'Reading week returners '...

[Bailey0703]

DD1 deferred so life has been pretty quiet for her last few weeks. Just work and home, Bf (also deferred). and a couple of mates.. Now all of a sudden there is a flurry of activity as 'most friends are coming home for reading week as they are really bored'

In her circle this means 3 from London, 2 from Sheffield 1 from Liverpool and two from Nottingham. With the exception of one from London All the others have come by train.. to a TIER 1 area..

Am I right in thinking this will actually spread the virus and our relatively small cases will jump in a couple of weeks .. and that the Universities /Govt should have done something to stop this. ? (As guessing DDs friends are not the only ones doing this ?)

Of course technically they shouldn't come home and then be out and about seeing people. BUT as a PP has said, just because they are students doesn't automatically mean they will carry the virus - in fact if you look at somewhere with a high rate of Covid - eg Manchester with 483 cases / 100,000, what that actually means is that out of 100,000 Manchester residents, 95,517 won't carry the virus at any one time i.e. 99.5% are actually fine to travel and mix with who they like.
Plus, just take a moment to think what the last three months have done to their mental well-being. After all the anxiety about exam results and uni places my fresher DD has been settled at uni in Wales for five weeks. She got the place in clearing so had never even visited before she arrived. It's not been an easy time for her. Since arriving she's had two very upsetting incidents relating to other people in her flat (mental health type things), a 14 day self isolation due to Covid in her flat, followed by just two days out and about before this firebreak kicked in. She's had one "in person" lecture since term began and that's the only time she has met a soul from her course or department. Now everything has shut down for a fortnight and she's confined to the flat again. We're in Tier 2 area so we can't visit her, and she can't come home. I am worried about her but my hands are tied because I can't do anything without breaking the law. If she was desperate of course I'd chance a run-in with the Welsh police, but I think she'd definitely benefit from a weekend of of home comforts and family TLC. She's young for her year and only turned 18 after Results Day; still largely a child in my eyes. The adult world has not treated her kindly so far.

@FlyingSquid

They won't build up immunity to covid if they're basically stuck in their rooms though, will they?

According to DS (also on a gap year), 'Nearly all my friends who've gone to Uni have had Covid by now.' Allowing for minor exaggeration, it does seem to have rampaged through multi-student households in the first few weeks of term, with whole flats of 12 or 17 students coming down with it.

Maybe some of the returners have finished their isolation.

By contrast, only 1 of the 8 in my son's flat has had covid. The Unis webpage re covid shows only 500 positive cases out of over 10,000 students. Obviously different Unis will have different rates according to living conditions, how they socialise, whether there's much (if any) face to face teaching happening or whether it's nearly all online, etc.

By contrast, only 1 of the 8 in my son's flat has had covid.

Have they all been tested regularly?

The massive numbers are only uncovered by regular testing including asymptomatic students.

Faraq thanks, yes we were both right. Going London (tier 2) to Bristol (which is not in such a high tier) my tier 2 son keeps to tier 2 restrictions there. Not that he is going there anyway. In fact yesterday my son in Bristol who was just tested said his one flatmate had a positive test and he did not although he is sure he will come down with it shortly as he and she live and cook together. His test was negative. They are both isolating and I think he has to get a test in day 5 days which perhaps will by then show him as positive.

I don't think the laws are anything like as simple and clear as they should be.