No mention of families again

[Thewheelsonthebus23]

Non essential shops opening, schools opening and car dealerships, but no mention of seeing family again. I thought we would be able to at least ‘link up’ with one other household

@RichardMarxisinnocent
The problem with the argument that doing things that will benefit some of society, but be useless to most, is that every relaxation has some effect on the R value, and the aim is to choose the set of relaxations that have the greatest benefit whilst having the least impact on society. People don't seem to understand that while it may well be possible to relax X and Y, X and Z, or Y and Z, it isn't possible to relax all of X,Y and Z.

I missed the briefing today, what is happening Thursday?

@StatisticalSense so have Ireland not considered this yet then as they are allowing more than 1 person to meet outside whilst social distancing

They have introduced this before mom essential shops as well I believe but could be wrong on that

What I find really annoying is there is no consideration at all to mental health. And the things they say they are relaxing, are already being done.
Markets opened a couple of weeks ago. Rubbish dumps opened before the government announced it. People have been having bbqs in their gardens for weeks now (not us I hasten to add). I don’t want to go shopping in primark, or have a garden party.
My daughter is desperate to give her boyfriend a hug. She has depression and anxiety. She is a rule follower. I can see her mental health going downhill by the day.

@Mullhollandmagoo

Thursday is the 3 week lockdown review date when they officially announce whether we have moved to alert level 3 or not and whether we can move to the next stage of easing lockdown.

Boris has been sneaking out previews of what he will say to distract everyone from the Dominic Cummings stuff.

It’s poor communications handling, at best. Shows poor understanding of citizens’ concerns.

It’d be better to explicitly acknowledge family/social concerns, explain the continued guidance, and give an indication of when the next reviews of the policies on mixing with local family/friends and UK travel will be. Then - if nothing changes - do the same again.

We don’t have a garden, so that’s us out of the ‘garden party/bbq’ meet up.

I was just really hoping we’d be able to physically go into someone’s home. What happens if you need the toilet at said garden party?!

It's stupid, because it is much safer to visit vulnerable people now, assuming (like me) you have been at home for 2 months with no chance to pick up the virus, than in a few weeks when shops, schools etc are open again, when the virus will inevitably start circulating at higher levels.

@IrenetheQuaint exactly this. I want to bring my mum to stay with us for a week in early June for just this reason. She has been isolating very strictly since before official lockdown began. Us too, since school closed. Not even a supermarket visit by either household. Seen nobody, quarantined deliveries, wiped groceries etc. This is the safest time to see her and vice versa. She lives 2 hours away and doesn't drive. I could make a day trip and meet her outside as per rules, but DS couldn't do it without a comfort break at the services and DM won't see us on that basis. So the only way for her to see DS is to bring her to us. The only thing we are weighing up is whether neighbours at either end would kick up a stink. In infection risk terms, this is absolutely the best time. In mental health terms, she needs the visit to boost her. She is in this for the long haul, in her view.

I think (and hope!) he will leave an announcement regarding 'bubbles' until as late as possible before we can do it. If he'd announced last night we could do the social bubble from 1st June I think everyone would be doing it from now, thinking well if I can do it in a weeks time why can't I do it now!

(For context, at our end that would be the same neighbours who've regularly been having groups of family and friends over for loud garden parties since Easter...)

Just assess risk for visiting family, then act accordingly.

"What about people’s mental health though? Does that not get a consideration?
What would you suggest? We cant all start getting close to people and hugging etc. The virus would just love that.

Risk assess. Are you safer visiting family now, or after you have had more exposure through going back to work/public transport/kids in school/going to more shops? When are you more likely to be exposed to coronavirus? Right now it's in carehomes and hospitals. Do you visit either?

You can make up your own mind about seeing family. No need to wait for the government to tell you. You cannot, however, go into a shop or a school that is not open and so government intervention is required here.

Yep. I’m thinking much safer to see my parents before my Yr6 goes back to school. I haven’t actually been to a supermarket in 7 weeks.

I think part of the problem is all this ‘should I snitch on my neighbour for having their boyfriend over’ malarkey. Just mind your own business! Nobody knows anybody else’s circumstances.

They are guidelines. In your own house it’s not the ‘law’, it’s a guideline. Do your own risk assessment and everyone else should be minding their own business if it doesn’t affect them. Common sense should prevail now..

Yet both NI and ROI both seem to have clear cut plans for socialising , taking it slowly obviously and in stages but at least they have a plan we don't appear to have one at all
Loads are going to gardens etc anyway as I think it's the opposite with no clear idea of when we will be allowed people are just doing it
I'm aware risk is higher indoors and maybe between families but as an adult I'm quite capable of not hugging my family and if I was desperate for toilet I could use a wipe to wipe seat and then I'm washing my hands anyway ( as I normally would )
When you go in shop your touching things people have touched as well and sitting on grass , beach etc
No ones expecting to be able to go back as normal but no reason with sensible precautions as with other countries we can't have a little more news on this going forward

It would be nice if we could have more of a road map going forward..