Greater Manchester

Also in Greater Manchester and I feel we will go into an even stricter lockdown as it has been rumoured that the restrictions will be tightened up.
I fear for us all.

Also in GM. Everyone is feeling the pressure and many businesses have ust given up. So sad.

I'm a in a part if the West Midlands that looks as though it's heading for tier 3

Feeling for you in Manchester and hoping most will be able to hang on in there until the vaccine turns things around.
We’re not too bad in Anglesey at the moment but aware that it can change on a sixpence.
Good luck

Yes, I fully expect Greater Manchester to be in the top tier again with even tighter restrictions. I actually live just a few hundred yards from the border with Cheshire and our infection rates are below national average but it’s a post code lottery!

Still, no whinging from me, I do however feel sorry for those businesses affected by closures, I hope they manage to hang on.

Anglesey has some of the lowest infection/death rates in Wales (my county Conwy at the lower end also) LauraNorder but Mr Drakeford is adamant there will be no ‘tiering’ In Wales.

That means we’ll all be under curfew/firebreak if figures in South Wales don’t plummet soon☹️

There is no perfect solution but I do think that tiering is a fairer system than a blanket lockdown. It concentrates the mind of those in the higher tiers and doesn’t punish areas where the incidence of the virus is low.

Yes I agree Parsley but as our area is very likely to go into tier 3, not being able to see anyone, everything closed etc, I am quite annoyed that we have been sticking to the rules and others haven't and have caused the spread here. I've seen people behaving like idiots.

I agree Kate and I am presently in the highest tier in Scotland so I know what its like. The second lockdown here was worse as yet again I can’t see my granddaughter and local businesses are taking another hit. The COVID-19 daily dashboard has been very useful for me to keep track of numbers in my local area and I can see whether the measures in place are working or not. But it is indeed up to individuals to do the right thing.

Yes Parsley I agree. It's hard but we will do what's asked of us, as we have been doing all along. I was exasperated when, just before this present lockdown, we visited our little local pub.
Great precautions in place. A couple we're sitting at a table when a young man came in and asked if he could join them. The staff said no but you can sit at the next table. Great they said and sat and chatted.
They then got up to leave and flung their arms around each other (no masks). I felt like screaming.

We and our friends and family have also been abiding by the rules...and its annoying that the,probable minority, are causing everyone else to suffer...

I've friends and family who live in the Tier 3 areas and worry about them. All are following what everyone should be doing but are still suffering.

GD has been sent home from school (secondary) twice now to isolate, as some has been tested positive.

Our daughter and son-in-law tested positive. Fortunately they are OK.

That means we’ll all be under curfew/firebreak if figures in South Wales don’t plummet soon

It does seem unfair; however, certain cities and areas were locked down separately before the firebreak was introduced, five? in N Wales and 12 in S Wales so perhaps that just didn't work well enough.

Travel between North and South Wales is rather tortuous, though, and wouldn't be a normal commute so why all areas are treated the same is only known to Mr Drakeford. People living in S Wales are much more likely to commute to the Bristol area and vice versa.

Mr Drakeford is considering doing something similar to the English and Scottish tier system as something needs to be done about the rise in infections. I am in North Wales and I think our numbers are not too bad at the moment.

I think that rather than "punitive" measures, there should be a more sophisticated understanding of why the virus continues to spread in certain areas.

It's known that there is a higher density of cases in areas where there are high levels of deprivation and poor housing. There is a higher percentage of people in such areas doing zero hours jobs and other jobs which can't be done from home. Many of them don't pay sick leave, so people carry on working. They're also likely to live in housing and have caring responsibilities, which make self-isolation difficult.

For example, one poor area of Liverpool has a very low (4%) uptake of free testing. The reasons being given are that people don't want to know if they're infected because they wouldn't be able to work.

Growstuff I agree. Until we look after people properly when they have to isolate this problem will continue. If there is no money coming in they will continue to work and spread the virus in those areas.

I fear for those who are going to let their guard down over Christmas.
Visiting etc. Shopping in crowded places, because they will be, seeing as there'll be only a limited time left after Dec. 2nd.
People will just go mad. It doesn't bear thinking. There are already too many people dying.

I agree with you EllanVannin. There were 608 new deaths announced today, which is the highest number in a single day since the first wave.

Thank goodness new cases seem to be reducing (hopefully not a spreadsheet glitch), but they'll begin to soar again.

I’m confused about the suggestion that the high Covid levels are only in South Wales, as that isn’t the case, there are some major hotspots in the North as well? The problem with this virus is that it can flare up very quickly - I live in Powys, which has a low rate overall - but my nearest town has gone in one week from being in the lowest decile to the highest. It isn’t an area of deprivation either, just a market town - but doesn’t hit the headlines because in the scheme of things it’s insignificant.
I’d guess that the population of Greater Manchester is probably similar to the population of the whole of Wales, so fine tuning because one area is lower than another that week is a lot to ask in my opinion. Manchester is by no means the only place in England in this position either, I’ve got family in Nottingham and Leicester, and they are in the same boat.

Do you mean the highest decile in Wales or the UK?

Powys has nowhere near the number of cases as most areas of England or South Wales.

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

There have been 116 new cases in the last 7 days. Without knowing all the details, it could well be that most of them come from the same source. It only takes one infected person to cause many more to be infected over a few days.

Anglesey, Conwy and Gwynedd combined have only had four new cases registered today. At those levels, the virus is almost eradicated.

My nearest town is the highest decile in Wales, it is is over 350 per 100,000. You can look up on the Public Health Wales website by medium super output area (c7000 population) to see what the rate is for the whole of Wales, I imagine probably for the rest of the UK as well. I wish you were right that at the levels in your area the virus is almost eradicated, but that’s not true - it only takes one party or similar work or social gathering for a flare up to happen very quickly -aka the Anglesey meat factory?

I just looked up Anglesey out of interest, 12 cases in the last 7 days, so the virus is definitely not eradicated there? When you’re in the lowest decile(0-2 cases per 100,00) it is pretty close to eradicated, and there’s area few areas of Wales in that position, but not many.

This table, which includes data from Public Health Wales, says there have been 19 new cases in Anglesey in the last 7 days. I wonder why there's a discrepancy ... hmm.

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

That works out to 3.88 per 100,000 people. Realistically, that's almost as low as it's ever going to be for a long time, unless a vaccine has an effect. If the situation is managed well and the authorities manage to trace contacts, they could eradicate community transmission. Now all you have to do is declare independence and place naval mines in the Menai Strait .