Coronavirus outbreak

[classic33]

Why does that matter? Hundreds, if not thousands, of fines are being issued anyway.

TFL had over 500 extra staff* on duty on Tuesday and Wednesday last week. I'm willing to say many of those extra staff were on overtime/working their day off. How often, and how long can they carry that on for?

If there's no-one to enforce the rule, who's going to do the issuing and enforcement?

*Those extra staff were there to enforce the wearing of masks.

 

[Alex321]

It’s not a passed law to be fined. They can just refuse & if they get pestered then they should seek legal help. Anyone handing money over are daft. Also there’s far too many unmasked to police so they don’t feel scared.

They can, of course, refuse. And the driver/inspector can just chuck them off the bus.

Unfortunately, I believe they are required to stop the bus when doing so.

 

[Alex321]

And again, the drivers and guards aren't "authorised persons".
First instructed their drivers not to challenge last year. They've to rely on their inspectors or the police to enforce it.

They are on TfL, but agreed, they aren't for most of the country.

 

[classic33]

Clearly not, but he said that not wearing mask is not punishable by a fine, he didn’t specify a jurisdiction. On TFL services it is.
Not everyone lives in W Yorks either

True, but First don't operate only in West Yorkshire. Nor do they operate only buses.

TFL have had mask wearing as a condition of carriage since it became compulsory last year.

 

[Johnno260]

My eldest grandchild (Secondary school) has just come out of quarantine and now the youngest one has tested positive on a LFT. She's at a medium sized primary school in Bexley and 18 of the staff have now tested positive along with a growing number of children.

We had a similar issue, my youngest came out of isolation with the rest of us, a couple of days at school and caught the vomiting bug doing the rounds and another week off school.

it’s going to be a long winter.

the sales guys aren’t comfortable about me returning to the office either, my isolation ended on the 13th of November but I had sporadic temperature hikes for a further week, my boss in the US told me to wfh for an additional1.5 weeks for month end, but the U.K. sales term don’t want me back fearing I’m still infectious. I told them it’s up to them to clear it with my boss not me as I don’t have an issue.

 

[Ajax Bay]

Independent SAGE (Friday) has shared some well-presented data including on Omicron. Slides and presentation linked below. The first 23 minutes uses the slides to describe:
1.Cases
2.Hospitalisation and Death
3.Long Covid
4.Omicron
5.Vaccinations
https://www.independentsage.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/WeeklySlides_3December2021.pdf
youtube.com/watch?v=fg0tnIl6CTM&
Summary (precised):

• Cases still driven by u/16s and parents - on an unstable plateau - London and SE growth negating falls elsewhere.
• Admissions and deaths falling to flattish.
• In South Africa early indications are that Omicron growth more due to immune escape rather than
• increased infectiousness.
• Worrying signs that under 5s are more affected in this wave than they have been
• previously (per admissions).
• iSAGE deduction: Every week we can delay Omicron growth in the UK, we can boost millions more
• people, and delaying growth is easiest in the early stages: action now.

Comment: I guess the government has addressed this to an extent (to delay significant Omicron variant growth, but is very wary of being 'blamed' for spoiling Christmas, for tens of millions.

 

[midlife]

From what I read about Omicron at the moment is that it has the potential to drive a big wave of infection. Even if it is less /the same lethality than delta a small percentage of a very large number could mean hospitals getting full again.

 

[Ajax Bay]

South Africa has had a lot of Covid infection, and what they lack for in vaccine induced immunity they perhaps have in infection induced immunity. It's not clear to me which is going to provide better protection from hospitalisation against this new variant; for 2 doses of vaccine at least; the 3rd dose looks transformative against delta.
IndieSAGE:
"Omicron has a growth advantage over Delta in South Africa and has spread rapidly –mostly so far in younger populations. We don’t know if it is more severe once infected.
"The [variant's] advantage seems to be more immune escape than infectiousness –which means we can rely less on population immunity to prevent growth
"It has seeded in many countries worldwide, including the UK. It is likely there are hundreds of Omicron cases here already.
"UK context very different to S Africa:
• Much older population [ETA: South Africa age median = 28]
• Much more vaccinated *and* much more boosted population
• It’s winter here, not summer
• We already have a large Delta wave going on."

 

[Milzy]

They can, of course, refuse. And the driver/inspector can just chuck them off the bus.

Unfortunately, I believe they are required to stop the bus when doing so.

They’re not all school kids. Would you try & Chuck a 20 stone meat head gammon off a bus when you’re on £11 per hour & will get abuse!?

 

[oldwheels]

On my recent ferry journey there was about 98% wearing masks. One in the lounge was a Car Rally wonk and did not wear one as being too important and not Scottish anyway.
Supermarkets today in Oban mask wearing was again pretty high at probably 98%.
Non compliance here outside the tourist season seems pretty rare.

 

[Milzy]

Yes, yes it is: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2021/1340/regulation/11/made

Not if they cry exempt.

 

[MontyVeda]

Those bloody goal posts just keep on moving

 

[Milzy]

Those bloody goal posts just keep on moving

In 10 days they’ll pull the rug from underneath our feet. Then people will start thinking it’s a serious matter again after so much freedom.

 

[MontyVeda]

Where's the 'woosh' emoticon?

 

[DaveReading]

The fact none of them carry any legal weight does not in any way mean there is no such thing.

Wrong.

Given that there is no such thing as a "genuine exempt card" then, by definition, there cannot be a "false exempt card" either.