To think we are heading for a full 2 week national half term lockdown

[Midlifelights]

DS’s school ramping up the preparation to teach on MS teams & making sure they can all use it & have the tech in place.

Teachers indicating that it’s going to be half term plus another couple of weeks after.

Given the rising numbers, it’s seems more likely that’s what’s coming - and maybe even a full lockdown this time & not the half arsed one we had before.

Aibu? I am worried as my kids really hated it last time but with so many new cases, it just seems the likely path

I think that you are probably right judging by the increasing rates of infection

It'll be tough selling a nationwide lockdown to the South East and West were infections are much lower.

School seems a lot better prepared this time which is reassuring - DS told that he’ll have a full timetable taught online

It’s possible but not based on what schools are doing. They don’t know any more than anyone else and are just trying to cover themselves for future possibilities.

I agree that it's likely. I am personally happy with the thought of a short sharp lock down, I'll be honest and say my thoughts will not be on maintaining schooling. It's been incredibly difficult doing it for an extended period of time with my children (one has autism) and my husband and I both work from home. We'll keep them happy and safe, that's all I can concern myself with.

How was the last lockdown half assed? Genuine question, not being rude

I wonder if the cost of feeding and supporting the shielders is putting a stop on it.

As in, the last one the rules were unclear, it probably wasn’t strict enough- my friends in Spain couldn’t leave their house at all apart from shopping & medicine - no daily exercise etc. I really don’t want another one but the last one was exceptionally blurry in so many ways

Schools will contingency plan.

Right now cases are very stable, no increase over the last week. It is touch and go but, if people remain sensible, I think we may not need a national lock down.

Right now cases are very stable, no increase over the last week

You might want to check the news, larry

I have hear about this think it’s called a circuit break. If they do 2 full weeks of literally every where shut down so be it, but if it’s just certain places and schools then I really hope not as it was a struggle last time With childcare issues.

@larrygrylls I don’t think cases are stable at all- there were 13,000 new cases yesterday (albeit with some reporting issues)

@Okaro yes, it would need to be supper strict I suspect to have any impact

I really hope you're not right because I will really resent having to spend my week off in lockdown, unable to make up for it at another time, having risked my health working in a large secondary school.

@Midlifelights

As in, the last one the rules were unclear, it probably wasn’t strict enough- my friends in Spain couldn’t leave their house at all apart from shopping & medicine - no daily exercise etc. I really don’t want another one but the last one was exceptionally blurry in so many ways

Hows that worked out for Spain?

@secretllama I’m not questioning the rights and wrongs of it- am just saying I think a lockdown is coming & it might be stricter

Where are you located @midlifelights? South West here and find it hard to believe there'll be one here

@SardineJam south east coast - low numbers here at the moment too - yellow alert in our town

I'm loathe to agree but I think unfortunately you're right.

My DS college already has 2 weeks off for half term, he's only actually physically in college one day a week at the moment with the rest working from home... but I get the vibe that they're definitely gearing up for him to be full time at home

I see. I'm not sure how ethical it would be to ban people from doing some exercise / fresh air per day tho, many people live in flats so have no outdoor space of their own.

If the government really mean what they say about prioritising keeping schools open no matter what, then I think a two-week circuit-breaker shutdown over half term seems a way to go about making that easier over the winter. A two week shutdown would effectively act as a reset button for any undetected outbreaks in schools.

It will only work if there is high compliance though, and I’m not sure we’ll get that this time around. If you shut down non-essential businesses and then the schoolkids are all having parties and play dates and meeting up in large groups then it would be a huge economic cost to buy very little benefit. The government’s panels of scientists include behavioural scientists who will be attempting to predict levels of compliance and if they say people won’t stick to a new lockdown then I can’t see the government attempting one.

We have less than 20 cases per 100,000 people and that is the same in all the big towns that surround my medium/small town.

Which means 10 cases in our town of 50,000.

Lockdown because of 10 cases? Really?

I think it would be a mistake to force areas with very low cases into lockdown. It will cause more resentment. As regards schools I would bloody hope that SLTs are getting schools ready, from the threads on here it sounded like some did a very poor job indeed, they won't get away with that second time around.

The benefits (if there are even any) of not allowing people to go out for exercise is far outweighed by the advantages of allowing people to do so (benefits of physical and mental health, Vitamin D, etc).

As for how it worked out for Spain, while that particular rule probably made no difference either way to case numbers, the lockdown there did massively reduce their cases to a very low level. It's their re-opening that caused cases to rise again. Lockdown doesn't eradicate the virus (unless you go full Wuhan) it suppresses it.

There was nothing half assed or unclear about the last lockdown. There was more than 90% compliance according to the government.
Spain banned outdoor exercise. I wonder how many infections that saved them? The government won’t implement that here as they know it wouldn’t affect transmission. So in what way do you think it will be ‘stricter’?