When will there be an update?

[ShepherdMoons]

I thought yesterday they were going to give us the update about what will happen regarding restrictions?

I'd rather know than just be left in the dark. I don't mind whether we have a lockdown, circuit breaker or something else but I'd just like to know!

@FreeBritnee

Judging from the new leaks I think they’re watching and waiting. If they suddenly bring in restrictions my guess is it will be no more than two households mixing or similar over Christmas. I just can’t see them suddenly dictating a hard lockdown in the next few days. They know people won’t adhere to it anyway.

I honestly can't see them trying to strict households while pubs etc are still open. It would be pointless, no one will comply.

I didn't think they'd close pubs, but now I'm starting to think they might...

I work in the NHS. The risk of services being overwhelmed is very imminent. This time driven by staff sickness rates - partly Covid but also Noro and all the other mental and physical illnesses that they are too tired to fight off. This isn't just about Covid hospitalisations. It's about all the other people that are relying on clinicians to be there for them.

@Legoninjago1

(Assuming you are talking about English figures, as people are shot on sight if they don't mention they are from any other backwater part of the UK 😉)

coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths?areaType=overview&areaName=United%20Kingdom

@Iceskatequeen

Even if we do a so called circuit breaker. The minute you release restrictions cases will shoot back up.

You'll only slow it down with another long and painful lockdown.

Are we going to do the lockdown Hokey Cokey every year now?

It's the boosters that will save us.

This is what happened with us in Wales a year ago over Oct half term . We ended up in lockdown again

@ShepherdMoons

we don't know enough about the effects of the new variant on vaccinated people, I'd be happier with a cautious approach and then when more data is available things could be more relaxed. I'm thinking of vulnerable people and older people.

How are you defining 'vulnerable people'? Considering the collateral damage of lockdown I think the scope for identifying vulnerable people is now off the scale. This is a lose lose situation.

If hospitals are going to be full of covid patients, this will delay my relative's cancer treatment. And lots of other treatments. I think we will lockdown too late and its going to be bad. Whitty is saying that and he knows what he is talking about.

Wes Streeting says Labour is being briefed later today., which must mean some kind of major announcement.

If they're going to wait till they have enough data, it could be 'too late' because by then everyone will have mixed and the virus will be all round the country (which will happen anyway sooner rather than later). So they really need to take a gamble and either bet it'll be OK and just wait and hope they're right, or close things down and do the same. Very tricky situation, compounded by last year's fiasco.

I just want to know what's happening now and I'm fed up with the uncertainty. The government were so busy telling us we would have a better Christmas than last year etc and I worry that they just don't want to lose face by imposing restrictions. Yet the medical experts are recommending more restrictions. It seems inevitable so why don't they just tell us?

@JanglyBeads

Wes Streeting says Labour is being briefed later today., which must mean some kind of major announcement.

Where has he said that? Briefed by the government? Or given an update from scientists?

Briefing labour on a Sunday after parliament has gone into recess can’t be a good sign.

Why are you desperate to know!? Wear a mask, wash your hands, get the booster jab. If you get sick it’s likely to be mild/normal flu. How can you live your life worrying so much?

Where is talk of lockdowns coming from? Only a couple of days ago it sounded like they were clear they were letting people make their own decisions, advising people to get boosters and do only the things that are important to them.

@Muthalucka

Why are you desperate to know!? Wear a mask, wash your hands, get the booster jab. If you get sick it’s likely to be mild/normal flu. How can you live your life worrying so much?

Maybe people want to know because it could affect their lives? Jobs etc etc.

@festivefuschias

Where is talk of lockdowns coming from? Only a couple of days ago it sounded like they were clear they were letting people make their own decisions, advising people to get boosters and do only the things that are important to them.

Javid said some worrying things on Andrew Marr this morning. Plus our European neighbours tightening everything up.

I agree, yesterday I would have said lockdown or restrictions on household mixing were out of the question. Today I'm not so sure.

Thanks.

@Muthalucka

Why are you desperate to know!? Wear a mask, wash your hands, get the booster jab. If you get sick it’s likely to be mild/normal flu. How can you live your life worrying so much?

It's not worrying about being sick. It's worrying about having all the things that make life worth living (and jobs) taken away...again. Not being able to look forward to anything because you don't know if it will happen.

Daily Mail is salivating at the thought of Christmas Day being in jeopardy

@Sparkletastic

I work in the NHS. The risk of services being overwhelmed is very imminent. This time driven by staff sickness rates - partly Covid but also Noro and all the other mental and physical illnesses that they are too tired to fight off. This isn't just about Covid hospitalisations. It's about all the other people that are relying on clinicians to be there for them.

This is what I worry about. Not just the NHS but also staff shortages everywhere, schools, shops etc.

@festivefuschias

Where is talk of lockdowns coming from? Only a couple of days ago it sounded like they were clear they were letting people make their own decisions, advising people to get boosters and do only the things that are important to them.

Leaks to newspapers that have generally been accurate before (because they are purposely leaked to) saying that Johnson is considering a range of measures including a lockdown (or circuit breaker) from 27th. Javid this morning when asked about potential lockdown over Christmas said there were “no guarantees” which is obviously actually a sensible policy in a pandemic but it’s a very different tone to previous messaging, which was, as you’ve said, more around making own decisions etc. And SAGE has said stricter measures are needed ASAP - that isn’t a leak, that’s from their documents which are publicly available.

It was mega busy in my small town today. Apparently yesterday it wasn't.
I wasn't ' panic buying ' at all , but I have made sure I've enough food for Christmas dinner at least !
If there are more restrictions coming up then queuing up and arrows might be back and that'll be fun again in the cold :(

The trouble is many will see government as having blood on their hands either way. No restrictions over Xmas and they will be responsible for all the covid deaths (won’t be many if you actually look at SAGE and WHO data about the variant the ACTUAL, rather than worst case data is that it’s not going to be many deaths etc. a lot of the panic is because people with none-very mild symptoms who would normally be perfectly ok to work etc are testing positive so having to isolate.
If they put in restrictions they will have the blood of the mentally I’ll on their hands who can’t take another Christmas lockdown. I could just about survive one from just after Christmas but I couldn’t survive one over Christmas again as to me that just spells it happening every year and never again being able to trust what anyone says. And I find it hard to trust people at the best of times.

They can’t win. Either way public will blame eachother too: those calling for no restrictions are selfish because they don’t think of the elderly etc cos of Covid, those who want restrictions are selfish because they don’t think of the elderly, teens and vulnerable whose mental health may never recover.

@YellowandGreenToBeSeen

My point was that you said "Surely any lockdown will be after 27th so people can get home?"

Nobody held off on the travel changes so that people could get home (or to their families).

On re-reading, I think I may have mis-interpreted your comment and you mean getting home after Christmas.

Didn't mean to be confrontational. My Christmas is trashed by the travel rules and it will be another year not spending it with my children and my grand-children so I am very, very grumpy indeed.

Hope that everyone can get to where they need to be (and back!).

@worriedatthemoment I know we have no control over other countries. I don't live in the UK but it was initially the UK changing the rules last week that made our trip back to see our son impossible. My daughter also lives outside of the UK in a different country to me. As it happens, the subsequent changing rules in the 2 countries where we live (and the potential for tighter restrictions in the UK) would have scuppered our plans anyway.

@JanglyBeads“a sneering of COBRA” has to be the funniest, and sadly the most apt, typo of the year. Well done!
Agree, so apt.

Why are you desperate to know!? Wear a mask, wash your hands, get the booster jab. If you get sick it’s likely to be mild/normal flu. How can you live your life worrying so much?

It’s not worry about the virus which is affecting me. It’s the impending lockdown. I am worried about the future of my job. I am worried about the mental health of my elderly relatives if we are not able to visit. Am worried about the mental well-being of the younger staff I manage at work who seriously struggled in earlier lockdowns. And I am worried for the state of one my children’s mental health if everything she loves gets cancelled/taken away again.

It’s all a bit shit.

My sources (well someone who works for test and trace) said look out for announcement on the 20th and get your food in!