Covid-19 (Coronavirus) Support/advice

[Bletchleyite]

I think this was when the advice was to only self isolate if returning from China, so given that I had not been in close contact with anyone who had been in China I assumed it was allergies or maybe a cold and went to school as usual. Looking back it probably would have been wise to self isolate.

Possibly for me as well. But hindsight is a wonderful thing.

 

[bramling]

it has been a tough period at work since the bank holiday. Haven't felt like coming on here much.

Sorry to hear that. If it's any consolation a lot of people are finding work difficult at moment with multiple competing demands on time & energy, and a strange atmosphere for sure.

 

[DarloRich]

I’d noticed you’d been a bit quiet. I’ve just pm’d you.

Sorry to hear that. If it's any consolation a lot of people are finding work difficult at moment with multiple competing demands on time & energy, and a strange atmosphere for sure.

all ok - just tired and running out of smart ideas! We aren't in danger and others are so I can hardly complain

 

[DarloRich]

hope everyone is fit and well and have managed to get through another lock down weekend

 

[bramling]

all ok - just tired and running out of smart ideas! We aren't in danger and others are so I can hardly complain

Seems like a good attitude to have.

 

[bramling]

hope everyone is fit and well and have managed to get through another lock down weekend

I ended up having a lazy day on Saturday mainly catching up with a few domestic tasks, and then braving the supermarket in the evening - which actually worked out rather well. Was planning to do a bit of gardening on Sunday but ended up just having another lazy day. For some reason there just don’t seem to be quite enough hours in the day at the moment.

Work is actually rather docile at the moment as everything is holding up rather well now we’re running a fairly minimal service. The big issues will arise in a month or so I suspect - more people returning to work so more demands on the service, a return to copious amounts of passenger-related disruption, an enormous backlog of tasks to be completed, and summer volumes of annual leave. It’s certainly not going to be flick a switch and everything back to normal.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

For some reason there just don’t seem to be quite enough hours in the day at the moment.

That's actually quite close to my experience. I found the adjustment to the lockdown hard. I also had a hard patch early into the lockdown due to having some very bad news at the time. But now I've got used to it, I'm finding that there are more than enough things to do at home in terms of reading and learning stuff. Helps that I work online from home so work hasn't really changed.

Work is actually rather docile at the moment as everything is holding up rather well now we’re running a fairly minimal service. The big issues will arise in a month or so I suspect - more people returning to work so more demands on the service, a return to copious amounts of passenger-related disruption, an enormous backlog of tasks to be completed, and summer volumes of annual leave. It’s certainly not going to be flick a switch and everything back to normal.

Out of interest, do you work on the railways? Several of your posts - including this one - seem to hint at something like that, but I've never figured out from them what you do.

 

[Luke McDonnell]

Expanding on the comments that I made about visiting my friend by train and the impact of the current restrictions on public transport use I would really like some more certainty on when I will be able to see my friends again - I know that the main aspects of lockdown are now being relaxed like the restriction on going outside more than once a day and returning to non essential work, but I am wondering why we are not allowed to visit other households as yet?

I bring this up because I have Asperger's syndrome/Autism and I would say this has been the most difficult aspect of the restrictions to deal with.
Looking at the government exit strategy I think it seems to be a bit vague and says we may be allowed to mix with one household from 1st June, and then maybe with larger groups for weddings etc.
I also believe the Welsh plan does not mention this at all leaving concern that they may be thinking in Wales of not allowing this until a vaccine or treatment is available which would be ridiculous.
The Republic of Ireland plan seems to be more clear in this respect saying that 4x people from different households will be allowed to gather in private residences from early June. And yes, I do understand the importance of minimising human to human contacts to keep transmission rates down whilst there is still community transmission, but they are now allowing you to meet friends and family in other European countries as restrictions are eased - France, Spain, Germany and Italy - in Sweden it was never restricted in the first place.

New Zealand are now allowing the mixing of people from different households as long as you don't have more than 10 people in your group which sounds sensible to me.

I am good at taking precautions and only meet with friends on a 1 to 1 or 1 to 2 basis anyway so the chances of transmission within my social circle are IMO very low.
I have also brought this up with my MP - if schools are open, public transport operating, passenger flights operating, bars, pubs, restaurants open and most of Europe allowing you to see friends and family it would be ludicrous if visiting someone else's house was prohibited here. I know you can meet friends/family in the park 1 person 2m away ATM but here I am specifically referring to the ability to visit other households?

I am also asking why there has not seemed to be as much pressure or publicity on getting the social aspects of the lockdown relaxed as opposed to the economic/educational ones - yes balancing public health and the threat of Covid 19 against economic or educational damage is important but IMO a balance also needs to be struck between our social and mental wellbeing and the threat posed by Covid 19 - again I have mentioned this in the e-mail to my MP and I am lucky - I live with my parents but many people with ASD live alone and are not even allowed to have their parents visit them.

We have now protected the NHS and passed the peak of infections so IMO these restrictions have served their purpose and I believe now a balance needs to be struck. I have followed the rules to the letter but if this restriction continues into June or July I might start to take my own calculated risk assessment of visiting a friend who lives alone (where I believe the risk of transmission is low) and to sit out in the garden if possible.

When do people think more freedom will be permitted as my birthday is coming up on 18th July and I would like to be able to celebrate it sensibly with a small gathering (less than 5 people probably).

I’m hoping the weather helps to slow the rate of viral transmission through the summer meaning that some of these restrictions will be lifted, because as explained above I would not want to be in a situation in that the rest of Europe can visit friends and family but us in England (and Wales) are still restricted for a very long time.

 

[317 forever]

Is anyone else finding that they're sleeping for less time at the moment? I think it could be a combination of losing the commute, lighter mornings and general low-level nerves about the big CV.

I'm sleeping less at night, or more specifically in the mornings as it gets light early. Then more often than not I find I need a late morning or afternoon snooze, especially if I have walked to any of the main supermarkets, over 1/2 hour each way.

I find this easier than 1 long chunk of say 16 hours continuously awake at the moment.

 

[317 forever]

A conundrum we all face is when it could be reasonable to have bus and train trips again.

Most hospitality including leisure centres is not due to open up until early July. The trends in hospital admissions and death point to these potentially becoming negligible by mid-June and late-June respectively. This may be where the government got their provisional date of July 4th from.

So, maybe we should avoid such trips until either July 4th or the day such hospitality resumes, even if it is a few weeks later. We should respect recommendations such as face masks or equivalent, and social distancing in terms of where we sit. Overtaking people on escalators or staircases would be out of the question initially.

Unlike in March, London now has a lower R value than the rest of England.

With all this in mind, I am looking at reviewing whether to go to London in July for the day.

 

[Esker-pades]

Expanding on the comments that I made about visiting my friend by train and the impact of the current restrictions on public transport use I would really like some more certainty on when I will be able to see my friends again - I know that the main aspects of lockdown are now being relaxed like the restriction on going outside more than once a day and returning to non essential work, but I am wondering why we are not allowed to visit other households as yet?

I bring this up because I have Asperger's syndrome/Autism and I would say this has been the most difficult aspect of the restrictions to deal with.
Looking at the government exit strategy I think it seems to be a bit vague and says we may be allowed to mix with one household from 1st June, and then maybe with larger groups for weddings etc.
I also believe the Welsh plan does not mention this at all leaving concern that they may be thinking in Wales of not allowing this until a vaccine or treatment is available which would be ridiculous.
The Republic of Ireland plan seems to be more clear in this respect saying that 4x people from different households will be allowed to gather in private residences from early June. And yes, I do understand the importance of minimising human to human contacts to keep transmission rates down whilst there is still community transmission, but they are now allowing you to meet friends and family in other European countries as restrictions are eased - France, Spain, Germany and Italy - in Sweden it was never restricted in the first place.

New Zealand are now allowing the mixing of people from different households as long as you don't have more than 10 people in your group which sounds sensible to me.

I am good at taking precautions and only meet with friends on a 1 to 1 or 1 to 2 basis anyway so the chances of transmission within my social circle are IMO very low.
I have also brought this up with my MP - if schools are open, public transport operating, passenger flights operating, bars, pubs, restaurants open and most of Europe allowing you to see friends and family it would be ludicrous if visiting someone else's house was prohibited here. I know you can meet friends/family in the park 1 person 2m away ATM but here I am specifically referring to the ability to visit other households?

I am also asking why there has not seemed to be as much pressure or publicity on getting the social aspects of the lockdown relaxed as opposed to the economic/educational ones - yes balancing public health and the threat of Covid 19 against economic or educational damage is important but IMO a balance also needs to be struck between our social and mental wellbeing and the threat posed by Covid 19 - again I have mentioned this in the e-mail to my MP and I am lucky - I live with my parents but many people with ASD live alone and are not even allowed to have their parents visit them.

We have now protected the NHS and passed the peak of infections so IMO these restrictions have served their purpose and I believe now a balance needs to be struck. I have followed the rules to the letter but if this restriction continues into June or July I might start to take my own calculated risk assessment of visiting a friend who lives alone (where I believe the risk of transmission is low) and to sit out in the garden if possible.

When do people think more freedom will be permitted as my birthday is coming up on 18th July and I would like to be able to celebrate it sensibly with a small gathering (less than 5 people probably).

I’m hoping the weather helps to slow the rate of viral transmission through the summer meaning that some of these restrictions will be lifted, because as explained above I would not want to be in a situation in that the rest of Europe can visit friends and family but us in England (and Wales) are still restricted for a very long time.

Comparisons to New Zealand, Ireland, and other countries in respect of their lockdown easing measures are simply not appropriate. The UK has a much higher infection and death rate than these other countries. This the singularly most important factor in when and what one should do when easing the lockdown.

The UK has seen an increase of just under 200 deaths in the past day. That is the lowest we've seen for a while. But, is it sustained? Well, we saw a similar absolute increase on the 9th/10th of May, and on the 11th it increased by 600. So, we can't say it is sustained. Overall, ~6,500 people have died this month from COVID-19.

Here are the countries you compared us to, and the number of people have died from COVID-19 in May.
New Zealand: 2
Republic of Ireland: ~300
France: ~3500
Spain: ~2500
Germany: ~150
Italy: ~3700

The UK is not yet at a stage where other countries are.

We know that Germany's infection rate rose above 1 (IE: every person with COVID-19 was infecting more than 1 person) a few days after their lockdown restrictions were partially raised, but not drastically. The schools had not opened at that point, for example. A similar increase for the UK would be much worse.

We have "protected the NHS" so far because of the lockdown restrictions. Without very careful planning, there is no guarantee that the NHS won't be overwhelmed later, and no guarantee that there won't be another peak of infections.

I agree that there is an absurd paradox in the current COVID-19 restrictions for England. I don't believe that the way to solve this paradox is to relax more (I would revert things more or less back to the situation ~2 weeks ago), because of the evidence I have presented above. I am glad I currently live in Scotland.

In 2 months, I imagine small gatherings (~10 people) will be allowed.

I have ASD, and the lockdown is absolutely defecating on my mental health. I would like the restrictions to be lifted. But, again because of the evidence that I have presented above and others, I don't think the restrictions should be lifted.

 

[185143]

Sounds like it to me. I'm not sure why more is not being made of the sore throat thing. I've heard a number of people report that, and for me (I suspect I had it) that was the most obvious symptom - it was literally like swallowing a broken bottle every time I swallowed, by far the worst sore throat I've ever had.

It is of course possible there's another unusual sore throat virus "going round" - but that seems an odd coincidence.

I'm also someone with the sore throat complaint.

I was also extremely tired for a week or so, but didn't really think much of it as I was away on a rail trip with several early starts. I'd put the sore throat down to the boozing at the time, but in hindsight I'm not so sure.