So we are staying lockdown until June at the earliest?

[Mummypig2020]

Just seen on daily fail (sorry!) that Boris is going to announce that we will be lockdown until June at least.

Not sure if I can cope that long. 😩

@leflic Sorry but I never thought that was going to happen. If I owned a shop I admit though I too would have moved any stock I could out. Makes sense to be careful.

"I think we will/should be in lockdown until there is a vaccine unfortunately. The virus is still out there, once we start mixing again it will spread"

Comments like this really don't help people who are struggling with MH issues. I already can't afford all my bills, let alone food and don't currently qualify for UC. If lockdown goes on for months/years, you can also look forward to a massive hike in suicides, homelessness, and deaths from numerous other causes that have been ignored in favour of Covid.

This has got to be one of the most miserable threads I've ever seen on MN and it really has some competition! I get the feeling there's a lot of people actually enjoying the misery.

@RareCat how do you propose it's going to work when people can't afford to keep a roof over their heads or put food on the table?

Regarding the over 50s and 60s, many of them still work. DH is 65 and still works. He could possibly pack in (he might not even have any customers to go back to anyway) but I'm younger and will have to go to work at some point. I won't be able to avoid him so life will have to go on.

Followed mad herd immunity strategy, wasted vital weeks. PM boasts of shaking hands with coronavirus patients. Cases continue to rocket throughout March - also fail to test until its totally out of control. Now top 3 per capita deaths in the entire world (or if deaths at 45,000 possibly first?) with new cases still very high ... and so still can't reopen economy/schools must remain shut.
And no Sweden is not a good model. 2500 deaths, at least five times more per capita than all its Scandinavian neighbours.

I disagree @2beautifulbabs. If every low risk person was given the choice to roam freely, with shopping centres, shops, socialising with friends etc. allowed, it endangers the high risk categories massively. Low risk people aren’t immune from dying from it nor are they immune from being carriers. If we have a high amount of low risk infected people going to supermarkets, those at high risk doing their essential food shopping even once a month (those that don’t have help), will be so much more at risk of catching it and dying, along with supermarket workers.

I don’t think it’s a big ask of the government - nobody is being asked to go to war. I do feel immensely sorry for the people who have it worst in lockdown in terms of postponing urgent cancer treatment or those with terminal illnesses having to spend their last days online. It’s tough for most of us but definitely not as bad as the alternative.

Kazzyhoward you're really 'not sure' hoe the BBC is different to he Daily Mail?!

I wasn't comparing the two anyway, I was just asking why quote a gossip rag headline when there are Gov't briefings every day with the actual facts on lockdown.

It is scare mongering to talk about future plagues

Of course it is - but it's all grist to the mill of the doom-mongers

It's the same with asking the very reasonable question about who's going to pay for future care and all the rest if the economy's wrecked; there's never an answer and it's as if nothing else matters beyond today's bad news

Yes I know it's shit but you're being asked to stay at home you're not being sent to the trenches for months on end

People are admitting their struggles and this is how you respond. Have some bloody compassion. Yes it might not be the most distressing situation ever, but that doesn't mean people aren't struggling, and nor does it make those struggles any less important.

I can't speak for the whole of the U.K., but no one round here is doing it anywhere. It's just like a normal school holiday but with nowhere to take the kids.

I never thought I'd say this but I wish we'd gone in harder like other countries. Too many people I know are making up their own rules ie visiting their Mam but sitting in the garden, visiting their Mam but sitting at opposite ends of the living room.

Disclaimer - I am sticking to it, but just quietly seething at all the people who are still seeing their mams!

2nd disclaimer- h has been shit at sticking to it and I'm so sick of hearing 'I just can't ....' as if he's some sort of special sociable person who is finding it so much harder than the rest of us normal people. It's making me look at him in a whole new (unfavourable) light.

Those who want to stay in until there’s a vaccine are free to do so.

Lockdown was never about nobody catching it, it was about buying time for the NHS which has been done. A gradual release maintaining social distancing and some restrictions is now appropriate and relevant

The things is- there's no parallel universe whereby if we relaxed all restrictions, life would go back to normal.

Even the economy won't go back to normal, because large swathes of people won't want to be out partying whilst they are either at risk themselves or putting those they love at risk.

Similarly, mental health will take a hit either way round- either from people living with the idea of a deadly disease (and the body count much higher around them) or within the NHS/key worker groups where the body count would also get even higher.

Lots of services which help the most vulnerable won't go 'back to normal' even when lockdown ends, as the type of people who work in them (middle/older aged women often) might either have their own underlying conditions, or just get sick from corona. That's what scuppered schools in the end- lots of people being off sick and shielding, not the direct announcement of them being closed.

I am actually up for a bit of relaxation, in terms of businesses going to open to see if they can work without putting their workers at risk- if they can, they should open, including shops. But, it's going to be a strange world of fewer shoppers, lots of masks, lots of distrust and suspicion, not being able to see relatives over the age of 60 odd (for their sakes) , no international travel, no holidays (yet) and so I really don't think there will be a massive improvement either in the economy or in people's mental health for a long while yet.

I think we will/should be in lockdown until there is a vaccine unfortunately. The virus is still out there, once we start mixing again it will spread

How long will that be then? 1 year, 2,3, more? You expect this lockdown to be ongoing until then? How many non-covid deaths do you think will happen before then? Here's a clue...a lot more than will die of C-19.

All I have to say is ♟ ♟ ♟

Remind me what the chess pieces mean again.

Daffodil101 I'll see you and raise you to...…….September!! At the very earliest.

Yes I know it's shit but you're being asked to stay at home you're not being sent to the trenches for months on end

That's whilst people have a home. Do you think mortgage lenders will give a shit in the long term?

Sturgeon today seems to be doing a John The Baptist for continuing lockdown

When someone like BoJo - roundly criticises for caring only about the economy - says (I paraphrase) ‘we must not lift lockdown too soon, because that will wreck the economy’ then there probably is considerable merit in the idea that proper length lockdown and gradual lift is going to ‘cost’ less both in terms of the economy and in lives (both CV direct deaths, and deaths consequent to restrictions)

AlexisCarringtonColbyDexter

Winner!!

I'm on my own with 3 children missing work and normality. I am really worried about how my oldest is going to cope of it goes on too long. She refusing to eat more than one bite of toast or half a Weetabix a day. Some days she hasn't had a thing. I've been trying to get her help but there is nothing they can do as CAMHs is closed to new cases. I'm sure we aren't the only people struggling with things and it's hard when there's no end in sight.

All the people saying 'you can be furloughed for childcare' not if you're public sector.

Flu pandemics have been a threat for a long time because flu strains do that every so often. That’s what the NHS was doing pandemic preparation exercises for a few years ago

We ignored all the findings from that exercise, cut stocks of PPE and didn't even bother to make good the shortfalls highlighted by 'Cygnus.
4 years later and the govt still won't publish its findings......

If anything, we should be feeling a bit more optimistic about the possibility of a new dangerous flu strain coming along soon. Because every country is going to take pandemic threats very, very seriously

We might for a few years, then it will slowly fade and become a distant memory & we'll relax our guard.

To be fair I'm not sure that the 3 week extension should be a major surprise. The next announcement at the end of May will be more open to debate I would have thought.

I think unofficially they are relaxing things slightly with the opening of some takeaways and non essential shops- well basically B&Q. I don't think the additional 3 weeks signifies that life will never be the same again and I say that as someone who is now struggling with lockdown even though DS is older and can do his own studies mostly and both DH and I are working from home.

On a purely practical level, if they were thinking of lifting lockdown next Thursday, wouldn’t the government need to start making some announcements to allow those people and businesses affected time to plan? Given that no such announcements have been made, isn’t it right to presume that we’re in this for at least another 3 weeks?

My opinion (for what it’s worth!) is that after the next 3 week lockdown they’ll start announcing gradual easing throughout June to enable businesses to got up and running again while being able to still take advantage of the job retention scheme until the end of June. Then after that Britain will be open again, subject to strict social distancing measures.

Pawns on a chessboard! Not heard that one in a while!!

All the people saying 'you can be furloughed for childcare' not if you're public sector.
@poshme who told you that? People can will just be down to your manager if they have refused.