@QueenStromba
If I was the government we wouldn't be in this situation because I'd have closed the borsees, bought loads of PPE and ramped up testing capacity in January.
Failing that, I wouldn't have sent everyone back to school with essentially no safety measures and I would gone for a circuit breaker in mid September.
Given the situation we're in now though:
1) 3 week circuit breaker with everything non essential shut. No going out for any reason but essential work that absolutely cannot be done from home (with spot checks at employers to see if the reason someone is on site is good enough), food, medical care and exercise.
2) let anyone who wants to take their child out of school. If this doesn't reduce numbers sufficiently then bring in part time learning (exceptions for young children of essential workers with no other childcare option).
3) masks everywhere indoors and in busy outdoor areas. No exemptions as the covid minimisers have ruined it for everyone. Spot fines for not wearing a mask or not wearing it properly.
4) sack Dido Harding, sort out test and trace, enforce compliance
Building on
@QueenStromba list:
1) Agree a circuit breaker should have happened to incorporate half term - hopefully that would allow schools to run until Christmas
2) Disagree - would want vulnerable children (in the non-Covid sense) to continue in school but would allow choice for families with a previously shielding household member to complete school work from home.
3)Agree masks in indoor / urban spaces
4) Agree Dido's feet wouldn't touch the ground if I was in Government. She would be nowhere near the PHE replacement body either. More rapid turnaround of test results. Work with public health teams in local areas where there are low %'s of contacts reached. Testing to be more localised perhaps like Germany use GP surgeries or similar community setting
5) Mandatory testing at airport and possibly a number of days later
6) At least weekly Covid response updates from the Government after work hrs, scheduled in advance e.g. 7pm. Obviously emergency briefings sometimes will occur but I find it frustrating that it's hard to find out when Johnson or the CMO/ CSO will make announcements. We are in a crisis we need to hear from the Government directly (not all the media speculation and dribs and drabs of information).
7) Secondary schools - the Government need to have a policy on a rota system ready to roll out to avoid whole school closure
8) Disclosure of all contracts issued - they are spending a lot of money where is it being spent? I would also be chasing up where faulty tests / equipment have been procured whether the money has been reclaimed.
9) Begin emergency public inquiry into the first wave pandemic response & learn lessons from it!
10) Immediately stop the policy of releasing elderly patients that are Covid positive back into care homes (use Nightingales /other hospital wards) do not walk into a second potential disaster for this vulnerable population.
11) Replace Gavin Williamson he's inept and we need someone on the ball in charge of education
12) Pretty straightforward this one - extend the food voucher scheme to cover holidays for the rest of this academic year. No child in the country should be going hungry
everwhen the country is in crisis.