Covid-19

[Mountain Goat]

Yes to everything. Absolute fuckers.

[Ruby]

Or the complete silence on the rules. They should be repeated constantly, televised, by official sources. There have been so many changes that it's hard to keep up even

Yes! Why isn't there a quick ad every hour or so - like those never ending handwashing videos at the beginning of this whole thing?

[Mountain Goat]

I genuinely have no idea what you can do or not do any more.

[Loralei]

It's specifically people mixing in their homes. I do think people have got confused about the rules.

It was never ok to mix in each other’s homes though, was it?

You can (could) meet members of one other household inside providing there aren't more than 6 people in total.

I think you can still sit inside a pub or restaurant if you are all part of the same household. And sit outside if you are from different households. So pubs will still be OK as long as they have outside seating.

Two households can (could) meet inside even if they numbered more than six, but more than two households has to be outside and have a total of six people (or fewer). I only know this because I looked it up specifically, and even then had to read it through several times to understand it properly. It is ridiculous that it's this unclear even to people who are actively searching for and trying to follow the rules; there is no hope for those who aren't particularly bothered.

[happyhighlandcoo]

And if we’re really lucky, we can make it a race/immigration issue too.

Absolutely this. I'm horrified at people blaming Muslim families but not blaming the pubs and big groups of people taxi sharing over the weekend which I saw when out for a walk. Way to divide the community...

The communications are awful. Agree we should have regular TV information with clear messages and regular leaflet drops. There's been more about obesity this week than about the rules. If people on here, educated and keen to do the right thing, don't know the rules, what chance is there for others?

[Ruby]

OK. That make me feel a bit better. I went with my dad, my sister and her two youngest to a pub for a meal. There were 7 of us but they let us sit inside because we are two households, since my dad is bubbling with us.

[Kleio]

I genuinely have no idea what you can do or not do any more.

Same. I am so confused by it all any more so I'm just sticking with my household and my sisters and trying to keep away from everyone else.

[Luce]

I'm confused as well and with the best of intentions.

We're definitely in lockdown. We've had no cases in my town for weeks now so it's galling but whatever. I've been hardly going anywhere, I've been to a pub once and a sat outside coffeeshops a few times. But mostly I've been keeping myself to myself and socialising only in my mum's house or in my best friend's house (especially helpful as our children were bubbled together at school anyway).

So now this is worse than in May/June - I was at least allowed to sit in Mum's garden back then.

[Ruby]

You can meet her in a park, Luce? Like for a walk or a picnic?

Andy Burnham has said you can still meet people who you have been bubbling with too.

I know this is a bit of a shitshow, but honestly Twitter is full of people who don't know if they live in Greater Manchester or not.

[Pippedydeadeye]

I keep banging on, but Leicester was the same because they just didn’t know where the boundaries were. And one bit literally just hooked over a councillor’s home. He was out but all his neighbours on the same street were in.

[Luce]

Can I, Ruby? That would be great, actually.

[Dáire]

I wasn't sure if they literally meant Greater Manchester, as in the geographical boundary as is written in the great tome of our lands, or "Greater Manchester" a phrase they'd heard once and thought they'd use in their article.You can never be sure

Bit pissed off my borough's included, things weren't bad here. 8.9 new cases per 100,000, down from 10.0 the previous week. A total of 1239 cases since the beginning of the pandemic. Not exactly akin to Blackburn's 83.9, or Oldham's going from 11 per 100k up to 48.4 in a week.

Also pisses me off because at the end of the day people who weren't taking any notice before are still not going to take any notice now.

Yeah I think you can still meet family outside at a 2m distance, just not inside a home where no distancing can be enforced. You could be at the gym together (theoretically) because the gym would enforce distancing, therefore no inter-household spread.

[olive]

God, how bloody confusing and infuriating.

Also pisses me off because at the end of the day people who weren't taking any notice before are still not going to take any notice now.

People are pissing me off full stop now. So many people who are doing the right thing, staying home to minimise the spread and so many utter bastards are benefiting by going about their business completely unbothered.

[Bat Macdui]

I looked at Twitter blearily over a coffee and went HAVE THEY SHUT MY FUCKING LIBRARY BEFORE I'VE EVEN BEEEEEN?

My Mum's lived in Greater Manchester for 46 years and still puts Lancashire as her address.

[Bat Macdui]

Actual rules.

[Beena]

We're supposed to be traveling home to see my parents in a fortnight. I haven't seen them since Christmas and my mum's condition is deteriorating by the week. I suppose in theory we could still go, we're in a hotel and could sit 2 metres away from my dad in a park, but just the thought of that is making me well up. Mum wouldn't cope with it.

People are pissing me off. We're in Glastonbury (overnight stopover on our way to meet Bambs' dad for a socially distanced day). There wasn't a mask to be seen in any of the shops. The odd sign, but no distancing, no screens, plenty of sticking it to the man.

[Ella77]

Woah, what? That’s intriguing.

[bramblerose]

My Mum's lived in Greater Manchester for 46 years and still puts Lancashire as her address.

So do I

[Bat Macdui]

I put Lancashire some days and GM on days I'm having a mini-Andy-Burnham-crush day.

[Dáire]

Some websites have an address dropdown that only offers Lancashire, which amuses me as the boundary changed long before that dodgy software was written.