Is the government preparing is for a New Zealand scenario?

[lockdownbreakdown]

Does anyone else think we are going to be locked down until the majority are vaccinated and then the borders are going to be closed indefinitely to prevent new strains? I definitely get this vibe from all the stuff leaked in the press. It seems to be the only way we can stop new variant from ruining the vaccination programme as we cant vaccinate the kids if we let in new strains from abroad we will be going back into lockdown indefinitely. Thoughts?

I agree that there has been a marked shift in tone on travel arrangements in the last few days. With the new variants emerging it seems like this could well be their new strategy.

Not really.

Yeah, looks like we’re heading towards a zero covid strategy which is a bit unrealistic.

Its probably the only way to stop the lockdowns as we haven't vaccinated the developing world and that's not going to happen this year

No even these muppets realise we're a year too late to achieve that! AND the nature of the population is VERY different. People in NZ want to keep NZ 'clean' and will go the extra mile to do so, too many people here will just whinge & find loopholes.

UK locked down in the way some people think New Zealand is? no.

If the level of arrivals into the UK drop to the sort of numbers where it is possible to enforce managed quarantine at facilities near the Port of Entry then that's a maybe.

I'd say increased monitoring /more proactive enforcement of the existing measures - more likely.

No. Have you seen the pictures of Heathrow?
People are still travelling abroad. Utterly ridiculous. Women fined for travelling 5 miles to exercise and yet stupid, selfish people allowed to go on an areoplane. No excuse what so ever. It's just selfish and this government allow it. Johnson himself could not validate the travel arrangements still allowed. It is only because he was challenged by Yvette Cooper that he has had to be seen to be doing something. Let's face it it isn't 90 year old Doris who is pissing about in planes picking up the virus from abroad, infecting Lord knows how many others on the plane and then bringing it back to the UK is it. Half of these fuckwits are probably anti vaxers anyway so will carry on infecting others.

Ha, I disagree Witches. The main differentiator is the population size and density. Plus how much of a travel hub etc is New Zealand? We're not comparable.

No.

It's too late. They have broken the public's trust and more rigorous lockdowns will now not be tolerated.

Vaccinated people are booking coach trips and cruises (for the vaccinated only).

Business people were allowed until most recently to travel without the restrictions if doing a deal worth over a particular threshold. Aka the very rich and powerful could travel as desired.

Meanwhile the ordinary people, and those under 50 have locked down and broken their lives supposedly to save the vulnerable. They won't tolerate it much longer.

As things were, I don’t think our Government would have pursued zero Covid but now that there is concern about mutations and countries are closing their borders to us anyway then I suppose we haven’t got as much to loose. I like to think they might finally be starting to realise that the reproduction rate of this virus mean that we get locked into an endless cycle of suppression and restrictions whereas with a zero Covid approach there is is huge hit to start with but then obvious longer term benefits and a greater semblance of some normality.

That horse has bolted and is somewhere in the next county.

It is too late - if it was ever feasible for the UK at all. What I am far more concerned about is the continued discussion of far more draconian restrictions on liberty which appear to have little grounding in realistic strategies. You'd think that the UK government is getting to enjoy the unprecedented power that it now has a little bit too much. Read the language - lots of "mights" and "maybes" and "thinks". A new variant that doesn't yet exist might be more serious (that actually was one from last week). The UK variant might be more deadly. But oddly, Israeli evidence we shouldn't be messing with the dosing regimes is "false". Presumably the BMA are also wrong.

It's increasingly looking like Boris and his cronies are less "following the science" than "following self-interest".

No, sadly far too late for that. I think they are thinking they might want to enforce the currently largely ignored quarantine rules.

stupid, selfish people allowed to go on an areoplane. No excuse what so ever

Most people just now are travelling for work actually.

@MaxNormal that work can fuck off quite frankly. Because too many people were using this loophole.
Mainly the very rich and very powerful.

Do it via zoom, or don't do it at all. Not possible by zoom? Tough shit.

From a British person in NZ... our first lockdown was weeks of nothing. No going to work. Supermarkets/shops where essential, but that was it. I work for lawyers and fully expected to be told I couldn't work from home/old school/need access to deeds. But government said NO! Every person that didn't have to be physically present in a role had to stay home. And if you did need to be present in an office then too bad, work we'd to claim the subsidy. The worst lawyers I knew (in NZ, so paling in comparison to some of the old school people I've for before in the rest of the world) all shut down their practice and worked from home as best they could. Key workers were hospital staff, food distribution and that was pretty much it. No takeaways, no nothing. If you weren't involved in keeping people alive you're not a key worker. And it worked! 6 weeks of nothing has meant a year of normalacy, except the rest of the world is locked off. We miss you, sort it out and join us!

I do think the government are spooked by these new variants and how effective the vaccine will be.

I listen to LBC and yesterday and this morning they’ve been talking a lot about border control, and now they’re reporting there’s a government meeting on Monday to discuss tighter border controls - who The UK will allow in and the using of airport hotels to quarantine.

Whether we go down the New Zealand route I don’t know but it seems the government are planning something.

@Chaotic45 DH is abroad for work just now. It can't be done by zoom.
We had no income for seven months at the start of the pandemic.
Feel free to pay our mortgage though if you feel that strongly about it.

No I doubt it

Nah. I don't think they know what their doing

Yes that’s absolutely where we’re heading. Drive down the cases until the summer (in combo with the vaccine), open everything up domestically and keep the borders closed. Wave goodbye to the prospect of a summer vacation. People are in cloud-cuckoo land if they think the UK economy can take another winter of shutdown and domestic restrictions.

No, because you still refuse to do lockdown properly.
You are still all visiting friends and family and going to school and work.
We, in NZ stayed home. All of us. For 7 weeks. At home. No work. At all. You lie keep refusing to do this.

@Athrawes

No, because you still refuse to do lockdown properly. You are still all visiting friends and family and going to school and work. We, in NZ stayed home. All of us. For 7 weeks. At home. No work. At all. You lie keep refusing to do this.

🙄 7 weeks huh

I really believe this is the plan. All the talk of border control and new variants are to prepare us for this. I also think we will be banned from entering other vaccinated countries too as we might be carrying another variant. I think this will be ongoing until vaccination steps up properly in the developed world.

Hang on, the government has a “strategy”? I’m not sure they could even spell it.

Quarantine hotels are only way to do it and still you get cases getting out.

If it’s all the other stuff around tightening it’s not effective

I wouldn’t care if they did. Prefer it to restarting vaccine programme due to a variant