Lockdown Number Two

~ beetleypete

On the 5th of November, we begin a second national lockdown in England. Once again, bars, pubs, hotels, and restaurants will close. Only essential shops will remain open, and travel will be restricted to work, food shopping, child care, and some emergencies.

So far, it is planned for a period of at least 28 days, but there is no actual time cap if the current high infection rate continues.

To many, this is frustrating. Small business like hairdressers and beauticians have just got going again after the last time. Some entertainment venues were hoping to open in time for Christmas, but now that probably will not happen. Gift shops, toy shops, card shops, and many others reliant on the huge spending boom before Christmas are likely to go bust, with their biggest trading period of the year cancelled.

Some believe it is necessary, to slow the alarming increase in ITU admissions, and subsequent deaths.

But if so, why are schools and colleges remaining open? You tell people that they cannot visit an 80 year old grandmother, or go and have their hair cut on a one to one basis, but it is okay for your child to attend a school with perhaps a thousand other children every day, possibly bringing home the virus to the rest of the family.

To say that Boris Johnson has handled the pandemic badly is an understatement.

78 thoughts on “Lockdown Number Two”

  1. I hope you have had a good start into this second lockdown, Pete? Here we started on Nov., 1, and there is no difference to the first one. But today we got information about a vaccine, inve nted by the German firm BioNTech, in cooperation with Pfizer. Lets hope thats the solution, because from Denmark it seems Covid-21 is arriving. You know, youngster are not always best. 😉 Michael

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  2. How can you predict an end date to the lockdown? That doesn’t make sense. All the businesses who are suffering cannot hold on much longer. When it comes to schools, the youngest children need to be in school, and they’re not spreading the virus. It’s the college kids and parties. I’m surprised that they’re open. Best to you, Pete.

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    1. Three large retail clothing chains announced bankruptcy the day after the lockdown started again. The 28 days is a ‘minimum’, so most of us expect it to exceed that. Many people are no longer believing the government information, and are blatantly ignoring this second stay at home instruction.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  3. As the parent of a school age child, having children at home and working, even at home is almost impossible. I am not equipped to teach my child to read while also doing my full time job. The science shows that primary age children have almost no impact on the spread. I do think keeping colleges and universities open is a completely different story though.

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    1. Secondary schools and colleges should not have reopened, in my opinion. Small children at nursery and reception classes have indeed been proved to not be so much of a threat.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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    1. Now the furlough payments are to be extended until March, suggesting we may be in lockdown until then.
      Thanks very much for your comment. My reply is late, as it was in the Spam Folder.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  6. In March 2015, Bill Gates showed an image of the coronavirus during a TED Talk and told the audience that it was what the greatest catastrophe of our time would look like.
    WHAT? I can only guess.

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  8. I’ve motivated myself to get through a 27 day lockdown but if it goes on any longer not sure what to do.
    I lived in Japan till August and their plan was actually closing schools and keeping almost everything else open and it worked.
    I think if there plan isnt working by week 2 of lockdown they should close schools for the last two weeks!

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  11. If its any consultation the Polish authorities are equally inept. We had a call on Saturday to say that our daughter needs to go on quarantine for 10 days as her teacher had tested positive. The 10 days started on the 23rd of October!
    I always thought that we voted for people who could come up with ideas and debate the pros and cons collectively to provide solutions to the big problems. Instead decisions are made by a select few with little regard to the evidence or use of their imagination. I don’t know what the answer is, but I would have hoped that the collective brains would have come up with something better by now. One thing I would like to see is that travel should be curtailed, be it internationally or even down to a more local level, community even.

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    1. Allowing foreign travel from the start caused huge issues here. People were still departing on cruises in April and May! The chopping and changing of so called ‘Permissible Countries’ has been a nonsense too.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  12. Our numbers back in the US are way up again. All sorts of behavior from the most cautious to the most carefree go on each day. What I’m finding is a certain percentage of people that are getting far more outspoken about not taking any precautions when we should be our most vigilant. As you probably know already, the election is in two days. I’m so ready for it (the pandemic and the election) to be over

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  14. I agree with you totally Pete regarding schools. It is a travesty that schools are remaining open for students while other places are closed. Schools should be closed too because it has been alleged (and I would not be surprised If it were true) that children could get be exposed to cover-19 and end up every bit as ill as the adults who were exposed to it. Then again, you probably knew all of this by now.

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    1. They are likly to become infected, but not ill. Then they pass on the virus to older members of their family, and that’s one big reason why it is out of control again.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  17. And yet in Australia, where states are closed never mind international travel, as my son says. 6 deaths and hardly any infections, but they still are confined to their state. If we had closed borders and stopped people going to France, Spain and Italy for their summer holidays maybe we would have had a chance. But no. Because people are entitled to their holiday. Lockdown properly, get test, track and isolate working, properly, and then maybe we can get on with our lives.

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    1. If he was genuinely concerned, he would close the schools and colleges too. Kids mixing together in large numbers of 1,000+ in schools can only end up bringing the virus home eventually.
      Best wishes,Pete.

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    1. It covers England, Don. But Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland are allowed to make their own rules. So that leaves us with issues around the borders. Some people who live in Wales work in England, for example. It’s a real mess!
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  20. Well, I keep on being shocked . Is there any logic left? I do not know how accurate the numbers are . .all I know is this-we have lost friends and neighbors, the mayor etc – so the thing is real. The mystery and theories of how it came about-well, the point now is how to protect ourselves and one another. We closed schools in our state in March. There were forty cases. Now we are nearing 3000 a day and schools are open! When our governor went to phase II, folks started back shopping and had parties. Churches were radical about opening . . . Sports for kids resumed and outbreaks kept soaring. My heart breaks for small businesses, for I can’t afford to miss a check, myself. I so wished I had a solution, but what I CAN do is keep myself and my family as safe as I can. There are a lot of circuses in town in the U.S. this week-in addition to the virus. Time will tell, as it always does . . . Be safe- and all of England, will be in my thoughts. x Michele

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    1. Thanks, Michele. it is definitely real, and definitely bad. It may be exaggerated here, and played down over there, who knows? But whatever the figures, most of us know people who have died from it, probably unnecesarily.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  25. Online business is booming in the States, even though our lockdowns are not nearly as restrictive. In fact, here in Las Vegas, you can hardly tell there’s a pandemic. Most businesses are open, at least partially. They do require that you wear a mask upon entering, though.

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  26. I have nothing but grief about the handling of this dreadful disease on both sides of the Atlantic. At least I enjoy my husband since we are the only people we see face to face. Others we see with their faces mainly concealed with a mask and six feet away. I have no idea what my last doctor looks like since I only ever saw him with a mask on. I wouldn’t recognize him if I passed him on the street!

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  29. We are currently in a partial lockdown, and there is an expectation this will soon change into a full lockdown. No idea what’s good anymore to be honest. It seems nobody really knows what’s best to do in this situation. Either way, all we can do is hang in there and try to be optimistic. Good times are bound to come back at some point. In the meantime, I guess we are all in this together and if there is one thing I learned about all this, is that supporting each other is something that really has taken on new levels. Which is a good thing. Stay safe Pete 😊

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    1. Thanks for your thoughts, Michel. I think we should never have allowed the return of international travel for one thing, and allowing the schools to stay open during a lockdown makes it all completely pointless to the extent that a huge part of the population will ignore it.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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      1. I agree: it happened here as well, which is why things have become so bad. At the same time I don’t know what’s good anymore. This virus simply won’t go away any time soon I think, not without a vaccine, so even if we lock things down again, eventually we have to re-open and the things starts anew. It’s frustrating to say the least, but well hopefully a solution will present itself at some point. Fingers crossed 🤞😀

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  32. It’s a volatile issue to be sure, Pete…a lockdown is designed to isolate and destroy the virus…but if there are too many loopholes, how successful can it be? We shall see…as you know the US is currently handling this epidemic in an embarrassing way, and we are seeing the result…a corrupt President’s son saying on live TV that the deaths are down to “almost nothing” as he hover at 1,000 deaths PER DAY….shameful

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    1. It is indeed an emotional issue that seems to be dividing countries between believers and deniers. I am in favour of trying to slow any increase, but by keeping the schools open, Boris has made a nonsense of the arguments.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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    2. Yesterday – or the day before – it was 98,000 + New Cases in the country! NOT for a week or a month! ONE DAY! Almost nothing? Clearly, he got his father’s genes! Can’t wait to wave good-bye to that entire crowd of nitwits, liars and thieves!

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