Coronavirus outbreak

[InFamous]

Meanwhile the Dutch prime minister has apologized for the grave error he made in removing all COVID restrictions as numbers have rocketed to record levels.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte admitted today his government made a mistake by easing a raft of measures to combat Covid-19, apologising as daily infection rates rocketed to peak levels.

Mr Rutte and Health Minister Hugo de Jonge on Friday reimposed a number of restrictions including closing nightclubs as the highly-infectious Delta variant took hold, particularly among young people.

"A judgement error was made. What we thought we could allow, we could actually not," Mr Rutte said in The Hague.

"We are upset about it and we apologise," he told reporters.

More than 9,300 people tested positive on Sunday as opposed to 500 just two weeks ago, with the country reporting its highest daily numbers since December last year.

[InFamous]

Well what happened to these listings being “irreversible” ? Businesses can’t cope with the uncertainty and they will have an uphill struggle returning to restrictions when they’re lifted now, people just won’t do it.

Don't want to be argumentative ( really) but I feel peope have been saying this for the last 15 months yet most people have done exactly as they were asked to do when asked to, by their governments.

The basic mistake the government made was to EVER tell people that on a predefined date that all measures could be lifted and normality could be resumed. The whole "freedom day" narrative was completely misplaced and frankly stupid beyond belief. But then this came from the man whose first response to Covid was to " take it on the chin and let it spread through society and see what happens " so can we be really surprised.

[greek_boy]

Boris just said, he hopes it will be irreversible, thats what the government are saying now about lockdowns.

He's clueless, he's gambling with our lives and the future of many businesses (well he destroyed all the small businesses by signing that awful Brexit deal). Let's not forget his plan for herd immunity back in March 2020 that lead to thousands of deaths.

[theMathematician]

Are mandatory vaccinations legal in your country? In my country, the health minister said multiple times that he's against a mandatory vaccination. On the other hand, there is a recent one for children against measles, and the politicians may justify mandatory vaccination with that precious decision.

[KEY9481]

New measures to be announced tonight in France by Macron.
Rumoured to be mandatory vaccination for health workers, sanitary pass mandatory for public places such as cinemas, theatres, museums, restaurants.

[Artoo]

Why you have the health minister doing a parliamentary announcement hours before the prime minister is due to address the nation saying the same thing I’ll never know, but fingers crossed it’s all over and done with now. I’m not convinced, but no point having a glass half empty when you could one that’s half full.

[Parkelife]

Well what happened to these listings being “irreversible” ? Businesses can’t cope with the uncertainty and they will have an uphill struggle returning to restrictions when they’re lifted now, people just won’t do it.

Boris just said, he hopes it will be irreversible, thats what the government are saying now about lockdowns.

[SholasBoy]

Well what happened to these listings being “irreversible” ? Businesses can’t cope with the uncertainty and they will have an uphill struggle returning to restrictions when they’re lifted now, people just won’t do it.

[theMathematician]

From the new Health Secretary UK, if things are not good in September, could be a return to many restrictions or even lockdowns to help the NHS.
thats what I'm taking from this.

Are you referring to the text below? I don't interpret it that way.

[Parkelife]

From the new Health Secretary UK, if things are not good in September, could be a return to many restrictions or even lockdowns to help the NHS.
thats what I'm taking from this.

Restrictions to be reviewed in September


The health secretary says he has set out a “balanced” approach to relaxing restrictions.

He says he has been very open about the risks involved, and there is no “risk-free way forward” but he says the ongoing restrictions “are not without cost”.

Javid says 19 July is a “very significant step forward” on England’s roadmap and he says there will be a review in September to make sure “we are properly set up for autumn and winter”.

[InFamous]

BTW Germany is on the way to exponential growth again... yesterday, +53% in comparison to the day before. (Sat / Fri).

Delta wave incoming I fear.

[InFamous]

I agree about the 'lockdown' being used for freely when in fact it wasn't a lockdown (remember China's lockdown? lol).

And no it wasn't the same in every country. Greece had a strict lockdown with curfews, hefty fines and masks everywhere, plus no travelling between regions. I think France too. I also remember Spain had a very strict lockdown during the first wave while here in England we could just go out without masks.

Yeah France and Spain was pretty strict for a time. Spain especially. People were literally just let out for an hour to shop! I didn't really know much about Greece so thanks for that info.

[greek_boy]

This was the same in every country or at least most.I feel things were strict for a few weeks at most. That is why I really have to laugh when I see people lamenting over the so called "lockdowns "

I agree about the 'lockdown' being used for freely when in fact it wasn't a lockdown (remember China's lockdown? lol).

And no it wasn't the same in every country. Greece had a strict lockdown with curfews, hefty fines and masks everywhere, plus no travelling between regions. I think France too. I also remember Spain had a very strict lockdown during the first wave while here in England we could just go out without masks.

[theMathematician]

Don't worry, stevyy, everything will end up fine !

[stevyy]

BTW Germany is on the way to exponential growth again... yesterday, +53% in comparison to the day before. (Sat / Fri).

[stevyy]

The RKI (German institute that supervises the whole pandemic) suggests no longer looking at the incidence rate but the hospitality rate for the case of possible measurements due to the fact that most infected people no longer experience heavy cases as the risky population is mostly vaccinated. Is it a good decision?

I would support this in a few months when more people are fully vaccinated... right now... no school child has any chance of getting vaccinated... well not the younger ones anyway... and in regards to schools and of course long-covid this could be a dangerous path.

[theMathematician]

The RKI (German institute that supervises the whole pandemic) suggests no longer looking at the incidence rate but the hospitality rate for the case of possible measurements due to the fact that most infected people no longer experience heavy cases as the risky population is mostly vaccinated. Is it a good decision?

[InFamous]

omg!!! this irresponsible government prioritises what their hardcore voters want and choose to ignore the scientists. Freedom Day is such a stupid name, they really don't get the pandemic is not over yet? We can still have open businesses while keeping social distancing, and wearing masks in indoor settings. Why is it so difficult to implement? It's not like people in UK were strictly following the guidelines... Basically, England never had enforced strict measures...

This was the same in every country or at least most.I feel things were strict for a few weeks at most. That is why I really have to laugh when I see people lamenting over the so called "lockdowns "

[greek_boy]

I just don’t think it matters anymore when the restrictions are “officially” lifted - so many people are doing what they want regardless, my main gripe is that I wish face masks remained as official guidance for a few more weeks.

omg!!! this irresponsible government prioritises what their hardcore voters want and choose to ignore the scientists. Freedom Day is such a stupid name, they really don't get the pandemic is not over yet? We can still have open businesses while keeping social distancing, and wearing masks in indoor settings. Why is it so difficult to implement? It's not like people in UK were strictly following the guidelines... Basically, England never had enforced strict measures...

[Robby]

What irks me... is that businesses... want to return to normal, ie ending home office mandates... etc... so even IF people want to be cautious and protect themselves and try to avoid people during the pandemic... they probably can't. And that is frustrating...

I mean it could be worth a try to open everything and see if people can protect themselves on their own terms... But too many people are forced into crowded places... and that is not OK.

.

This won't work. Case in point, The Netherlands. We got almost all freedoms back within a few weeks time. Look at us now. The rollback imo should have been slower and more gradual. Then it might work, but only if enough people are fully vaccinated to properly be able to speak about some sort of herd immunity.

I agree about businesses wanting to return to normal and how that's an issue regarding busy spaces etc. We had to fight tooth and nail with management of the company I work for in order to be allowed to work at home some days of the week. During days that I go to the offie, I'm sitting in a busy train and metro on my commute to work with no possible way to keep any distance.

One thing that is very clear to me though, the ones that have the most disregard for all social distance rules and masks etc, are teenagers.

[theMathematician]

Even scientists don't know the absolute truth, but I recently read that it's unlikely that a mutation will develop that is immune against the vaccine because the vaccine effectively fights against the core characteristic that makes all of those mutations fall under the same umbrella term that is 'Sars Cov-2'. Scientists may come up with a new research result in the future, but for now, I believe that that's a very positive assumption.

[InFamous]

It's also that we cannot work together as a human race... bc in each and every country we these Covid-19 deniers.. and a growing population of general anti-vaxxers (even for other severe, yet preventable diseases)... It used to be funny when we were joking that natural selection will take them on and deal with them... but then... some Covid-deniers went shopping... your parents contract it and die and then the laughter stopped.

Not to mention the unvaccinated are literally "mutation factories" which will ensure the pandemic continues.

[stevyy]

This is the core problem. People think they can just wake up one day and go back to normality overnight, as if the virus is gone. They don't get that there can be a middle ground between nothing and something and therein lies the main problem IMO.

It's also that we cannot work together as a human race... bc in each and every country we these Covid-19 deniers.. and a growing population of general anti-vaxxers (even for other severe, yet preventable diseases)... It used to be funny when we were joking that natural selection will take them on and deal with them... but then... some Covid-deniers went shopping... your parents contract it and die and then the laughter stopped.

[Thriller]

Let's hope the death toll never reaches anything close to a million. Either before or after Christmas.

What I was getting at is that eventually a million people probably will die of covid in this country, even if it takes 5-10 years, because covid is never going away. It’s just the media sensationalise headlines to make it sound like a million people will drop dead after 19th July.

[InFamous]

This is the core problem. People think they can just wake up one day and go back to normality overnight, as if the virus is gone. They don't get that there can be a middle ground between nothing and something and therein lies the main problem IMO.