How is everyone in the current situation? General Chat

The 'R' number is the effective reproduction number, in other words, if the R number is 1, a person will infect one other person. 2 two other people and so on.

Here the easing of lockdown has been based on the R number being below one and if it rises above, some lockdown measures will be reimposed

Yup. exactly what Chris said.
Vaccine trials proceeding in Oxford. A deal for production has been signed - I think it was with Astra Zenica, but even if the trials are positive, it could be quite a while before it becomes available to the general public.
There are estimates that up to 25% of us could have had CV19, - many without knowing it - but nobody knows whether that confers immunity - or if it does, for how long. The immunity test would be useful though.
'Tis all a muddle.

I am not sure about their accuracy in the South West, we have been so lucky down here, I believe total of 85 deaths but by looking at the ‘Daily Mail map/chart we have one of the highest R values.

I think it's because of how the areas are divided up. In Lincolnshire we come under East Midlands which is a vast area and takes in some highly affected areas.

Cheers Chris, im not really clued up on it, was just the map caught my eye.

Better!

Hello Gareth - I hope that has not been leading you astray...

What a palaver, our local recycling center opens tomorrow.
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To help reduce the amount of people going to the tips at any one time the council has introduced a system which determines when you can go using car number plates.

People with registration numbers where the last digit is an even number can go on even dates - ie: if your number plate is WK66 GBA then you can go on May 20, 22, 24, etc - and those with the last digit is an odd number can go on odd dates - ie a number plate of KP13 BFG can go on May 19, 21, 23, etc.
I can see that working NOT.

That sounds about as good as here. You have to ring for an appointment and then it's only for garden waste. Lots already complaining that appointments will be even more scarce than supermarket delivery slots

Our nearest council tip re-opened last week. Due to social distancing, there was a four hour queue of cars and vans. (Not that we are allowed go there. We have to travel another 4 miles due to postcode boundaries!). The amazing thing was that people were so sick of looking at their own rubbish, that they actually waited good humouredly!

What sort of rubbish do people have to take to a council tip and/or recycling centre? I thought people had to have different coloured wheelie bins for recyclable things now, so is it for larger items?

[You can tell I have been away from the UK for a rather long time - we still had galvanized rubbish bins and recycling did not exist then.]

I think a lot is scrap from refurbishment projects, garage clearouts, disused items of furniture, or garden waste. At least that is what the fly tippers were leaving in Derbyshire beauty spots!

And yet another telephone call - and this one actually was from the Welfare Department of my Local Authority as whatever-her-name was said that she worked with someone-or-other, and my non-working non-social-worker whose name I have forgotten. Nurit, I think her name is. Maybe.

How am I? How am I coping? Who does my shopping? Who gets my medication? And so on and so forth until she got to "would you like a volunteer teenager [teenager? ] to come and have a chat and keep you company for an hour or so every week so you will not feel so lonely" - at which point I said no thank you and please excuse me but I have to get my dog up now.

To be honest I would have much preferred it had people, especially my non-working-non-social-supposed-social worker who is not a volunteer but a salaried worker, telephoned to check on me weeks ago when this balagan started. Apart from anything else Nurit knows bluddy well that Amit is looking after me.

Not now, especially when I am beginning to enjoy being one of the few who is not champing at the bit to go out and get back to a normal life, not that I think things will ever get back to being the way they were. I am happy, I manage - somehow - and I am by no means lonely. Why do these people seem to think that just because I am old and live by myself I must be lonely? It is if all old people living alone MUST be lonely and I am just stuck in a box with them all and am not an individual any more.

I have Tikki, I have all my friends on Breedia, I have my team on the trivia site and the site itself is more than enough to keep my brain active, and there is so much else to keep me occupied through my computer, and no, I do not want to chat with anyone, let alone strangers who are volunteering to "cheer up" all "the elderly". I just want to be left alone to enjoy my life.

Sorry. End of rant.

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Secret 'YouKnowWho' has been in hibernation!

I wish him a long and pleasant hibernation - preferably a very l-o-n-g one!

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It's common sense isn't it regarding face coverings, but yet our Government is only recommending their use on public transport and small spaces and then it's up to the individual rather than a hard and fast rule. I really can't understand their reasoning for it

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I feel like I need to go to the dentist, but I don’t really want too. I mean I don’t want someone cutting my hair right now, the dentist is even more in your face, literally