Coronavirus: Republic of Ireland to move to highest restrictions
Cabinet ministers have agreed to level five restrictions from midnight on Wednesday in a bid to combat the rise in cases.
The restrictions are to last for six weeks but will be reviewed after four.
Under the rules, people will only be able to exercise within 5km (3 miles) of their home.
The government has confirmed there will be a penalty for travel beyond that distance, with exemptions for essential work and essential purposes.
However, schools and creches will remain open and elite sport and construction will continue.
I know that the RoI is not the UK, but it is, in many respects, our closest neighbour, so what happens there will interest many UK citizens with ties to the country.
Covid: Noon deadline approaches for Manchester coronavirus deal
Greater Manchester has been under local restrictions since July. Greater Manchester leaders have been given a deadline of midday to reach a deal with the government over moving to tier three Covid restrictions. If a deal is not reached, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said the PM would decide on the next steps.
Mr Burnham told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he would be meeting with local leaders this morning and would advise them to set out the request in a letter to the government. The government and local leaders - including mayors and MPs - have been embroiled in 10 days of talks over moving Greater Manchester’s 2.8m population from tier two to the highest restrictions.
Greater Manchester to move to Tier 3 restrictions from Friday
Greater Manchester is currently under tier two rules, meaning pubs and restaurants must close at 22:00, there is no household mixing indoors and the rule of six applies outdoors.
But under tier three rules - currently only applied to Lancashire and the Liverpool City Region - pubs and bars not serving substantial meals have to close, household mixing is banned both indoors and outdoors, and there is guidance against travelling in or out of the area.
Ahead of the Downing Street press conference, Mr Burnham - speaking alongside other local leaders - said that without an additional £65m in support, tighter measures “would be certain to increase levels of poverty, homelessness and hardship”.
BJ spends £100,000,000,000 on furlough, £20,000,000,000 on hospitals and £12,000,000,000 on testing but is not prepared to pay an extra £5,000,000 to Manchester … :roll:
New: https://i.ibb.co/hWjVDXg/UK-Summary-20201021-New.png Cases reaching an absolutely terrifying record high*, deaths dropped but rising fast, hospitalisations dropped but rising fast, tests rose but remaining low …
Assuming a current rate of infection of 25,000 new cases a day, there will be an additional200,000 new cases by the end of October and an additional1,500,000 new cases by yearend …
Coronavirus infections continue to rise across the UK, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics - new cases (recorded and unrecorded) have risen to more than 35,200 a day in England.
Tory Minister Nadine Dorries ‘no longer immune’ to coronavirus
Health Minister Nadine Dorries says she does not have immunity to Covid-19, despite suffering badly from the virus earlier in the year.
Ms Dorries was the first MP to test positive for coronavirus in early March.
In a speech in the Commons, the Tory politician said although she had a “very severe dose” of the virus, her antibodies had disappeared after 12 weeks.
She added that research had shown this was the case for “many, many people”, and her experience proved there was “no such thing as herd immunity” without a vaccine or long-term antibodies.
Quote - “No such thing as herd immunity without a vaccine” says Nadine Dorries?
So how would she explain there being a vaccine for fllu for many years, but it hasn’t wiped that out, has it!
I read the other day that it only protects against 4 strains anyway, so what happens if you catch one of the other 100 or more strains?
We don’t know yet whether Covid will keep changing itself, and if it does, the first vaccine that is being flogged in China already (for £45 a shot), will be useless.
Yep, apart from fools, most folks following guidelines, masks, distancing, etc etc, but the stats are still shit, maybe it is something to do with Halloween, Bonfire Night, and Christmas, against a backcloth of families cooped up in houses with no ventilation, and, the central heating at full blast, who knows?
A large part of the trouble remains that there are too many fools.
These fools are the ones causing the infection rate to rise; superspreaders are a well-documented reality where it only takes 1 infected person to infect many dozens or even hundreds of others.
They are everywhere no matter where you go; to do your necessary shopping? They’re the ones that think social distancing doesn’t apply because a mask will keep them safe, so they peer or lean over your shoulder as you take a packet from the shelf.
They are the ones who brush past you as you make your way to the shop - often not even wearing a face covering.
They are the ones who still won’t actually cover their nose with a facial covering, or pull them down to uncover their mouth as they talk.
And should I mention some of the others that we all know about, like those desperate to see girlfriends/boyfriends/friends/family that put themselves and others at risk? The determined partygoers, daytrippers, holidaymakers etc.
People have to make the choice and they are making it.
The problem with that is that it affects others, including those most at risk of the dire consequences.
In times past it was called the “I’m all right Jack” attitude.
Now though it is killing people.
Covid: Levels of protective antibodies in people wane “quite rapidly” after coronavirus infection, say researchers.
Antibodies are a key part of our immune defences and stop the virus from getting inside the body’s cells. The Imperial College London team found the number of people testing positive for antibodies has fallen by 26% between June and September. They say immunity appears to be fading and there is a risk of catching the virus multiple times.
More than 350,000 people in England have taken an antibody test as part of the REACT-2 study so far. In the first round of testing, at the end of June and the beginning of July, about 60 in 1,000 people had detectable antibodies. But in the latest set of tests, in September, only 44 per 1,000 people were positive. It suggests the number of people with antibodies fell by more than a quarter between summer and autumn.
Exactly what the antibody drop means for immunity is still uncertain. There have been very few confirmed cases of people getting Covid twice. However, the researchers warn this may be due to immunity only just starting to fade since the peak infection rates of March and April.
One of the researchers, Prof Graham Cooke, said: “The big picture is after the first wave, the great majority of the country didn’t have evidence of protective immunity. The need for a vaccine is still very large, the data doesn’t change that.”
So, well have to wait and see what winter brings … :shock:
