Prime minister announcement at 12

[Hugglespuffed]

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

"all schools, colleges and nurseries now closed in the South of Ireland" on Sky News (umm... just Cork and Kerry, so?) and now they're talking about why they're closed in the Republic of Ireland (the correspondent on Downing street corrected the woman in the studio) but not in Northern Ireland. sits on hands

BBC News say Cobra sits at 1pm and announcement will follow.

I doubt they'll be any difference.
wash your hands and self isolate if you have symptoms.
We're a joke. Soon to be a dead joke.

@polkadotdenim I've had a letter from my sons nursery (private daycare) saying that if the relevant governing bodies order closure of schools, they will follow suit.

I think they’re going to announce a two week closure tbh, everyone else seems to be doing that

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

I hope so...we can't keep pretending this isn't serious.

BBC News say Cobra sits at 1pm and announcement will follow.

Probably waiting for the last 24 hours reporting on new cases and deaths before making decisions. If there are more than 150 new cases today then we are into near-doubling figures which doesn't look good at all.

Soon to be a dead joke.

Yeah, because the death rate is 100% 🙄

Scotland aren't closing schools so I doubt England will. They are "thinking" about cancelling social events involving more than 500 people though.

I think the announcement at 12 thing came from...this thread?
😂 Sounds about right.

I don't like the self isolate with cold symptoms idea for kids. Mine has been sniffing for 8 weeks and will probably still be sniffing after a weeks isolation. I'd rather a straight out shutdown so everyone knows where they stand.

Where was this announcement then??

Fgs
I thought this was real!

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

BBC breakfast said that there would be an announcement at 12. I wouldn't have made it up 😂 I think perhaps they either got it wrong with timings, or the meeting got delayed.

Jeremy Vine said he will keep us posted and it is looking to be about 1:15.

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

Would people not take it seriously though? Don't we all want to work together to stop the transmission of this virus?!

Daily mail have said schools aren't shutting, that the plan is to let cv spread so we develop herd immunity...

@kirinm where was that info?

I'm in Scotland and we've been told to await UK announcement so I assumed we were going along with whatever the British government decide.

The DM knows jack

The cobra meeting was meant to be this morning, with PM announcement at 12pm. It was moved to the afternoon, probably to see the figures of the last 24 hours. No point in bringing in more measures if figures stabilised. Announcement will be after meeting.

There was a (very) brief radio announcement at 12.00 but I didn't hear details other than Ireland schools due to the sodding dogs going bananas.

Ireland has just closed all schools, colleges, universities and childcare facilities until March 29th.

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

I just don't even understand this line of thinking. It would finally be an indication that our government is taking it seriously. You know, like the rest of the world.

I think it would actually HELP people to take it seriously and knock some sense into the 'it's only flu, I'm off to Disneyland' lot.