For everyone who's bending the rules!

I don’t think it is necessarily people breaking the rules that are responsible for the current rate of infections. There are an estimated one in three people who do not have any symptoms when they have the virus and so are unaware that they are infectious. These are the so-called ‘silent spreaders’ who cannot be eliminated until mass testing is introduced.

That is why it has been said that we have to assume everyone has got it.

Nobody can pin-point any one person who could be carrying the virus.

I go, as I have throughout the last year, to my nearest Sainsbury store every Monday morning, arriving soon after 9.00 am. They always have someone out front of the entrance counting how many people go in and ensuring everyone wears masks. Inside the entrance there is both hand gel and spray for the baskets. It has got less and less busy as the weeks have gone by. I assume that so many people are now getting on-line deliveries. I use my shopping list and the zapper - items direct into my own shopping bags. Usually have most aisles to myself. I really do not feel at any danger at all there.

The zappers are wiped down by staff before they are returned to front of store for future use. The smartshop tills are all divided by perspex screens and with plenty of room. Within less than an hour I am back at home able to put away my shopping (having first washed my hands).

If there is any specific danger in supermarkets (& I have not seen any such figures), then it is to the staff members who are there for so many hours at the time, not to shoppers.

For those who want to believe all sorts of conspiracy theories and lab made virus, perhaps they should reading the internet so much.

In my Opinion, the greater majority of the public are trying really hard to obey the ever-changing and conflicting rules. But do feel that we are being led by populist clowns.

The sooner we get the jab the better!

People can contract the virus and remain infectious for 3 months, so will it ever go away from those who tested positive yet only quarantined for 2 weeks ?

Hopefully in another week we will see hospital admissions going down, ditto the deaths.

Alegrias1

So now we want the army on the streets, and identity cards?

This is really getting out of hand. What would be the limit? Why not go the whole way and get those individual GPS trackers the conspiracy theorists are always talking about.

I certainly don’t want the army on the streets, with them checking our (timed!) passes as a poster on here has now suggested in a few posts (Gagajo?) we don’t live in a Fascist state, even if a few posters seem to think that we do.

Just this week we have noticed a new phenomenon, we are on the route to an open space with interesting long views and we notice that two couples are out walking together, the husbands in front marching along and the two wives together catching up on all the news. I am sure if they were stopped they would claim they are two separate lots of walkers but as we watch them get out of their cars we know they are meeting to walk. We are more or less locked down more than the other two rounds, which is my excuse for watching other humans.
On the news we watch packed underground trains and busy parks, it is quieter here I am sure some people think there can be no harm.

I think it's a culmination of things; not locking down fast or strict enough, the protestors, the people who are flouting the rules.

We all know the government did the wrong thing and continue to do so. I am definitely not excusing them, but we are all responsible for ourselves and the most important thing to remember is to keep away from other people. It's as simple as that really.

the rules have been broken right from march, the evidence was there, with internet etc these days there is nowhere to hide so we see it all, crowds on beaches in summer , large raves going on, etc etc, we dont know obviously if things would have been different if they had behaved as they should but its certainly not helped so instead of keep blaming the government maybe we should look to ourselves a little bit and behave responsibly and just use common sense

There are likely to be people who despite sticking to the rules as best they can may be affected then spread the virus unwittingly because they have no symptoms so don’t know to go for a test or self isolate. We go out to shop for ourselves and two other households once a week taking half the supermarket each, paying separately and in and out within half an hour. I carry the Covid app on my phone and we are masked, sanitised and as careful as we can be. Beyond that we just have to hope we don’t pick it up or pass it on!!!

Barmeyoldbat, I'm sorry to hear of your negative experience. All my appointments since March have been either telephone or video. Anything requiring physical attendance has been put on hold. The appointment letter clearly states that I have not to attend in person.

I grabbed the chance this week when I was in hospital to ask for all the postponed bloods to be done.

The rulse, if well thought through and presented with clarity and gravitas, would not be so bendable. Some responsibility must be placed at the PM & cabinet. Of course the deniers and conspiracy theorists will, along with selfish people, do as they feel. Clear rules make it easier for police to deal with those choosing to bend them.

In my own little bubble. Were it not for my phone/tv /pc/tablet /not the by mouth kind /my garden /even in winter, I would be a candidate for the funny farm.Grin and bear it, counting each day the hours of daylight are getting longer.Thankful to get food delivery/medication when needed.Hair needs a good cut. So ? I am existing, not a ball. tough, but far preferable to what is happening to the thousands, who don't even make the next day let alone the next year.

Sadly, a significant percentage of the population are not responsible, thinking adults. They have no common sense and lead insular lives with no community spirit, thinking only of themselves and their 'rights' but not how the exercise of those 'rights' might affect others. I'm all right, Jack! Also unfortunately, very high intelligence doesn't guarantee any level of common sense, either. Common sense is a scarce resource.

Cynical? Moi?

And cases by local authority:

coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/interactive-map?fbclid=IwAR3Photb5yKfjt-CCGuanbxZCB3ApfBIqjrUiKWv61si2inQ8510k1jnhNg

Kandinsky good post. I am shielding and received a letter 2 weeks ago to ATTEND an appointment at the hospital with my consultant for Respiratory Disease. Now I thought about phoning and checking whether I really had to attend but I thought no I know I need to do some tests. When I arrived at the hospital on Friday I was booked in and sent to the waiting room. After about 20 mins someone came out to tell me I was a phone consultation. Where does it say this on my letter I asked. Seem they changed the rules and forgot to tell me. They put me at risk. Same thing has happened at another hospital I am to attend next week but this time I phoned and was told it was a phone consultation.
I am doing my best to keep to the rules, going out on my bike from home whenever I can, food being relived etc but you still need to go the shops to get the odd thing which Mr B does. I am sorry but I blame the government they have been playing catch up along and now blame us.

Cases by local authority:

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1APtcBmI4JeTR0Ysufjavgg2gy4MBiHz0Hf9eKIp5BSo/preview#gid=1865138965

The latest data show that there is a possible slowing down in cases, although they're still very high in most regions, but the deaths are still going up and we haven't reached the point when the Christmas/New Year infections filter through to the statistics.

Baggs, do think lack of social distancing may play a part in the rise? Or is social distancing a waste of effort?.

I live in an urban location, but had to give up my daily walk round the block, when shielding was paused in July (the pause didn't last long) due to the sheer numbers out and about, who were coming towards me in groups.

We are still reaping the rewards of Christmas and New Year. I think it may be a good idea for people to wear masks outdoors now. This variant is so infectious we can't be sure we are safe from it outside. Also parks and other outdoor areas are crowded now

Marydoll

*Baggs*, as we are in strict lockdown here in Scotland, I wondered how the virus is still spreading at such an alarming rate. What else can we do? Any suggestions? It's a genuine question.

I hope you don't mind if I offer an opinion here Marydoll and Baggs. I suggest we wait to see if this is working, it has started to already. We went into lockdown on Tuesday and daily numbers have already flattened out. Red arrow shows when we went into lockdown.

Obviously they need to start going down, else we need to find something else. But maybe what we are doing is good enough.

Baggs, as we are in strict lockdown here in Scotland, I wondered how the virus is still spreading at such an alarming rate. What else can we do? Any suggestions? It's a genuine question.

I don't have any suggestions, marydoll. I just don't think it's necessarily anyone's fault that this virus, and its mutations, is doing what viruses do and doing it very effectively. Could it be that what we and other countries have been doing simply doesn't work, at least that the measures that have been taken don't work enough from the human point of view?

The vaccines might make a big difference. I sure hope so!