COVID-19

Just seen a report on BBC about school closures in Northern Ireland for coronavirus. They are saying it will be for about 16 weeks which will then take it upto around the summer holidays, so 22 weeks could be possible.

What is the plan for the teachers during this time? Is it just extra paid holiday, unpaid, or are they going to redirect them and have them helping elsewhere in the government eg hospitals etc?

 

Asda owlcotes is like a bomb has hit it. No meat left, no beans, soup, toilet rolls, juice, milk. Then there’s frozen stuff practically gone.
It’s carnage and will take them a while to catch up. Especially if we go into lockdown any time soon

 

Please god no. It’s bad enough they are talking about bringing back retired folk to man the wards in hospitals but other under qualified staff in hospitals would be awful.
I suggest they get paid as normal. Government will need to bail out councils etc if it comes to that

 

I meant to help porters etc not be doing medical stuff

 

Plans are (quietly) being put into place for teachers and schools although I've not heard any rumours of 16 weeks off school.

Initially children will be sent home with packs that will last a week or 2. After that it will be teaching via online facilities so teachers will plan and deliver lessons probably by recorded clips I would imagine and be available for q&a during school hours. Work can be submitted electronically, marked and feedback returned.

The problem will be the children who don't have internet access or access to devices to work on but that can be sorted with laptops and mobile dongles eventually.

Don't worry, your teachers will still be teaching your kids but differently for a time.

I worry about the children on free school meals and hope they have plans in place to distribute meals.

 

Have Jet2 actually cancelled all Spanish flights? Seems there’s still flights off to Spain.

 

seems all jet2 canceled

https://www.majorcadailybulletin.com/news/local/2020/03/14/64081/coronavirus-threat-jet2-cancel-flights-spain.html

 

Can’t speak for everywhere but my wife works in a secondary school. They’re preparing ‘education packs’ for students to be able to study at home, use online materials and submit schoolwork electronically where possible.

 

Could be empty picking up stranded passengers I suppose.

 

That’s what Sky said

 

Its all right the government offering more help via the benefit system but there are no more staff to deal with the anticipated demand and its likely that the civil service will be as badly hit for sickness as anywhere else meaning backlogs will quickly occur then I suspect there will be enough of a delay in processing that the benefit of the extra cash will not actually help at the time it is needed.

 

Are the government following the right policy or are they being complacent like some people are saying. Should we be testing more. Stopping all flights in closing schools commandeering private hospitals etc.

 

It is highly contagious. If people are in hospital with it I would say keep staff as limited as possible.
This may sound harsh but if it becomes as bad as Italy this country’s NHS will not keep up and people are gonna die due to a lack of the right care. We need to limit the spread as much as possible

 

Nobody knows for sure. They're placing a lot of faith in this herd immunity tactic. If it works it will be better than Italy but I don't think their health service has the capacity to manage like ours can. Perhaps it was necessary for them to take such immediate action due to that lack of capacity.

If it works you have to say hats off and well done to the experts. If it all goes wrong they'll have a lot of angry people to placate.

 

Be a great time to make a zombie movie in town. Everywhere shut with no one around, just mutants walking around. Just another normal day in Bradford then.

 

The 16 weeks came from a quote from Arlene Foster the Northern Ireland First Minister

 

My thoughts have never changed, we are well overdue such a thing, vulnerable people are going to die, as ever. But we are going to end up with healthy families the world over losing jobs, homes and futures, add on a possible global recession and the human reaction could have a resulting human cost worse than the virus could ever deliver.

Lot of sense here.
https://talbotspy.org/letter-from-toronto-an-infectious-diseases-specialist-reflects-on-corvid-19/

 

His article is very well put. And the comments after his article are good to read. Thank you

 

I can't get my head around this stance that they are taking. If the herd immunity thing was in any way a good course of action why are they at breaking point in italy and why can't the government produce the scientific data to back up what they have said. Basically he's listened to people instead of looking at others experience. I get the terrifying feeling we have made huge mistakes and are going to pay the price with people's lives because people deep down think it won't happen to them.
Most will probably recover but an awful lot won't. Boris has been way too slow to do stuff and is still dithering he needs to close schools, tell employers to let staff work from home, stop any sort of gathering, pass legislation to force the greedy banks and utility companies to allow people to take some sort of mortgage payment holiday without penalty until this is done and take up all private hospitals to cope with the ridiculous demand the NHS is about to face.