Is there another lockdown now or not?

[Overthebow]

BBC is showing new guidance for Bolton, Blackburn, Kirklees, Bedford, Burnley, Leicester, Hounslow and North Tyneside.

Is this supposed to be another lockdown? I’m confused.

@Hazelnutlatteplease

Its guidance because they dont want to have to announce they are locking down an area again. The government are burying their head in the sand

It could well turn into a lockdown as a country we tend to ignore guidelines.... It will then need to be longer and harder. They also dont want to close the schools which is probably necessary.

It's really just the government being spineless.

Are you having a laugh?! You think they should be closing schools again? When case numbers are so low, and practically no one is dying?

Jesus wept, carry on with your lives.

Those areas have an increasing caseload of Indian Variant Covid.

So stay away, or if you have to go there for essential work etc, be very vigilant with distancing, masks, hand hygiene.

Is that so hard to understand?

^Patronising much?

I commute into Leicester everyday and this is the first I've heard of it too

[quote Littlefluffyclouds13]@BelleBlueBell just very time poor and asking for help. Thanks though [/quote]
Seriously, it would be far quicker to type in gov.uk and click on the big link to all the covid restrictions right at the top of the page than it would be to post that question on here and wait for someone to do just that and post the link on here .

@Morph2lcfc

I live in Leicestershire, so not included directly but obviously the advice is not to travel into Leicester which we are very close to. The first I knew of this was when I read on this post about 30 seconds ago so it’s not very well publicised at all!

It will never work in Leicester. So many people travel in for work from the county. Also the only A&E for the county is at the Royal Infirmary. So many have to travel in for hospital appointments.

Referring to the question of poverty raised above, if we can't book online here, we can walk/get someone to wheel you into local pharmacy. They're very flexible, if there's appointments and you qualify, you can have one - my friend's DH got one within six hours. It's accessible to everyone, so lack of technology/cars doesn't stop us.

@Wondergirl100

I also think this is just an insane way to run a public health campaign - lockdown was an emergency measure in a totally unknown situation. We cannot keep ordering people to put their lives on hold - particularly when the whole purpose of this was to protect the NHS

The public have been decieved into thinking lots of people are at risk of dying of Covid - totally wrong as any public health expert will tell you - the average age of death from Covid is 82 - above the age expectancy in the UK.

Btw I am not a covid denier! It is real, it is very concerning - but the risk has been massively over exaggerated in order to get people to comply with lockdown - and enough is enough.

Totally agree

@Lalliella

Ffs there’s a lot of ignorance on this thread. Does no-one watch or read the news anymore?

Yes I watch the news. I listen to radio 4 in the day and local radio in the evening. I also read the papers and watch government briefings.

This was not mentioned until today.

I do not religiously check the government website. Certainly for Leicester the site generally lags behind. It took almost a week to update with rules and postcodes when Leicester first locked down.

So, since the guidance was apparently issued on Friday my family have travelled to work, been to a national football game, travelled and stayed in Norfolk and Devon, travelled to London via train three times, and eaten indoors in a restaurant. None of this would have happened had we known.

I did google it this morning as the first we heard about it was from my DP mum. The first link was to some weird business website so not looking like an official source. Maybe keep your snarky comments to yourself, I know that’ll be hard to do as a prolific MN twat viper.

They’re already doing surge testing and surge vaccinations
I’d love to be included in these “surge vaccinations” I’m group 6 and pregnant and have not been able to get booked inside of Leicester. The closest place I’ve been able to book is Nottingham, Rugby or Coventry. We are being failed in this city and I’m glad people are finding it funny but if you’ve been not living in this nightmare of a town through the pandemic you have no idea.

Littlefluffyclouds13

www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-coronavirus-restrictions-what-you-can-and-cannot-do#if-youre-in-an-area-where-the-new-covid-19-variant-is-spreading

@Hoppinggreen

I’m in Kirklees and I think that there are only really a couple of areas here where the rate has gone up so much but they lump us all together. I’m closer to Halifax than Dewsbury or Batley for example but because I’m officially in Kirklees we will be subject to the rules anyway

Indeed. We are as far away from the towns and cities as it's possible to get in Kirklees - right out on the sticks and actually closer to Wakefield.

We haven't had a single case in our local area for weeks, according to the government's official covid map and data - not one.

And last summer, when we were under the additional harsh restrictions, we went 9 weeks without a single case in this very large rural area, but had to stay inside and watch the news as thousands of people partied on the streets in Soho, knowing that our local case rate was a fraction of theirs.

They just don't give a shit because we are just 'The North', do they?

Can you imagine if it was one small area in Greater London that was seeing increased cases? Would the whole of the city be locked down? Would it hell.

It absolutely enrages me. When Covid all began, the whole country was straight into full lockdown because of cases in London when we had almost zero up here. Now all we read is other people wanting just us to be locked down because it wouldn't be fair if they had to lock down, too.

@sotiredofthislonelylife

I will probably be flamed for this, but people have obviously travelled back from India, untested, not isolating, and then passed on the virus into multi-generational households, who have taken it into schools, shops, passed it onto teachers, shop workers, who have taken it home etc etc. Why have unvaccinated people been allowed to travel around, completely untested, in the first place? How many more people are allowed to decide that ‘the rules don’t apply to them’?

If the hospital admission rates haven’t increased dramatically, and the death rate remains low, then it should just be regarded in the same way as seasonal ‘flu, and we take as many precautions as we can, and get on with life.

All the pussy footing around = not blaming cultural issues etc., is infuriating. If some people don’t want to have the vaccine, then they must accept the consequences of their actions.

Very true.

I am utterly fed up. I am south of Preston and can see it being next. Just chatting to a friend from Blackburn say oh there were families coming back from India having been to weddings in the Easter break and putting their kids straight back into school with symptoms. . It makes me sick that we have been living under these restrictions for so long whilst allowing this to happen. If we are stopped from having a family holiday at half term I don’t know what I will do. I think I am just going to take whatever fines are given to me. Ending his enough.

@NotBot

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

You have me confused with someone else I think, you have no idea of my circumstances.

You also miss my point, if people's behaviour is dictated by the fact that they can't wfh then other measures need to be found to try and reduce their risk

Why would you not want that to be done? Are you happy to carry on as things are and keep saying the same old things without thinking about what could be done?

I don't have all the answers but it's pretty obvious that we need to do more to try and find some.

So many theories as to why Leicester is struggling again are being thrown about. Many contradict each other- how is it both down to poverty, plus down to people visiting India and not quarantining? Are people both very poor, and jetting off to India?

What we need is proper research, followed by support and solutions.

Oh sod this. Have family in Burnley I've not seen for a year, and I'm planning a visit in about a month. I'm fully vaccinated, and my visit wouldn't involve doing anything high risk - mainly staying in their home and walking on the moors. I can't imagine not going at this stage, especially if the rules stick at "guidance", but would be happy to do a lateral flow test afterwards in case I bring something home.

As far as I am concerned it was the governments choice for people to come in and out of India so they can duck off with any local restrictions now. I haven’t left the country since 2019. I just want to go to wales with my family and be by the god damn beach. I am done with this.

It’s so frustrating, I live in Kirklees, right in the hotspot area for this variant and since last year I have followed all the rules. This last few days I have been in and out of the area because I had no idea of this new guidance,

It’s pretty much been illegal for my mum to come into my home for well over a year now(bar a couple of weeks in the summer) and this week was the first time she was going to be coming and now she won’t be(because she is wary of not following the rules). For al those crowing and blaming the residents just think how you would feel to have your life so restricted for such a long period of time.

@NonagonInfinityOpensTheDoor

I did google it this morning as the first we heard about it was from my DP mum. The first link was to some weird business website so not looking like an official source. Maybe keep your snarky comments to yourself, I know that’ll be hard to do as a prolific MN twat viper.

They’re already doing surge testing and surge vaccinations
I’d love to be included in these “surge vaccinations” I’m group 6 and pregnant and have not been able to get booked inside of Leicester. The closest place I’ve been able to book is Nottingham, Rugby or Coventry. We are being failed in this city and I’m glad people are finding it funny but if you’ve been not living in this nightmare of a town through the pandemic you have no idea.

We were lucky enough back in April to get a message from the GP to say they had spare vaccinations first come first served. Ended up in a queue of hundreds of people but me and DH both got ours done.

It's worth checking that you have your current mobile number on record with the GP and even just give them a call and see if they have any spare slots.

I'm sure I read that Beaumont keys library was opening as a walk in vaccination centre so check that to see if you can just pop along one day and get jabbed.

Listening to the news now it seems that Leicester council have complained that they were not advised of the new travel restrictions that have appeared on the government website!

So it's hardly surprising residents had no idea!

Someone in London fucked up!

I live in one of the areas and this thread is literally the first I've heard about meeting outside or not leaving the area. We even got a letter from the council (via school) about the new test centers, and that didn't mention any other restrictions, so I'd bet the council were not even informed until after they sent the letter.

@sotiredofthislonelylife

Why are you saying that people have travelled from India untested? You cannot be let into the country unless you have a negative Covid test result with you.

Now, I am sure that some people did travel with a negative test and subsequently later tested positive, and I am sure some of them did not self-isolated as they were legally required to do. Also the mixing of passengers at airports is ludicrous.

But it's not correct to say that arrivals into the UK were untested.

I have a cafe in Bolton. Around here hospital admissions have doubled since Sunday. Schools are closing because of unprecedented high cases in kids. Also it's about long Covid and children missing education, not just hospital admission and deaths

How does poverty stop people from accessing testing and vaccinations that are on their doorstep? Have you seen the stats showing who isn't taking up the vaccine?

I didn't say it did. Although yes it actually does, and if you cannot understand why then I really don't have time to explain it in full detail. Start from a low base that people in poor areas always have poorer health due to low incomes, poorer education and poorer housing and working conditions. On average they will have 10-12 years less life expectancy than people from more affluent areas, are more likely to have chronic health conditions and to have them at a younger age.
Misinformation and outright disinformation is easier to spread amongst those with poorer educational outcomes - have a look at how much crap like this there is on MN and that's in a relatively middle class environment. Distrust of government institutions is often higher. And access to medical services is often poorer. That's just the broad headlines. There is more than enough research, stretching back many decades, to demonstrate all this - poorer health outcomes are the norm for a dozen factors associated with lo income and poverty. And the areas showing the worst outcomes for Covid are, unsurprisingly, mostly the poorest areas. There is also extant research on that. It's all "out there" for people to see and read. But it is much easier to do what the Tories do which is to blame people for their own circumstances, and incentivise them with sticks.