What's life like in other countries at the moment?

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

I seem to recall tales of Lockdown in France, Spain, Italy and even Sweden taking up a lot of news columns in the spring.

But there seems to be very little now. Obviously there's a lot to fill the papers with currently, so maybe that's the reason?

If you're not in The UK, how's life for you?

Agree with Scribbling It’s not about being before other countries. It’s more about the dire situation we are in and that every day we bring a vaccine forward is a day we can lower overwhelming of hospitals and economic damage.

Mostly OK here in Denmark. Jutland has it's issues with the mink farms and cases of the mutated virus. The kommunes in the north of Jutland have had movement restrictions in place which has played havoc with those who commute for work. Mink farming is very controversial, but it is vital to the economy in that part of Jutland and there are news reports with farmers and workers in tears as they lose their jobs and livelihoods - very sobering. Otherwise life carries on as normal with the addition of facemasks in public places, hand sanitiser everywhere and limits on social gatherings. We feel ourselves lucky that we live in a country with an abundance of land and space to use without crowding into each other. Also, those of us who travel back and forth to the UK have had to cancel all plans for Christmas travel.

I was just reading that Japan has had a huge rise in suicides due to pandemic-driven job losses.

@ScribblingPixie

'Seems a bit different to the UK's attitude of "Phew, glad we ordered from Pfizer as that means we'll get shots before other countries".'

Or maybe literally NOBODY here has that attitude and instead we are thinking 'Thank god, it looks as if the vulnerable and elderly will soon be saved from the risk of early death/a life of isolated misery?'

I don't live in the UK, but I was going on what I have heard on the radio, e.g. the comments made by Sir John Bell on the Newscast podcast on 10 November www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08y1k2j from 13:45 ("Without that, we'd be standing in a massive queue now").

13waltzingparrot

If you are in countries where the schools are shut, are you concerned of a looming mental health crisis amongst the children? Are your children more resilient?
School is a fee paying international providing fully live lessons on school provided ipads. Children can still do sports, swim and socialise in our housing compound. It is sunny and warm so outside of lesson times are outdoors. It has had it's challenges but working well now.

Sir John Bell is a Canadian living and working in the UK, but having heard similar comments on R4 about how lucky the UK is to have pre-ordered a lot of shots, and as no-one pulled him up on his comment that the UK was lucky to get to the front of the queue, it sounded to me like he was saying what people generally think - that people are pleased about it?

Well yes given how dire it is here waiting another six months to a year wouldn’t be good. I don’t get the focus on it though. It’s good the government ordered many. Given the battering they often get why not say one positive.

I can see why you'd be pleased! It just struck me as a reminder that the UK really will be so separate from the EU from January :(

I know, I voted remain, feels like ages ago now. But I’m also feeling the pressure of the diabolically depressing situation in U.K. ; by all metrics we are in a tough situation.

I think it is a great thing that the U.K. has been so pro active when it comes to the vaccines. There are things we have not done well (ppe and track and trace spring to mind) where other countries got into gear quicker than us, but when it comes to vaccine research development, regulation and procurement and logistics we are pretty good. That’s a great thing surely? We have a high death rate per million and so if we can get part 2 of the pandemic right ( part 2 being the vaccine) then that will save lives of high risk groups here and allow us all to return to our lives as quickly as possible. We are also part of the global initiative too as well as our independent deals so I hope we help other lower income countries too. I am quite sure we will and possibly won’t need our Gavi allocation when the time comes and could donate it to others??

Looking at Australia reminds us that, in this case, the UK's island status is actually practically significant - Germany has easily crossed borders with 9 countries, and people often need to cross to go to work every morning or to go home every evening. So it's only logical for Germany to want to make sure that, say, the Czech Republic or France have the same level of protection, whereas it would make more sense for the UK to concentrate on its own vaccinations and keep the borders tight, like Australia.

The UK's very, very busy international airports and the fact that they weren't closed quickly at first will have played a far bigger role than any differences in individual compliance with the rules.

ravenmum I agree.

Heathrow is the most connected airport in the world.

It was and is unbelievable that no quarantine measures were put into place until June, and even then they were hardly thorough.

No amount of handwashing, sanitising, social distancing or mask wearing on an individual basis could mitigate the free movement of the virus.

@MarshaBradyo

Well yes given how dire it is here waiting another six months to a year wouldn’t be good. I don’t get the focus on it though. It’s good the government ordered many. Given the battering they often get why not say one positive.

The ordering of vaccines from many different sources is one of the few positives Johnson has done, though he was late to that party.

Actually I don’t think we are late to the vaccine procurement party. We were very early on it, hence we are quite high up in the queue for Pfizer and some others too. I can remember talk about the vaccine task force back in early June, it already existed by then and had done some deals. The Oxford vaccine was in phase 1 trials in April I think, I am on phase 3 and got my first jab in mid May. On vaccines at least we are on it!

ravenmum
I agree.When it all kicked off KSA,like many countries closed the borders and the only flights in and out were special charters for repatriation and freight. I couldn't believe the UK let people fly in and out for non essential travel.

@sashagabadon

Actually I don’t think we are late to the vaccine procurement party. We were very early on it, hence we are quite high up in the queue for Pfizer and some others too. I can remember talk about the vaccine task force back in early June, it already existed by then and had done some deals. The Oxford vaccine was in phase 1 trials in April I think, I am on phase 3 and got my first jab in mid May. On vaccines at least we are on it!

No I agree we weren’t late to procure or develop. Will await Oxford news but hopefully good too

@IrmaFayLear intrigued by the idea of teachers working from home but the pupils in! Is that mandatory for all children or can they also study at home if there is parental supervision? And schools are open for where child care is needed ?

Where about in Italy are you?
And whereabouts is @OhRosalind ?

Northern Italy in almost full lockdown. Have to have a printed piece of paper to authorise going out.
I'm in northern Italy and that's not the case where I am. Where do you live?

Australia here from a regional area.
Spent last night sitting at a five- a - side multi - team football event. No masks, some social distancing but no Covid in our area since April.
Canteen open, kids having a great time. It's in it's fourth week. Soccer ran largely undisturbed for the last team after school.

We still mostly hand sanitise, keep distance in shops with limited numbers allowed in the smaller ones, plus Q code usage increasing in venues.
International borders are still shut ( though we are woeful in getting ex- pats back), and we can't jaunt around overseas for holidays ( thank god). We also don't trust most overseas returnees to quarantine on their own recognisance and they face compulsory two week quarantine - with mandatory testing more than once. Anyone with cold symptoms ( and diarrhoea) is automatically punted from our school ( we have a wider range of symptoms that attract testing) and cannot return without a negative Covid test. Whole households must isolate for the full two weeks if one member of the home remains is waiting a positive test .

But compared to the Northern hemisphere it's pretty normal. Especially when you look at increasing case levels overseas.
I don't think we are completely out of the woods, but our state premiers ran roughshod over the Federal government who wanted to follow the UK's pathway and essentially saved us. They will again if necessary.

Not intending to hijack the thread but just read the Vietnam has had just a few hundred cases and 35 deaths.
I’ve been there and it doesn’t strike me as particularly “developed”. Would love to know what life is like there atm and how they’ve managed to keep numbers so low. The cities are incredibly densely populated.

@FatimaMunchy
Yes there has been some big protests in London
Around 30-50,000 people
Smaller ones in other cities like Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham, Liverpool etc

Dowser I don't watch the news much, although we have a newspaper several times a week. I wasn't aware of that. Thank you.

My parents recently moved to Mauritius. They wetr mostly covid free since May until.... TODAY.
Life is back to normal, large gatherings with no mask, no SD. Borders were closed except for repatriation until October then Oct onwards mandatory paid in-room quarantine in chosen hotels for 14 days. If found positive while testing on day 7 or day 14, they take you to a specific hospital.

I have friends in Manila.
The Philipines, with it's incredibly dense populated cities, multi generational living and relative poverty has had around 7 thousand covid deaths. Like many countries, land and air borders closed in March and they imposed compulsory goverment quarantine for returning citizens and their dependents.
Schools are still closed.

In Sydney so apart from a small lockdown not much else has changed, sure VIC is looking good now but how the heck did it get as bad as it did on the first place? (I am not expecting an answer to that)