Busy streets and shopping malls should be shut

Humbertbear
That's why 1,000s have given up on the rules They don't see the reasoning in that you can clothes shop where your very likely to be close to how many people? But you can't go to a pub or restaurant where the owners have gone to a lot of time and expense to make you safe.

Someone in my family ( not close) is just back from holiday in Istanbul. I had just read that virus cases there had gone up so much they were in total lockdown last week end. I don't understand how someone can come back into this country ,get in a taxi home ,probably have to go for food and then isolate ( if they even do that ) where is the control that they don't carry in into this country ?

Lots of comments here about shutting UK off from the rest of the world.

My son has continued to fly out to Europe for his essential work. This has had to continue through the lockdowns. He lives by himself and used to see his daughter (11) when he was at home. I say used as he has now not seen her face to face for 7 months. Lots of facetime though.

I agree the scenes of crowded London streets fill me with horror too but this is not a recent occurrence. These streets are always busy. Only quiet time was probably during the first lockdown.

Someone's asked about no more food imports and use what we produce. The UK is not self-sufficient in food production; it imports 48% of the total food consumed and the proportion is rising.

Look at the Exemption Travel list its pages and pages long. Nearly anyone can travel to and fro into UK. Noticed our Brexit negotiators are flying in and out escorted by an entourage of officials. European heads all met last week in Brussels to discuss Brexit. Now they don't travel alone. Isolate, it's only the lowly public who are expected do that. The Police don't have enough staff nor are the laws tight enough to enable them to actually charge the law breakers.

The bottom line is that the vast majority of deaths are in the over 65 age group so people at not too bothered. Others are just bored with the whole thing and carrying I as normal. I don't think that there's an easy answer but the country is lacking in leadership so people are making their own judgement calls as opposed to following guidance. There's very little guidance from central government and the PM noticeable by his absence.

Our local Football Stadium is now open for spectators at matches. I have heard that they leave just one seat between fans, that during the match people move around from one seat to another, at half-time they go to buy drinks etc, and at the end of the match everybody just leaves by the same gate. No social distancing at any time. I think it is appalling.

Aepgirl

Our local Football Stadium is now open for spectators at matches. I have heard that they leave just one seat between fans, that during the match people move around from one seat to another, at half-time they go to buy drinks etc, and at the end of the match everybody just leaves by the same gate. No social distancing at any time. I think it is appalling.

There was a recent rugby match shown on a sports report. The crowd behind the goal posts was clearly seen and hardly any seats left empty.

Nanny27

I think the guidelines say that you need to be in close proximity to an infected person for around 15 minutes to pass the virus. Passing people in shopping streets is therefore much less risky than eating a meal with someone.

I don't believe this for one minute.
My DH caught the virus and we were both shielding.
We have both wracked our brains and cannot for the life of us work out how he caught it.
He must have caught it from fomites (sp?) possibly when taking me to the hospital.
I don't want to scaremonger - but it happens.

Quizqueen as the mother of a Police Officer I find your post offensive and ill informed. I f I had my way people who think like you should be barred from calling on the services of them should you ever need it.Then you may appreciate them a little more!!!!!

Horrified (as I can well see the dangers) to hear that the latest rumour where I am in the far SE is that immigrants landing at Folkestone bought the new variation of the virus. Extra police are now deployed. It really seems best to just stay locked down as we are

If we leave the EU with no deal, what’s going to happen then
with no trucks coming or going to Europe

A large shopping centre near me in N.Ireland let Primark open for a straight 33hrs and the crowds were a disgrace. They were queued the whole way down the mall and back on themselves again, all indoors! No social distancing if the pictures were anything to go by. It's been on our local news and the local council have had words with them. Why would anyone stand in queues like that, where were the police with fines, they'd of made a fortune. Dear help us all in the New Year.

In answer to the original question, yes, shopping malls and busy streets should be shut. Passing on the virus, even if it dosn't make the recipient seriously ill, is still undessirable as the more it's passed on the sooner new mutations will arise. Some might get round the vaccinations.

So difficult, we can’t just lockdown everything forever. We tried that, and it only works for as long as lockdown lasts. The virus isn’t going to burn out anytime soon, even with a vaccine.

It’s easy to call for places to close when you don’t have the worry about losing your job or business, with all the misery that can entail.

I do go into Mumbles today (part of Swansea). It was busier than I would have liked but I was desperate to at least see human beings other than my nearest and dearest. That said I didn't stay long and didn't feel particularly safe. Too many people and too close.
As for shutting our borders I'm not sure how that could work.
Personally I'm continuing to stay home.

The daughter of a friend of mine went home to Yorkshire the night before the first lockdown and has stayed there since - however she had to go back for something and said that London was just the same as normal - streets rammed the Tube rammed with people, nothing seemed to have changed at all!

Everybody knows how to keep safe-but people have so many different opinions on what keeping safe entails and only follow their own decisions.
Regrettably, one of my nephews has tested positive for COVID, so far he’s not very ill but his wife is making him stay home.
He’s an ardent mask refuser but, when I WhatsApp’d him to ask how he was, and where did he think he might have caught it, he ranted about catching it from folk who ‘must have breathed on him on the way to work!’ What could I say?

Retiredwell. Some of my family live in Western Australia. They closed their borders as soon as it became clear that an epidemic had begun. Only essential people were allowed in. Delivery drivers had to obey strict rules about how to make their deliveries, with minimal contact. Quarantine rules were put into place very quickly.
As a result almost all the Covid cases were people from cruise ships and planes, who had been isolated as soon as they arrived. There have been almost no cases in the general population.
They have relaxed the internal admittance rules slightly now, but are still using strict rules about who they admit, and to quarantine people coming from abroad,
It can be done, if you act quickly and don’t let half the world in before deciding what to do.

A professor said on LBC this morning that he would not support compulsory wearing of masks outdoors as there is no evidence that they are of any value as it is much harder to catch a virus outside.

DebKell29

A professor said on LBC this morning that he would not support compulsory wearing of masks outdoors as there is no evidence that they are of any value as it is much harder to catch a virus outside.

Is there any evidence they do any harm?

luluaugust

Horrified (as I can well see the dangers) to hear that the latest rumour where I am in the far SE is that immigrants landing at Folkestone bought the new variation of the virus. Extra police are now deployed. It really seems best to just stay locked down as we are

Is there any evidence, or is it just a rumour?

I live in Spain and our rules have been much stricter than the U.K. until Saturday, we were not allowed to go from village to village/town to town without paperwork proving your reason for leaving your municipality. My husband got stopped by the police going to the vets to pick up medication for our dog. If he had not had his paperwork he would have been given a €600 fine. The police here don’t believe in giving folk 2nd chances, you break the law, you pay the price. But, sadly, there are still eejits willing to risk it and who even seem to take pleasure in ‘outdoing’ the police. And even sadder, a lot of them are fellow Brits. As they say ‘you cannot stop stupid folk from misbehaving’.

They got no thoughts but for themselves.its awful.shop owners should be refuse them if they not wearing a mask

If I had a shop I'd put a big notice up 'No mask No entry' but of course the shops don't want to lose money.

An earlier post mentioned the packed tube trains in London. How are people supposed to get to work? Despite what we hear about people working from home an awful lot of employers won't allow it. My DH has had to travel into his office amost every day because his employer insists on staff being there. I guess there are a lot like this hence the packed tubes etc