"Just stick to the rules for a bit longer"

[PlantPlant123]

Am I the only one getting sick of hearing this?

We're a year in. As of May, when household mixing is allowed, I won't have legally seen my partner indoors for seven months. Same with my sister, who is preparing to go back to teaching 4 x 30 different groups of teenagers everyday.

It's just so restrictive. I follow the rules as much as I can, but not as much admittedly as my mental health has taken a battering- I was supposed to have a psychiatrist appointment this morning on the phone and they never called me, so now I feel even worse.

I get it's a shit situation. But how long are we going to be asked to do this for? What if the vaccines hadn't worked?

I KNOW I'm just ranting (probably as a result of waiting months to be seen by a psychiatrist who apparently got to phone me) but when other countries with higher rates are allowing household mixing of some
form, even if limited, it just makes me so down. I'd LOVE the rule of six or two households.

I suppose I'd even be so controversial to say that I don't think the government has the right to ban household mixing for almost a year and that it's an overstep and gone on too long, but I guess that makes me "anti-lockdown" and a "covid denier" by some some people's standards

I'm with you OP.

The lockdown and rules were necessary at first in March, we didn't know anything about this virus, we didn't have vaccines.

We now know the survival rate is above 99%. We know that the mean age of a Covid death is 80. We know now that continous lockdowns affect peoples mental health, children's futures and crashing the economy.

To keep this up in fear of variants (which evidence shows the vaccines are effective against) is just utter madness.

Things should open up quicker if the hospital admissions and deaths continue to decline like they are doing.

Hard agree @DuchessofHastings1

I think the staggered return to more normality makes sense, for instance with hospitality. Rather than just say everything open at Easter and then it's like the last days of Rome. The gradual restricting makes sense.

The ban on households mixing is going on too long though. once we get to Easter the masses will just start ignoring it and then it's the law abiding citizens who suffer. The ones who will always stick to the rules.

I don't have an issue with staggered, it's just painfully slow.

Non essential retail, for example, should open up for sooner, I really cannot see the argument for keeping them closed, bar not wanting to do away with the 'stay at home' message yet. It's depriving shops of Easter income, after a shocking Xmas too.

I don't care anymore - I'd go places if there was anywhere to go! Can't got swimming even though my little girl is desperate to go. I shall be travelling to wales to see family for Easter unless they tell me police are stopping people on the bridge

Yes @PrincessesRUs after Easter weekend we're driving across Scottish border to meet relatives in England for a day unless we're physically stopped and fined at the border. We'll be outside so low risk for transmission and most of the party will have had their first injection by then.

Scottish government refuses to give any indication of when doing this might be legal so we're just going for it

I am now seeing people in a measured way, in the last week we are seeing my parents and in laws inside and I see a friend with her little boy outdoors. I have followed the rules and think that now over 40% are vaccinated who are most at risk then I feel completely fine with that. I have been at my wits end holding down my job, home schooling two kids whilst my critical worker husband has worked out of the home throughout. We caught covid from my husband and I think most cases are due to this and from hospitals.

I am not getting hysterical over new variants. The news coverage of the Brazilian variant was ridiculous. They openly said that the scientists don’t know if it makes people more sick as they can’t separate it from the fact that Brazil quite obviously didn’t have the health system or oxygen to cope. The immediate focus was on making the public panic over a new variant.

I feel for my Scottish friends. My neighbour hasn’t seen his daughter and grandson since last summer in their garden (they drove up from England for the day) and still have his Christmas presents to give.

@ILookAtTheFloor I agree it feels painfully slow and I can't understand why the shops can't open, they seem to have got their social distancing and hand sanitisers well sorted out.

We are allowed to sit down outside now and speak to someone without doing star jumps at the same time, what a farce. We should be grateful.

Not in Scotland

But cases are and have been so much lower in Scotland. It's ridiculous at this point for there to be no roadmap out of the restrictions.

OP, I'm like you, I'm passed it all. I'm living my life as much as possible. I'm seeing my family and a few friends based on my own risk assessment. I don't feel guilty either!

But cases are and have been so much lower in Scotland.

That has been the perception but it is not entirely true.

From the government coronavirus dashboard, the latest reported 7-day case rate by specimen date (for the period ending March 2) is as follows:

• Scotland - 69.1

coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases?areaType=nation&areaName=Scotland

• England - 69.9

coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases?areaType=nation&areaName=England

All the "tougher" measures adopted in Scotland haven't really made much of a difference - the two nations are moving in the same direction. Cases in Scotland never spiked as much as they did in London/South East/East of England but, as a result, they have been dropping much slower (in spite of additional restrictions on nurseries, click and collect and takeaway set ups).

Its the vaccination programme that is bringing the numbers down,lockdowns not making little difference

@user1487194234 are you sure about that ?

At the minute only the elderly groups plus NHS have had their vaccination and mostly only first jab. Case rates are likely to rise in England over next few weeks due to schools opening, but the true test to see if vaccinations have worked is that it should not lead to a corresponding rise in hospitalisations and deaths as the most vulnerable now protected.

It certainly looks that way to me

Case rates are likely to rise in England over next few weeks due to schools opening...

It will be interesting to see what happens. My personal prediction is cases will not rise but the rate of cases dropping might slow down.

I think we keep underestimating seasonality and with days getting longer and temperatures getting warmer we may have a significant tailwind that will hopefully offset the increase in R-rate coming from schools.

I believe vaccinations have been very helpful at halting hospital and care home spread and reducing deaths but I do not think they have yet had an impact on community transmission.

If cases do rise will it matter if people are not being hospitalised and dying? That’s the important thing.

Yep seasonality will come in to play too very soon.

DH was talking about seasonality reducing numbers as well.

I'm not so convinced it's a significant factor, other than it means people are less likely to be meeting up inside and windows are more likely to be open. I think for us Summer was low because we were locked down for the previous months and schools were shut.

But it will be interesting to see how it pans out - particularly for those countries not as far on in the vaccination programme to see if there is seasonality in their numbers.

So today, in Wales, no one died with or of COVID.

Covid falls much harder on the aged, who have mostly been vaccinated. Running through my nearest and dearest that includes DM86/2 shots and DMIL91/one shot, plus us (DH65, me 64) my DS61 AND dbil 63. Plus CEV niece at 29 has had first shot. Student DS21 caught it during freshers week, and was under the weather for 72 hours. Unless you are unhealthy and with a complicating secondary issue before contracting COVID, you are unlikely/unlucky to experience anything worse than a flu episode. Which is very nasty indeed, but rarely life-threatening.