Bearing in mind the latest Government advice is to "Not make unnecessary journeys" My journey I felt was necessary, however, I believe very few are adhering to this, which is why we are going to be hit hard.
I saw 4 old ladies all stood close together talking in the street, I passed a number of cafe's all with people in them, none of them complying with the distancing policy.
Instead of parking up in Bournemouth hospital and paying excessive parking fee's I drove across the road to wait for my Father in law in the Littledown Centre (sports/gym complex). I was not aware that going to the gym which should of been closed was a necessary journey?
People are either stupid or just don't care, or they have no comprehension of how bad this could potentially become.
I watched the news more or less constantly yesterday, and the one defining point everyone in authority made was is if this is to work and reduce the amount of deaths that are predicted. The one single thing we need to do right now is comply with "Social Distancing."
If folk are not doing this then how on earth will they manage to self isolate?
Social Distancing
If anyone is in any doubt what the British Government is saying click on the link below
http://bit.ly/2vz5TOC
We are told that we should not congregate in groups, and I totally agree with all of this. However I am now starting to feel that there is a massive area that is now a black hole of conflicting information.
Schools have not closed. Our kids aged 18 and 15 are still attending, it's an important year for A levels and GCSE.
We have heard nothing about what happens if these exams cannot take place.
It's a stressful time for the kids without the added worry of the virus on their minds!
Not only that but the instruction from the Government is conflicting.
On one hand we are told not to congregate in groups, yet it is ok for a class of 20 plus kids to sit next to each other with a teacher in a room.
Sorry but the two do not go together. Head teachers and teachers we are hearing are very concerned over this and I have read today that some schools feel that they will not be in a position after this Friday to remain open.
Staff are phoning in sick and self isolating added extra pressure to those who remain.
The schools are not a care service for those who need to go to work, they are there to teach and teach only. It is the parents responsibility.
Now I know that some kids will be at a serious disadvantage by not attending school, and others will require their parents to either take time off or arrange child care.
But we now have to look at the bigger picture.
Kids in the main do not suffer as we adults do with this virus, but can still carry and spread it.
Taking it home to healthy parents, healthy elderly Grandparents etc.
But, I guess at this stage it probably is all ready to late, the damage has been done.
Once this has been brought under control I know that one of the questions will be "Should we of closed the schools earlier"?
Now to my main part of the blog - Shopping in Tesco's
I popped into Tesco yesterday in New Milton, I wanted some fruit and to see what they had in store and pick up some flour, cereal and some frozen bits and pieces.
Fruit and Vegetables was not an issue, plenty of everything, more or less, most of the shelves had produce on them.
Bread Display
However, the rest of the shop was to be honest in a terrible state.
I wasn't expecting to find loo roll or pasta, but now there was very little of anything and I do mean anything.
No bread or eggs, no flour, very little tinned goods of any description.
Now this wasn't late at night, these pictures were taken at 1430hrs!!!
The shelves were stripped bare, a thoroughly depressing site.
But, was this panic buying?
New Milton has a population in excess of 26,000 people, made up predominantly of over 70's.
Each brown bread tray holds between 12-15 loaves of bread, in our supermarket there is room for approx 8-10 next to each other with 8 trays stacked, so doing the maths that's approx 1200 loaves of bread.
Now I have done some research - Morrisons say that there average weekly footfall of shoppers here in the UK throughout the year is approx 23,000 per week. So I suspect the other supermarkets are roughly the same give or take.
Yesterday I spoke to someone in Tesco who said the queue at 1100hrs was from the checkouts to the back of the store!
They had more people in one day than they normally do in one week. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to work the figures out!
It is no wonder the shelves are stripped bare!
I really don't think it's panic buying in quantity wise ie, 10 packs of loo roll, 10 tins of soup and 15 bags of frozen chips, its panic buying because the Government has told the over 70's they need to stay in for the next 12 weeks!
They need supplies for that time, so of course they need to stock up. So they all went shopping!
I'm off out in a bit as I forgot to get ink cartridges as my wife is now working from home.
Thankfully her company has the ability to do this which is brilliant news for us.
So I will see what Tesco is like this morning, I'm going with no expectations so I'll report more tomorrow.
Stay safe everyone...............
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