72 days in and it seems to have been like this for ever. The panic buying of toilet rolls and hand gel has calmed down and shops have restocked. Shops and supermarkets selling food and essentials have come to terms with 2 m social distancing. Some people choose to wear masks and the cashouts everywhere have perspex shields at head-height.
Until today there has been almost no rain and lots of warm sun. Some people, particularly, but not entirely, the young, have been unable to resist gathering on beaches and in the sea before the regulations were reduced. Now this has happened and the once-closed carparks have reopened, then beaches and parks have become popular to such an extent that it has become impossible to enforce social distancing in some places.
Two days ago (June 1st 2020) restrictions were changed to allow some schools to open. These were principally specified primary school year-groups, with reduced class sizes and social-distancing in the classroom and elsewhere. Some parents have been afraid to send their children back to school. Whether this is because the regulations have been unnecessarily strict only time will tell, but it has helped to keep the numbers wishing to return to school to a manageable level.
Some non-essential shops have been allowed to open, but not all have chosen to do so. Pubs and restaurants are still not allowed to open, but some have created a delivery service for food. A local small brewery is also doing home deliveries.
Very large hospitals were created at the outset and have only been necessary so far to keep the infected patients out of the local hospital wards. Britain does not appear to be recovering as well as some other countries and it will be interesting to see whether there is a second wave of infection as a result of those who ‘misbehaved’ during the warm weather and/or the relaxing of the rules.
There is much talk of professional sports restarting behind closed doors and indeed horse-racing has done this, but football is still under discussion.
Some people do not seem to be able to live without a holiday abroad and there is still much debate as to how and whether this can be achieved safely.
Personally nothing has changed for me since lockdown. I probably should have self-isolated from the outset and indeed I have only left the house for our weekly shop, a midweek top-up and to take photographs of ships on the river for my other blog, website and Facebook pages. So far so good. Watch this space.
Ramblings of an Old Bloke 