Would you still see close family members?

[Gruffalosandbuffalos]

My parents are early 60’s, fit and well. They live round the corner and work full time. We see them regularly and it would absolutely traumatise my children to not see them for months on end.

My sister has a toddler and we usually see them once a fortnight. The thought of not seeing them is difficult but we could manage if we had to.

How strict are people being on seeing other family members if you are all fit and well?

[TeaAndDarkToast]

better to do it through a closed window. Take the spare key off her too. She's a liability. If she really cared she'd respect your boundaries and stay away.

[Inkpaperstars]

Although your parents are going out to work and so on, it is still important not to see them because every bit of social contact you can cut out helps in reducing overall transmission. The chances of them getting it rise with every contact they have. It is also about chain of transmission and breaking the chain. If someone in your parents' workplaces has it the chain may spread from that person to your parents. If they then see you it then spreads to you and then all the people you have to come into contact with. Then all the people they come into contact with...but if your parents went only to work and didn't see you, they break that chain and prevent so many cases. Similarly if you had it and saw them...they then pass it to colleagues...etc etc.

If you lived with them it would be different because then you would likely share some exposure anyway so wouldn't be adding to the chain too much, although the advice recently has been to try and avoid in household transmission too which is definitely worth a try.

We are all at risk from this, there is no age group in which no one requires hospital treatment. However it does rise with age, and for the age group 60-69 Imperial college data suggests 16.6 % of those infected will require hospitalisation, with 27.4% of those requiring critical care. For cases in the 30-39 age range the comparable percentages are 3.2 and 5. So obviously when it comes to reducing strain on the nhs, as well as protecting themselves, it is particularly important for those more likely to need nhs care to try and avoid catching this wretched thing.

I get it, it's really hard

[HesMyLobster]

What about this scenario:
My DBil and DSil are both Key Workers. (So am I) Their small village school is struggling to offer places to all key workers' children due to staff shortage.

My DD17 has today offered to look after her cousins (7 and 5) for the 2/3 days per week that their parents' schedules clash.
We can't decide whether this would be considered unnecessary contact?

But surely it's better than the children mixing with multiple other kids at school?

[Gruffalosandbuffalos]

@HesMyLobster I would say this is better than them attending school- if both families are very strict on the distancing rules at all other times then the risk should be lowered.

[willdoitinaminute]

Imagine a game of tag in a school playground. One child is ‘it’ every time they tag someone they become ‘it’ as well. It doesn’t take long for a group of children all to be ‘it’.
The virus transfer is passed around like the above game of tag. The more contacts we have the more ‘its’’ we will have moving around the community.
Don’t be a ‘tit’ and end up an ‘it’.