Prime minister announcement at 12

[Hugglespuffed]

Is it going to be drastic changes? Or just 'work at home if you can'?

My DS is sitting his GCSEs this year. I would rather they shut the schools now and try and stop it in its tracks than hang on til it's everywhere and close the schools later, potentially meaning students can't sit their exams or they get postponed until the summer.

Completely agree @JustHereWithMyPopcorn - my DD is also asthmatic so at higher risk of everything. Very scary times.

If they don't close schools then I'll have to take a view about the health of my DD.

My DS is sitting his GCSEs this year. I would rather they shut the schools now and try and stop it in its tracks than hang on til it's everywhere and close the schools later, potentially meaning students can't sit their exams or they get postponed until the summer.

My sense is that this is precisely the idea with Ireland shutting schools and universities now, rather than risk public exams later.

Wheresthebeach, if they don't shut them I'd be tempted to keep your DD a home, not worth the risk with asthma. I am not a drama queen but I am concerned about how quickly this is spreading. And we all know how filthy school children are (only partially joking)!

i read the meeting was starting at 1:15pm....could well be wrong mind you

Just heard on the news no decision has been made re schools

So we’ve come to the conclusion that...At some point this afternoon there will be an announcement 😂
I can’t see them having a big emergency meeting just to then say ‘same advice as before’ people.
Maybe they will though 🤷‍♀️

can’t see them having a big emergency meeting just to then say ‘same advice as before’ people.

No, it won’t be exactly the same. It’ll be, ‘carry on as normal but wash your hands twice’.

If they close the schools etc too early there is a real danger people won’t take it seriously.

What does this even mean? If the schools are closed, they're closed. It doesn't matter what people believe, the fact of them being closed will help mitigate the spread.

Well, all schools in Ireland, colleges, creches, childcare facilities etc, closed from tonight until 29th March. So that may also influence Cobra meeting if they heard about that announcement (which seemed somewhat unexpected, that RTE sounded like they were caught on the hop).

I wonder what today’s figures are going to look like .

Kids are wound up here now that we will close after hearing the news from Ireland. We are making sure we have things in place in case we shut too.

That Irish closure must run through to start of Easter holidays I assume?
Unless there’s a small gap. No idea when they start

presea they've been having many cobra meetings, and the result from the one on Monday was exactly that. Carry on and wash your hands!

Seems like we are in for a long wait.

@MarshaBradyo, no, there's a small gap, at my son's school at least. I think the last day of term before Easter is Friday April 3rd, and at the moment, the closure ends on March 29th.

I reckon there’s a bunfight. Boris Cummings and his gang wanting to let it ride and blame natural selection. Medical officers feeling increasingly embarrassed and guilty but souls already been sold and now nowhere to go

I think the announcement at 12 thing came from...this thread?

according to the daily mail Boris wants to ride it out.

@Stonefancier

Don’t the holidays start earlier in Ireland?

Sky news. Princess Elsa discussing questions and answers

So many Cobra meetings...so little fucking progress.

Thes rest of the world gets it. This arrogant, shitty, backward-looking nation will continue the attempt to British our way out of it.

He’s an idiot and will go down in history as one.

The self hatred on these threads is something else

I don't think we'll close.

We'll be the stoic, less hysterical ones.... who'll end up with egg on our face...

I'm far from hysterical, but as a student nurse, we do need to slow it down so the system can cope.