End of lockdown by April

[LemonSherbetFancies]

Daily mail is reporting that we may be out of lockdown completely by the end of April with no restrictions. This is once all the over 50s have been vaccinated which looks set to happen.
This is great news.

What I wouldn’t give a good parking thread or maybe performance parenting in a cafe.

I have missed the hen night/weekend/holiday threads

I think this is optimistic, all the over 50's won't have had their second vaccine by April. To be honest I am preparing myself for restrictions of some sort for the rest of the year.

@coronafiona

What about us under 50s (who will be funding this for the rest of our lives!!) I'm not going back out there until I and my children are safe!!

This just makes no sense to me. Dd had awful flu a couple of years ago-it knocked her out for months My nephew ended up seriously ill in hospital after chickenpox complications A cousin battled leukaemia for most of her childhood Etc etc People get ill and have accidents all the time. Covid really isn’t any different for the vast majority of youngish, healthy people.

I'd love it to be true, but the Mail's forecasts about the end of lockdown last year were regularly inaccurate so I wouldn't put any weight on it whatsoever.

@ChocOrange1 I would be happy with rule of 6 indoors and outdoors, as it was in my region last summer.

I wouldn't be - we have four children and it made it impossible for us to meet people as a family since September; children couldn't see friends etc .

It's a completely arbitrary number and doesn't reflect risk.

True. I think we would all prefer 2 households of any size which we had in July and August, but the Gov seem to be wedded to the idea of 6. Alternatively, follow Scotland in not counting kids.

I'm meant to be seeing Diana Ross at Birmingham arena in June, complete lifting of restrictions would mean that going ahead - I doubt it very much. To me that is back to normal.

In reality I am expecting DH's outside running events to be back up and running and that we will be able to meet family outdoors.

@coronafiona

We were safe from novel viruses because we had immunity. That's the point if a vaccination programme.

you have never been safe from novel viruses. you dont have immunity. Novel viruses are , by their very definitiion, new viruses that have never been identified before , so how do you think you were immune to them???? If you are under 50 with no undelying health conditions you do realise what a tiny tiny risk COVID poses to you dont you? In fact, there is literally more chance of your children dying by being struck by lightening than dying of COVID. Have you always kept your children stuck inside every time there was a chance of a thunderstorm?????

Do you think there is hope for my Wedding Mid June?
I had mentally written it off ...again!

I don’t think this is great news and it’s probably not true OP. I don’t think you should be giving out false hope.

Fake optimism is every bit as damaging as scaremongering.

This is nonsense and unscientific.

Unless it's all just to soon and it happens all over again, just saying, it's worth considering

They wouldn't have called Glastonbury off recently if it was anything like back to normal by May

That’s not true, Glastonbury announced the reason. They couldn’t get insurance and couldn’t take the risk they wouldn’t be able to go ahead because it would habe bankrupted them. That’s why it was cancelled. They have no more idea than any of us do.

They’ll be another 500 strains found no doubt. Brief respite of Tier 2 during the summer. Then into lockdown again in October.

Of course it’ll be over by April, if not sooner. The top 9 groups will all have had their first dose of vaccine by then, giving them a very high level of protection. There will no longer be any reason to lock down!

I don’t think this is great news and it’s probably not true OP. I don’t think you should be giving out false hope.

Well, once my parents are double jabbed in April, I’ll be cracking on with seeing them. They’ve missed enough of their grandchildren’s lives & will be as safe as they are ever going to be against this virus. We’ll be sensible & just keep indoor mixing between us as two families. We’ll be using them for childcare twice a week anyway while we work as is allowed so as far as I’m concerned we aren’t adding any risk to society!

I don't think all restrictions will have ended by then, especially on travel abroad.

@MoirasRoses - please at least leave a couple of weeks for their second jabs to take effect.

@WalrusWife

They’ll be another 500 strains found no doubt. Brief respite of Tier 2 during the summer. Then into lockdown again in October.

They can try. People wont be putting up with this much longer. We shouldn't be using lockdown as a plan every year to stop hospital admissions. The NHS have been under strain on and off for years and everyone didn't shut their lives off.

I know Daily mail can't be relied on but there is another promising headline today. I honestly think all restrictions will be gone by May/June. There is just no need to continue them when the vaccinations are going so well.

@LemonSherbetFancies

Yes, of course. What could possibly go wrong?

There's no denying that the vaccinations are what is going very well. The government have done a fantastic job of that and so it stands to reason that restrictions may be eased very soon.

That's right. The restrictions may be eased very soon. They also may be eased very gradually, and at different rates per area, taking quite a while in some areas, with various interference from issues like transmission spikes/interruptions in supply/new variants.

Anybody who thinks that the vaccination roll out going well means that COVID is nearly over is frankly a bit dim, as is anyone who thinks a Daily Mail headline with a question mark after it is 'news'. There are too many variable for even the DM to dare using a statement instead of a question. Doesn't that tell you something?