No choice but to go shopping

[okiedokieme]

There's no slots available for online or click & collect from any supermarket (tried all of them) been told by nhs111 app to stay home (I have a runny nose). There's no neighbourhood help here, no family ...

What are people doing? I have food until Monday, Tuesday possibly. We need to be able to buy basic food hampers!

Also look at Mutual Aid. There are CV groups all over UK.

Volunteers will buy your shopping for you and deliver.

Why aren’t people asking local volunteer groups it’s like nobody on MN has heard of them? Search your area and mutual aid

As far as I know people are doing this pretty much across the UK for exactly this reason:

covidmutualaid.org/

QuillBill

"My mam is in this situation. She's in her seventies and has decided to self-isolate but she hasn't got any health issues so can't get on the government list.

She didn't stock pile because the government said it wasn't necessary.

She can't get any slots for Tesco which is the only supermarket,she is registered with already.

All her friends and neighbours are old and she's not on Facebook.

I can't share my,supermarket slots with her because they don't deliver to her area.

All I can do is drive three hours to,where she is and do a shop for her and drive three hours back!"

your mum doesn't have Facebook but you either have it or can set it up. find the local help site for your mum's area and ask for help on her behalf. We are members of our group and my husband has fetched a couple of prescriptions for people.

Lots of people asking for and receiving help with shopping too.

@WillowGrove54 did you take all the fridge stuff out of the bag with the packing and ice packs in?

Runny nose is a symptom. The government didn’t know this two weeks ago but it is definitely a symptom.

I'm 71 and according to the government I should be staying at home.

I have no symptoms so am fine to go to the very well organised supermarket to do my shopping.

What I'm not so happy about is having to stand in the street outside Boots for an hour and 45 minuets waiting in order to pick up my repeat prescription and then spend another 20 minuets inside the shop while they look for my prescription, which for some reason they seemed to have mislaid.

Is it fair to expect a volunteer to stand around for 2 hours picking up someone's medicine?

Runny nose is a symptom. The government didn’t know this two weeks ago but it is definitely a symptom.

You don’t have to self isolate with a runny nose.

*Don't know why I've spelled minutes like that.

Runny nose is a symptom. The government didn’t know this two weeks ago but it is definitely a symptom.

It’s a “rare” symptom.

@PurpleDaisies - runny nose is a less common or atypical symptom of coronavirus. So, regardless of what the government guidelines say, if you have it you are showing a possible symptom of the virus. Bit irresponsible not to self isolate in that case, considering the stakes if someone vulnerable picks it up from you?

Bit irresponsible not to self isolate in that case, considering the stakes if someone vulnerable picks it up from you?

No, I don’t agree. We shouldn’t be making up our own criteria for who should be self isolating.

I’ve had a runny nose for a week. It’s hay fever.

I have a constantly runny nose due to hay fever. Actually we all do. We go out for our exercise daily.

A runny nose is not a symptom you have to isolate for.

Government guidelines are clear

Persistent cough
High temp

Let’s not start making up new ones

UK government guidelines have consistently been overly simplistic /downright wrong! The World Health Organisation says that runny nose is a symptom of COVID-19 in some people. Or are you accusing WHO of making up symptoms?

No, just that a runny nose as an only symptom is not likely to indicate covid 19.

Is the WHO saying people with a runny nose should self isolate?

Just looked at the WHO FAQs and could not immediately see any advice on self-isolation. I imagine this is because advice has to work on a global level and what is practical/legally required will vary from country to country.

I went out today for the first time in a week (I have underlying health conditions, so I am trying to be stringent with social distancing; I am not in the 'extremely vulnerable' group though) to go to the corner shop - I can't get to/from a supermarket and carry everything home at the moment.

It was ok when I went in - they were only letting three in / out at the door. Then one of the customers already in started shouting at the staff and everyone else about social distancing being a load of rubbish and moving towards the staff.

I waited at the other end of the aisle til he'd been served; he took his time going out the door and shouted at me for waiting for him to leave the shop once I was served.

In the meantime there was a crowd of about six people outside, on both sides of the door. One of them tried to push into the shop after they'd been told they had to wait. After the shouting man finally left, I asked the people by the door to make enough space for me to leave safely.

I ended up having to get through people a foor either side of me. A couple laughed at me when I said I have underlying health conditions and they needed to follow social distancing.

I am really upset and starting to panic a bit about the next few weeks - I have a supermarket slot booked in a couple of weeks, and nobody to shop on my behalf in the meantime. I'm not on Facebook.

You don't need to self-isolate for a runny nose.

That said, aren't we basically all self-isolating now anyway? There is no difference between the rules/guidelines for those showing symptoms and those without.

So who is out there doing a big shop for a larger family? No one on Facebook is offering to get enough to feed families. A lot of people can't afford to waste money either on either lots of little shops. That's if anyone would even do a daily shop run. People only seem to want to help the elderly or the vulnerable. They literally don't give two hoots about families stuck in isolation with no support outside of the household.

We have had no help and are in self isolation due to one of the kids having a cough. Tomorrow or monday I will be leaving the house for food. I'm not letting my kids starve.

They need to bloody sort this out. It's ridiculous that I can not get an online delivery slot when I am in self isolation to protect the general public. Trying to do the right thing, but being forced to do something wrong. I'm angry at the lack of support to maintain the isolation.

So who is out there doing a big shop for a larger family? No one on Facebook is offering to get enough to feed families. A lot of people can't afford to waste money either on either lots of little shops. That's if anyone would even do a daily shop run. People only seem to want to help the elderly or the vulnerable. They literally don't give two hoots about families stuck in isolation with no support outside of the household.

Yes to this! I’m sick of people saying ask volunteers on fb on here as the ones I’ve seen have all made it very clear they are only interested in helping the elderly. There’s no way anyone is doing a weekly shop for a family of 5 so I wouldn’t ask, some may grab a few bits but no one is doing a large families weekly shop.

They literally don't give two hoots about families stuck in isolation with no support outside of the household.

They are there for people self isolating too.

@PumpkinP it’s meant to be for anyone self isolating as well.

But it isn't. That's the problem. No one will help.