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Original poster

Anyone in the North East?

934 replies

PennyDreadfuI · 10/09/2020 19:12

Gateshead has just been added to the govt watchlist and Newcastle is on amber alert. Sunderland have had over 200 cases in the past seven days.

Are we next for a local lockdown? What do you think it will entail? Given Newcastle's reputation as a party city I'm guessing restricted hours for bars maybe - they were packed to the rafters over the August bank holiday weekend, which may account for lots of the new cases.

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Bearfrills · 16/09/2020 23:49

I wonder if it'll be a blanket across all seven areas or if they'll consider each area as cases rise and fall... Hopefully all will be answered in the morning!

When the councils were having meetings earlier this week they said it was going to be a blanket lockdown across all seven regions to reduce the number of people travelling across county lines to get around the restrictions otherwise you'd have people from Newcastle arranging to meet up at parks in Northumberland or people from Northumberland heading into Whitley Bay to go to pubs that are open.

My eldest has SEN and is wishing his hardest that his little sister's covid test comes back positive so that he can have two whole weeks off school, he's also hoping the schools close. Oldest DD is gutted because she loves school and wants the test to come back negative so she can go see her friends. I feel so bad for her, in the last week she's had her birthday party cancelled, I said she could have a friend over for tea on her birthday and that got cancelled because we're in isolation, and we were going to have lunch and a Claire's Accessories spree with her nana and cousin at the weekend but now that's cancelled too.

BoJoTookMyMojo · 16/09/2020 23:56

@SchnitzelVonCrummsTum

At the moment it's only a partial lockdown, and I do hope that this will help us avert having to take more drastic measures. It still is a hard pill to swallow though and the testing / track and trace systems aren't as good as they need to be. Maybe this will buy us more time to get them up to speed? It's largely up to the govt (we're shafted then ;))
Banning people from meeting socially with anyone, even outdoors, IS an incredibly drastic measure! It's about the worst thing they can do.

This is what is infuriating me and driving me to despair about this stupid half lockdown. Being around other humans is essential. Going to the pub isn't. But guess what's still allowed?

Full lockdown was much more bearable. The quiet. The sense of being all in it together. This is hell where the disparities show more than ever - some people having a jolly time in the pub whilst others aren't even allowed to meet someone for a walk!

My heart breaks every day that I don't have my own family, and will once again be separated from loved ones.

Bearfrills · 17/09/2020 00:01

It's really does seem daft that I can take the DC to school, go to the shops, pick then up and take them to the cinema or softplay or bowling, maybe go to the pub or McDonalds for tea, send my daughter to her dance class and take the middle two to their swimming lessons, take them all to the park at the weekend, maybe have a wander around the Metrocentre, and go for Sunday lunch at the local Italian restaurant.

But I can't sit in my mam's garden and have a cup of tea.

How does Covid know to leave us alone at all those other places but then get me while I'm at my mam's? Hmm

Someaddedsugar · 17/09/2020 00:01

Thanks @Bearfrills - that does make sense.

Hope your DD is ok. We're going through similar for our DS for his birthday next weekend. I've promised him a proper party for his birthday next year.

Bearfrills · 17/09/2020 00:03

I've promised her a do-over too, told her to choose a treat up to the price of her party so she's picked going to London to see a show. She must think parties cost way more than they actually do!

Ranunculi · 17/09/2020 00:12

How does Covid know to leave us alone at all those other places but then get me while I'm at my mam's?
Essentially they are saying they need to reduce everyone’s activity by e.g. 50%. They don’t want to ban the 50% that keeps the economy going and keeps people in jobs and education. So they’re banning the other 50% which is non-essential socialising.

Someaddedsugar · 17/09/2020 00:18

It just seems crazy when the visits with parents and family might be the one thing keeping another household together. We're struggling with an elderly relative being at the point of end-of-life with dementia (care home have suggested that the first lockdown and no visitors have had a severe life changing impact) and being together is helping us through a horrible time.

Someaddedsugar · 17/09/2020 00:19

@Bearfrills

I've promised her a do-over too, told her to choose a treat up to the price of her party so she's picked going to London to see a show. She must think parties cost way more than they actually do!
Grin it does sound lovely though! Although yes, I hadn't realised we had such expensive parties in the north east!
BoJoTookMyMojo · 17/09/2020 00:39

I know it's unworkable really, but it would be much fairer if everyone had a sort of social interaction allowance or something. Whether that's people at work, family at home, or friends outside of your household. It's just seems so horribly unfair to inflict blanket rules that are so different depending on your circumstances.

BoJoTookMyMojo · 17/09/2020 00:42

Sorry, lost half my comment, the above was in reply to Ranunculi.

Contact with others is essential for humans, even if it doesn't make anyone any money. My only social contact right now comes under "non essential" but fuck it is essential! It's completely inhumane to make certain people so isolated.

GalaxyCookieCrumble · 17/09/2020 00:48

Well I have just seen the news and now my area Co Durham, and the rest of the NE will have a 10Pm curfew because of the huge spike in cases. This Government are useless, all the kids are back in school, lots of factory's jam packed with people including the new massive Amazon in Darlington, so what did Boris and Matt think would happen?

Good luck locking anyone here down after 10, we have no Police to enforce anything.

PickAChew · 17/09/2020 00:48

Checking in. Already sworn off public transport after being on a bus full of college students last week - and that's with a driver who counted carefully and put a bus full sign up. I live near the college so can't avoid that scenario.

And I need bed but at least I now have this thread handy.

BoJoTookMyMojo · 17/09/2020 00:49

Whoops forgot to add..
Sitting in someone's garden to have a cuppa 2m away is so incredibly low risk I think it's inhumane to ban that on ANY grounds.

GalaxyCookieCrumble · 17/09/2020 00:51

@UpToonGirl

Any one else in the NE struggling to get testing for a child? Youngest has a temp and cough but when I look for testing sites nothing is coming up and I'm wondering if they are not testing under 18's at the sites near me - I'm in Newcastle.

Every school has testing kits, hope your little one feels better soon.

SongBirdsKeepSinging · 17/09/2020 00:52

I'm in Middlesbrough, we're on a watch list I think, but not included in the NE lock down on the news.

Bearfrills · 17/09/2020 00:53

My brother emailed our MP today to ask why families with disabled children can't form a support bubble with another household and why the government didn't anticipate that testing demand would increase once children went back to school and people went back to workplaces. He got a reply back that said such families are welcome to find a single parent household and bubble with them and that people need to realise Boris Johnson is trying his best.

PickAChew · 17/09/2020 01:00

Durham, too, btw.

And have autistic teens, one in a special school (Other supposed to be in a specialist college but has barely left the house for 6 months). He's been so happy to finally be back but Ifeel like I'm counting the days until it all implosdes, again.

PickAChew · 17/09/2020 01:03

@Bearfrills

My brother emailed our MP today to ask why families with disabled children can't form a support bubble with another household and why the government didn't anticipate that testing demand would increase once children went back to school and people went back to workplaces. He got a reply back that said such families are welcome to find a single parent household and bubble with them and that people need to realise Boris Johnson is trying his best.
That's a pretty shocking attitude. Our social worker is all for regarding a disabled child meeting with other family members as fulfilling an essential care need.
Scarby9 · 17/09/2020 01:20

I have swapped my non- working day to do a dash up to Northumberland tomorrow to visit my parents in case this is the last chance for a while.

I will see them in their garden, as I have done each time I have visited. We will stay over 2m apart, as we have done every time. I will take my own coffee and lunch so there is no danger of me infecting them via a mug handle.

I could be more careful. I could stay away.

But my DF was shielding and he is the carer for my DM with dementia. They are in their 80s and struggling to remain positive with most of their normal life cancelled. Daily Skype is no longer the pick-me-up novelty it was at the start of lockdown.

But I walked through Newcastle early evening a fortnight ago, and the bars and restaurants looked no different from pre-Covid, and I can see why numbers might be rising, along with workplaces and schools reopening.

It's just sad.

TheSparklyPussycat · 17/09/2020 01:32

Hello, just found you all. I'm very near Durham. DCs are all grown up, no DGC. DD lives nearly, DS is in Manchester...

Was planning to visit DS but couldn't because of first lockdown. Then Manchester went back to semi-lockdown so still haven't seen him. I have been thinking of visiting DM down South but who knows if I'll be allowed.

At least I'm retired and like my own company (although cocktails sound nice when this is all over).

BessieSurtees · 17/09/2020 01:44

Waiting in anticipation for the details in the announcement but I can’t see how this is going to work with students or how it is going to be enforceable.

Walkingwounded · 17/09/2020 05:21

Northumberland here.
Left emotionally abusive dh a year ago. Got own place, managed to rebuild, still not used to the loneliness tho.
Not sure I can handle another period of lockdown. As someone said upthread, the risks of socially distanced coffee in the garden are so low compared to mental health effects of isolation...wish it could apply to big groups, not smaller one to one household mixing.

pazwaz70 · 17/09/2020 06:44

I'm just outside of Durham. Daughter goes to Newcastle University and she's just moved back up to her flat last week!
I don't know what she'll be like if she can't meet up with us. It's a shit storm!
I'm also dreading the panic buying which I'm sure will happen.

beansonbread · 17/09/2020 06:53

@Plussizejumpsuit don’t book a test elsewhere and turn up at your local one. We tried it and it didn’t work! We went to our local test site this week and were turned away without a booking, the guy at the screening gate said just book anywhere and then come back. We did just that the next day with an appointment in Scotland and the first guy let us through again, but then the second guy at the actual entrance of the test site said there’d been a ban on using the wrong sites QR codes so he couldn’t admit us. To say we were annoyed is an understatement!

NeurotrashWarrior · 17/09/2020 06:54

Here we go...

Coronavirus: Restrictions expected in North East of England www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-54166256