Up North

[stressedsloth]

Where I live we've either been in lockdown or tier 3. Our numbers have remained low and still are in comparison to the south who were left open in tier 1 and 2 for far too long.

Everybody is blaming the schools but our schools have been fine where we live.

I'm just wondering if most of the posts with great concerns are down south?

I am in Gtr Mcr and schools were struggling last term with endless rounds of contacts isolating. Ironically our numbers are lower now having come down well after the Nov lockdown. From what I read they are starting to see the new variant (thanks for that!) Hence tier 4 decision.

We have been under severe restrictions since July now and tbh it's become pretty much a way of life not seeing anyone in a way that I think the constant changes to restrictions elsewhere in the country hasn't been. I don't know anyone who has been in anyone's house or garden for months. So I am interested to see what will happen here, whether spread patterns will be any different.

My DCs go to school in tier 4 Essex. There was one case all term and then suddenly five in the last week. It really did snowball out of nowhere. Cases were still going up in the area in the week ending 27 December despite schools being closed and being subject to tougher restrictions. However, they started to drop in other areas of Essex that previously had some of the highest rates in the country. My point, I don’t think that the restrictions/school closures are making a massive impact on this new strain. It seems to reach a peak and then decrease from there.

I'm in London. DD's primary had a few cases and year groups having to isolate but her year were unaffected. However, communication from the school over the holiday is that a large number of staff are infected along with several children so there must have been a spread at the end of term. We're in a borough where schools are due back and rates are higher than the England average.
Friend in the north east, her eldest DC's school had several classes in isolation earlier on in the term.

@sandgrown

In my town, it was a family from Blackpool who knew they were unwell, and therefore shouldn't have been outdoors, let alone coming on a holiday. They were covid positive and tramped all over town, went in shops, for a meal in a pub etc etc and infected several people in the process. This was in a town where cases had dropped massively beforehand. It has caused the first big spike that the area has had throughout the whole covid period.

I'm in Derbyshire and our local schools have been fine. There have been just 2 cases at DS's school and they were both before October half term. Cases are only 168 per 100k last week. Yet we have been in tier 3 since November and now we are tier 4. I've got no concerns about sending DS back to school next week. When people say "schools are rife with Covid" they mean SOME schools as not all are.

NE. High School has had 3 back to back isolations in 3 diff year groups.
Been in restrictions since March (mostly Tier 3 / equivalent)
Yes to high cases in North = bad behaviour high cases in south = national emergency.

In the North East, our primary school has had a few cases with 2 classes having to close and in my ds class close contacts only. I think we did OK really. Our rates are about 140 per 100k and we've had extra restrictions since early September and straight to tier 3 after lockdown then tier 4 yesterday. We had a big spike in infections due to students returning, this kept us in those extra restrictions for longer.
Hopefully this time tier 4, although I'm gutted about it, has come early enough to make a difference.

Are you in a rural part of the north ? Or maybe just lucky?
In Manchester it was in both DS schools constantly. At least one or two years have been off at any one time since Sept In both schools . All very tiresome.

Nobody was interested when it was just ravaging the North. Now that the south have it again , well...

@stressedsloth
I’m also in the north (West Yorkshire) and our area is nothing like yours. The school I teach at (Primary) has had many cases of parents and children testing positive, plus the local High Schools have had year groups off constantly. There be been 25 deaths in the last week in my area, higher than any other time since March.
We’ve been Tier 3 for months.

No cases in DD small primary in North, I'm originally from South so know more people with primary kids in South and most of them were closed between Sept and Dec. But I wonder if that is more due to travelling on public transport to schools?

Apart from the obvious “if its not happening within the m25 it isn’t important” issue, the main change in the past two/three weeks is that what has (finally) closed down the south east appears to be an even more contagious strain than that which has had swathes of the north (wherever that is, as it also includes Leicester) under heavy restrictions for months.

Which means it’s not only the “down south” effect but also being multiplied by a strain to be more wary of.

(Northerner in the south but not London with most family in bits of the north).

mobile.twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1344774566439235586

This is why restrictions are increasing across the whole country now. Its not to do with current case rates, but potential future rates.

Manchester here, neither DC had to isolate etc, one in secondary, one in primary. A few cases in the local huge secondary. Primary absolutely fine. Only know of about 5 people who've had it overall and know loads of care workers/healthcare professionals. The school spreading rhetoric doesn't fit with current trends round here. Huge spikes when visiting students arrived but then that was contained. Restrictions since forever while the South of England carried merrily along and basically ruined it for the rest of us. Hospitality businesses folding all over the place and the heart ripped out of the city despite very low transmission rates in restaurants and bars.

I’m from Greater Manchester. My sibling works in a primary school and they were bad post half term, staff off sick or isolating and lots of kids with symptoms not just asymptomatic. Bubbles popping frequently. Right up to the Christmas break

The hospital I work in still is very busy, covid is still there taking up more than 2 wards. Which is less than our peak in October/November but covid is still very much there despite the GM rates dropping for a while.

We also have a busy a&e every day, not just covid just a normal winter too. Normal clinics are still trying to be run in hospital if possible but often out of the site. It’s expected to get worse again post Christmas and nye. The rates are picking up again now in GM, some quite rapidly. The new variant is apparently the cause of 25% of cases here now. If it is truly as contagious as we are told it’s going to be a rough few weeks.

Yup were in the north west. Been in T3 for what feels like forever and just been moved to T4. There hasn't been a single case at DDs school. And from her friends at the other local primaries there's only been 1-2 cases

@stressedsloth

Where I live we've either been in lockdown or tier 3. Our numbers have remained low and still are in comparison to the south who were left open in tier 1 and 2 for far too long.

Everybody is blaming the schools but our schools have been fine where we live.

I'm just wondering if most of the posts with great concerns are down south?

We’re in the same boat. Our cases have risen slightly, but nothing like the south.

1 case in our primary school in the Autumn term, and that spanned half term.

In the first wave I knew people who had Covid. No one I know has had it recently.

It all seems a bit panicked in the south. I’m trying to block out the echo chamber that’s saying we’re all doomed.

Schools situation seems to have varied depending on size if school and other factors

I'm in West Yorkshire and have been in tier 3 or equivalent for several months now

DS's schooling (Y11) has been massively disrupted, he's done 2 lots of self isolation and there have been quite a lot of positive cases (several every week). I'm still keen for him to go back asap though as he's in GCSE year.

DD (Y13) is at college doing A-levels. It's a huge college but the case numbers seem to have been much lower than DS's school and less disruption. They are however doing alternate weeks of going in to college and doing remote learning so there are never more than 50% of pupils on site. I know this can be problematic for some kids but DD has coped well.

Cases are stable in our area at around 170 so not low but a lot better than they were in early November and a lot better than much of the rest of the country right now

Lancashire here so in restrictions since early September. It was running rife throughout schools November and December

I agree. I’m sick of it tbh. Despite being a major city we’ve had lower than the national average in cases.

Our school has had two cases but they were in school holidays so no cases actually in school.

It’s pissing me off tbh especially when on here there are posters crying out for jail sentences for people not staying in their houses and a need for a full on lockdown like March.

We were actually in tier 2 and went in to tier 4 over Christmas. I’ve kept a very close eye on the local hospital covid admissions and it has not gone up either.

Maybe we need a ‘ up north’ board!

I’m in the North West , tier three just gone into tier four, it was ripping through our schools here in Sept / Oct / Nov.

I caught covid from my primary school , 6 cases in our class. Every other class isolated at least once.

My dd , y11 , isolated four separate times.

My other dd , y8 , isolated twice.

Every school in our area had cases. I wonder if we are going to see this new variant over Jan / Feb.

Our cases are comparatively low but local hospitals aren't coping already. They struggle every single winter so it's not surprising tbh.

I’m in West Yorkshire and have been under restrictions since the end of July when then went into tier 3 when that system started.
Our cases were very high although they started to drop at the end of the year, still high but better than they had been. We have very low numbers of the new variant but I am sure cases will jump up once schools reopen because the new variant will be able to thrive.
I feel like London was left in tier 2 for too long, we were put under tighter restrictions back in summer when our cases were (by today’s standards) very low yet they left the cases in London to grow and grow.

@Seasaltyhair you in York?

I am South East and until recently as in last three to four weeks. Cases were fairly low. For example a high week was something like 70 cases. An average week was under 40.