A cousin of mine who is in her mid-50s was hospitalised with Covid-19 about a month ago, during same time that BJ was in hospital. Not long after she was admitted, she posted a picture on her Facebook account which showed her with her oxygen mask on. That really got me worried big time.  Fortunately, her condition began to improve quite quickly not long after this and she was discharged from hospital on Good Friday, 10th April after she tested negative for the virus. She seems to have come on leaps and bounds since returning home, I am very glad to say.

Stay safe everyone!

Yup, there was a bonfire going yesterday lunchtime nearby: just what you need on a warm spring day when you're stuck at home (as most people should be!)

I guess they'd defend themselves by saying the tips are closed (they are around here at least), but that's a poor excuse at best.

Daily slides

Daily tests

New cases

Hospitals

ICU

Deaths with rolling 7-day average

British public are against the lockdown being significantly loosened this weekend, more support for it to be loosened in 3 weeks time though.

👀YouGov / Sky News lockdown poll

Would it be right for the government to start loosening lockdown?

*Now?*
Right 15%
Wrong 75%
Don't know 10%

*In 3 weeks*
Right 46%
Wrong 20%
Don't know 34%

May 7-8 1,644 GB adults

— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) May 8, 2020

Italy

• 1,327 new cases


• 243 new deaths

New infections look to be plateauing to me. Utter madness to start loosening restrictions now but probably too late as most people think the lockdown is over on Monday.

This slide was missed in Gavin's post - it shows where people have been compared to the previous norm.

Source: Telegraph live feed.

face

I agree the current lockdown should continue for another 3 weeks,but this is the absolute maximum it can go on for.Most people are oblivious to the economic shitstorm that is going to  hit very hard in the second half of this year and continue for a long time and will be like nothing anyone has experienced in their lifetimes! I suspect most of those saying they are all in favour of the lockdown continuing is because they are still working or have been furloughed as well as falsely feeling better off having taken mortgage and credit card holidays.The mood will quickly change this week when Rishi Sunak announces the measures to taper off the furlough scheme and especially in the coming months when more and more start to experience financial hardship,redunancy and unemployment.Not too mention the numbers of renters that will face eviction over the summer. Many jobs that will be lost will never come back especially so in the hospitality,tourism,travel and other non essential sectors.

It looks like the govt are realising this and will open up as much of the economy as possible after the next bank holiday balancing this against an acceptable level of casualties and making sure the nhs can cope.There has to be a trade off between the economic cost and the health cost it cannot be one or the other. This time now is the calm before the storm!!

As we relax the lockdown others tighten..

Kuwait to impose 20-day 'total curfew'

Kuwait decides to implement a total lockdown starting Sunday to curb the spread of coronavirus as the number of cases climbs in the Gulf country.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/deaths-hit-75000-covid-19-wave-feared-live-updates-200507231219399.html

I'm self-employed, have lost virtually all of my work and am not eligible for HMG's self-employed grant scheme. I'm in favour of saving as many lives as possible and for the lockdown to continue.

I tend to agree with some of this to be honest. 

The effects of the virus on people's health needs to be the focus throughout, not to mention the tragic deaths. We need to remember this at all times. 

However those who say who the lockdown should continue absolutely indefinitely for months to come - I'd be curious to know what your job & financial situation is? I don't say that in a confrontational way at all - I just genuinely suspect those who argue for a continuous lockdown for months on end, are in a relatively stable job or financial situation.

Just a hunch & very willing to be shouted down. 

EDIT - just seen Justin's post. 

Just edited my post, fair enough.

At least you're not a renter like me.  (I assume)?

It really would be very nice at the moment not to be paying £775 a month for a 1 bed house. 

Then you are in a most concerning bind, Justin. I don't doubt you will have given a lot of thought to minimising risk where you can. Having been a self-employed consultant I understand how difficult it can be even when things are going well: delivering projects, reaching ahead for new work, keeping up with the accounts and admin and finding time for a life! I hope the anticipated changes free you up to get going again soon.

I wonder whether I would share your sanguine and public-spirited view were I still working that way. I hope I would, but it is not good to be staring at an approaching abyss, as many folks will be by now.

R

No, I'm not. I pay a mortgage, though. And I am worried about what happens if this goes on beyond June. Very worried. But we have a moral duty to save as many lives as possible. That's what I think anyway 

You're a very decent bloke Justin, and I agree, I really do.

As long as people aren't criticised en masse for expressing a desire for the lockdown to be eased. It is absolutely ok & understandable to be sh*t scared about losing your job, your business or your house.

I know you know this. 

For the love of God, let's hope there's some light at the end of the tunnel soon and we can reach a compromise of some sort. 

Couldn't agree more.  Its become an absolute joke around here !

I was out walking at 6:30 this  morning because it's the only way you can avoid the Muppets !!  Even, so I was passed by a bloody bicyclist within a few inches because he couldn't be  even be bothered to slow down to time when a car went past me

I think  a series of ads is required similar to the ones we had for Aids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SqRNUUOk7s

I believe the lockdown should last until the possible vaccination - I own lots of shares of Amazon, supermarkets and PPE companies, what's your fcking problem? 

Seriously though, the lockdown shouldn't last more than it has to and early June could be a good time for it to start gradually relaxing. We need to be ready for it though with a proper test-track-isolate (TTI) strategy. There would be little worse if we get a second proper surge and a second lockdown, which would be really bad for the economy. 

We obviously need a lower number of new infections too and at the moment we are still far from that. Actually even the current number of new infections could be dealt with a TTI strategy, but it'd need many more than 18,000 tracers and a massive testing capacity. This is especially true if a lot of current new infections originate at hospitals and care homes as it's easier to test them and trace them and also easier to prevent many of them by having proper PPE.

Whatever happens, I think the public will be ahead of the govt again and also the govt will again be much more competent in deflection and spin than dealing effectively with the crisis.

I am willing to support an ease of lockdown in three weeks. However, HMG has to get its act togeather in a big way

The briefings earlier this week to the media have complete destroyed the messaging and may have put us backwards. The lockdown has been fraying around the edges for weeks.

I know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it was clear after the first three weeks that we should have gone all in and banned even leaving the home without good reason. If we had done that we would probably be in a better position now. France, Spain and Italy did it and they appear to be in better positions now because of it

Thank you for that 

Just come off the phone from Mum , Neville's temperature was over 100 , then went back down for 18 hours but then went through the roof and it went downhill after , this seems common with the virus . A colleague of mine had it and said he thought he was over it then deteriorated quite badly , this was 4 weeks ago and he still feels totally out of it.

I told Mum , once  Neville gets home then you can relax. 

Is he on assisted breathing? 

Have you worked out how he could have caught it?

He isn't at the minute but my Aunt said his voice was so frail - almost a struggle .

No , that's the thing , no one has a bloody clue , my money is on mowing the front lawn .

Food deliveries have all been left on the door step.

Its quite frightening really , people think they have everything covered then bang!

A lot on here wouldn't agree, Joe 

There are no 'right' answers with this. Whichever way we turn, it is going to be painful. But HMG and the BoE could and should pay everybody £2.5k a month to stay at home and pump hundreds of billions into supporting business through this. We are about to enter a deflationary spiral and so printing money has never made more sense. We should stop worrying about national debt and kill this virus by extending lockdown for another six weeks.