New infections - 100000 per day?

I think that restrictions should be lifted when it looks like infections are falling. Thousands will be at risk of ling Covid which could mean a lifetime of disability. Seems to me that the government have given up.

I certainly will be more careful after July 19th 2021.

I'm not doing the same as I did when the were numbers are low.

All the restrictions that many people willingly adhered to during lockdowns will be unravelled in the next few weeks.

Can I ask all of you who want the restrictions to stay in place, at what point do you think it will be safe to open the country again?
Everybody is welcome to continue wearing masks and socially distance. Apparently 60% still will choose to.
Some of you are saying you barely leave the house at the moment anyway so that doesn't need to change if you're not comfortable.
This virus is likely never to go away - what sort of life do you think we'll be going back to if we hold off on everything for another 6 months to a year? Or are you happy for the restrictions to stay in place forever?
We can all be personally responsible, we're all capable of looking after our own health to a degree.
The alternative is living in a communist state where the government are still telling us who we can have in our homes and when we can hug our children.
Is that really the life you want?
We do have to learn to live with this thing. About 85% of the adult population in the UK have had one vaccine and 65% have been double jabbed.
The virus may still be around but it's lost a huge amount of it's potency and the deaths haven't gone above 33 a day since April.
We can't continuously live our lives in fear or we're not living!
I have a lung condition that makes me vulnerable but I've had both vaccines, I anti-bac when necessary and I keep my distance from strangers as much as I can.
If I still catch it, that's just meant to be.

How lucky Buster tank is!
Even though my auto-immune condition meant that I was under 'Matt's' wing and it was suggested that I stay at home, I found it impossible to do anything on line
Clothing no longer seems to fit anywhere The return item queues can be very long
The supermarkets for which I held 'loyalty' cards had no interest in providing me with food as systems were either down or too complex for me to wade through

Apropos the wearing of face masks, I have no objection in principle, but those of us with Dry Eye and other similar eye conditions can find that the inflammation is exacerbated by the wearing of masks ( there was an article on this by the institute of opticians some time ago) It takes several days anti-inflammatories to calm the eyes down after any prolonged mask-wearing venture such as shopping.Shall I stop wearing a mask?
If and when I can, most certainly.

Alioop
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/chris-whitty-masks-lockdown-covid-b1878776.html

Chris Witty on when he, unmasked. will don a mask . I have yet to speak to an unmasker, including me, who hadn't drawn up similar rules for themselves.

You are being throughly alarmist for no good reason.

I will not be changing my behaviour at all, mask on in shops & public transport if I use it. I was in Hospital in January with Cellulitis, a very severe infection which required IV Antibiotics for 11 days. All patients were tested on admission to the ward & had to have a negative result. 2 patients, who I never had any contact with tested positive several days later, we were tested twice a week. I had 5 negative tests but still had to self isolate for 14 days when I came home. District Nurses visited me every day, I was not required to wear a mask as I was in my own home, I did ask .

Since then I have been to my GP Surgery firstly daily now every two days for dressings. Early March I was informed I had to shield until end of March when restrictions were lifted, why? I didn't have to shield at the start despite having Type 2 Diabetes & Epilepsy amongst other health conditions

I have continued to do my own shopping, visiting my DD & DGSs since bubbles could be formed.

I have also continued to visit a male friend throughout, yes we have hugged, we were agreed that as we both have little interaction with others it was safe to do so, my DD was quite happy for us to continue meeting.

DGS1 isn't supposed to mix with his friends after School despite them being together, in the same bubble, all day at School.

I refuse to give up on life, I have missed so much with Covid lockdowns & now my lack of mobility due to the Cellulitis & treatment that I can't wait to get my life back to normal or at least as normal as it will ever be. I have an appointment at the hairdresser next Friday, I can't wait

Germanshepherdsmum

*Miss Chatelaine*, may I say your posts seem to be all about you and your wife. You are very fortunate to be healthy and I hope you remain so but please don’t think it’s all down to motivation and hard work as you suggest. Luck plays a big part too. I have had asthma since childhood and have therefore feared catching Covid as I don’t think it would go too well for me, and there will be vast numbers of people with that and other conditions not of their own making and not cured by exercise and healthy eating. I have had both vaccinations but can still catch Covid and you can still spread it.

Please think of others and don’t be so selfish. I hope none of those tradespeople you so loved having around whilst the rest of us were trying to keep well away from others caught or spread Covid.

Germanshepherdsmum and cleopanda....totally agree with you. The "I'm all right Jack" selfish community are the reason why this pandemic spread like wildfire in the first place and now the folk refusing to take the vaccine due to ridiculous reasons and those that can't bloody stay at home and are wanting to jump on the first plane out of here. OMG.. . Perhaps if these selfish idiots had had to work in hospitals throughout the pandemic, with no choice whatsoever, and admitted seriously ill covid patients as my 27 year old junior doctor daughter working in a busy city emergency med dept had to do on a daily basis for months. She and her fellow medical staff had to put their own safety aside and treat covid patients, often helplessly watching people dying a horrible death, young and old alike. Hospital Medical staff have been left traumatised by the experience, let alone the families of the dead who will never recover. So for all the miss chatelaine's out there, have a good long think about your self absorbed selfishness and make the world a better place and start thinking of others!!!!

Growstuff yes they did say that it may be able to evade the current vaccines, so with that variant in circulation surely the government should be proceeding with more caution. How long before it is identified, isolated and stamped out? Some people are extremely worried particularly those with compromised immune systems who will have to shut themselves away from 19th July.

To hear hospital admissions are rising, but not as many deaths doesn't help the waiting time for people needing treatment for their heart, cancers, etc. A lot of people have waited too long before Covid and now yet again beds and time are being taken up with Covid admissions, it's so not fair. Why should these people be denied care cos someone thinks they don't want to bother wearing a mask anymore and want to be "free" again. I'm sure the NHS are sick to death of all this and a hell lot more than we are. They have worked so hard for so long. My jabs are done, but mask will still be firmly on.

UK total tests 220M ie 3.2M per 1M population
France 95M tests ie 1.4M per 1M population
Germany 63.8M tests ie 0.76 tests per 1M population
Do more tests and find more cases. The UK has carried out more tests than any other country in Europe.
Source worldometers.info/coronavirus/

I will continue not to mix . I will continue having my shopping delivered rather than going in store . I will continue to shop on line for clothes and presents . I refuse to be part of the governments experiment .

Maggieanne : you are right about the hand sanitizer stations in shops. Personally myself I always use them.
This week I found the hand sanitizer in the bank was empty, the sanitizer in supermarket was empty, and popped into quick tesco for some salad and their sanitizer was empty.
Seems to me they are now not as fussy as they will probably
discontinue all that after the 19th July. Heard yesterday that the self testing home kits will be free until end of July then they will start charging for them

The Lambda variant won't "get stronger", but there is already evidence it evades the current vaccines. It needs to be identified, isolated and stamped out. It's not known ye if it's more transmissible than the Delta variant, but if it is, it could replace it.

3nanny6 I have mentioned it at least twice (on other coronavirus threads I think). This new variant is causing concern because it has some unusual features. It's the variant which caused havoc in South America and there are at least 9 cases in the UK. Scientists aren't on top of it yet.

Too many rising cases and illness going on. My 30 year old son never complains and has said in the past that Covid does not exist. He has had a sore throat, cough and tightness in the chest
for about 8 days and he carries on like he is dying. (I have got sympathy for him) but I think it is the bug going around that a lot of people have got. He says he must have Covid although I have made him do two of the self testing swabs for home use and they showed negative.
I am surprised that not one person on this thread or any other coronavirus thread has mentioned the NEW VARIANT
that I read about last week. It is called the Lambda variant and for the first time today I heard it talked about on T.V.
Will it start getting stronger? who knows not sure what will happen now as we are getting closer and closer to 19th July.

M0nica

Surely, if the vacccination reduces the severity of the disease and hospital admissions and deaths have fallen dramatically, it will also reduce the number of people getting long COVID.

I quite like this graphic. It illustrates that no single intervention is perfect. In fact, even a combination of all interventions won't be perfect, but the more which are being used, the less the chance of being infected and being ill and/or suffering from lonCovid.

The choice of the term Freedom Day was ill advised. In the minds and actions of many it is being interpreted as freedom from having to consider anyone else, and a return to putting self first. It has begun long before the 19th, which remains a date and not data as we were promised.

Maggieanne

I haven't read all of this thread but my main concern is that so many people, out and about shopping etc., do not use hand sanitizer. This must be one of easiest ways of transmitting any virus. Time and time again a lot of shoppers walk past the sanitizer stations, I really do think that this should be mandatory.

No, it isn't. Most transmission is airborne, either by water droplets which fall to the ground within about 2 metres or aerosols, which linger in poorly ventilated spaces.

It is possible to transmit a virus by surface to surface contact, but it's not so efficient. The easiest thing is to try and avoid touching your own face, which I find easier when wearing a mask.

Totally agree with everything you said

Surely, if the vacccination reduces the severity of the disease and hospital admissions and deaths have fallen dramatically, it will also reduce the number of people getting long COVID.

I haven't read all of this thread but my main concern is that so many people, out and about shopping etc., do not use hand sanitizer. This must be one of easiest ways of transmitting any virus. Time and time again a lot of shoppers walk past the sanitizer stations, I really do think that this should be mandatory.

I am seriously worried by these 'mixed messages'.

I agree with much of this, Athenia without going quite so far as you do. The bolts are drawn back and the animals are let out of the cage but extra alarms are set on all sides to persuade them to stay inside.
If the govt and its advisers truly believe their own scare stories they would be requiring masks at Sunday's football match, and have been doing so at all such events.

Same here. I will not be changing my protection behaviour.

Athenia

Amazed that so many believe the official figures.
Does it not make you suspicious that no influenza cases were recorded all winter?
They were all called covid, regardless.
Please do your own research.
Very sadly, the reported figures are being hyped in order to create fear and panic in the population at large.
This virus has caused the death of 0.03 of the population, exactly the same as winter flu, usually those with other conditions and elderly.
Please take courage and use the internet to inform yourself about statistics, as the media is manipulating your thoughts to create fear and division.
This is not the kind government that you imagine it to be. Please be aware.

Can I suggest you use reliable sources to do your "research"?

Do you honestly think doctors can't tell the difference between Covid and flu?

I would have thought that the reason for the low number of flu cases was obvious. Flu is transmitted in a similar way to Covid, so distancing and masks also reduced flu cases. It really isn't rocket science.