October Becomes November Lockdown

[BlueThursday]

New thread

I suspect this will be the second of many

@WaxOnFeckOff I know exactly what you mean. I’m going more often now and slowly acclimatising. 😃

@fluffyugg is tier three what the central belt is currently in, effectively?

I’m getting mighty confused .

Yes, I've just seen that too fluffy (and posted on another thread!). It is quite frustrating. They keep saying "we don't know what's going to happen in a week or two" but seem perfectly happy to predict that in a week or two levels will still be basically the same as now so we need to have the same restrictions. Those restrictions that are stated in the new framework as being short term, and only for 2-4 weeks to bring down transmission. But bringing them in when we will be over 3 weeks into pretty much exactly the same restrictions!

It does seem bonkers when you compare with Wales, who openly acknowledge that they won't see numbers having fallen by the end of their 2 week firebreak... but it won't be any longer than that, because numbers WILL fall in the couple of weeks following. Scotland doesn't want to let us have anything back while numbers are still high. Almost as if they aren't trusting that the restrictions will work.

@WouldBeGood yes tier 3 is effectively what Central Belt are in just now. How 400 odd cases a day and say 20 a day in other areas can only be one tier different I don't know...basically sounds like nothing will really change next week except maybe some parts of the Highlands will get into a lower tier if they have pretty much zero cases

Thanks @fluffyugg

But it's not all the central belt either, Stirlingshire, East and mid Lothian have been low and Falkirk and Clackmannan not much different and certainly lower than other parts of the country, it's totally unfair that areas with low levels are stuck under higher restrictions.

It's no wonder folks are hacked off, it doesn't matter what you do as it's all pointless and makes no difference, it's all stick and no carrot and I understand why we've got to the fuck it stage.

They did say it was going to be council regions not health boards, so don’t know if that might help differentiate? I’m fucked any way though 😃

@WouldBeGood

They did say it was going to be council regions not health boards, so don’t know if that might help differentiate? I’m fucked any way though 😃

Me too. But at least our misery should make everybody else happy.

@waitforitwaitforit 😃 us corona infected rats as DS says

It’s particularly annoying as I moved from a fairly non Covid riddled area a couple of years ago as I was sick of being isolated with nothing to do... 😂😂

I’d definitely be more on board with council areas rather than health boards

It makes no difference to my personal situation I’d still be high, but as the PP says, Helensburgh is in NHS highland so treated the same as say Caithness

Fingers crossed it is councils not health boards (East Lothian, our rates are a lot lower but grouped in with Edinburgh and West Lothian which are higher)

So much for "temporary 16 day restrictions" - extended by a week and clearly going to be in tier 3 so just carrying on with them for most of central belt.

Also reaching the fuck it stage. Not really doing anything about it as I'm WFH so not really going anywhere anyway, but digital Christmas can get tae...

Crikey, I had no idea NHS Highland was that big - or that far south!

Helensburgh is right next to Dumbarton which has a high rate of infection (and everyone is bloody going to the pub in Helensburgh). So if they keep Argyll and Bute on tier 2 and W Dunbartonshire on tier 3 or whatever, that's just bloody pointless. Helensburgh is closer to Dumbarton than it is to say...Oban

It’s not really the pubs fault though @throwingawaymyshot although it’s horrible for you.

Does anyone know if the track and trace system
In Scotland is different to England and is it working better here? I get the impression the England one is not working well but at least from the daily briefing NS seems to think ours is quite good !

I dunno to be honest as to be fair they could say anything or show anything they like and justify the stats they use in one way or another. I haven't and won't be downloading it. I'm someone will be along soon to praise how brilliant it is though.

I do know that last week track and trace in Scotland failed to interview 560 people who tested positive within 48 hours. This figure has been growing week on week.

Sturgeon now seems to have outsourced part of the operation to Barrhead Travel’s call centre.

There was a study from (IIRC) the FT about a month ago showing that the Scottish system was tracing something like 94% of contacts. I think the English one is currently tracing half-ish.

@IncludeWomenInTheSequel

There was a study from (IIRC) the FT about a month ago showing that the Scottish system was tracing something like 94% of contacts. I think the English one is currently tracing half-ish.

I don't think that Scotland from a month ago v england currently is a fair comparison to be honest.

Looks like Scotland will be heading the same way as Wales. Drakeford has completely lost the plot, and given NS support for his draconian measures I expect Scotland can look forward to the same.

The numbers in England are coming down slightly, to the chances of a national lockdown are receding. So looks like Scotland and Wales will be in a semi permanent lockdown for the foreseeable.

@WaxOnFeckOff it’s so hard to get non partisan details on the SG. I assume it’s not been going brilliantly given the rise in cases and the fact they’ve taken on travel agents to staff it. The only real figures I found with a quick google were these from the Record:

Comparing a system that has to support 6m users to one that has to support 55m is never g

I know only one person who has the app in real life.