Boris Johnson’s symptoms have worsened, and now another member of the Cabinet, Michael Gove, is self-isolating. The virus has been quite prevalent among members of the Cabinet, including ironically the Health Secretary. Before ‘virtual’ meetings were carried out remotely, the Cabinet were all ignoring their own advice and gathering together in one room to work out the next steps in fighting Covid-19.
I’m sure Boris is receiving the best of care at St. Thomas’ Hospital, and is currently in intensive care in case he needs a ventilator. His pregnant fiancee has spent a week in bed with Covid-19 symptoms, and so far in the rest of the UK there have been over 51,600 people who have been infected and over 5300 deaths.
I’m not sure some people here are taking this virus very seriously. It is a killer, and none of us have any immunity to it. If it can affect the most powerful man in the UK, formerly hale and hearty, then it should be a lesson to us all to practice social distancing instead of going to the beach or parks in this unusually hot April weather.
Easter is coming up, and therefore 4 non-working days. Unless the Government bans going outside altogether then I expect even more people will die as some selfish people do not take any notice of instructions, being only concerned with their own social lives. Nobody wants to be stuck inside on a glorious day, but the isolation will only be temporary in order to control this disease. People tend to think oh, it won’t happen to me, but hey, it might well do so. Nobody is exempt from catching it.
China banned going outside the home except to buy food and medications, and now they have had no new infections today for the first time since January. Tomorrow people can leave Wuhan for the first time since lock-down began 3 months’ ago. Total lock-down is the only way to stop this virus. Unless the Government choose this option, then we will be limping along in partial lock-down for months and months, even years. Many businesses will go to the wall, if they haven’t already, and the country will once again be in recession.
Cyrus the Virus needs a short, sharp shock! What do you think?
Update: Mr Johnson has been ‘stable’ overnight and does not need a ventilator at the moment. I wish him well for a speedy recovery and to get back to his refreshingly decisive self as soon as possible.
Stevie Turner 
Stevie, the UK was late, you are far from your apex, it’s not going to be pretty, everyone should be isolating, we’ve been in lockdown in Canada for a few weeks now. Most countries are now. Look at Spain surpassing Italy now in numbers, France not far behind. We’re only allowed out here for groceries or medical, I presume we will be missing plenty of beautiful spring and summer days. I’m grateful for the little walks I take daily. We’re living in dystopia. Stay safe ❤
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You too, Debby. We’re safe enough around here. We’re painting the outside of the house over Easter and not straying beyond the garden gate!
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Great idea – keeping busy and exercise! Enjoy Easter best you can. 🙂 xx
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You too. x
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I think most of us now realise we should all have been isolating sooner.
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Absolutely.
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I realize I’m late to the party, but over in the United States, they are reporting Boris is out of intensive care.
We’re in the most curious place as we’ve had the most deaths for one day yet, but the new cases are finally leveling off, which I suppose is some source of optimism. It seems odd that the government would look so happy right now, but perhaps this is the first glimmer of positive news for us.
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Boris is still in intensive care. He’s being monitored just in case he needs a ventilator, which is a bonus not afforded to us mere mortals. BBC News gave us a glimmer of hope last night too.
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In my place in India, people from a particular faith attended a religious congregation mid-March. Some of them have been found positive. Rest are evading the authorities from being quarantined. Utter nonsense.
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I keep marvelling when comparing the figures in Ireland with those in the UK. Ireland’s population is around 5 million, so you need to multiply Irish data by 12 to get a more or less fair comparison. Positive tests are no guide because both countries have inadequate testing regimes. Hospital admissions and deaths, however, have some relevance. Over the past 7 days: April 1 – 6 : 99 deaths in Ireland, I can’t access figures for UK but my estmate is around 3,000 based on what I remember of the dily figures.
Is it because Ireland closed schools earlier? Because our cities are smaller? Maybe a combination of both. It is certainly the case that, world wide, big cities see the most transmission and the most hospital admissions and deaths.
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I expect in the big cities such as London which is the worst affected, people live closer together and are packed in more tightly. You cannot go out in London without seeing a soul like you can here in my village.
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I’m with Frank on this. His policies have been disastrous.
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Total lockdown will slow the virus, not stop it. It will come back, unless we close the frontiers and ban imported foodstuffs and lorry drivers.
FMD showed what you actually had to do to exterminate a virus
I think the lockdown will need to be extended, perhaps made tougher for a while, but we have to accept that most people will catch it. We’re slowing it so that the vulnerable can be vaccinated and we build up some immunity within the population without crashing the NHS
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I assumed closing the frontiers would be included in a total lockdown. It’s been spread also by air travel. Airports need to be closed. The whole country needs to shut down. Sad but true.
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The problem is that we would struggle to feed ourselves. We would be OK for meat, provided you didn’t insist on getting beef or pork but would accept Lamb. Vegetables would be rationed, but the ration wouldn’t be too restrictive, fruit would be in very short supply. The good news is that we’d be OK for potatoes, bread we could just about get by but none of the fancy stuff, beer we’re just fine and forget wine, chocolate, tea or coffee.
In six months we imported 20,948,398 tonnes, of food
Some of it is bulk container ships which could be isolated, but some of it is lorries driving off ferries and delivering to depots in the UK
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Maybe if the restriction is just for one month it might help to stop the spread? I expect Boris or Dominic Raab will instruct us all sooner or later…
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Even for a month, the ports would cause chaos, because the food produced wouldn’t sit waiting for us, it would go somewhere else
I’m not sure I’ve shared this one with you?
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-food-supplies-insi/coronavirus-upends-global-food-supply-chains-in-latest-economic-shock-idUSKBN21L2V7
A lot of things could actually be in short supply soon
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Thanks Jim. You’re obviously more informed than I am.
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It’s food, It’s my industry 🙂
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Thanks for the info. It’s all quite worrying.
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Now’s you excuse to stockpile chocolate, tea or coffee 😉
And especially wine
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Don’t eat chocolate or drink tea, coffee or wine, so I’m alright Jack (or Jim)!
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🙂
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I see the virus spreading round the cabinet as karma repaying them for their indecision and stupidity. Whilst I wouldn’t wish it on anyone I wonder if, with 20:20 hindsight, they might wish they had done more, sooner, to defend the country. A decade of underfunding the NHS and underpaying care staff hasn’t helped either.
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Indeed, the underfunding and staff shortages are chronic. I wonder if the Government just thought they were dealing with another influenza virus and didn’t take it seriously at first?
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I read the modelling, Initially the epidemiologists only had the chinese data which they suspected was a bit dodgy, but then the Italian data started to come through and at that point everybody started re-evaluating
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It can happen to anyone. Here in Spain, we have had a strict lockdown for almost 4 weeks. The numbers are already dropping. It does work. I do hope your PM will be OK.
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Me too. I quite like him actually.
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I always get the impression that somehow, not liking Boris would be a bit like kicking a puppy 🙂
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Lol. I find him quite endearing!
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That’s the problem – so do a lot of people, forgetting his policies.
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