How much longer should I stay in lockdown?

Last Updated on 08/07/2020 by Alex Squire

Today (20th of June) I have officially been in lockdown at home for 100 days, or:

  • 8,640,000 seconds
  • 144,000 minutes
  • 2400 hours
  • 100 days
  • 14 weeks and 2 days
  • 32% of 2020

Now before you get too impressed with me I must admit I did not work all that out by myself, apart from the number of days. I used a calculator online that tells you the length of time between two dates. Here’s the address if you want to try it for yourself: https://www.timeanddate.com/date/duration.html

I don’t know how much longer I will continue to stay in lockdown. I don’t feel confident enough to go into town or places where there are likely to be a lot of people. Although I have been thinking about going to a nature reserve nearby if it’s not too busy. It should be possible to avoid people and as it’s outside the risk will be lower. But I haven’t decided about that yet.

The number of daily new cases of the virus has not decreased since when I started shielding on 13 March.

On 14 March the number of new cases was 342. Today (20th June) the number of new cases was 1,295. So it’s actually a lot higher than when I started shielding. And that’s only the cases they know about, the actual number will probably be higher than that. (Source: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/)

So I don’t think it is safe to come out of hiding yet. I don’t think it will be safe until the government have a proper track and trace system up and running and that probably won’t be ready until July at least.

This New Scientist article from 9 June looks at whether it is safe for vulnerable people to leave lockdown yet. Here’s a pertinent quote from the article:

“While infections are falling, the UK is still seeing about 1500 new confirmed cases a day, compared with about 1000 a day in March, when the first letters were sent to shielders. The total number of new cases a day is likely to have been higher in both March and May, as not everyone gets tested.”

To be honest I think the government have relaxed the lockdown predominantly for economic reasons, not because it’s any safer.

So the answer to the question of how much longer I will stay in lockdown is: I don’t know. I won’t be going out until the number of daily new cases is significantly lower than when lockdown started (at least not anywhere crowded) and who knows when that will be.

 

 

 

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