20-09-21 Monday - Covid-19 Day 193 - It's Interminable, Isn't It?

I did consider dropping the Covid day numbering on these posts, but events this week have discouraged me from doing so. Now that the rules have changed - again - and we are going to be restricted to meetings of no more than six, it seems that this is still relevant.

Because of the ongoing loosening of restrictions, however cautious or well-intentioned they might have been, we have all become a bit lax in our approach to Covid-19. But unfortunately, the virus hasn't changed. It is still out there, waiting to infect us. It's my suspicion that the precautions we have been advised to take probably aren't enough; if we're confronted with someone with Covid-19, a cloth mask might not be enough to prevent spread and infection. But, those are the rules we've been advised to follow, and so those are the rules I am going to follow. 

I do feel, though, that we are almost back at the start again. We slowly loosened the lockdown restrictions, we had "eat out to help out" and "get back to your offices" (we didn't obey that one). The kids are now back at school, and students will be back at university shortly, but the numbers of new cases are now higher than they were before we locked down first time around, and they don't show any signs of slowing.

From my family's perspective, we were in quarantine last week because the kids showed individual symptoms, and so we were advised to get tested. The kids were, eventually, but we couldn't get a drive-through test for love nor money. My assumption is that a lot of the tests are repeat tests for care workers and key workers, so although there are a lot of tests being processed, it is difficult to get one now if you are a member of the public with symptoms. On Saturday we received the tests and they were negative, so we were released from our self-isolation, and we celebrated with a long walk on Saturday afternoon in the West Sussex countryside. 

I think we are heading back into a national lockdown of a sort, due to the increase in cases and the increased level of warnings we are receiving from the scientists. It will look slightly different to the first lockdown, so that those in charge can demonstrate that we're "making progress", but the effect will be the same. So it was interesting to get a taste of lockdown, albeit a short one. 

In my view, if the "circuit breaker" is aimed at hospitality, i.e., restaurants and pubs, it will be aimed at the wrong target. Pubs and restaurants have been open since early July without case numbers going up. What has happened recently is the start of the autumn term in schools. It's all very well to tell us to socially distance from other members of the public, but if our kids are all congregating in schools and then coming home with whatever bugs and viruses, including Covid, that they've exchanged with their classmates during the day, then that is a massive open channel through which the virus can travel. I know that they don't want to close schools, but I don't see how they can't. Anyway, time will tell, I suppose. 

TTFN.