect the rules, but I don't think it is enforced to any real extent on the general public. It's more to do with businesses in the area, and reducing possibility of spread there. Obviously you would hope they would hold off on a road trip to get a haircut etc. Some local authorities are adding in mandatory mask wearing in situations where they are normally just recommended. But there are also people flocking out of town to the beaches now summer has fully hit, and small towns are closing their beaches because people are not socially distancing and coming from areas that have higher community spread. It's frustrating.

[Roma]

I often wish we’d stayed on complete lockdown for another 2 weeks. I think it would have made a massive difference in cases coming down. However, after the Cummings debacle there was no way Johnson could enforce that. So, he chose politics over public health.