So a family of 6 can't have any visitors to their home?

[covidconfusion]

"From Monday 14 September, when meeting friends and family you do not live with you must not meet in a group of more than 6, indoors or outdoors"

Does this mean a family of 6 cannot have any visitors to their home?

Source: www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-meeting-with-others-safely-social-distancing/coronavirus-covid-19-meeting-with-others-safely-social-distancing

On a related note, I really think the government need to improve the clarity of their communication. I don't usually struggle with reading comprehension but I find the guidelines so hard to follow and I know I'm not the only one. Usually I would use my common sense but the guidelines do not follow common sense. If the guidelines are saying what I think they are saying, it means a family of 6 cannot have any visitors but a single person household can have 5 visitors from 5 different households? Really? You have to laugh.

Not a perfect solution, but a decent caveat would have been to exempt u16s who are under supervision of their parents.

In Scotland it's now 6 people from a max of two households, but under 12's do not count to the maximum number. So two families with 3 kids each can still meet up if at least two of the childrne are under 12

Excluding children from the numbers makes no sense though. Many will be in school so have a higher risk of catching and spreading it so the less they see socially the less they can spread outside of school.

Not to mention it would mean large gatherings still happening as they are now where many families are letting children mix freely with no SD. Six adults could bring many children between them.

Excluding children from the numbers makes no sense though.

Of course it makes sense. They have repeatedly droned on about children not being vectors for disease and transmission. Other countries have followed the science and recognised that making them exempt is a sensible and rational decision. It's also bonkers that a child under 1 even a newborn counts in the numbers exactly the same as an adult.

On a related note, I really think the government need to improve the clarity of their communication.

The Tories have gone in for deliberately muddy vague communication since Cameron. Great PR tactic to avoid accountability. "Who said that? Show us where we precisely said that?"

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

My friends situation. 2 parents, 5 children. 2 eldest at university, 3 at home. Are the 2 eldest unable to stay at their home at the same time, since officially they aren't in the household anymore?

They are still part of their parents' household if it is the home address they give to the university and it is where they spend their main holidays. To confirm it is their home address they need to make sure they are on the electoral roll both at home and their university address. (You can only vote in one place but be on the electoral roll in both places.)

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss

Excluding children from the numbers makes no sense though. Many will be in school so have a higher risk of catching and spreading it so the less they see socially the less they can spread outside of school.

Not to mention it would mean large gatherings still happening as they are now where many families are letting children mix freely with no SD. Six adults could bring many children between them.

It makes sense for families in Scotland as under 12s don't have to socially distance there.

The six over 12s can still only be from two households indoors and outdoors in Scotland.

For those saying it is at the population-level and not the individual-level, I do understand that. I also know that the behavioural modeling they use will account for a level of non-compliance to this when predicting how people will behave.

I'm not really questioning the rule in itself but rather I just wanted clarification that I had understood the guidelines correctly before I start cancelling visitors who were planning on coming next week. Larger families/households are exempt from the only six rule when out in public so for example a household of 10 can all go out in public together. I just wondered if there was an exemption for large families (6+) to be able to meet with one other household like it is now, but it seems the only exception is the support bubble with a single person household.

Six adults could bring many children between them.

The rules in scotland don't include under 12s in the Six. BUT they are limited to two households, which does limit the maximum number to being 10 (2 households with 3 children under 12) in the vast majority of cases based on the size of an average family.

The two household rule allows families to meet more easily than in England for this reason even though its more strict about other situations which impact more on friendships.

Scotland seem to have priortised family over friends whereas the English rules are much more beneficial to friends rather than family.

Of course it makes sense. They have repeatedly droned on about children not being vectors for disease and transmission.

I am not sure I heard the droning. The current science is not 100% clear but we know a) young children don't get as ill, hardly ever die of covid and are often asymptomatic b) it seems that young children don't transmit it as much to adults as adults do to each other.

The b) part is not hard science as far as I know and is based on observations of what has happened in schools around the world. However it does fit with common sense that if you are not coughing and not at head height, you probably don't transmit as much.

but it seems the only exception is the support bubble with a single person household.

Thats right.

Sorry.

I just wondered if there was an exemption for large families (6+) to be able to meet with one other household like it is now, but it seems the only exception is the support bubble with a single person household.

I think you have it right.

chng.it/CqTkJmCfPq Petition regarding just these issues, sign and share if you can.

Regards Kate

I can count to 6 perfectly fine. However I live in a house with 7 other adults and we are all in our mid 20s. Does this rule mean I can never have my boyfriend over? That we can never all go out as a house together? Its not a simple as you make out, not everyone lives in a conventional household, its 2020.

@allfeellikeanalien I'm so sorry for your loss

@notevenat20

It doesn’t say “max 6 people on your property” because otherwise pubs would be unworkable.

It does say that. Pubs and restaurants and businesses in general are treated differently. If you have 4 people upstairs and 4 people downstairs in your house you will be breaking the law. At least that is my interpretation.

It says: "From Monday 14 September, when meeting friends and family you do not live with you must not meet in a group of more than 6, indoors or outdoors."

So you can have 4 visitors on your property if your children are upstairs as long as the visitors don't go upstairs.

@user1471588124

I can count to 6 perfectly fine. However I live in a house with 7 other adults and we are all in our mid 20s. Does this rule mean I can never have my boyfriend over? That we can never all go out as a house together? Its not a simple as you make out, not everyone lives in a conventional household, its 2020.

You can all go out together as you live together as a household.

You can't have anyone to visit if you are all home unless that person is a single person who is bubbled with your household.

We're a household of 9. SIL is bubbled with us as a single parent so she and her kids can visit and we can go out as a group, but we can't have other visitors when everyone is home.

@user1471588124

I can count to 6 perfectly fine. However I live in a house with 7 other adults and we are all in our mid 20s. Does this rule mean I can never have my boyfriend over? That we can never all go out as a house together? Its not a simple as you make out, not everyone lives in a conventional household, its 2020.

You can't have your boyfriend over unless 2 of your household go out.

You can go out as a household as your household consists of 7 people.

(I am relaying what I've been hearing from the last 2 days on talk radio where people have asked similar questions.)

Yes it does, no gatherings inside or out over 6. You are all allowed at once, but your boyfriend can't come in...

Grand eh?

@TinySleepThief

feellikeanalien I'm sorry for uour loss.

Not a perfect solution, but a decent caveat would have been to exempt u16s who are under supervision of their parents.

It actually this element that frustrates me the most. We now cannot meet up with OHs family as there are 4 of them and 3 of us even though one of us is an almost 9 month old.

I had understood if your baby wasn't walking / could be confined (or by a pram) then they didn't count?

I had understood if your baby wasn't walking / could be confined (or by a pram) then they didn't count?

Technically no. They do count in England.

So do families larger than 6 have to vote members out X factor style?

@KateBarker

Yes it does, no gatherings inside or out over 6. You are all allowed at once, but your boyfriend can't come in...

Grand eh?

Fantastic...

We've already been separated for months by coronavirus as he is from northern italy so we went able to meet. Now we live close again and I cant even have him over! And yet people who live in a typical 2 adult, 2 child family cant see why this law makes things very difficult for households like mine!

Redtoothbrush thank you, nail on the head.

Another recent thread likened it to a "risk" bank account. We've made a HUGE withdrawal to allow schools back. We now have a low balance so every single interaction/contact we have must be seriously considered before we withdraw again.

And those who think "screw it, I'll do what I like " - what would happen if tomorrow every person in the country had the same mindset? We'd be fucked.

Plus how do we even prove we all live together! Take our contracts everytime we go out?

But would she count as “single” under their definition? As far as I understood it as she lives with her 2DC she is not classed as single. She lives with 2 other people. I might be wrong but they mean ‘single’ as in ‘alone in the property’ rather than ‘Single-romantically unattached’.