Prime minister announcement at 12

[Hugglespuffed]

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

In Scotland it has been reported that schools should remain open. Oh dear.

Sturgeon isn't making any decisions here, the outcome for Scotland will be whatever the result of the COBRA meeting is.

My workplace have went from just wash your hands, to saying they are going to close in a week and everyone can work from home.

^

Score!

Meeting is underway. I think it started at 2. So, announcement at 5?

Vast numbers of health care professionals are parents, how on earth does it make their lives any easier if you take away their childcare? (Using the grandparents is probably not the best alternative!?!)

I’m very supportive of parents in families with compromised immune systems / underlying health problems having the choice to withdraw their child. But it should remain a choice.

There are plenty of mums/students who could back fill at school temporarily if required. Less so Medical professionals who know how to operate oxygen equipment!

Following for updates

590 people now in the UK

10 have now died

Our lived and the lives of our friends and family are literally in the hands of the government and the decisions they make.

2 more people have died in the UK, imperial college 89 year old patient has died and a patient in her 60s at Queens hospital has died

Bringing the total to 10

Link @Savemefromthis4?

my information came from LBC news bulletin just now

Wait till someone young and healthy dies o we will see a change in thinking.

Only thing I can do is hope that they won't close schools.

www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/mar/12/coronavirus-live-updates-who-declares-pandemic-as-italy-introduces-stricter-measures

it's just been reported by the guardian

eelingverylazytoday I wasn't suggesting it was about worthiness - I was responding to posters who seem to think some lives are more important (or worthy) than others.

Sky news channel 501 on sky

Sturgeon isn't making any decisions here, the outcome for Scotland will be whatever the result of the COBRA meeting is.

I bloody hope so.

Thanks @Foxglovesandprimroses

I do think this thread is not rational. People think they know better than the chief medical officer?

This is very true, worth sharing

If they won’t close schools they need to make it optional for parents to choose to keep dc off with no threats of fines

This is what I was going to say. Also, I'm a LP (no one else to do the school run) full of cold with a hacking cough/chest infection. I don't want to be hanging around the Nursery/School gates spreading it about. I've already had death stares coughing into tissues until my eyes water.

I'll keep them both of as of tomorrow on the condition I won't be fined and accused of child neglect.

I feel really stressed and stuck.

Vast numbers of health care professionals are parents, how on earth does it make their lives any easier if you take away their childcare?

This issue has been raised for weeks. Surely it isn't beyond the wit of the government to come up with a solution?

Close schools but ask some young, healthy teachers to volunteer (paid) to run classes/childcare for kids with parents who work in essential roles (NHS/food supply chain)?

I'm not saying that's an infallible solution but the government must be able to work up something.

@undead

Well at best parents should get a choice. There are many different health issues in different families. Lung problems. Athmatic people. Cystic fibrosis. Cancer.

They need to sort a system for urgent child care for NHS staff etc. But many parents stay home anyway and others can perhaps work from laptops etc. If a majority of people stay home and away from public places the virus may die off alot more. Whilst we keep going it may spread to millions and kill innocent people with years left in them.

I was in lidl this morning and all I could hear was a woman loudly telling everyone that its only "glorified flu". Ffs. This is the sort of person that won't take measures to protect others because in her words "it's nothing to worry about".
This type of attitude scares me more than anything else.

Agree Borne. Thanks god for experts at this point.

It sounds like the strategy will be that we have to let the virus spread - because we can’t stop it - But ideallly to spread slowly so the health service can cope. Potentially locking children up at home with grandparents stepping in to do care makes it spread faster.

@Bourne

It's not true at all.

Nobody is saying Coronavirus is going to kill us all.

If you want to post something you have seen in the internet to minimise what's happening, at least keep it real

I'm glad that Xenia thinks it's ok for mums, dads and grandparents to die as long as exams go ahead.... obviously lots of relatives dying and getting seriously ill won't affect kids at all
A-levels we could delay or alter the assessment criteria, death is death generally it's a lot harder to recover from