Is it actually going to be all over on the 19th?!

[Rainydays55]

The press seemed to have really changed its tone the last few days and the message seems to be clear that after the 19th we will just live with it even if cases are 30/40k a day by then.
I get it, especially if hospitalisations and deaths remain low, it just seems different to what other counties are doing with bringing in more restrictions if they are seeing an increase. I know our vaccine programme has been more successful but do you think this will really be the end of it from next month?! No going backwards in the autumn? Would be great to think it is but I can’t quite believe it!

I have no idea what is going on any more. I just hope hospitalisations and deaths stay low.

Yes I think so, unless some new variant arises that causes hospitalisations and deaths to rise then I think this will be it.

People are still free to protect themselves as much as they wish though, so from th 19th it will be down to thr individual.

I feel the same way as you - I’m hopeful but it’s hard to believe!

I’m thinking cases will go down once schools break up, as they’re currently testing twice a week. I think this wave will be smaller and it should go down during school hols.

But who knows what will happen in the autumn, even though they keep using the word irreversible!

Yes, providing hospitalisations remain low.

Other countries are at different stages in their battle with the virus so we really can't compare ourselves to any of them.

As to whether we will go backwards again come autumn, who knows. We may well do if the doom and gloom soothsayers in SAGE are right about other viruses flaring up. We've got to try to start getting back to normal again, we are never going to live in a virus-free world.

Yes.

If there are such few hospitalisations and deaths.

The only explanation that other countries aren't doing the same is that their vaccine programme isn't keeping pace with the Delta variant - they're actively trying to SLOW infection rate until their vaccinated rate catches up

We don't need to slow infection rate any more

I think restrictions will, on the whole, be over but the pandemic won't. Lifting restrictions will expedite a new wave, which should be much less severe due to vaccinations. That isn't to say I think the restrictions should remain, I am just a bit somber about the next phase of the pandemic rather than gleeful.

I suspect some restrictions will remain on a localised case by case basis. For example hospital visiting.

A school near me was shut for deep cleaning two weeks ago. Yesterday the whole of year 9 and half of year 8 were off again.
How can we go from isolating one day to doing nothing the next. It seems crazy.

I can’t believe we are going to get rid of everything. I shall still be too scared to go into huge groups without masks. I also can’t believe summer holidays will be going ahead. No country will want up when we’re up to 100k infections a day.

Hopefully, learning to live with Covid was mentioned on the TV this morning so probably not completely over but a different phase, testing instead of isolating for double jabbed has been mentioned. I think that learning to live with Covid will be the new mantra.

It’s looking like there will definitely be some huge shift yes.
I doubt we’ll drop everything (masks in hospitals, quarantine after travel). But it’s clear the responsibility is being moved to us and SD will be relieved so that some industries can operate (and not at a loss).

We're currently in a position where infections are rising quickly but hospitalisations and deaths remain low. Going 'back to normal' as in no distancing restrictions or requirements for masks in shops, offices, medical settings, cinemas, gyms, nightclubs, restaurants, bars or at home etc means that infections at least are likely to accelerate further. Hopefully serious illness and hospitalisation will remain very low, due to where we are with vaccinations.

However, it should be recognised that it's not going to be long before the first people to be vaccinated will need boosters, so that's now going to be an ongoing thing, albeit on a smaller scale as not everyone will feel the need to continue to be vaccinated. Will it just be a GP led service, or will some of the mass vaccination centres remain in place?

But the two great flies in the ointments are the requirements to isolate when testing positive and the restrictions that are almost certainly going to be on foreign travel.

Isolation is hugely disruptive to education, employment etc so that can't continue indefinitely, but I don't know what the plan is in this respect.

Then, if we do have a massive case load, we're probably going to be effectively banned from travelling abroad or having visitors from abroad, because from the point of view of other countries, we will be high risk travellers who will require us to quarantine. After all, by our own criteria, we're a red list country.

I’m not sure I think it’ll be maybe isolating will end for schools and the double vaccinated maybe if have a negative tests.

Maybe some travel restrictions will change but I think masks will still be mandatory/ social distancing for a while . I hope I’m wrong though .

There are surely going to be further bans on us entering foreign countries if we do have increasing infection rates among our unvaccinated young people. Fair enough to decide we can open up at home because everyone over 25 has had one dose and over 45 (say) has had both, but that's not the case abroad, so they definitely won't want our unvaccinated children and young adults travelling and taking it over - surely?

I am not sure, it feels very much like their insistence that Christmas would go ahead as normal when we could all see with our own eyes that so many were off school or had caught Covid that it was not happening. I would like to think and hope that it is different now we have the vaccines but only time will. The disruption to schools and businesses with so many people isolating is already apparent. How much can we carry on when this is happening? Who knows 🤷‍♀️ Remember when this government says it's driven by data they mean polling data and not Covid data.

I reckon we’ll get a new definition of close contact for self isolation, so those numbers fall.
And I wouldn’t be surprised to see a drop in the length of isolation required on a positive test.

Yes I believe it is , we are being prepped by the media that we have to live it and that cases will continue to rise. The vast majority have had enough and I don't think many are sticking to the rules anymore.

Testing rather than self isolating is the way forward.

I won’t be ditching my mask or going anywhere with big crowds this year. To be fair though, we don’t really do crowds anyway so not much different for us

It’s basically accepting that people will die - and possibly in similar numbers to a flu season. So I think they’re accepting that if say 20,000 people die a year, that’s worth it for normal life. And we’ve never changed our way of life for 20,000 deaths a year from flu, so it makes sense. It’s going to require a change of thought process, and a lot of people will kick up a fuss.

@silverglitterbaubles yes i agree, feels very much like the head in the sand over christmas.
Im hopeful that deaths and serious illness wont rise in same was as infections but deaths always have a delay before rising after cases so im cautious.

Data i saw the other day was looking at 112 deaths and im sure 50 of them had been double vaccinated
So covid data takes time to see where its going. There government are also under pressure to open up by deniers, by buisnesses by their own finiancial limits. That removing of restrictions may not be safest but they may have accepted that a level of further deaths are unavoidable

Restrictions = Yes (at least within the UK)

Pandemic = No

People will be free to make their own risk assessments and decisions about what they do. The vulnerable have the choice to go in "riskier" environments or not. We need to let the vast majority who are either vaccinated or young (low risk) get on with life now.

Yes, there'll be hospitalisations and deaths, but that's the case with everything. We don't ban roads because a couple of thousand die in vehicle crashes every year. We don't have lockdowns and social distancing every winter due to flu.

What's more important is to find ways to properly protect those in hospitals and care homes etc. The sheer number of people who caught covid in hospitals whilst they were there for other reasons is a national disgrace. Likewise care homes. It's these settings where nearly half the people who died of covid actually caught it. Not much point in banning school sports days and locking Uni students in their flats when so many covid deaths were down to poor infection control in "care" settings!

I think that some restrictions will remain in place but at the discretion of businesses or venues because people will want to have confidence that where they are is reasonably safe. As an example my PIL will only eat in certain restaurants where they have confidence that they are not cramming everyone in and staff wear masks as opposed to another venue that has tables really close and masks are chin slings.

@TeapotCollection

I won’t be ditching my mask or going anywhere with big crowds this year. To be fair though, we don’t really do crowds anyway so not much different for us

Likewise. OH and myself are both double jabbed, but we're also both vulnerable. OH is ECV due to blood cancer and is currently on chemotherapy. We're being cautious with where we go, who we meet etc. But, that's OUR choice. Neither of us want everyone else to have restrictions because of people like us. Let everyone do what they want to do. We're happy to take our own precautions and take our chances. Our main worry is health/care settings that we'll have to use as they don't seem safe at all. When my OH goes for his chemo, he nearly always has to "remind" the nurse to change her gloves between patients and wipe down the blood pressure cuff and finger oxymeter. Lack of basics like that in a high risk healthcare setting is our biggest worry - not school sports days or Wembley!

@Kazzyhoward Agreed re and hospitals and care settings, this is shameful. More need to be done to work of mitigation measures such as schools ventilation systems should be installed over summer as is happening in the US. The main situations that I personally know of where people have contracted Covid are care home, hospital, school and family home.