Another lockdown being considered

[Sweetchocolatecandy]

Has anyone else heard about this? Sturgeon is considering another circuit breaker if cases don’t fall in the next few weeks. My heart sank when I read this as we’re due to get married in October. Do people think it’s likely she will do this? I’m from England and totally regret booking my wedding in Scotland now

The fact they’re running news reports on it has been a softening up exercise for us previously to plant the idea before they did it.

I’m terribly fatalistic and depressed by it all now and the SG behaviour and alexcessuve restrictions has increased the strain on NHS, there may be less people than at at the previous peak in hospital but the hospitals are trying to cope with a massive backlog of other treatment and test at the same time now plus other diseases that usually would be more levelled out are being caught in swathes due to is not mixing for ages.

Another lockdown is only kicking it all further down the road but hey who am I to know anything about anything.

My understanding was it wouldn’t be a. lockdown but local restrictions - which makes sense with community transmission at a high level and hospital cases on the rise. Opening clubs, pubs and large venues with 1000s of was just daft.

The issue seem to be the schools reopening so imposing a lockdown which perhaps closes hospitality and shops etc and keeping schools open is not likely to have a massive impact and they are unlikely to close schools. The cases may be high but the hospitalisations and deaths have remained pretty low. I rather suspect we just have to live with it now.

I also don't think even the Scottish Government would attempt another lockdown. Even the hard-of-thinking SG must surely realise that the benefit of a lockdown will be much less then before the vaccine rollout: compliance will be less and the funding of it doesn't bear thinking about. And it would result in another surge later in the year which would be worse from an NHS point of view than now.

Take heart from knowing that reinfections are rare: IIRC between 1 and 4% of cases. The pool of people who are doubly jabbed and or have had covid will be enormous by the autumn and will slow transmission of the virus. Although hospital admissions are going up the length of stays in hospital with covid is shorter than before the vaccine roll out.

Another lockdown would look bad politically too. It would look like a failure of management of the virus. NS can try to spin herself as being more responsible or cautious than the UK government but I don't think that would wash with most of the electorate. Some parts of Scotland (Glasgow and surrounding areas) had restrictions from last September and still had mostly higher cases than the rest of Scotland.

I've read modellers predictions that cases in Scotland will peak at 6,000-6,500 in one or two weeks then start to come down.

I hope your wedding goes really well. Best wishes for a lovely day.

50% of the current cases are in under 25s so restricting events like weddings would be disproportionate. A huge number of cases were linked to the Boardmasters Festival and the Latitude festival, also to Transmt in Glasgow. Events such as those would be more obvious candidates for restrictions.

Are Scottish schools routinely lateral flow testing twice a week, as we are expecting when England schools go back? Are the precautions taken similar, so we can expect a forecast of what it will be like for England?

Yes @PlinkPlankPlunk lft AND masks wearing in secondary.
But we are also having our exit wave now as remaining restrictions were only lifted here couple weeks before schools went back

Twice weekly LF testing is advised but not mandated in Scottish schools. A lot of my private music pupils are complying with the advice. I don't know if that's typical though.

There should be more older school children who've been vaccinated by September, which should help a wee bit. The festival goers who got covid recently won't transmit it as much either. I'm optimistic for England.

My understanding is that they will consider a change in levels, not a lockdown. This might be as straightforward as resuming masks inside. I think a lockdown would serve little purpose as far as Delta is concerned. Although there may be other variants on the horizon.

I live in one of the red areas shown on the map above. Keeping an eye on the vaccinations for younger teens, especially with the proposed lifting of many restrictions in about a month's time, just as the September weekends offer a chance of more spread.

@PlinkPlankPlunk

Are Scottish schools routinely lateral flow testing twice a week, as we are expecting when England schools go back? Are the precautions taken similar, so we can expect a forecast of what it will be like for England?

The pupils are asked to test twice a week at home. They also have to wear masks all day while in class and moving around the building

I am just not going along with another lockdown. We got our vaccines, enough is enough.

I’m not going along with it either when it happens. But her legally shutting things does impact because for example the soft play isn’t open, the shops aren’t open.
I have a holiday in England mid September. I bet it won’t happen.

My understanding is that they will consider a change in levels, not a lockdown. This might be as straightforward as resuming masks inside.

Masks inside never stopped in Scotland.

This is the news story:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c38c892e-05b9-11ec-89b3-29a9a04e8645?shareToken=8073056230f8a24febe7055bf0d0d46c

@GoldenOmber

My understanding is that they will consider a change in levels, not a lockdown. This might be as straightforward as resuming masks inside.

Masks inside never stopped in Scotland.

I never said it did. But isn't mask-wearing due to stop in about a month's time? Along with remaining restrictions?

No @MrsTidyHouse no indication ever given of the lifting of the masks or other stuff.

Where did it say mask wearing inside was to stop in Gilead Scotland? 6 weeks at school was mentioned, but we all know that was to soften the blow that secondary school children are still masked up.

No I think mask wearing is here for the foreseeable future. They will be reviewing mask wearing in schools I think. Given case numbers they may stay longer

@latissimusdorsi

Yes *@PlinkPlankPlunk* lft AND masks wearing in secondary. But we are also having our exit wave now as remaining restrictions were only lifted here couple weeks before schools went back

Thanks - yes I see what you mean, so not just the schools but catching back up with England re the exit impacts. I hope it will be a short-lived increase - for you and for us lot south of the border!

Okay, I'm trying to attach a screeshot of NS's statement on 3rd August, where I thought she said that school restrictions were being lifted after the first six weeks of term. If I've misunderstood, then apologies.

They will review the use of masks at 6 weeks and if case numbers are still high in pupils then I imagine it may be extended rather than dropped

P.s. she was talking about masks in schools, not masks in shops/other places

The expected direction of sg regulations by our school is on tightening restrictions.

@MrsTidyHouse

Okay, I'm trying to attach a screeshot of NS's statement on 3rd August, where I thought she said that school restrictions were being lifted after the first six weeks of term. If I've misunderstood, then apologies.

What she says and what actually happens here are NEVER the same thing.

Yes @MrsTidyHouse that's the schools guidance but I think others are referring to mask wearing in general which we have been told is "here for some time"
No idea of timescales