October lockdown?

[Goingdooolally]

Hi
I can’t see another thread on this and I think it’s more Scotland than general CV related.

Any thoughts on this? I’m a teacher and there’s been no word at work but I’m hoping to go away for a week in half term (west coast) and really really hoping lockdown doesn’t happen! Selfish I know, but we need a break!

Anyone got any views on the likelihood?

Yes, unless it was particularly to meet family or friends, tourists shouldn't be particularly affected by todays change unless you were going to Liverpool area.

My workplace is making plans for us to return in January. AIBU to think nae chance? Partly because I don't see these restrictions being any easier and partly because I'm in the vulnerable category. I'm literally incapable of doing physical distancing and face masks. All these rules and what we can and can't do is making me very anxious.

Will people still want tourists though? I have visions of us getting all the way there and not being welcome, walking around with leper signs on or something.

But I guess going from Edinburgh to Chester is much the same risk anyway. I would probably feel worse if we were going from a risky city to some tiny rural place with hardly any cases.

We're just planning to see some friends but we can do that outside, stay in a hotel, maybe visit the zoo, not bothered about eating out or anything. We'll only be 2 by ourselves and 5 when we meet our friends so we should be fine.

Hope everyone who is planning to get away gets away, this is the most stressful holiday ever and we haven't even started packing our bags yet.

@throwingawaymyshot, you are being most definitely NOT unreasonable.

Thank you @Arcadia. I have multiple disabilities and have been suicidal in recent years. Covid Anxiety is at its peak. Sometimes I think its a pile of pish, other times I feel scared. My employer thinks covid secure applies to everyone, when it makes my situation worse, not better. I think this could be here for years. I feel like crying today :(

The level of cases between where we live and where we are going are broadly similar, hopefully be welcome enough if we are spending money.

I think your plans sound fine @Rae36.

We are planning a few walks, a visit to the lovely Supermarket, maybe a lunch out and a dinner in the small bar on site if we can get booked. DH wondering if the little gym on the site might be open but not too worried if not.

I think workplaces will still be told to let staff work from home in January @throwingawaymyshot
And even if not I think you are completely reasonable to ask to continue working from home.

It is such an unsettling time for everyone, I can only imagine how much worse it must be if you are vulnerable.

Thank you everyone. My employer keeps changing their bloody minds about WFH and its not helping my confusion. I've had to push for an OH referral so hopefully OH will back me up (and not my employer). Stupid employer thinks I can see OH face to face sigh I just want this effing virus to piss off now.

@Rae36 holidays have been rubbish this year no matter how safe they have been there's always that sadness that they just aren't quite the same. Hope you get some kind of a break

I was meant to be going to Cheshire East for work today but I bailed out. Gutted as I was looking forward to 2 nights in a hotel :(

Too late for circuit break this holidays

They are expecting/ hoping for a suppression effect anyway I suppose.

We are certainly mixing less overall : schoolkids at home, no pub or restaurant visits. Work from home being encouraged by again.

So the numbers will go down, and NS will attribute it to closing the pubs, and blithely ignore the fact that schools are also closed. Because covid doesn't spread in schools. Except it does.

@waitforitwaitforit and Covid wasn’t spreadable in pubs until fairly recently. But those outdoor children’s playgrounds, oof they were a big risk. I felt that much safer when NS kept them shut a full month after the pubs opened!

Yes @waitforitwaitforit I did think that numbers are likely to go down next week with schools being off and students in incarceration. Still if number reduction is the goal, I guess it's likely to have more impact than Boris's plan to do the square root of naff all, except lockdown Liverpool as he isn't too sure where that is.

So it looks like we're going to Pooley bridge this weekend if I can navigate the intricacies of spending Tesco vouchers towards it. I would say I'm looking forward to it, but I can't really with all the caveats around it. But I'm sure once we're there, I'll enjoy it. I've been there briefly recently on a hastily rearranged ladies weekend and thought I'd like to stay there.

@waitforitwaitforit

So the numbers will go down, and NS will attribute it to closing the pubs, and blithely ignore the fact that schools are also closed. Because covid doesn't spread in schools. Except it does.

Correct

If you are looking for activities rookie, this place is fab. Some of it is pretty expensive though.

www.rookinhouse.co.uk/

@WaxOnFeckOff that's where we went for my hen do ! We stayed in a very cheap bunk house and paid £5 for linen worth 50p, but it was a great weekend. Will have a look at the activities for sure, that's a great idea.

Have never stayed there and the owner is a bit "different" but we've done lots of activities, well mainly the go-karts and shooting!

typical SNP spin this lunchtime, promoting support as 'new' that's actually always been available.

Given Forth Valley isn't even appearing in the list, other than being amongst the 7 healthboards that the remaining 250 cases are spread over, i can't see that there is any justification to continue this severe a restriction in this area.

Not that i subscribe to this method anyway.

It would be interesting to see how many of today’s 7 deaths were in care homes- there have been a few recent outbreaks reported.

Yesterday’s announcement from NS on expanding care home visits and allowing holding hands etc doesn’t really seem to make sense in the context of her overall strategy which seems to be to prevent transmission as much as possible- to the exclusion of issues such as the economy.

Why is she now happy to allow relatives who have not been tested to engage in high-risk activities within environments (care homes) full of high-risk individuals where one case could lead to numerous deaths? Particularly when she has forbidden all household visits otherwise.

From a quality of life pov it's probably the right thing to do. It's everything else that is fucked up.

Yes, I agree with that about care homes. I think the benefit of being "sure" homes are covid free (and even then, it's obviously not guaranteed) is not balanced by the absolute inhumanity of locking residents away from their families and vice versa, and forbidding touch. Yes, it's more of a risk, and the care homes will be able to veto it if they think that is in the interests of their residents, but I think it is a positive move.

In fact, much though I am very critical of the SG approach, I do think they have done better than England in terms of considering the realities of the restrictions on how people will manage day to day, and minimising isolation impacts. So the closure of hospitality, while really strict, and devastating for those businesses and employees, does still allow two households to meet inside (albeit limiting hours and drink/ food options) whereas in England there is theoretically no mixing of households inside, even though they can go to the pub as individual households. So, yes, that's going to work... Similarly, the rule of 6 excluding young children, and allowing unlimited children to play together outside seems a lot more ethical than England's approach, and does seem to pay some lip service to the lesser risk to children (and at least some internal logic re schools etc). Overall, Scotland's approach to "tier 2/3" seems much stricter, with less fun allowed, but also, bizarrely, somehow less shit. still don't agree with it though. If only we had an equivalent of "tier 1"...or even a tier 0.

I do agree in regards to care home visits but it is just not consistent with Sturgeon’s overall approach which seems to be minimise case numbers.

How can she on the one hand say that allowing household visits would increase infections too much but then allow relatives into care homes full of vulnerable people?