So outbreaks are only in care homes and hospitals. What am I missing?

[mayoral]

In the governments press conference yesterday they said infection rates remain high because of outbreaks in two places: care homes and hospitals. They said transmission within the community was small and well below R1.

So why can't we contain care homes and hospitals and get on with our lives now??

[Lemonblast]

Vodkaredbull is the home providing all of your food? Do any of the staff locked down have children at home? How much time off are you getting or are you on duty 24/7? What about exercise for staff?

[vodkaredbullgirl]

We are allowed to go home at the end of our shift, we have been given masks to wear when out and about. I do my shopping online, which has been difficult at times. When we go to work we wear outdoor clothes and shoes, take our shoes off at the door and change into different clothes. Temperatures are taking twice while at work, even the residents have theirs taken.

The only time I have had to stay at work was when we had all that snow.

[Lemonblast]

But Vodka with respect, what you’re doing is not what is being suggested by a few people on this thread? You’re not being asked or expected to leave your home and your family for weeks on end to try and contain a virus that the rest of the country is a bit bored with.

[Nonnymum]

A large proportion of the general poulation work in those places. Should we lock them all in together ?
This if it is rife in hospitals and care homes it will inevitably also spread to the wider population. A lot of people work in ctae homes and hospitals, they will have families, go out and about in the community, do shopping etc.
If the R is high anywhere it will spread.

[vodkaredbullgirl]

@Lemonblast as we dont have it in our home, if it ever did then yes i probably would stay there 24/7.

Don't you think that most of us are fed up with it, but we have to carry on with what we are doing.

[Nonnymum]

Also the only reason it has stayed to spread less in the community is because of lockdown. If we come out before it has been controlled, numbers will start to spoke again and could be even worse.

[Eskarina1]

For anyone struggling with exponential growth as a concept, there's a famous maths puzzle about how many times you would need to fold a piece of paper in half to reach the moon. 42. The thickness of a piece of normal A4 paper, doubled 42 times, is the equivalent thickness as the distance to the moon.

So even if there are very few cases in the community now, if everything was released it would grow very very quickly.