For those who are on the shielding for 12 weeks. What are you going to do at the end if that?

[Shosha1]

I'm on week 10 now, I havnt stepped foot over my front door, only seen DH, and I am so so fed up.
I have Lupus and take Presidone so was put into the group straight away.
Do we just stay in till there is either a vaccine, or track and trace ?

Shielding has already been extended to 30th June but I'm not sure if letters are being sent out to let people know. No idea what happens after that - the government probably don't know either!

I'm continuing to shield after that.

Continuing to shield and just hoping work are ok with it!

Surely it's obvious that you stay locked inside until there's a vaccine or the risks of catching it are a lot lower due to track/trace, herd immunity or whatever. At the end of the day, it's your choice whether to take the risk of going out. The police aren't going to stop you just because you have the shielding letter. There's not going to be a specific day when it's suddenly safe to go out again. It'll be months, if not years, of changing risk levels.

I spend a lot of time at home anyway due to my disability so life hasn’t been that different to be honest. I won’t be rushing out, incase a second wave hits. Only been outside once for a blood test.

Gosh this is just so bloody sad. I can't imagine what it must be like being locked down indefinitely. Is there no way you could wear a face mask or something - or have someone in your back garden with both wearing face masks and staying say 3 metres apart? My heart goes out to you.

I speak to friends from the upstairs window.

I didn't know we had to shield with lupus, i haven't had a letter. I am in Wales though where the letters have been cocked up??

Play it by ear. Either try to revive quantity of S/E work, or start applying for employed WFH roles. Hopefully. No way of predicting the lay of the land yet,

@Kazzyhoward surely it's also obvious that showing compassion to people is needed now more than ever?

The government website says it's almost certainly going to be extended.
We are staying put.

I think a key indicator will be when hospitals and care homes start allowing visitors.

There's a programme on channel 4 tonight at 9 I think about this issue

My DH is going stir crazy, desperate to change scene and speak to people in real life ....

I think if the R0 is very low and therefore the risk of catching it in the community is low, it should be possible to relax to an extent surely? I’ll be avoiding high risk situations but I’m not planning to stay indoors indefinitely if there is little community transmission.

I am expecting that it will be extended

I hope that the country does progress down the Nando chart. Because perhaps when it reaches ‘2’ the shielding advice will change enough for us to go out of daily. rigidly distanced, exercise.

But I fear that by turn. the general population won’t be distancing much, so it might not be safe for us after all.

We ought to be able to go out without undue restriction once we’re fully down in the green

I've no idea and I'm scared. My job involves working with the general public so I was getting coughed and sneezed over anyway before all this kicked off.

I haven't been furloughed and I'm claiming sickness benefits. I'm a single parent. We have enough coving in to cover living costs now but once the mortgage payment break ends, then my income will not cover our basic needs.

If they need us to stay at home longer, they need to give us the money to allow us to do this. If not, I'm left with the decision of going back to work and risking it to keep a roof over our heads, or losing our home as I can't afford to pay for it.

I wish they would make their minds up and give us some guidance so I can work out how I can manage this for the best. It's the not knowing and not being able to plan that I'm finding most difficult.

thaegumathteth

"@Kazzyhowardsurely it's also obvious that showing compassion to people is needed now more than ever?"

Im sorry but this sort of comment is starting to annoy me. It's not imperative to state compassion in every single post. Can you imagine how trying mn would be if in every single post people start off with compassion, just to rule that out . Very often its a given.

I'm hoping there will be a move towards "smart shielding".

As with the over 70's, we shielders are not a homogenous group.

To me, there's a world of difference between a fit, young, hale and hearty ,stable transplant recipient and an elderly, fragile, COPD sufferer for example.

It would be good if someone developed an algorithm where we shielders could log in, input our specific, personal details including height and weight, medications taken, underlying condition etc, and at the end you are given advice, specific to you.

This could be along the lines of you can now go out for exercise x 1 daily , but stay away from indoor venues through to stay at home and continue shielding.

Me, personally, I shall comply as advised, until the end of June, then will reassess the situation and make my own decision regardless.

I’ll follow whatever updated advice comes in, I’m lucky that I can wfh as long as needed. What I will need to figure out is how to manage my risk when life starts up again for my children, they need to get back to their lives and will mean our little protected bubble will burst

I'm 69, not 7o until December. I have moderate COPD and asthma, I've also had part of one lung removed. I'm not "officially" sheltered . I've not been out since our since 17/3. And I won't be going out any time soon

It's not imperative no, but I think it's just kind to not be abrupt and rude isn't it? It takes zero amount of extra effort .

I dont think she was abrupt or rude. We have to appreciate that the written word isnt always taken the way it was meant, because you dont see facial expression or hear tone like you would in a normal conversation. I just get fed up when people say there is no empathy or compassion when there more than likely is, the poster just hasnt said it.

Government website says shielding will continue to be extended.

And apologies, dont mean to pick on you necessarily, it seems to be a trend on mn, if people dont agree with what you are saying, they come out with the "where's your empathy or compassion" phrase. Think its come out of the "be kind" trend.