If the decision was solely down to you ...

[Boredsheep]

How would you get the country out of lockdown?
What would be first to go back to normal? What would change forever?

So many posters disagreeing with the decisions made by the government / scientists, so how would you do it?

Everything would go back to normal straight away.

@kingis and hope for the best? Or is there a reasoning for thinking this would work?

I'd "open back up" with social distancing measures and hand hygiene in place tomorrow.

Give people in vulnerable categories the choice, and every available help and resource, to shield themselves.

@SnydeValley how would you enforce social distancing measures in places that generate large crowds? Pubs, concerts etc?

That would be up to venues and the people attending them.

I wouldn't personally go to a pub or a restaurant.

But I'd send my children back to school and visit my low risk partner and family.

Anyone low risk back to normality but with social distancing.

Higher risk groups ideally need to continue isolating but obviously not always possible in families

People should be able to fix with family as normal and friends perhaps in smaller groups (say under ten) or adhere to social distancing when meeting

Anything with large crowds so concerts, sporting arenas will go back last as the numbers are high and people are in close proximity. Although sports not be played and shown live just no spectators minimising risk.

Non essential shops, Restaurants, bars and pubs should reopen soon as they are going to be hardest hit, will need to continue social distancing but no reason they cannot open if sensible.

Overseas travel should be restricted to essential only for a few more months until things are more under control

I would send the children back to school on Monday, no restrictions, no distancing, but a lot of emphasis on handwashing and children required to stay at home if ill/if someone in their house is ill.

I'd open up everything else too, but with restrictions. Face masks in public, hand sanitisers in every doorway (yes I know these are impossible to source), take out only for restaurants with socially distant queues, no large gatherings for at least another months. Everyone allowed to see family and friends as they wish, with reminders to isolate if ill, avoid physical contact and wash hands.

Essentially do exactly what Sweden is doing (with added face masks)

Boredsheep - are you from the government fishing for ideas?

• sports COULD be played

Also schools back ASAP, children are very low risk - teachers should take precautions as other key workers are doing

I agree with @SnydeValley

Yeah straight up back to normal

I would open cafes and fast food as take away only.

No football or concerts etc

Schools open after May half term.

If you have symptoms, stay at home for 7 days.

@TheDailyCarbuncle can you explain how you wouldn’t allow large social gatherings but think it perfectly acceptable for schools to re-open with no restrictions. I take it your large social gatherings are of numbers over 2000? Contradiction much??

It's about reducing the risk rather than eliminating it @beaverbill. It is necessary to open schools - the danger of keeping them closed is far higher than the danger of opening them, especially as the risk to children from the virus is very low and there is no evidence that they can spread it.

Large gatherings aren't necessary so they can be stopped for the time being.

Birdie “ I would open cafes and fast food as take away only”

They already can if they want.

@BirdieFriendReturns they might need some!

@TheDailyCarbuncle and any others who would keep large gatherings stopped still - what number would you cap it at? 10 people? 100? 500? More?

Get R0 low
Get community transmission low, new hospital admissions into single figures
Scale up testing and contact tracing
So that's a few more weeks yet
Expect work from home to continue where it is now happening
Keep anywhere shut that can't give 2 or 3 meters between employees, or between employees and customers or between customers from different already socialising units ( eg tables in restaurant, perhaps pubs with booked tables )
Schools based on results from other countries...can children be distant, do they act as silent carriers ?

It may just be unique to my local area, but very few people are adhering to the lockdown now anyway. So I would probably just make it official to allow businesses and workers to get back to some kind of normalcy.

I know it’s probably a bad reflection on society when the answer to mass rule breaking is to simply rescind the law, but I think that’s the point we are at now.

One stipulation I would make though is to strongly advise sensible social distancing to be maintained. This seemed to have worked well (if not better) than when lockdown was legally enforced and would (I suspect) be acceptable to most of the population.

To me, this means mass gatherings still forbidden, 1 metre rule still in force (where practical and vulnerable groups to be encouraged to isolate with laws put in place to ensure they weren’t penalised or discriminated for doing so.

Sweden has capped gatherings at 50 and it seems to be working for them, so I'd opt for that.

Gradually releasing things in the order that they closed.

Once the numbers of new infections had fallen down to very low numbers, I’d let people...

start to mix in small groups outside. Then...

open some shops-with shop keepers in masks/behind plastic but still restrict access to the shop. I’d be monitoring new cases over time to see what happened.

Get businesses slowly back to work. Increase public transport so that there were fewer people on each bus/train carriage.

Open more shops and businesses in a more Normal way.

If cases rocket, I’d pull back and restrict these options.

Then schools-y10/12 and 6 first. Reduced timetable and staggered hours.

Forgive typos above - especially “1 metre”. I meant 2 metres of course

Perform randomised testing of both current cases and antibodies at various locations around the country to ascertain the true spread of the virus so far.

Ensure a full supply of PPE. Also ensure a supply of masks for the general public (though possibly a little larger than the Abenomasks).

Perform a number of tests around the country in areas that had low and like for like amounts of cases. In these areas, I would have some returning different year groups to school, some permitting young adults in single households to return to work, etc.

Ensure that these areas had tip top testing and tracing.

Clearly inform the public that all these tests were going on, and that based on the results of these, and further tests in the future, other areas would be released in the same way.

Examine the results in 3 weeks time and expand the areas with loosened restrictions that did not result in a rise in infections.

Use the Nightingale hospitals as elderly discharge centres, rather than releasing patients to care homes. Test all residents of care homes and transfer any positive cases to the Nightingale hospitals (very sad, but the only solution I can see at this point). Test all care workers. Do this immediately.

LilacTree1 - I would like Starbucks and local cafes to re-open. Nowhere here is open apart from Dominos and Indian takeaways.