Prime minister announcement at 12

[Hugglespuffed]

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

I honestly don't know what support will be there for the self employed.

Ds private tutor is a teacher, he has been told to prepare online work for a minimum of 2 weeks ready for school closures. He teaches at one of the biggest secondary schools in this city.

Will the government compensate for lost earnings if they close services down?

For those thinking schools shouldn't shut

www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/does-closing-schools-slow-spread-novel-coronavirus

I work for a GP surgery, it'll be interesting to see how Primary care manage.

Will they say, anyone with a cough/cold wont be allowed into surgery?

I wonder if mortgage payments will get suspended like Italy.

My teacher DH said they are planning for an extended Easter break.
Even though we are still 3 weeks from Easter holiday here.

@moondance19 I thought they said you can contact your bank to do that already

I can see why closing schools is difficult and impacts the NHS etc. But whilst schools are open I have less incentive to isolate and reduce social contact because what’s the point if our kids are bringing it all home with them anyway?

By not closing schools people think / well if it’s fine for our kids to get it things can’t be all that serious.

One problem with closing schools is that nurses (etc) with school aged children will find it hard to get childcare and go to work! Another is, children do not seem to be as ‘at risk’ and thus might contribute to herd immunity (not proven at all, but being taken seriously as a possibility).

Re: school closures - it is all rumour. We have been told to prepare, not on any concrete information but on discussions with other schools in the area. However, I have no doubt that some staff are taking this as 'we are definitely going to be shut next week' and I'm bloody sure the kids will be as well.

Everyone nods and agrees - like the woman who told everyone in Lidl this morning that she knew there would be an announcement today and so she was doing a last shop then closing her gate and bolting herself in. No-one said you mad bugger.

The minute one school in the area shuts, the others might as well because attendance will plummet. If we mark as closure/partial closure it helps massively.

I have been off for three days now with an appalling headache and cold symptoms. It's the headache that is stopping me going in, but I will have to bite the bullet tomorrow

Will they say, anyone with a cough/cold wont be allowed into surgery?
My own GP practice has texted patients today to tell them not to come in if they have any cold or flu symptoms at all

@mycorona happy not birthday. The extra word should mean they only have to sing once.

@Mockerswithnoknockers
Today you win the internet 🏆

I read that it might be that anyone with a fever plus any cold symptoms has to self-isolate for 7 days. That sounds more sensible than self-isolating with any cold symptoms to me.

hand washing song

A local radio has done alternative words to happy birthday. Great for kids.

Here in London these children are travelling across the city daily from various locations too and they make up a massive part of the daily public transport mass
The tube is the emptiest I’ve ever seen it at the moment

Off topic, but funny how many people have bought the brand with all this “Boris” and “BoJo” stuff. A sly fox disguised as a teddy bear? A nasty piece of work? Former member of the “pleb” hating and prostitute hiring Bullingdon Club? Never mind, it’s just bumbling “Boris” and his silly hair.

Well, we're all set at work. I've transferred a ton of stuff to a shared area so we can work from home if necessary.

Reminds me a bit of the way some of the more brainwashed acolytes in China refer to President Xi as “Uncle Xi”.

Mockers

I think if any closure will happen it will be over Easter as most kids are off anyway & some parents will be taking annual leave or wfh.

They need to slow down the spread as the NHS will be overwhelmed - Italy is at breaking point. Schools will almost certainly have an extended Easter break - 4 weeks or more probably. Public events will be cancelled. Even Boris isn't stupid enough to say keep calm and carry on when the evidence is clear to see over the channel... Not a time to panic but def a time to be sensible and contain/delay as much as possible.

It's like a forecast snow day in my office. People are even looking out the window as if an announcement will happen and the streets will get locked down. (Or looking at me, as it's actually my call to close).

They shouldn't get their hopes up, as we're well set-up to work from home.

We've got alerts set up for Eurovision tickets, and there was a surge of tickets for sale at the point of the announcement of a pandemic.

My GP has stopped ALL favs to face appointments. You can book a telephone appointment. I'm in London.