Is it really safe for everybody to be out in the garden/exercising daily?

[Hoohum]

I have seen a lot of posts about how people are going to be having BBQS this weekend due to nice weather. My question is, is it really completely safe to do so?

I’m more referring to houses that are situated close together but I don’t really see how high numbers of people out in their gardens eating food is much different to high numbers of people having a picnic in a field (with a 2 metre distance)?

I am aware the virus is not airborne at certain proximities But people are still catching virus even with lockdown.

I also wonder about the daily one hour exercise allowance. My step son has been going out for daily walks and playing in the garden but other than that has been completely isolated from people and has been at home with his mum. However, he has now developed a cold and a cough. Even if this is not the Coronavirus he has obviously picked germs up from somewhere?

Do you think it is completely safe to be leaving the house? I have probably become quite irrational and we do not leave the house at all other than the twice we have needed to shop in 3 weeks.

I sort of think that the daily allowance of exercise has been put in place to throw people a bone and help with overall isolation adherence, rather than it being completely risk free.

I'm trying to picture a 2 metre wide garden.

If you don't exercise, you'll be in a wide condition if you do catch it, therefore more likely to need a ICU bed etc.

Also, you'll be likely to die younger overall.

Most people have huge fences or hedges separating gardens so I don’t see any risk whatsoever. We’d definitely be at least 2m away from our neighbours if they were also in their garden.

OhTheRoses, no, it's an old style maisonette with the gardens alongside each other so they are quite long but very narrow, half a garden really.

worse condition, not wide condition!

@Bluntness100 that’s interesting. I read an article on the study that looked at how long the virus could survive on surfaces and it said the big flaw was that it made no reference to how quickly the virus “disappeared” from surfaces and whether there was sufficient present to cause infection. Current understanding is the amount of virus on any surface deteriorates very quickly which is why risk from surface transmission from things such as post and food packaging is very, very low and many articles state there is no evidence of this having happened.

I sort of think it has been put in place to stop people from being completely silly and carrying on as if nothing is happening at all. Because for everyone of those silly people, there is an equally silly one with no underlying health conditions disinfecting their post and refusing to go in their own back garden.

They're trying to create a balance
This is spot on.

There's nothing wrong with enjoying a day in the garden.
What bothers me more is that the idiots of this world will flock to supermarkets to buy BBQ things and/or will start driving somewhere nice for a day trip and claim it as their exercise. We all saw what happened last time the government told us to stay home and avoid busy places when there was a nice weekend: day trips, day trips everywhere.

I’m b more worried about the advice to self isolate for 7 days if you have symptoms - look at Boris Johnson - no one is convinced he’s safe to be around (normally too!) - so he’s still self isolating but how many other are still contagious after 7 days?

I don't think he is isolating because he is contagious I think he is really ill. It's all good and well saying you can go out after 7 days but only if you feel ok. Boris doesn't look at all well.

The advice is not to isolate for only 7 days and that’s it. If you still have a temperature the advice is to continue self isolating, which is what Boris is doing. But most people with a very mild case will no longer have a temperature by that stage.

The 7 days is a compromise that takes into account that most people with a cough and a raised temperature do not have CV but just have a standard bug. After 7 days they should have recovered or it will be clear it is something more.

There is a real risk of a mental health crisis I people don’t get out.

You have to evaluate the risk according to where you live too.
I live in a quiet, fairly rural village, my son is on the highly vulnerable list.
I go out for a short early run in the morning, my husband does the same in the evening, we both come in and have showers.
We live on a terrace house so the gardens are close together but our neighbours both side are single and rarely use their gardens, two children under 5 need fresh air or they would be climbing the walls.
My children aren’t going outside of the house or garden and we don’t from 6am to 6pm as many people are now driving to the village for exercise and it has been getting busy, I’m anticipating this weekend to be like the M25 due to the sunshine!

People who agree with the OP, have you had a thought for the hundreds of thousands of people who are still going to work every single day? All those key workers doing their but since others can sit at home!

Honestly stop thinking about your own circumstance for a bit, and get a grip. (And I say that as someone who is on medication for anxiety!).

*bit

I'm on the shielded list. I'm going to go in the garden. Six foot fences to all sides. If any of my neighbours walk up the the perimeter and start hacking up a lung I'll skewer them with a bamboo stick go inside.

I am worried that there are numerous people who are just sitting in the house, news on loop, scouring the internet for every scrap of (mis)information about Corona. Winding themselves up into a state believing all the scaremongering/conspiracy theories/doommongering inaccurate reports. Resulting in being too anxious to leave the house and shouting at people on the internet to do the same or everyone will die. This is not at all healthy. I was concerned before that this will cause a huge mental health crisis but I am genuinely very concerned that this has already effected more people mentally than it has or ever will physically.

It's not meant to be 100% fail safe. We're trying to flatten the curve, not stamp out the infection. Most of us will get this, and most of us will be fine. Stick to the guidelines, wait until you catch it (possibly by loosening of restrictions), and hope it's at a time when there's a hospital bed, should you happen to need one. Stressing about every tiny little move will wreck your mental health. Stay 2m apart from your neighbours. That's all you have to do.

For those of us who aren't vulnerable I think it's more dangerous to stay in. So long as we are keeping 2 m distance, in our gardens, or not touching anything when doing exercise how will that have any impact on anyone else? A bit of common sense needs to be applied here, and it's not going against any guidance of course.

I think 'mild symptoms' is extremely misleading. I believe that just means not admitted to hospital

But most people do only have mild symptoms, in the way that we would generally understand it - not just "not bad enough to go to hospital". Plenty of well known people who appear to be able to function to some extent with it - Boris for one. He's not in bed all day, is he so it's not even like a bad dose of flu for him.

Dh is still working so there is an element of risk to us all there.Im walking the dog once a day with ds but that's it.

Nothing is really completely safe.

HTH.

I'm in the conservatory most of the day (my PC is in there) - probably technically nearer my neighbour than 2m but I'm not opening the windows on that side of the room and he coughs up half a lung anyway based on his horrendous smoking habit.

If you live close together like we all do here - even being indoors with the windows open you're possibly less than 2m away from someone sat in their gardens near their house and your fence - you'd go insane if you tried to nitpick it that much and viewed it as 1.99999m = insta doom versus 2m = safe thing.

Lighting up charcoal bbqs isn’t a great idea. Covid 19 is a respiratory illness - we need to stop burning stuff unnecessarily to preserve the lung health of the most vulnerable and those with existing respiratory conditions like asthma. So - going out into your small garden is fine - creating a source of air bourne particulates so you can have a burger, not so great.

I'm just thinking of all the bedding I can get dried outside!

Stuck inside is unsafe for everyone mentally too.

This was bound to start happening: www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1263295/family-found-dead-coronavirus-lockdown-west-sussex

I'll be getting the kids out in the garden for a bit.

You are doing the right thing OP, as are many you can see. The reason the virus will keep going up and up is because for every person who is doing the right thing, there is a selfish arsehole who isn't. Being out in your own garden is fine.

Well that's not quite right is it. The virus will keep going up for now as lock down hasn't been long enough and lots of people have to go to work and the shops.

OP, the VAST majority of accidents occur in the home. Falls, electrocutions, cuts, breakages.

Are you going to just sit on the sofa all day, because movement is a risk, cooking is a risk etc etc.

This level of paranoia is akin to people having a fear of flying, when planes are statistically the safest mode of transport, yet having no problem getting in their car.