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?

I think what NZ has done is amazing and well done to them but part of the reason they have managed it so well is low population density and closing down their borders. I do wonder what the long term economic consequences of this is though? That doesn’t mean I am not happy for them or wishing them ill will. England is a shit show.

Hasn't it occurred to those in Australia and New Zealand that they may have fared better because of their geographical location?

So nothing to do with stricter lockdowns, better communication from the government and not letting people come into the country and just go wherever they wanted to on arrival then?

Kuwait: cases are steady at around 700 /800 per day from around 7/8.5k tests per day. Slight worrying as population is around 4.5 million. Schools are all online. Masks are mandatory and heavily fined without use. Everywhere open though and relatively "normal". Temperature is taken everywhere. Restaurants are socially distanced and disposable cutlery and crockery is used. Airport is closed to some countries - if you're not on the "banned" list mandatory quarantine for 14 days where you have to checks in every hour in an app. If you don't the police show up at your door...

The difference between Aussies and Brits is that Aussies follow the rules whereas British people are more rebellious

What a load of absolute tripe.

@RaspberryCoulis

The difference between Aussies and Brits is that Aussies follow the rules whereas British people are more rebellious

What a load of absolute tripe.

Agree ridiculous

NottherealAngelaFernandezI take it you're not in Victoria then.
My nephew in WA had hardly been affected, but I assumed it was because Australia is a very big Island with a relatively small population, whereas we are a very small island with a big population.

Western Australia here, life is pretty much normal. We've had zero community transmission since April. My folks are in NI and from what I've heard from them there is a lot of non compliance to rules, but I reckon Australia would be similar if we had been subject to such terrible leadership and constantly changing guidelines. Here in WA they shut down hard and fast, and our internal border is only re-opening this weekend. The geography and low population density also helps us, probably the Vit D too. We feel extremely lucky to be here, and wish our friends and families could be here too.

I’ve lived in a COVID-strict country with small amount of cases and deaths and U.K. don’t really think it’s so much following the rules by the population - it’s the fact that U.K. has v little enforcement/checking of rules. Part of this is because not enough of the population see corona as a big enough problem to restrict freedoms. I think people would have different attitude if the mortality from infection was like Ebola.

U.K. also has slow and ineffective border control (ironic for a govt who want to be strict with immigration), quarantine and test/trace. However It has done good research on treatments on dexamethasone and vaccines.

@IamTomHanks are you in AUH or DXB? I’m getting so fed up of all my Dubai mates heading off on holidays and I can’t go anywhere without quarantine and not even to Dubai without 3 bloody tests.

Daily life just seems normal but with masks. Not much different really. My govt office is back to 70% and gearing up for 100% by end of the month. We’ve had Perspex panels added between all desks though, and no actual meetings (all through Teams) is an absolute blessing

Ps - the place I was in prior to U.K. had a higher population density, travel hub, dependent on imports. So don’t really think it’s all about geography, population density etc.

Melbourne probably has a higher population density than some parts of U.K. with high cases.

The difference between UK and Australia is definitely not rule following population. That's a very self congratulatory way to put it. We were lucky to have the right leaders in charge at the right time. Victoria's out break was managed by the Premier of Victoria who is calm, careful and takes advice from scientists. He also held a press conference every single day of the outbreak so always made himself and his Government accountable for what was going on. If it had been managed by our Prime Minister we would have opened up much earlier because he is a typical right wing business is what matters leader so we would be seeing cases rise again now. That is luck not design. A lockdown is also easier to stick with when you are surrounded by places with zero community transmission who have closed their borders to you and will not open them until you also have zero community transmission. The benefits of staying the course are then clear to see. The UK does not have that opportunity or incentive.

German leadership is calm, clear and well managed but Europe got hit early. That’s the main difference between Europe and Aus etc

People might argue U.K. should have acted earlier to compare with NZ etc on curve but you’d have to consider what date this would be. Jan / Feb? At around 105 cases which is very low.

Also a lot of what makes countries international hubs and difficult to manage attracts the skills to create a vaccine, even before you need to test it in countries with high cases.

im going to differ and i do think australians tend to be more compliant. we follow directions and guidelines every summer re bushfires, cyclones etc. i do think when shit hits the fan Australians tend to follow directions and pull together cause the consequences can be shit and extreme.... just my personal observation and i think im looking at it from a rural person perspective, may be different in urban places.
i think our internal border closures - as hard as it has been have saved heartache for many - including protecting our first nation populations.

life is normal where we are in Aus - with lots more hand sanitizer and covid marshals. kids only missed one week back in april. otherwise life is normal. very appreciative of our situation.

I agree, German leadership has been clear. Our own leadership, with Bumbling Boris, has not been good.

Germany - the country has a fedral system like the USA so generalising about the whole country is not that meaningful, but case numbers are worse than in the first wave and the country is in lockdown lite, like France.

Schools are open with masks, all shops too but restaurants, bars etc all closed - restaurants take away only. Limits on the number of people who can gather in public, no more than 2 households mixing indoors, work from home where possible. Contact sport clubs suspended for November, to be reviewed. No restriction on how many km from home you can be.

There's little to none of the drama lama "its not fair, I'm an exception to the rules because I wear glasses/ don't want to wrar a mask!" here that I rwad on MN, though I hope MN doesn't genuinely represent the UK on that issue. Kids from 6 wear masks without fuss or any of the behaviour some MN posters seem to believe inevitable - self fulfilling prophecies and low expectations setting the bar spring to mind... I work with clients with learning disabilities and autism and with the right support 90% of them also wear masks without issues - we wear them at all times except outdoors at work and have kept cases to a minimum (well below the level in the community) in our group of supported living facilities and care homes.

COVID 19 is seasonal like any other virus. It peaked in Aus in their winter (July) when we had low levels as it was our summer. Nothing to do with how people behaved. Without a vaccine it will peak again seasonally.

If you're not actually in a country, you really don't have a right to comment on what's going on there

Maybe you should tell that to everyone on the US election threads. What rot

France here too. Lockdown lite, schools are still open, shops are mostly open for food, takeaway from restaurants and cafes.

I’m also on the border with Switzerland, I basically live in the (French region) suburbs of Geneva which has the highest per 100,000 cases in Europe and it’s not hard to see why. Mask wearing was super slow to adopt and social distancing was practically non existent a few weeks ago.

I'm in France and agree with everything @miimblemomble said upthread. I have noticed fewer people doing the bise since the start of COVID though. It's mainly older people who insist on kissing everyone they come across!

There was a report on the news a couple of days ago where the presenter went around a few city centres, got the train, etc. to see if anyone would check his attestation, and nobody did. Not sure it was the smartest thing to show that on the TV but hey ho.

The non-essential items are cordoned off in the supermarkets and we have been told by the prime minister to delay purchases and not to enrich large foreign websites. Who can they mean?

20,000 people, mostly without masks, protested in Leipzig recently though. If we have had big protests like that in the UK it hasn't reached the press.

@MarshaBradyo I agree that Germany also has calm and sensible leadership that is just working through very different circumstances.

Here in Germany there was an announcement a couple of days ago that vaccination won't be compulsory - that was actually the big story in my area.

My parents in the UK are convinced that the UK is developing the vaccine all alone, and getting all flag wavy about it. Here people seem to thing the German- American BioNTech- Pfizer vaccine is the vaccine. Its weird how many people seem to think that only their own county has a vaccine in trials.

@UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme

Here in Germany there was an announcement a couple of days ago that vaccination won't be compulsory - that was actually the big story in my area.

My parents in the UK are convinced that the UK is developing the vaccine all alone, and getting all flag wavy about it. Here people seem to thing the German- American BioNTech- Pfizer vaccine is the vaccine. Its weird how many people seem to think that only their own county has a vaccine in trials.

Until in Germany do you know the plan for vaccine rollout? Start date and who etc

Btw all the news here is the Pfizer one so far so we’re definitely not just talking about Oxford one. Although fingers crossed for good news soon for higher numbers

I am happy about NZ and Australia, a family member lives there and life is fairly normal but she does mention the spectre of Covid hanging over them so not unaffected.
I think the difference between NZ and Australia has been the will of the people. I, and I'm not alone in this, would not be willing to have the travel restrictions and longer lockdown measures. There would have been mass civil disobedience across Europe if that was the case.