Absolutely no going out or socialising?

[Hidingathome]

My understanding is basically no going out except to work, for food shopping or outdoor exercise away from others. Meaning I can't see my parents, can't go to a cafe and can't even visit same age friends (early 40s).

Other people think I'm being extreme but isn't this whats being asked of us for the next few weeks at least?

DeRigeurMortis fabulous video, thank you for sharing it. Really makes you realise how serious it is, what you need to do personally, and also showing that it will end.

I think the instructions need to be clearer. From friends and relatives in Ireland, only essential leaving the house. No socialising, even outside. No playdates, no sleepovers, no visits to grandparents, no house gatherings. Everyone has to stay inside, unless going to work, or to get food or medicine. Simple really. Boris really needs to just say it.

@Hidingathome yes, I believe you have it right, and the diagram posted by @Purpledaisies explains how every person who does this can save many, many lives.

Boris really needs to just say it

If people read the news and saw the figures, they’d do it anyway, without needing to be told.

My dd dance school is still running classes. I won’t send her because of the rules, but tbh I don’t know how much difference it will make. Dh and I are both teachers so we’re still going to school which means our kids are still going to nursery/childminder and school too. Part of me thinks she should just go as none of us are able to isolate ourselves anyway.

marieo

I was wondering if it was just as ‘bad’ to pre book more than a week of click and collect as delivery if you see what i mean

Holiday adverts being still on really annoy me. As if anyone would be booking a holiday just now, we're all busy cancelling and rearranging holidays. Am noting anyone still advertising and rubbing our noses in it and making sure I never book with them.

You're correct. No social contact beyond that which is absolutely necessary (work, food shopping, essential medical appointments, checking on elderly relatives). Where possible keep a distance of 2 metres.

However you can go for a walk or bike ride, and keep in contact with friends and family via Skype etc.

A conservative government's preference will always be liberty over control. BJ is a libertarian conservative. He is trying to issue strongly worded advice. If it fails to work and stem the increase in infection then the result will be more draconian lock down measures. If people keep sitting in cafes, yoga and gym sessions, pubs and restaurants then we will have a longer and stricter period of house arrest. Simples. Stupid people keep ignoring the instructions. Do not leave your house unless strictly necessary.

Christ, this thread is scary. Anyway, for all you people who are in denial about how deadly serious this is, watch Angela Merkel's speech (it's subtitled). nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/angela-merkel-nails-coronavirus-speech-unlike-trump.html?fbclid=IwAR1SHWrbx0J8nFMNluxM_06oqJPvGNjdI1Pl9-b21n-c_tMhLWftBLnkm20

Colleague at work is so paranoid. Won't touch anyone else's phone, pen, pc etc or let anyone male her a cup of tea, then reveals today...she went to the gym last night WTF?!!! It's useless, we need a lockdown.

We are doing our absolute best. Kids and I walk to school around the corner (I work there) and back, and haven't been anywhere else since the weekend when we went to Aldi. Also saw my parents last weekend, won't see them again for a while. I'll get the kids to video call them at the weekend.

DH has had to go out on jobs (emergency drainage) but has not shaken hands etc, been rigorous in his hygiene etc.

Obviously school is closing tomorrow, I don't know yet if I'll be working so will wait and see. We need to go out on Saturday to collect some pre-ordered sanitiser for my parents, and some flowers for mother's Day but that will be a quick trip into a supermarket and home.

We are very lucky to live rurally and have lots of outdoor space, so we'll just crack on in our own little compound. We may take it in turns to go for a run with the kids/dog down the lane and back, we get on average one or two people a day going down it so should be pretty safe.

Thing is, the more people bend the rules and try to make themselves into special cases, the less this social distancing will be effective.

Think of it like taking some medicine, if you take one paracetamol it's highly likely it won't even touch that thumping headache. So you take another, and that doesn't really work either. Eventually it goes away but it's taken 2 or 3 times as long as it would have done to get rid of that pesky headache, had you taken two big tablets and knocked it on the head!

Similarly if everyone tinkers around and doesn't take it seriously, the pain will be felt for so much longer. If we all stay indoors, or in the house and garden, except for the essentials, it will make a massive difference even though we all get cabin fever and fed up of each other's company, it's only for a short while.

I've been walking DD to and from school but that's it. DH still has to work for the foreseeable future. Obviously the school walks will be stopping, we will still have a walk every day but we live right on the edge of town surrounded by fields so we can walk and meet nobody. My parents are in their 70's so we're not seeing them.

I have been out for a walk with my dd just around our neighbourhood, we already live together so no different than being at home. Otherwise no socialising at all. Sadly.

People just aren't getting it.

I'm currently worried sick about my colleague who has been ill now for 7 days with almost certain CV-19 and is getting worse and worse and struggling to breath as we check in with him. He's only 23, mildly asthmatic, alone in his flat and can't go near his parents as they live with very vulnerable grandparents.

We all work from home and are not in the same area of the country so can't do anything, plus I have a husband in the vulnerable group.

Unfortunately the people who will end up paying for all the immense selfishness that is going on won't be the irresponsible twats who can't live without their fucking shellac nails, their mother's day lunches and their cosy cafe chats. Oh, she hasn't seen the grandkids in ages - do you want them to potentially be the cause of her never seeing them again? I mean, that's a wild guilt trip to live with.

Do you want complete lock down? Do you need to be treated like a small child? I honestly despair.

You are spot on OP. Struggling to understand why people are finding this simple advice so hard to follow.

Pictures show people standing cheek by jowl in check-out queues. Supermarkets queued round the corner every morning at opening

DHs technique is to get in front of his trolley as he's approaching the checkout so the trolley blocks anyone behind him from getting too close, and he can control how close he is to the person in front (so he makes sure there's at least a 2 metre gap in both directions)

I don’t want to add to the evident scaremongering and panic that is happening especially as it’s becoming quite hard to differentiate between reliable and unreliable sources. However, I’ve been quite struck by the number of people in my immediate circles who don’t really seem to grasp the enormity of the situation along with some of the posters on this thread.

I have two close friends who are senior frontline NHS doctors in London at two different hospitals. Both have commented, separately and in the past few days, that the reality of the situation at work as of now is being very under reported. And that’s as of now. One of them has gone so far as to accuse a neighbour - who has an elderly husband at home but is still going out for social activities - of being criminally negligent. I don’t bother to ask any more questions when someone tells me that.

Please don’t go to the salon, restaurant, pub, cafe, play date, playground, garden centre, shopping centre. Please don’t meet up with other people for social activities. Stay home, go out for the essentials including fresh air, make contact with your neighbours and your community and let’s all support each other.

We are so far past the debates over the government’s strategy being right or wrong - we now need to focus on what we as individuals and communities can do.

@OhCrumbsWhereNow he needs to phone 111 and get to hospital if he is struggling to breathe

Also yes, just stay at home FFS!

Your poor colleague @OhCrumbsWhereNow, I hope that his symptoms start to ease of now he's at the 7day stage. Has he tried 111, it sounds like he needs some medical advice by now.

Last time I spoke to him he was going to call them - that was an hour ago. We were all hoping he'd start feeling better today but he's getting worse - says he's now vomiting, feels like the worst illness he's ever had, high temperature, massive cough fits and really tight chest so hard to breathe.

He doesn't want to bother the health service if he's not that bad and also feels too ill to want to be stuck sitting in A&E for hours if he's going to be sent home to self-isolate.

Just wish he wasn't on his own.

I wish my DPs would get this in their heads. I've ordered a gift and card to be delivered to DM for Sunday as we don't want to go over. They're still expecting us to show despite me telling them something will be arriving in the post. DM's birthday is around a week later, big family meal out planned, not near my house so would need public transport and we're still expected to show. They're going out regularly still and have family and friends due to visit them soon too.

To make things worse, neither of my DPs are in an at risk group, but I am.

DM is the type to sneeze randomly and claim she couldn't cover her mouth as it caught her unawares, and then tell me I'm being ridiculous a few days later when I can't get out of bed because I'm horribly ill from her terrible hygiene (and always does the "you could have caught that anywhere" thing too). She works with the public so could have easily been exposed even though we're in an area with fewer cases than many other places. They're already trying to guilt me into coming this Sunday so I'm going to have to put my foot down and hope by the time of the meal (after her birthday) that the restaurant has closed/gone on lockdown because I'll be accused of ruining her birthday otherwise.

Supermarkets should limit the number/frequency of deliveries per address. Some people are hideously thick and selfish.