All restrictions to be gone by May?

[LemonSherbetFancies]

Anyone else see this?
I would be really pleased if this happened and we could return to normal life.

[quote Stovetopespresso]@Sparklingbrook are you meghan or something?

i miss my family, forget handshaking randomers or whatever.

anyway i hope if corona is on this thread with all his little mutant friends he can maybe let us know his plans for 2021[/quote]
why are you Meghan bashing?

It's not that they may well be.

A group of Tory MPs are calling for it.

I think there is more hope due to vaccination but there is also the mutations to consider and the more virus out there the more chance of it happening.

I'm much more hopeful of return to more normality by May than I was 4 weeks ago though.

I don't think it will be totally restriction free by May but we will likely be back to how we were last summer - rule of 6, most things open etc.

Of course they should be where's the justification to deny our rights and civil liberties?

Er, just a wild guess, but trying to control a pandemic and not overwhelming the NHS probably has something to do with it...

By May 14th would be good as I'm supposed to be going away that day!

These demands are being made by the less scientific wing of the Tories, so don't hold your breath.

It'd be a pretty stupid move. We've surely got to make this the last bloody lockdown? Don't fuck it up at the last hurdle.

Bearing in mind a lot of cohorts 1to 9 won’t have had their second jab, and those under 50 won’t have had theirs at all I am not convinced we will be fully open. I am expecting July, ready for school holidays and staycation time, but with SD still in place

@PracticingPerson

These demands are being made by the less scientific wing of the Tories, so don't hold your breath.

It'd be a pretty stupid move. We've surely got to make this the last bloody lockdown? Don't fuck it up at the last hurdle.

I agree. Lifting all restrictions is a sure fire way to ensure that we’re vulnerable to vaccine failure in the face of a particularly bad variant. We also have very little control (i.e none) over what issues might emerge globally.

What’s the point in everything we’ve sacrificed this past winter in particular if we’re going to leave ourselves wide open to trouble? I want a stable recovery socially and economically which we won’t get by throwing all precautions out the window because some people can’t comprehend the much bigger picture.

@Rainbowqueeen

I live in Australia. We still have restrictions. I would disregard any source that says all restrictions will be lifted. I really hope for all your sakes that your restrictions by that point are similar to ours ie no overseas travel, restrictions on large gatherings such as weddings limited to 300 and masks required on all flights and in airports but life generally back to normal. I think a lot will depend on the track and trace systems in place and people’s willingness to comply with these.

Half your population hasn’t had covid in the last year.

Ours did, at the expense of a lot of lives, which means we will be able to move on before you.

This was always going to be the case.

I think you’ve missed the point there @Doomsdayiscoming,

We can only control so much within our boarders and we have to consider what’s going on internationally around us. We’ve been fortunate that we’ve had the existing set up to spot new variants and track them relatively closely domestically but the better things get for us as a country the more fragile the security of that is.

Until there’s a level playing field globally with regards to vaccinations and treatments we’re never going to be truly ‘normal’ because we can’t eliminate the threat or even reduce it to comparable levels for other countries.

Sure, my sentiment doesn’t take into account some awful variant that is more contagious and evades the immunity built up through exposure via infection or vaccination.

But eventually we will remember that we live in a hyper capitalist, ultra globalised world. Humans have always come second. This was a brief respite.

If something worse comes along we’ll take it on the chin.

This was a brief respite

I agree but is suspect we have very different perspectives in what counts as brief in the context of human existence and modern society.

I really really hope this is the case. We were told that vaccines were the way out, well now everyone in the first 4 groups has been offered a jab and there can be no justification for prolonging this.

So outdoor dining by April but no restrictions by May? I doubt it but hopefully life will be much more normal by then.

Well technically if the vaccinations work hospital admissions should continue dropping pretty quickly, as long as a new variant that doesn’t respond to the vaccine doesn’t turn up then we should be out of lockdown and most restrictions lifted pretty quickly. I would love to believe we will be back to some normality by the summer but who knows what may happen between now and then?

@PracticingPerson

These demands are being made by the less scientific wing of the Tories, so don't hold your breath.

It'd be a pretty stupid move. We've surely got to make this the last bloody lockdown? Don't fuck it up at the last hurdle.

Agreed, I think by the end of July most of the country will be in the equivalent of Tier 1 but that will be it for the foreseeable. Social distancing will have to stay until next Spring (there were rumours in the press over the last couple of days saying it would be until Autumn- but they are hardly likely to scrap SD right before winter in case it causes another spike) as we need to see how next winter goes. Hopefully widespread vaccination will mean that serious cases stay low and we can relax SD and properly get back to normal from Spring 2022 onwards. It's devastating for businesses who will have another 14 months or so of reduced capacity though and there are sectors which will have to stay closed.

The thing I’m wondering is how long the vaccines provide immunity for...? No one seems to know yet. I’m hoping it will just be an annual booster job but what happens if people start catching it again after 3 months / 6 months before we’ve realised the immunity has worn off...? (Doom and gloom I know)!

I think you’re being realistic not pessimistic @Bagelsandbrie and illustrating exactly why lifting all restrictions is absolutely a bad idea if we want a stable recovery.

I’m struggling to believe that those in power don’t realise this but it tests my faith in that when it appears so many others seem oblivious.

I don’t think it is hard.

Just set limits on patients in hospitals. Give yourself some buffer, so when you hit it, snap you close X, If it continues to rise you close Y and Z. Etc.

People would respond better to transparent targets.

I hope it's true. I think it will come down to money in the end and the government can't keep paying furlough and try and fund the NHS with so many people looking at redundancy and job losses.

We'll see.
There's a lot of worried and angry people, maybe it's a calming measure, i.e more lies and speculation.

@Doomsdayiscoming which begs the question why we didn’t do that quickly in the autumn or Christmas doesn’t it?

I would suggest that our boundary was set far too low and if we didn’t learn the first time it doesn’t bode well for future reaction times if needed does it?

@Doomsdayiscoming

I don’t think it is hard.

Just set limits on patients in hospitals. Give yourself some buffer, so when you hit it, snap you close X, If it continues to rise you close Y and Z. Etc.

People would respond better to transparent targets.

It's too late if you base this on increasing hospital admissions though- the virus will be growing exponentially at that point. I think we'll need to keep up with the mass testing until at least next year- to check for new variants too.

I think it all depends in the speed of the vaccine rollout yes we have done the first 4 groups but most of them have got to have another dose. The younger people are to come so with more and more vacination centres being available it should pick up speed.
A hospital consultant was on tv this morning and he was saying his wards are not filling with the elderly but people 40 to 70 so it seems speed is the essence plus vaccine supply

I’m so hopeful for this have a hen do in Marbella in may I don’t even care if there’s some restrictions getting there and once there as long as I can lay in sun for 4 days without the constant call of ‘mummy’ / ‘babes where’s my (insert one of DPs possessions) I will be delighted!!!!