So it doesn’t look like the lockdown is going to be extended does it?

[HighlandSpring101]

Just caught the daily news briefing. Despite a lot of people on here last week thinking there’s no way they’ll be easing the lockdown before the end of May (and I admit, I too thought this!) it looks like BoJo may announce relaxations of the lockdown Sunday, possibly taking effect as of Monday?

I am a bit confused though as though the majority of the criteria for relaxation looks like it’s being met, there are still 4000 new infections each day, which is the pretty much the same amount as at the start of this pandemic so surely that’s still too high?

I watched the briefing and got the opposite feeling. They are still concerned about the number of new cases and small increase in car journeys. I hope we will get a roadmap on Sunday with rough timescales but I don’t think there is much move for manoeuvre with R at the moment.

Did they say what the R number was now?

There is 4000 infections but people in the community are getting tests now. At lockdown there werr 4000 from hospital admissions only.

My COVID tracker shows far less in the community than at the start of lockdown.

We still have to maintain that and reduce not increase. I suspect they will issue som basic guidelines, knowing they cant really police it, and cross their fingers and make up some numbers it up if it fails (100000 tests anyone?)

Basic rules like fever checking, self distancing, different working hours, booking timeslots, certain places still closed, schools part time, recommendation people dont mix much, 2 exercises a day, and no meetings over 5 people.

Then they will leave it to us to do it (or not)

Further 3 weeks i reckon.
Theres not enough in place yet to ease lockdown.

why is it unbearable?

Why do you even need to ask?
Stuck in our homes. Unable to see people. Unable to see friends and family. Unable to do all the things that make the difference between living and just existing.

(And that's before you get on to the economic problems and the problems that is causing)

I'm not saying we should unlock yet, but I can't see how anyone would think this is bearable.

It is distressing that numbers are still so high, it shows how unbelievably bad it would be if we hadn’t gone into lockdown .

Sobering to think that we have passed italy's deaths despite our peak being 2 weeks later.
On that alone it seems premature to relax the lockdown. Bad enough delaying the lockdown has resulted in many deaths without compounding that by relaxing too early as well.

People hear what they want to hear.

The fact is that none of the five tests have been met and the furlough scheme runs until the end of June.

I would expect some slight easing- manufacturing returning to work and some easing of movement restrictions.

But it will still be lockdown. We have had one of the least strenuous lockdown rules in Europe. This may mean they last for longer.

I got the opposite impression.

Nicola Sturgeon has basically said there's no way things will change this week.
The number of deaths was 648 or something - far too high really.
They haven't rolled out the tracing app across the UK which is one of the five "pillars" they needed to achieve before loosening lockdown.

I get the impression they'll announce a three week extension on Thursday, and on Sunday Boris will outline how people can go back to work at the end of the three week period, which gives businesses time to to source PPE and figure out how to get their workplaces up and running again.

Yes the lockdown is nearly over. The shielded extremely vulnerable are going to get more protection, plans are to have them attended to by a super tested, ie daily tested group. This was thought of initially, but dropped in favour of locking all ages down. It is now thought to be the better solution.
www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/05/longer-lockdown-for-over-70s-would-allow-fewer-restrictions-for-rest-of-uk-scientists-suggest

Lockdown will continue fromThursday. Boris will be telling us Sunday what the plans are to start to ease it, but at the moment I don’t think we are in a position to start from Monday, not without the strong possibility of a second wave. He maybe able to advise when, as long as conditions are met, who knows

I don't think they'll extend by 3 weeks, that would send some people over the edge. I think they may extend by a week at a time until the app is ready following the pilot.

I think there will be some small shift just enough to appease people but no real change. Hopefully that could mean garden centres and small independent shops like bookshops would be able to open if they can manage to make social distancing work.

I don't think they'll extend by 3 weeks, that would send some people over the edge.

On the contrary, I think they know people are getting fed up, so by extending, they're banking on a certain percentage of the population "rebelling" but if enough people to continue the follow the rules, we're safer than if lockdown is officially eased iyswim.

I also had completely the opposite impression OP. Ministers are now trying to manage people's expectations of what will be said on Sunday. It is pretty clear that there will be very little change this week. The only possible change might be to encourage certain sectors to go back to work. There have been comments about manufacturing, retail etc with social distancing in place. They seem to be rowing back from schools although I expect some children may return in June but I think it might be much more limited than many were expecting or hoping for.

@Whyohwhymusti Because I’m a single mother to toddler twins who hasn’t had a proper nights sleep or a second of rest since this lock down started. I want to see my family. I want help with my babies. For me personally the end of this cannot come fast enough!

Sorry, I don’t think I articulated the OP particularly well.

It’s not necessarily what was said on the briefing that makes me think they’ll start relaxing things, but honestly things around here seem to be looking more like ‘normal’ so much traffic about now compared to a few weeks ago. Our neighbours have had people over the last 2 weekends (which I absolutely do NOT agree with) DH’s friends are ‘Tradeys’ and they’re all now back to work (building, plumbing and carpentry) as now all the wholesale places they used to get stock have reopened. It just seems like life is getting back to ‘normal’ a bit more. (I’m not saying I agree with that btw)

The thing that makes it seem to me like they are going to ease restrictions is, wasn’t the end of the initial 3 week lockdown period up on Thursday the 7th May? Which makes me think that if they say ‘we’re going to relax things, you can now see family members’ they don’t want to say that on Thursday, just before the bank holiday weekend? I might be reading way more into that than need be to be fair, just seems odd that they’re making an announcement on a Sunday and a few days after the initial review date?

FWIW, I actually think we could do with another 2-3 weeks, until this test and trace app is up and running nationally.

I can’t see much changing until they have testing and track and tracing running more effectively. Personally, I don’t think anything will change for me until the schools go back as whatever relaxation takes place I will still have my children at home and won’t be able to work etc. I don’t want anything to happen until it can be safely managed but of course look forward to the end of lockdown. It just seems unlikely we are there yet.

Well considering Neil Ferguson the scientist who advised the lockdown has just resigned over breaking social distancing rules I think we can obviously all start making our own decisions

why is it unbearable?

Why do you even need to ask?

Faux, judgmental naivety. That's why.

From what I read recently in the Times the plan is to stay with things as they are atm, but to emphasise that work can still go on as things are just now, they didn't tell all work to close. In particular things like Construction..so that seems to be the aim for now but then maybe they will plan for other things to change after that.

We have had the most deaths in all of Europe, there is no way the lockdown should end or be scaled back any time soon.

It’s not necessarily what was said on the briefing that makes me think they’ll start relaxing things, but honestly things around here seem to be looking more like ‘normal’ so much traffic about now compared to a few weeks ago.

They knew this would happen, though - that people would get fed up. Boris said it right at the beginning that locking down too long is problematic because people get bored.

My theory is they knew this all along. Our lockdown is incredibly relaxed compared to anywhere else in Europe - this means it probably needs to be in place for longer. But I think Boris knew that all along.

The number of people who will "rebel" is going to increase the further along we go. The government know that - they're not stupid. So by officially keeping us 'in lockdown' they know that a reasonable percentage of people will continue to abide by the rules. They know that, say, 10-20% will ignore it and that's all been factored in.

Better to have 20% ignore the rules than ease them for everyone.

I think we'll get given dates for when different types of businesses and activities can reopen - I hope so, anyway.

The new cases in Scotland have reduced [https://www.travellingtabby.com/scotland-coronavirus-tracker/]

I really don’t know. Could go either way.