• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Why can we not meet more than one other family member now? (update: you can from 1st June!)

Status
Not open for further replies.
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Huntergreed

Established Member
Associate Staff
Events Co-ordinator
Joined
16 Jan 2016
Messages
3,019
Location
Dumfries
I would like to know why we can not meet family now.
I do think that some of the restrictions are beginning to get a little excessive, whilst I appreciate social distancing should be enforced in public places and mass gatherings banned, I do think they need to ask if there is really such a risk to overwhelming the NHS at present that this is still a strictly necessary rule
 

yorkie

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
67,433
Location
Yorkshire
I would like to know why we can not meet family now.
My understanding is that the current restrictions are due to be relaxed on Thursday (ie. two days time)

I would be very surprised if the limit was not increased to enable meeting a larger number of people, perhaps 4, 5, or 6 (it's currently 6 in NI and 10 in Italy) however I expect we will be asked to remain outside (the risks of infection is far greater inside than outside)
 

Ianno87

Veteran Member
Joined
3 May 2015
Messages
15,215
I hope it gets at least partially relaxed soon - so you can stay overnight at the household of another family member.
 

underbank

Established Member
Joined
26 Jan 2013
Messages
1,486
Location
North West England
I hope it gets at least partially relaxed soon - so you can stay overnight at the household of another family member.

People have been doing that since lockdown begin. Our neighbours, each side, have had their daughters' boyfriends staying over on and off. The house opposite has had at least 9 people spending nights there on and off, that's the daughter and son who seem to come and go as they please, boy/girlfriends, 2 different partners of the mother, her sister and brother in law. She's basically not changed anything at all, and what's even worse is that she's a key worker so probably also randomly mixing with people at work too. Lots of people are already blatantly flouting the rules.
 

Chester1

Established Member
Joined
25 Aug 2014
Messages
3,972
I would like to know why we can not meet family now.

The short answer is because the government has only been in a position to be confident that its safe in last few days and we can expect changes soon.

We need a minimum of two weeks, preferably three from making a change to knowing the affect it has on infection rates. Allowing 1 person to meet 1 other from the same household and only outside was the safest and smallest step they could take on allowing households to mix. Its clear that it has had little or no effect on infection rates therefore its very likely that the (English) regulations will be loosened from either Thursday or Monday (depending on what media stories you believe). Its the same reason that some primary school kids will return to school on 1st June but secondary schools won't change until 15th June or why market stalls etc are allowed from 1st June but non essential shops are not reopening until the 15th June. If there is a spike in infections from the first stage then the government can pull the plug on the second stage at the last minute.

My bet is that groups of less than 10 will be allowed to meet outside from Monday (in England).
 

Yew

Established Member
Joined
12 Mar 2011
Messages
6,538
Location
UK
My bet is that groups of less than 10 will be allowed to meet outside from Monday (in England).


I'd like to think so, however I worry that the media seem obsessed with the much more risky activity of meeting grandparents, and we'll get much tighter restrictions in order to allow that.
 

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,539
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
I'd like to think so, however I worry that the media seem obsessed with the much more risky activity of meeting grandparents, and we'll get much tighter restrictions in order to allow that.

Groups of 10 were definitely mentioned when the plan was outlined, but I thought it was July.
 

yorkie

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
67,433
Location
Yorkshire
I don't know, it looks to me to be tailing off, i.e. R tending a bit closer to 1.
The overall R value is effectively meaningless.

What matters is the community R value (ie. excluding hospitals and care homes) and you really need to look at this in relevant places; if the R value continues to be low in places that had a higher number of infections, but higher in places that had a lower number of infections, then that's in line with what you'd expect anyway.
 

AM9

Veteran Member
Joined
13 May 2014
Messages
14,191
Location
St Albans
And despite what the lockdown enthusiasts say, it doesn't seem to have had any negative effect on the rate of new infections!
That's because most people are doing what the government said, i.e. meeting outside and keeping the requested social distancing. Therefore there's little chance of spreading it. However as bletchleyite has said, the declared R rate has drifted up a little. For an idea of what happens when a real relaxation of distancing happens, look at the news today where in Seoul where there is a spike in cases, - the highest for over a month. They a frantically stepping up the tracing and testing regime and talking about shutting things down again. Maybe they are just closet "lockdown enthusiasts". :rolleyes:
 

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,539
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
That's because most people are doing what the government said, i.e. meeting outside and keeping the requested social distancing. Therefore there's little chance of spreading it. However as bletchleyite has said, the declared R rate has drifted up a little. For an idea of what happens when a real relaxation of distancing happens, look at the news today where in Seoul where there is a spike in cases, - the highest for over a month. They a frantically stepping up the tracing and testing regime and talking about shutting things down again. Maybe they are just closet "lockdown enthusiasts". :rolleyes:

My view is that we can open up a bit more, such as groups of 10 in public and meeting people in gardens, but then we should be very careful indeed - ramp up track and trace, see that it's successful and reduces R substantially, and then reopen more.
 

yorkie

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
67,433
Location
Yorkshire
I believe an announcement is imminent in the next few days, so let's reopen the discussion at that point.
 

yorkie

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
67,433
Location
Yorkshire
Groups of up to 6 are allowed to meet from Monday 1st June in England:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52839182

Groups of up to six people from different households will be able to meet outside in England from Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced.

In Scotland the restriction is two households, or with groups of up to eight:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52819189
Ms Sturgeon said people from two different households will be able to meet, but must keep two metres apart.

They must also remain outdoors, and in groups of no more than eight.

So two families, each of four people, can meet in Scotland, but not in England.

Northern Ireland's restriction is similar to England, while Wales is similar to Scotland.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top