Taking into account how YOU see the situation, when do YOU personally believe we will start returning to normal?

[Whitefeather01]

Just that really. When do YOU personally think restrictions will start to be lifted? Schools going back? Travel resumed? Etc.

I'm still of the opinion that there will be social unrest from some people if we are told we have to lockdown until May/June.

I think schools will reopen August/September. We are in Edinburgh and schools are due to close for summer on 26th June. I really can't see them being back in. Schools here go back 18th August so I assume it will be then.

I think lockdown will be until May. Pubs and restaurants- July.

What about salons/opticians/dentists ?

Also if lockdown ends in May, but services not until June, what exactly will be different except that we can maybe see more people ? If we still won't be able to go anywhere /use any non-essential services.

I can't see the children being in school this side of six weeks holidays. Possibly winter time. I think October maybe for back to school and travel and that's being optimistic. I think any means necessary to stop further prevention. I will not be sending my kids to school if reopened before I thought it was safe. Everything else has to return to normal (ish) first too...

I think we’ll be on lockdown for another 3 weeks after this 3 weeks ends.

Then I think they may slowly relax, like at first they say you can visit healthy parents/family under the age of 70/not vulnerable for a few weeks, then maybe return to office based work places a few weeks later and so on and so forth.

Well I hope so anyway!!

My friend is adamant that by the beginning of June things will be normal because for some inexplicable reason her work has told her to expect to be back in the office by June. I'm not a pessimist but I think she is being extremely optimistic about that timescale.

I can't see that it will last any longer than another 6 weeks. I thinn there will still be measures in place to try to minimise spread, but they are already talking about doing as much testing as possible to get people back to work. How do they intend to keep funding people that can't work for months?

3 months. Schools will return to normal end of August/beginning of September

Not until we get a vaccine :(

I think we will be in lockdown throughout April and May, then things relaxed a bit - but still with restrictions - in June. Schools back after summer st the earliest. I can’t imagine things being “normal” for a long time. The idea of sitting in a packed cinema or being in a crowded lift seems unthinkable right now, whereas a month ago i wouldn’t have given it a second thought.

I would hope by July the anti body test and CV symptoms test would both be readily available meaning the majority of society might possibly be able to get back to some sort of normality. Once immunity can be identified or symptoms tested to establish if they are indeed CV, you’d hope it would dramatically reduce the spread of the disease from one person to another. I do think however until a vaccination is available, the elderly and vulnerable will need to continue to self isolate so for those groups maybe another 18 months...

I think schools will open after may half term and lockdown will end in may too. Not because I think that the virus will be gone, but because to keep businesses shut and people off work will bankrupt the country. I imagine that social distancing will still be advised for vulnerable people, but will be relaxed for most. I can't see lockdown continuing for too long as it will result in civil unrest, and as people run out of money crime will escalate. Hopefully the antigen tests will have been rolled out by then so it can be established if we are gaining herd immunity, and if so then it could be relaxed further. I am hopeful that by the time we head into the summer holidays then things will be fairly normal for those who are not vulnerable, although I realise that for those who will have lost loved ones it will be very far from normal. If we follow the model that China used then the peak of restrictions will continue for about a month, then start to ease as the death rate drops. I guess a lot of it depends on infection rates and if they keep climbing.

Private schools back after May half term. Things starting to reopen from mid June onwards. Possible second lockdown to coincide with October half term - assuming the British public conform.

However, I think we are being lied to about the brevity of the virus and it’s an excuse to make significant changes to government and society globally. 64,000 people died from flu in January and we did not seem it necessary to lock down and in the process kill small business and saddle the next couple of generations with an inordinate amount of debt.

One day at a time.

I’m a PCSO in training. I was due to start 23/03 but couldn’t due to being in self-isolation (no symptoms, nursery panicked so did SI as a precaution).

I’m on day 2 of training and my training is going to run until 08/05, everyone else in my cohort will finish 28/04 and be deployed but I’m extended due to missing a fair bit! We’re the last intake until the later end of the year. But we are expecting some kind of slight lift in restrictions around June time. We don’t know whether that’ll happen but we think the situation will have improved by the end of June at the latest so would be a case of slowly lifting restrictions until Christmas time.

We won't have normal as we know it ever again. There's going to be a massive global depression, civil unrest because people will be starving, dictatorship governments. Look at the present crisis in Africa and India! People are so poor and have no protection against this bloody thing so it will continue to spread like wildfire. I can't really see how its going 'to burn itself out'. I fear for humanity, and the ones that manage to survive Covid are not going to have a good time of it. I can't see schools going back in September. They're already concerned about how Covid will behave in the autumn/winter in the UK. Sorry to sound so dismal, but I think this is fact. We let this beastie out of the box and in Europe were quite content to see the Chinese in lockdown - while we did nothing. The S Koreans have basically got it under wraps due to mass testing - while we're sending our front line NHS staff into the battle without PPE and testing. We're still bloody taking about testing! We're being led by a bunch of total morons, that, quite frankly would be cool to see a lot of us dead - cos we'll cost too much if we live. Oh the super, super rich will be fine though, but they always are. They're presently on the mega yachts sailing away from Covid while the world burns. I'd have a glass of wine, while there's still some to drink, and think about a couple of months ago when you were planning your summer holidays. That won't ever come again.

I don't think schools will be back before September. I think there may be a gradual loosening of restrictions governing economic activity over the summer, BUT the largest number of deaths in the Spanish flu epidemic occurred when everyone resumed contact again in the September of 1918 after the initial outbreak in the March, so overall I don't think we will be through all of this for a good year or more.

I reckon Schools back in September. Other restrictions on pubs, restaurants etc probably about the same or possibly August. People going back to work in offices probably late July/ August but with restrictions on number of people in one room etc. I really don't see much changing in the next 8 weeks and sadly so many businesses will never reopen again. If your reading this and the economic effects of this are hitting you hard then my thoughts are with you and I hope with all my heart you will be ok.

When enough people lose their jobs/businesses close I predict it will miraculously become safe to emerge and get the economy going again.

Less cynically - when they've got a more reasonable number of tests/antibody tests more ventilators and better PPE for frontline staff.

In other words - first week of June-ish.

Bucking the trend I think we will come out of lockdown in six weeks but maintaining social distancing for a while with no major events until next year. Schools etc back in September but proper lockdown for six months would be unsustainable and have an adverse affect on the economy - the bottom line is we cannot survive with no incomes and trading.

I personally think, back to work (if it's still there) by June/July, schools and colleges by September. The country as a whole, financially, I'd say five years minimum. There's been nearly 1 million signed on to claim UC over the last week, all these people need support for however long it takes. Perhaps we will also, actually start understanding, how much destruction of the NHS has gone on over the last 10 years+.

Once the pandemic is under control, we will spend years digging out of the economic consequences.