The latest figures that are coming out this afternoon on new infections make interesting reading. Germany 138 Belgium 128 Holland 107 Switzerland 17 Austria 48 Denmark 47 UK 1,346 Variations in population numbers of course, but this doesn't look like the time to start easing restrictions.
The World Health Organization has warned that the Covid-19 pandemic is entering a “new and dangerous” phase. Thursday saw the most cases in a single day reported to the WHO. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the day had seen 150,000 new cases with half of those coming from the Americas and large numbers also from the Middle East and South Asia. He said the virus was still spreading fast and the pandemic accelerating. He acknowledged people might be fed up with self-isolating and countries were eager to open their economies but he said that now was a time for extreme vigilance.
He has been on the daily briefings about the coronavirus, but surely he has to go. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...nor-extra-106m.html?__twitter_impression=true
I think they would much rather have your input, they must have a great laugh with your soppy sermons.
Talk of regional lockdown easing. Will that work ? Or would we get people saying why "do they get to open pubs , cafes and not us"
It might work in Cornwall - they've always wanted a border between them and the rest of England. Tricky elsewhere - although a border between Liddypool and manchester would be normal , also one between Yorkshire and just about anywhere. I can't see a steel ring around (for example) Berkhamsted working, however much it might please some people. Seriously though, the idea of stopping some region or other from operating would be a logistical nightmare. Would businesses be able to extend furloughing in some places but not others ? (However, setting up customs posts on county borders would be good practice for the nightmare that will ensue next year.) It would stop people driving from London to Durham for childcare, so not all bad.
I have a question. During the proper lockdown 23rd March onwards, the long distance trains seemed to continue running . Why ?
Just received this from a friend - a pretty accurate summation as far as I'm concerned... Which killed UK citizens faster - World War One, or Boris Johnson's coronavirus response? I think that a lot of people in the UK are numb to the scale of the disaster which has been Westminster's handling of coronavirus. Maybe this will help put it into some sort of perspective. World War One was one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history. It was responsible for the deaths of just under three quarters of a million UK soldiers (744,000). It lasted from 1 August 1914 to 11 November 1918 - call that 51 months - and that averages out at 14,588 deaths per month. The last three months in the UK, the excess death toll (deaths in excess of the average of the last five years) has been over 60,000 - 20,000 per month. Let me put that simply: UK citizens have been dying at a significantly faster rate under Boris Johnson's handling of coronavirus, than they did during the meat-grinder trench warfare of World War One. Bear in mind, during World War One, there were several countries doing their level best to kill as many of us as they possibly could. Johnson doesn't have the excuse of people shooting at us. Remember that island-nation Japan, with twice our population, has had just over 900 deaths. Just about every single UK death is down to Johnson's handling of this pandemic; especially when you consider that the UK was, just a few years ago, considered a global leader in pandemic readiness. Westminster's delay killed in the devolved administrations, despite the best efforts of Holyrood and the Senedd. Legislation giving Wales and Scotland the desperately-needed emergency powers was delayed until the last week of March, well after the disease had already spread to all four UK countries. Border controls still haven't been enforced, and Westminster's collapsed track-and-trace app is the gallows-humour joke of the week. God help us all.
Which essential workers commute from London to Manchester or Glasgow ? Perhaps I'm missing something.. I imagine at most 1 train a day in each direction would have sufficed.
My son who lives up there tells me that some people do commute from Leeds to London daily, but I doubt that unless a banker is an essential worker many care workers would make the trip.
Perhaps it was a contractual thing? A while ago, I queried why air traffic in the skies over America hadn't diminished during lockdown - was told that the airlines had to fly because their contracts for each route stipulated that they had to fly even if empty, otherwise their contracts would be cancelled. I've no idea whether that is true or not, but it seems plausible.
Unfortunately we are moving into dangerous waters now with many countries relaxing travel restrictions in time for the holiday season ! Spain has now relaxed all quarantine requirements for British holiday makers - even though the UK is far from getting this thing under control. Erdogan is justifiably furious that Germany has declared Spain a safe destination, but not done the same for Turkey - even though Turkey has driven the infected numbers down far more successfully. Methinks that this rush to save the tourist season may well backfire badly.
I have to agree with you cologne. It doesn't matter how you look at the figures, the UK is still the sick man of Europe. Economies are now starting to become more important than saving lives, and when you see that the UK has twice the number of new cases every day than any other european country I personally would rather they were kept isolated.
