So Christmas is cancelled

[davidgillon]

Not so much mine, because I already wasn't planning to travel, but Boris just held a press-conference and they've just cut a five day national travel window (due to start in four days) and up to three households together for Christmas, to one day and two, and that only if you don't live in Kent (where I am), London and parts of the South East, which are back into full lockdown now christened Tier 4, with no set expiry.

The reason is a new Covid variant that seems to have evolved in Kent in September, and is already running at over 60% of cases in the South East due to increased transmissability, seemingly about 70% above the common strain. Fortunately it doesn't seem to be any more lethal, but it pushes R up by about .4 from what it was.

That short notice is going to be awkward for people who weren't planning on Christmas at home, but fortunately for me I'm well stocked, and I have another food delivery due on the 28th that I can tweak as needed.

But in better news, my mother just had the vaccination about an hour ago, and so did a whole bunch of her cronies. From her description, it was even less of an event than getting the flu vaccine, apart from needing to hang around for 15 minutes afterwards in case of allergic reaction. Boris mentioned that around 350,000 people have already had it, so they're definitely not hanging around.

 

Comments

[davidgillon]

And Wales has now said it's going into lockdown from midnight, while mainland Scotland will go into lockdown from Boxing Day, and has effectively closed the border with England (not that there actually is any kind of physical border).

Scotland also said its schools will go online for at least the first couple of weeks after Christmas and you can bet that is going to make Boris squirm, because he's nailed his flag to the mast of keeping schools physically open, at a far higher level of infections than Scotland has. His plan for keeping them open was putting mass testing of pupils in place over Christmas/New Year, but the teaching unions had already told their members not to cooperate.

[rmc28]

Teen's school already has

a. all but two year groups remote for first week (and expecting synchronous attendance, sigh, that's going to make working much harder for me with Teen needing support at home)
b. emergency extra teacher training day first day 'back' so they can train up on the alleged mass testing

[davidgillon]

(and expecting synchronous attendance, sigh

That does seem to be making an unnecessary rod for parent's backs, as well as ignoring the advantage of online learning desynching the teacher's effort and the kids and letting everyone plan their day to suit individual circumstances. And its assuming everyone has a computer available for every kid during the working day.

[rmc28]

It's so bizarrely un-inclusive of this school (which was quite cool with "attend when you can" during the spring + summer) that I would put money on it being a government directive. Like their weird resistance to learning at home last term, which also turned out to be due to government pressure.

[davidgillon]

Like their weird resistance to learning at home last term, which also turned out to be due to government pressure.

Ah, I did wonder about that.