Escaping London ‘Lockdown’ before ‘too late’ ?

[Stircrazyschoolmum]

Since the announcement at 17.00, I’ve been pinged by 3 different mum friends/associates telling me they are escaping SW London to Norfolk / West Country whilst they still can. (There seems to be an opinion that London will lockdown imminently although that wasn’t how I read the press conference.)

To be fair, they all had plans to be away over the Easter holidays but now are saying they will go ASAP (one already packing car) and won’t necessarily return until the peak in London dies down.

I kind of thought avoiding non-essential travel meant you weren’t supposed to travel and misguidedly (?) thought restrictions on pubs/theatre etc wasn’t just a London thing? One family is staying with parents (healthy but still?)

I’m not passing judgement as everyone has to do what they believe to be best, just curious whether I’ve misinterpreted the guidance!

Why aren't you going Pink? Is the holiday still on? If so, just go. If it's just disinclination to travel, then that's up to you but you shouldn't expect to be refunded or have a rebooking at a later date. The govt haven't said travel is banned, just advised against it.

Scale the mass movement up by 100s if the schools are formally shut down.

Not living in one of Cornwall's hot spots, and not being a Treliske catchment, I would still suggest that escape to Cornwall is inadvisable and unwelcome. Previous posts have said explicitly that the local medical facilities are already overburdened. If you are under 50 and have small kids, please sit it out at home, and don't make any problems worse for our elderly population.

DivisionBelles we're following the advice not to travel unnecessarily. Unfortunately it's only advice which is why we've got a problem. Neither of us want to risk spreading anything (although we have no reason to think we would) or put pressure on the local area.

I agree essential travel only but you saw how people behaved during the floods. I was unable to go to an Aunts funeral in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 last week as I have high blood pressure so knew dealing with services/hotels/restaurants was not an option.

@carnivalisover that's a really good idea, thank you

I think it depends who goes. The Londoners I know who are leaving are entirely my friends’ elderly parents. They are likely to be clear if they go now. They may be self-isolating for 4 months or more. Why shouldn’t they go to places where they can walk their dogs in isolation? It isn’t London that has carried this infection to the UK, from where it is already spreading, it’s global travel, and people holidaying in canary islands and the USA and coming here for university etc etc.

Alanna it's everyone who moves around.

Alanna what part of non essential travel are you not getting?

It's not about blaming London for being a hot spot - it's about not adding to the existing risks elsewhere.

It really doesn't "depend who goes".

@Rosehip10

I think mum would rather die of it than live much longer. So she wouldn’t be wasting hospital equipment because she’d never phone an ambulance in the first place!

Ive just spoken to her and she said she’d rather be alone so I think we can take that as confirmation that she’d prefer there’s no one to feel obliged to call an ambulance for her, but she’s happy for me to do weekly visiting.

I hope after this they insist everyone over the age of 18 has an updated “medical choices” plan. I’m glad I live alone even now!

ICU Healthcare provision in Cornwall is limited to a small hospital in Truro and a large hospital in Plymouth. I know where I would rather be, and that is near a large regional city unit where there are lots of ICU beds. And that’s not Cornwall. Same for Norfolk.
I live in a rural county with very low population but we are 30mins from the QE in Birmingham I’m not going anywhere despite having a bolt hole in North West. We would be hours away from a decent regional centre.

I think if you were willing to self isolate for a couple of weeks, I'd do the same. Just from the two weeks of isolation I've done, the people who live truly in isolation already have a much easier time than those in an apartment in town. Even a garden makes a difference. If you are in the middle of nowhere with fields to walk without bumping into anyone, you're very lucky. Not the coast so much though, as the beaches are off limits now.

All of the people screaming for lock down and then when it comes...let's run away and spread it everywhere.

I despair of some people

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/16/im-losing-faith-in-the-leadership-a-doctors-story-coronavirus
'I'm losing faith in the leadership': a NHS doctor's story
On the frontline of the UK coronavirus outbreak, a doctor is ‘terrified’ about the lack of protection – and a plan

Now we’ve been told not to bother with any of that. They’ve told us “just treat it as though it’s seasonal flu”. Now we are expected to wear just a normal surgical mask, a pair of ordinary short gloves, and a plastic apron that doesn’t cover all of you like a surgical gown does. I would see other patients around the hospital in the same scrubs, and the scrubs could have coronavirus on them.

But this advice contradicts WHO and European guidance. This guidance says to use full PPE if you are exposed to patients with coronavirus.

I am terrified. I’m seriously considering whether I can keep working as a doctor. I may be OK – I’m young and healthy – but I can’t bear the thought of infecting other patients with a disease that could kill them. And that is the risk, without proper PPE. It’s terrifying; it’s indescribable. This is not seasonal flu. This is a new virus with greater mortality and we know much less about it.

I cannot believe or understand why Public Health England has downgraded our PPE advice. Why are they contradicting international advice? The evidence that ordinary surgical masks are protective is from dealing with seasonal flu, not this new virus. Doctors are dying in Italy and China. Young people are dying, too.

I cannot understand what the rationale and motives are. Have they given up? Are they just deciding to build up herd immunity by watching us die? The government has given up, hasn’t it?

We don't have stock of PPE. We can't get it because we aren't in the EU. We have sovereignty to ignore EU guidelines at the expense of workers rights.

“Likely to be clear if they go now”
Why is the fact of movement of people spreading a virus is so hard grasp ?

The pitchforks will be out!

What are people like?! In the west country we have an older population and fewer hospitals. Why come here?

Same here TankGirl97 plus the lowest bed numbers pp in the UK. Insane for people to come to Wales , bad for residents, bad for incomers too.

I think it depends who goes. The Londoners I know who are leaving are entirely my friends’ elderly parents. They are likely to be clear if they go now

Ok. Have they best tested? If not, stay where they are.

All the Italians who left thought they were likely to be clear too.

To be fair why would we expect second homers to be anything less than absolutely selfish.

This sums it up for me. Selfish, ignorant fuckers. The lot of them.

Time for all the locals in the south west and Norfolk to start building huge bonfires and wooden cages - wicker man style, then round up all the grockles and offer them up as human sacrifices to the God of Viral Infections.

But who would be able to pay the taxes that subsidises those counties if you did round them up as human sacrifices??!

They won't be welcome in Suffolk. Pissed off with them anyway. Ruined some of our best towns and villages, turned them Chelsea on Sea