Breaking News Boris press conference tonight 14/05/21

[Whichjab]

So, is Monday under threat? Change to school masks or hugs?

I know, I wondered about Australia's figures as well. They are locked down so tightly and even they have lots.

@the80sweregreat

France has been very strict. A few people I've talked to have relatives living over in west France and they can't do much and traveling about too far is almost forbidden ( apart from work )

Rightly or wrongly the French restrictions started to be relaxed a couple of weeks back and travel within country is very much being allowed (it's currently the Ascension Bank holiday weekend, lots of holiday travel going on).

Thanks @Summercocktailsinthesnow just saw your post. It will be interesting to see how other countries deal with this.

[quote Delatron]@ChardonnaysPetDragon Thank you, very interesting article.

I hadn’t realised Australia had 85 cases. Hopefully they’re on top of them with an unvaccinated population.[/quote]
Australia's cases are all in hotel and remote location quarantine centres like Howard Springs and are all returned travellers from or via India.

It does seem to be increasing rapidly in some schools now which is inevitable is very infectious. I think that it would be a good idea shut secondary schools down and go online for couple of weeks apart from year 11 and 13.

Ok @unwuthering so they do seem to be on top of it.

@DelBocaVista

You do realise that at one point in time there was ZERO Covid in the entire U.K?

Look where ignoring the first cases got us. Do you really fancy that again?

Do you think the end game is zero covid??
Cos I hate to break it to you ... that not how viruses work and was never the aim of lockdowns

No I do NOT think the end game is Covid zero FFS

What I said was, we started with a few cases which were ignored, this lead to thousands of cases and deaths. All it takes is a few cases to get it going again.

This is a VoC (not just a variant) and until we know more we SHOULD be cautious.

But some people don't learn from their mistakes

No way bella NOT A CHANCE! We are half way through GCSEs and Alevels, and what about the years that are preparing for exams or first year of GCSES. There is no way our children are going to suffer again, over my dead body are my children continuing to pay the price for a virus that does not even effect them.

Schools will stay open even if we have to close restaurants and indoor entertainment that is what the gov have said.

Please can you link to confirm it is spreading quickly in schools? We have zero cases here, zero in the whole county.

We can carry on as normal if there are very few cases and if there is proper testing and isolation. That can happen with freight drivers. I don't believe it happens with tourists.

I’m really don’t think we can. In the same way Aus does immediate lock down on very few cases. If we want normality like there we’d have to jump in every case (that is not in hotel quarantine) in the same way.

You get too much leak with just test and isolate, it’s why their system is so water tight.

AlmostSummer21 you can't really compare last March to now.....
You seem to be ignoring the impact of vaccinations.

We're obviously never going to agree.

I'm delighted for all my friends in the hospitality and entertainment industry who are able to start working again next week.

I know you’re right and it’s best to be cautious exactly when cases are low as we have wiggle room. I’m just fucking gutted at what NS has done to Glasgow. My husband’s first full week at work ripped away at the last moment. It’s another bitter pill on top of what is endless shit and just too much.

@Summercocktailsinthesnow

AZ vaccine DOES work against the Indian variant, they know this already. So the issue is not the vaccine as such, but the transmissible rate. Many millions are still waiting for second doses, many millions are unvaccinated. So the potential for things to go wrong is still high. Hence the decision to fast track all second does to over fifties, and to try and get as many people vaccinated as possible. This is now a race against time.

Well, if that were the case, given AZ is cheaper and more plentiful, why is the booster jab for the over 50s Pfizer and not AZ ?

Well, if that were the case, given AZ is cheaper and more plentiful, why is the booster jab for the over 50s Pfizer and not AZ ?

Someone on here said you can only have 2 doses of AZ due to the vector it uses or something. Maybe an actual scientist will explain properly

@loginfail Rightly or wrongly the French restrictions started to be relaxed a couple of weeks back and travel within country is very much being allowed (it's currently the Ascension Bank holiday weekend, lots of holiday travel going on).

My friends in Brittany have been utterly pissed off and appalled that so many Parisians have left Paris for Brittany, *because they can. I'm guessing the Parisians have second homes in Brittany, but there are some very pissed off people, demanding to know why so many people have been allowed from a hot area to relatively safe one.

Otherwise, bars, restos and so on remain shut, and there's still a curfew from 7pm to 6am. France reacted to a rise in cases. Whether JOhnson's govt will do that remains to be seen. www.gouvernement.fr/info-coronavirus

You seem to be ignoring the impact of vaccinations.

The Seychelles, with more than 60% of its population immunised, is experiencing another Covid outbreak - 33% of cases among those fully immunised.

The vaccine seems to be helping avert deaths there, but still...

@DelBocaVista

AlmostSummer21 you can't really compare last March to now..... You seem to be ignoring the impact of vaccinations.

We're obviously never going to agree.

I'm delighted for all my friends in the hospitality and entertainment industry who are able to start working again next week.

I'm not ignoring the impact of vaccinations, but we need to make sure any VoC isn't evading the vaccine and vaccinations only work if there's a good uptake.

The early signs are looking good that the IV doesn't evade the vaccine as the areas with high numbers of the IV are also the areas of low vaccine uptake. But that could be due to a number of other factors as well.

My way of dealing with this would be localised, tough... & unpopular.

But also to deal with the issue of people not coming forward for vaccinations due to being illegal immigrants etc.

I'd FAR prefer for businesses & people in areas with low no/low levels of the IV to be able to continue on the roadmap.

All incoming travellers to go into escorted hotel quarantine for 14 days and all international travel banned except for a very restricted number of compassionate reasons (and no a wedding does not count).

The Seychelles, with more than 60% of its population immunised, is experiencing another Covid outbreak - 33% of cases among those fully immunised.

The vaccine seems to be helping avert deaths there, but still...

That's the point of the vaccinations.
We're not going to eliminate covid but we're aiming to reduce hospital admissions and deaths.
It's being reported that the majority of hospitalisations in Bolton are people who were eligible for the vaccine but haven't had it. We need to focus on increasing vaccination levels in areas of concern.

@unwuthering

You seem to be ignoring the impact of vaccinations.

The Seychelles, with more than 60% of its population immunised, is experiencing another Covid outbreak - 33% of cases among those fully immunised.

The vaccine seems to be helping avert deaths there, but still...

Quite, we are just repeating past mistakes now, not least on border restrictions, why the fuck was a trade deal/Johnsons visit, deemed more important than protecting our health?

Oxford is a doing a 13 month trial into the effectiveness of combining vaccines, AZ is also working on a new vaccine to counter the emerging strains.
So clearly current vaccine isn't as effective.

There will always be variants of concern. We can’t keep locking down ‘to check the vaccines work’
The scientists have said there is no reason to think the won’t work. Listen to them.

I would have liked to see stricter rules and quicker action at the borders but we seem unable to do that. I don’t think people should suffer any more lockdowns. That can’t be the strategy to deal with variants. It has to be carry on vaccinating at speed and get on with our lives.

That's the point of the vaccinations
We're not going to eliminate covid but we're aiming to reduce hospital admissions and deaths
It's being reported that the majority of hospitalisations in Bolton are people who were eligible for the vaccine but haven't had it

Even Edgar today said most people in hospital hadn't been vaccinated, so some are being treated who have been vaccinated?

an Indian Dr was on TV the other day saying a: very young people are dying and b: so are those who have been vaccinated (though given their vaccine rates, likely just the 1 dose) Plus of course India hasn't a decent health service.

The vaccine seems to be helping avert deaths there, but still...

But still... what? That's the whole point of the vaccines!

@RedcurrantPuff

I know you’re right and it’s best to be cautious exactly when cases are low as we have wiggle room. I’m just fucking gutted at what NS has done to Glasgow. My husband’s first full week at work ripped away at the last moment. It’s another bitter pill on top of what is endless shit and just too much.

I'm sorry to hear about your DH's work next week. Do I remember correctly that this is a new job he got after losing his previous one? Which means he's not had furlough?

I was surprised to hear about Glasgow, I saw her saying about Morey almost definitely having to remain on its current level.

Hopefully the numbers will allow restrictions to be lifted in both very soon 🤞🏼

@unwuthering

You seem to be ignoring the impact of vaccinations.

The Seychelles, with more than 60% of its population immunised, is experiencing another Covid outbreak - 33% of cases among those fully immunised.

The vaccine seems to be helping avert deaths there, but still...

It’s worth looking into but you also need to consider hospitalisation not just deaths.

Also they should determine which vaccine as iirc another country that used Sinopharm had an issue.

The ministry noted that, of the patients requiring hospital treatment, 80% had not been vaccinated and tended to be people with co-morbidities. It added that "almost all" of the critical and severe cases requiring intensive care treatment had not been vaccinated either. To date, none of the patients who have died with Covid-19 have been fully vaccinated, it said.

To date, among those who a have received two doses, 57% have received Sinopharm and 43% Covishield, the Seychelles' health ministry said. It's unclear which vaccine had been given to individuals who had been fully immunized but then tested positive for Covid.

@MarshaBradyo

We can carry on as normal if there are very few cases and if there is proper testing and isolation. That can happen with freight drivers. I don't believe it happens with tourists.

I’m really don’t think we can. In the same way Aus does immediate lock down on very few cases. If we want normality like there we’d have to jump in every case (that is not in hotel quarantine) in the same way.

You get too much leak with just test and isolate, it’s why their system is so water tight.

You get leak with test and what is pretty much voluntary isolation. They could test and compulsory isolate freight drivers if they test positive.