Here's my update from a country in Europe, where we've been in voluntary lockdown for a week. Nothing is open except food shops and pharmacies. No pubs. No restaurants. No hotels or leisure facilities. We are allowed out, but only to collect provisions and for a short exercise walk. We have to keep 1.5m from another person. There is plexiglass or similar screen between the customers and cashiers in supermarkets. There are no food shortages - people behaved sensibly and the army has been assisting with food distribution to the shops. Local councils and voluntary groups have organised grocery deliveries to the housebound and vulnerable.
The rate of increase of confirmed infections has reduced over the last week from a daily increase of 40% to around 20%. The government wants to get this down to below 10% asap.
Over 90% of the population is adhering to the lockdown rules. The government has appealed to the last 10% to also comply and has been coming down hard on blatant offenders - e.g. a pub that was found to be open was fined €30,000 and will lose its license.
The government press conference today included:
- A continuation of the lockdown for another 3 weeks.
- An immediate €multi-billion help package for people who have lost their jobs or are forced onto reduced hours. This will mostly be cash payments, not loans.
- A similar scheme for sole-traders and small businesses. Another scheme for larger businesses.
- Schemes to protect and pay the apprentices currently undergoing training.
- People are being asked not to undertake activities that might result in them being hospitalised. The beds are needed for the sick and the Coronavirus patients.
Compare this with the waffle and half-hearted measures still being discussed in the UK.
The UK appears to be about 7-14 days behind the rest of Europe in terms of the spread of the virus. There are still people who have not understood how serious the situation will become - whether this is the groups of people meeting up, the gyms and spas that are still open or the pub owners (and their customers) who appear to believe that the consumption of warm, flat beer somehow renders them immune to the virus and prevents them from being virus carriers.
Johnson keeps claiming that he is taking expert advice. Every other European country has long since imposed a lockdown. For parts of Spain and Italy this has already been shown to have happened too late. Either the European experts are all wrong, or Johnson knows something everyone else has missed.
Johnson should look at what everywhere else is doing - including the help packages for all groups in society. Hopefully the announcements this afternoon will e along these lines - sadly I don't think he's going to do anything until the horrible truth is staring him in the face.