Coronavirus - Strange times

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tightrope78
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri 27 Feb, 2015 15.35

In Northern Ireland the guidance is that if you are contacted by a tracer you isolate for 14 days irrespective of symptoms. You only get a test if you show any symptoms. Even if the test is negative you should still isolate for the full period. You will only be contacted though if you were within 2 metres, for 15 minutes or more, of someone who has tested positive. In that instance the whole pub or restaurant wouldn’t need to isolate. The onus is on the individual rather than the business to reveal the ‘close contacts’.



Also, confirmation from Tesco today that they’re ditching the one-way system and the dedicated shopping hours for the elderly and NHS staff. I think this is incredibly short-sighted. I don’t believe there’s sufficient public confidence to do away with the dedicated shopping hour. My parents I have found it really useful and have not found their grocery shopping stressful. Whilst I know the threat to public health is much lower now I don’t believe public confidence is quite there yet, whilst the public’s behaviour and adherence to social distancing is questionable.

Edit: Received confirmation from Tesco, via a Tweet, that the priority shopping hours for the elderly and NHS staff stays!
Martin Phillp
Posts: 1469
Joined: Wed 11 May, 2011 01.28

In the last couple of weeks, the queuing levels at Sainsbury's have either been low or none at all. There's now a poor person who stands outside all day counting customers entering the store, but they're rarely stopping people entering.

Stock levels are also fully back to normal. There was still issues with stocks of tinned food, but that was the final piece in the jigsaw.

I also went to Iceland on Monday and for the first time since lockdown, they weren't controlling customer levels and as cafes and restaurants reopened for eat-in (McDonalds is still take away), they had a fair amount of stock as customers went for burgers outside instead of stockpiling them for the freezer.
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cwathen
Posts: 1309
Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 17.28

Also, confirmation from Tesco today that they’re ditching the one-way system and the dedicated shopping hours for the elderly and NHS staff. I think this is incredibly short-sighted. I don’t believe there’s sufficient public confidence to do away with the dedicated shopping hour. My parents I have found it really useful and have not found their grocery shopping stressful. Whilst I know the threat to public health is much lower now I don’t believe public confidence is quite there yet, whilst the public’s behaviour and adherence to social distancing is questionable.
TBH, nothing will recover as long as some people feel the need to constantly remind people of how not normal things are. We know things are not normal, but equally some people are disproportionately scared of going out. Their confidence to do so will not build until there are efforts made to normalise things, part of which is not having to queue to get into supermarkets at specific times depending on your demographic in order to seize on your one shot at getting food for the day as if we're living in some sort of post apocalyptic world which briefly is how things were starting to feel in late March/early April.

Also worth remembering that these special hours were introduced *before* there was a lockdown or any social distancing policies; the purpose of them was to counter the panic buyers so that specific groups of people had the opportunity to do a basic shop before the minesweepers came in buying up all the bog roll and tinned tomatoes. Panic buying was already pretty much over by the end of March, it is now July and there aren't really any stock issues on anything.

Maybe YMMV depending on where you live, but in my neck of the woods no supermarket has been enforcing any early doors policies for over a month now; they are simply glad to have any customers at all in the store early in the morning for there are so few of them. I was actually shocked to have to queue at my local Sainsbury's last Saturday for this must have been the first time in a couple of weeks I've had to (and even then it was a tiny queue compared to those in April). Once policies get updated to allow for 1M social distancing inside which will greatly increase capacity that's pretty much going to be the end of the queues for all but the absolute peak of peak times.
james2001
Posts: 718
Joined: Sat 04 Jun, 2005 23.10

I guess there's a question of how long even the current restrictions will hang around if cases keep falling at the rate they have been the last few weeks. If we get to the point where there's only a double digit number of daily new cases, and theoretically most of them and their contacts should be self-isolating, will there be much need for social distancing or limiting capacity any more?
tightrope78
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri 27 Feb, 2015 15.35

People holding out hope for a vaccine to be developed quickly, even this year, is ridiculous. Edward Jenner invented the vaccine for smallpox in 1798 and smallpox wasn’t declared eradicated until the early 21st century. I know medicine has moved on and it’s not a fair comparison but vaccines still take years to develop and years to work properly.
Martin Phillp
Posts: 1469
Joined: Wed 11 May, 2011 01.28

Sainsbury's have announced this evening that all customers are now welcome to shop during priority hours, but NHS workers and the elderly and disabled will still be given priority during their hours.

They've also started to gradually reopen their pizza counters this week and new customers can register for home delivery slots again.
TVF's London Lite.
bilky asko
Posts: 1400
Joined: Sat 08 Nov, 2008 19.48

tightrope78 wrote: Fri 10 Jul, 2020 18.46 People holding out hope for a vaccine to be developed quickly, even this year, is ridiculous. Edward Jenner invented the vaccine for smallpox in 1798 and smallpox wasn’t declared eradicated until the early 21st century. I know medicine has moved on and it’s not a fair comparison but vaccines still take years to develop and years to work properly.
Yes, medicine has moved on from the invention of the vaccine over 200 years ago. There's no need to sensationalise with nonsense when actual scientists are already giving out realistic estimates of how long a vaccine could take to develop.
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scottishtv
Posts: 743
Joined: Thu 01 Apr, 2004 15.36
Location: Edinburgh

Nearly everyone wearing face masks in shops when I was out and about today (as we should now up here). Lots of adjusting and face-touching going on though. May take a little getting used to.

Still felt odd being welcomed into the bank with my black mask on, and only my eyes showing...
gottago
Posts: 260
Joined: Thu 29 Jan, 2009 19.50

This has popped up in the former Mothercare in Westfield Stratford. It looks a little more permanent than you'd think for something that will probably be temporary but I expect this one will be the one they wheel out in front of the press and will perhaps look a bit fancier than other centres across the country.

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How busy are everyone's local shopping centres? I'm finding Westfield is constantly full, even on a Monday during the day it's been pretty busy, certainly more so that before Corona though I suppose that's a lot to do with more people in the walkways thanks to the capacity of the shops. John Lewis reopened last week and has a constant large queue snaking out of the centre. The only thing not being queued for is the new Topshop/man which no one seems to care about anymore.
all new Phil
Posts: 1965
Joined: Sun 13 Feb, 2005 00.04
Location: Next door to Hell

Meadowhall seemed moderately busy the other day with plenty of people not following the one-way system. Queues for a couple of shops but not many (only spotted them for Apple and Zara).
cdd
Posts: 2607
Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 14.05

My observation is that many of the places that were busy before the pandemic are now pretty busy again, and many of the places that were pretty empty are, again, pretty empty. I don't doubt there's been a demand hit, but I suspect a lot of the complaints will come from businesses that were in the latter category to begin with.

How do others think mandatory masks in shops are going to play out? The number of people doing so at present are extremely low, unlike public transport where there was substantial pre-existing compliance.
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