June 2020

I needed a couple of jubilee clips for a hose and so visited our local independent hardware shop in the next village. The shop is a very small establishment, but manages to stock a huge selection of haberdashery and hardware, from padlocks to plumbing, bicycle parts to bird food, plus a range of haberdashery items. I find it very helpful that I can tell the proprietor of the hardware store what I am trying to achieve, and he will tell me what to do, how to do it, and sell me the necessary materials. Some weeks ago the shop closed because the owner had suffered Covid-19 symptoms. Today is my first visit since re-opening. As expected, there is a small queue. The shop is too small for any one-way system, indeed too small for any comfortable social distancing to be possible. Forget “One-In-One-Out”, required by other shops. For this store it is “One-In”. That’s it. Just one customer at a time. I still had time for a brief chat with the owner, who tells me his experience of becoming infected with Covid-19.

There is a queue of three outside as I leave the shop with my two small jubilee clips, and I explain my slightly longer than expected visit by blaming a telephone call that the owner received during our conversation. They are all very understanding.

This evening I consider the request by the youth worker associated with my church to host a weekly Zoom course from a room in the church building. He feels that he is merely making use of a room in an empty building, but it is so much more than this. It is the first step of opening the building during a pandemic, and there are a lot of implications to think about. In my “risk assessment” I must assume that he, or his lodger, is asymptomatically infected with Covid-19, maybe subsequently developing symptoms, and I must minimise the risk of contamination to the building, and infection of subsequent users. I must also assume that the building has been contaminated during recent regular visits to check that all is well, and that I need to protect the Youth Worker. The Youth Worker must be alone, must disinfect all equipment brought from his home, sanitise his hands, disinfect all door handles on the way in, sign in with his own pen (into a book that we don’t yet have) use the room closest to the entrance, and disinfect light switches and other equipment used. After the Zoom meeting he must again sanitise or wash hands, disinfect, and sign out. Any subsequent Covid symptoms must be reported, which will mean a deep clean of the room and the access route to it, by someone wearing suitable PPE. Guidance on cleaning is available, but not on appropriate PPE. This is so much more than “Is it convenient for me to use the room?”

This morning I visit my church for the first time since mid-March, to meet a contractor who is measuring up for new emergency exit doors, an appointment cancelled at the beginning of lockdown. Unexpectedly two other church members also arrive. They are taking the opportunity to decorate parts of the building while it is unused, kindly donating the paint. They reassure me that this is OK because they are from the same household. While the door fitter is measuring, I take the opportunity to tour the building, just to check that there are no problems, although I know that the building has been checked regularly during lockdown. I find none but note that all of the clocks are an hour slow. British Summer Time commenced after the building was closed up in March.

I submit my Covid risk assessment, following the request by a Youth Worker to use one of the rooms in our church building, to various members of Church. The request may have initiated the assessment, but the precautions that I recommend are to be applied for anyone entering the church for any reason, or any group using the church for the foreseeable future, although we don’t foresee any other use for at least the next month or two. The proposed use falls within Government Guidelines for places of worship, and should be permitted.

This afternoon we meet with friends and neighbours, just six of us, in a neighbour’s garden as permitted. With a chilly wind, the plan was to sit around his firepit at the bottom of his long garden. I arrive to find the firepit glowing on the concrete apron in front our friend’s workshop at the end of his garden, but, following a heavy shower, the others are seated in the heated workshop, the roller door up, effectively opening up the whole of one wall onto the garden. It would be difficult to describe this as “outdoors”, although we are able to sit well in excess of 2m away from each other. I think that the plan was for refreshments to be available and dry in the workshop while we were seated outside, but after pouring beers and dispensing nibbles into our own not-to-be-shared bowl, a thunderstorm with torrential rain keeps us seated in the shelter. As the weather improves, the gentlemen drift outside to play with dogs, a drone, and a sit-on-lawnmower, as blokes do. The ladies, on the other hand, prove more difficult to evict from their guidelines-breaching seats.

There is talk of opening up the hospitality industry and other businesses sooner rather than later, in the interest of the UK economy, and decreasing social-distancing separation to 1m, doubling the capacity of pubs and restaurants. There is a drift away from a scientific towards an economic incentive for decision making. I foresee a split in society, between those desperate to resume normality, and those more cautious and continuing to restrict their activities, even more so if rules become too relaxed.

Zoom church service this morning, and always it is interesting to hear the news of others. Sometimes it is the latest development in a story that I don’t know. The daughter-in-Law of one lady is in hospital with a lung infection, not Covid-19, possibly cancer, who has been looking forward to coming home. On three occasions complications have meant remaining in hospital. The daughter-in-law’s family live close to my friend, but she does not feel that she can visit the family to provide physical support to her son and grandchildren, not knowing whether she may be bringing the risk of Coronavirus into a household which will, hopefully, soon include a particularly vulnerable member. Relaxation of social isolation is not an option in some circumstances.

I visit a Co-op that I only use occasionally. I walk in, no queue and quiet aisles, and am immediately taken back to my last visit there. It was to buy chocolates for my wife from their extensive gluten free range, at a time when she was on a limited diet. The occasion? Valentine Day, and this pre Covid early February visit seems to have taken place in another world.

This afternoon I have an appointment to donate platelets, and drive into Leicester. Walking from the car park the town centre is quiet, but not deserted, enough people milling around to give an air of normality despite nearly all shops, and all pubs and restaurants, being closed. One large bar has its windows boarded up – I don’t know whether this for security, or a bad omen for a decision on the re-opening of the pub in due course.

At the Blood Centre there is a less relaxed atmosphere than during my previous visit a few weeks ago earlier in lockdown. I follow arrows to the staff entrance, now part of the one way system in and out of the building. A carer triages me from behind a table set 2m back from where I stand, asking about a range of symptoms and any contacts that I have had, not just for Covid, but also for other conditions – many questions are those normally asked in the small room used for taking blood samples, and this is where I am subsequently taken to check my blood-iron level and heart rate. Maybe contact time in the small room is being minimised.

I am “plumbed in” to the centrifuge that removes my blood, spins out the platelets, and returns the blood over several cycles, while I settle down with my I-pad to catch up, one handed, with e-mails. I realise that of 10 carers, 2 other staff, and 5 donors, I am initially the only one not wearing a mask, although as blood donors come and go, the donation time being shorter than that for platelets, up to 3 of us are mask-less. I feel quite self-conscious about my naked face. Social distancing is impossible when inserting and removing a needle, or taking blood samples. I have masks in the car. I should have worn a mask to protect the staff. I resolve to be more pro-active about wearing a mask when social distancing is not possible.

On the way back to the car I pass the butchers shop which, in normal times, supplies the dogs with bones. They are open, and there are bones in the basket at the front of the shop. Buying them and seeing familiar faces behind the counter is a welcome dose of how things were. The butcher tells me that trade is quiet, and the atmosphere now very different to pre-lockdown trading.

This morning I dog walk with a friend, who reports that she is suffering from a lack of motivation, feeling a bit gloomy, can’t be bothered to go shopping or for other visits, although overcomes this and feels better once she is out and about. She wonders whether this is mild depression. Later a colleague calls to discuss some details of a planning application. We have a general chat, and he tells me that he is feeling unsettled and restless, each day just another day. I generally wake early, and at this time of the year I leap out of bed to get on with the day, but until recently I got into the habit of turning over and going back to sleep. I still don’t leap out of bed, but feel better if I crawl out of bed reasonably early. Maybe the apparently never-ending lockdown and restrictions is subconsciously affecting even those of us who are fortunate enough to be still working, living in a nice environment, and for whom lockdown should be easy.

The path that leads from Croft Hill to the New Hill around the quarry is narrow, maybe 1m wide, with snowberries, brambles and gorse on one side, and the wire fence above the quarry on the other. For a few hundred yards it follows the winding quarry edge, impossible to see anyone more than three or four meters away coming towards you. When social distancing began, this was a spot where maintaining a 2m distance was difficult without repeatedly backing up to the end of the path. During this evening’s dog walk I note that over the past two months walkers have tried to maintain social distancing by stepping back in to the wild shrubs as far as the prickly gorse and thorny brambles will allow. This has created regular passing places, small clearings in the undergrowth, where walkers can safely and comfortably step back to allow oncomers to pass by while maintaining a social distance.

Our local chip shop closed at the beginning of lockdown, but has re-opened “under new ownership”, although actually under old ownership, the initial owner taking back the business. After the weekly supermarket shop, I am sent out for cod, haddock and chips. The chip shop has adapted to the New Normality. A barrier along the shop floor, and 2m spaced arrows on the floor, enforce a one-way system, although in practice this is how customers used to queue anyway, albeit much less than 2m apart. Those queuing can just maintain social distancing by keeping close to the window on one side, and close to the counter on the other. Clear plastic screens have been fitted to the counter, with a hole for cash and contactless payment where orders are taken. 

On Saturday mornings I take the dogs for a longer than usual walk, which today across the fields to Thurlaston. During lockdown, with total flexibility of working hours (well, mostly) and no commute, I could have a longer walk on any day of the week, but I don’t, because Saturday morning is the day for a long walk. It is one of many routines that I have kept during lockdown even though I don’t need to. Without routine I get unsettled.

My daughter in Law teaches, and at the moment is “on call” once or twice a week, only attending school when required. Only children of key workers, and vulnerable children attend school. She sometimes feels that she is a “childminder”, compromising her social distancing for parents unable to manage a difficult child. On one occasion she meets one such parent out for a walk with another sibling, while her son is at school. The parent could obviously have cared for both children, but maybe some children just need a structured environment more than others, and this is the reason why some children attend schools that are otherwise closed.

I walk the dogs before the Zoom virtual church meeting, striding out across the fields to be back in time for the 9.30am start. When dog walking on a fine morning it is likely that I meet another dog walker, start to chat, fail to notice the time, and get home later than intended, and so be late for church. This is not a problem in a bricks-and-mortar church where I can discretely slip in during a hymn. The trouble with Zoom-meetings is that everyone is notified when I want to join the “meeting”, and so everyone knows that I am late for church.

A work meeting on Microsoft “Teams”, and it soon becomes apparent that I can be seen but not heard, no doubt to the advantage of the rest of my team. Browsing various settings fails to resolve the issue, nor does leaving and re-joining the meeting. Since I can hear everyone else, I participate via “chat”, although occasionally have to draw the attention of colleagues to my contribution by sending a group WhatsApp “See Chat!”. It is a wonderful thing, this modern communications technology.

Friday 19th June 2020 – Big Brother will be watching

 I have stopped listening to the the daily Government Coronavirus briefing, partly because there is rarely anything these days that hasn’t already been predicted, but mostly because they are no longer held at a convenient time – with longer days meaning that I’m more likely to be out and about during the briefing. As a result I am taken by surprise this morning when  I read about the Government U-turn concerning the track and trace app, but was interested to read  about the background. From “Wired” website: “England’s planned contact tracing app, which has been trialled on the Isle of Wight and downloaded by tens of thousands of people, has been ditched in favour of a system developed by Google and Apple. The reversal….makes England the latest in a string of countries to ditch a centralised system in favour of a decentralised one supported by two Silicon Valley giants. That club also includes Germany, Italy and Denmark.”

 I am once again asked to collect prescriptions for neighbours who are self-isolating. The queue at the pharmacy is short, but those in front all seem to be asking for advice, disappearing through the doorway when summonsed, and taking several minutes to re-appear, as those behind them in the queue shuffle about and stare impatiently at the door. Well, maybe only one person took several minutes, and others two or three minutes, but I am not good at queuing, particularly when waiting in drizzle.

It is Friday, and Friday is traditionally Nacho’s At Noon, joining friends from a few doors away to walk with our dogs down the country footpath to our local pub on a Friday lunchtime for a bowl of nachos & Chili, with a beer/gin (depending on gender) or two. We miss Friday Nachos At Noon, but both our friends and ourselves each realise that, although a pub environment is preferable, it is not essential, and relaxed social isolation rules allow Nachos at Noon in the garden. As often occurs our friends act first, issuing an invitation, and so today at Noon we and our dogs are on their patio, a canopy protecting us from occasional drizzle, being served nachos and Chili. It wasn’t quite the same as the pub. For a start there are extra nibbles, dips and sauces that we don’t get at the pub, and since I brought a bag of bottled beer to supplement Richards beers, there is a choice of eight guest ales. We do not attempt to try them all.

We have an outbreak closer to home, in a particular local community in Leicester, which reportedly became apparent two weeks ago. I was unaware of this. My wife, who tends to keep an eye on local “hotspots” (in the interest of her Mum, who wants to be out and about after months of isolation) was unaware of the outbreak. We may have just missed it, but we are sure that news of the outbreak never made the local headlines. No commercial reasons for the outbreak to be kept quiet. Surely there cannot be political reasons?

Today I finish my “guidance” to those using the church building where I worship, written for those who use the building regularly, and for visitors, such as people visiting in connection with building maintenance. The easy bit was the precautions to be taken, pretty much just a tweak of precautions produced for an individual user of the building a couple of weeks ago. The difficult bit was the procedure should a church visitor subsequently report Covid symptoms. I have a brief panic about the practicalities of working out the best way to contact all who have used the building following the “contamination” by the infected visitor. I then calm down and realise that, since the Government contact-trace programme is only interested in those who have been close to the infected person, I only need to be concerned about those who were in the building at the same time as the infected person, relatively easy to manage.

I need to think about “deep cleaning” of the premises if a visitor reports Covid symptoms. What exactly is “deep cleaning”? A nursing friend tells me what agents NHS cleaners routinely use for cleaning. We wouldn’t want that stuff on our carpets and furniture. I need to look further into this, but it is likely that routinely available cleaning and disinfecting substances will be adequate, but the clean must be particularly thorough. We must now decide who does it. For a whole-building deep clean we are erring on the side of professionals.

Father’s Day, and my eldest son visits with a gift and to walk our dogs together, an early walk, so that I can be ready to sign in for the weekly church service at 9.30am. We are back in plenty of time, settle in the garden with a coffee and we chat. I decide that maybe I won’t be missed at the church Zoom service and so make another coffee, cut a couple of slices of homemade cake, and we continue to natter for most of the morning. In consequence I miss out on news and updates from my circle of friends from church who are coping with lockdown in a variety of circumstances that differ from mine.

We are at a stage where relaxation of lockdown means a degree of normality, and the restrictions of lockdown are routine. Consequently, there will be occasions when I blog about my mundane day-to-day existence, with little Covid-related. Today is one of those days, for which I apologise.

The Government announces a significant relaxation of social distancing and social isolation guidance, in particular reducing the 2m social distancing recommendation to just 1m. This morning I discuss the reduction of the social distance with two friends while we walk our dogs together. Both are enthusiastic, including, to my surprise, the friend who is a nurse. Both just want to progress further along the road towards normality. I am more cautious, but maybe this is because the existing guidelines are not particularly detrimental to my lifestyle, in fact working at home is mostly beneficial. One of my friends has a child who is being home-schooled, and her husband is periodically furloughed. The other friend is a gardener, working in just one private garden, and his job has been “on hold” for weeks. I suppose the differences between all of our circumstances reflects the balancing act that the Government must manage.

There is mixed news for various holiday arrangements. One of the friends has had a Cyprus holiday cancelled, and because flights are still available, and the accommodation, which is closed, were booked separately she may not get a full refund. Her annual leave restrictions mean that an offer of a flight voucher is of limited use. The other friend, like us, had planned a UK holiday this year, and the announced lifting of restrictions for overnight stays means that he may be able to re-book a previously cancelled holiday. Our booking for a cottage in Yorkshire in Spring was postponed to mid-July. We wait to hear from the owner to see if the cottage will be available to us.

All good things must come to an end. We have received our instructions for returning to work safely. The office is not a problem – just one or two of us from the team in at a time. The offices have already been prepared for socially distance working. There is talk of clear plastic screens between desks, and it will be interesting to see the arrangements for common access areas, kitchen areas, and toilets. Of course, it will have been designed around 2m distancing, which is as it should be for the first two weeks, but then will exceed the relaxed government guidance. Apparently “our” office is low in the list to be adapted for social distancing, and we are working in unfamiliar building, an annexe of the main Council “head office”. The office that we were evacuated from as lockdown commenced has been leased to another organisation. My first visit to the office will be next Wednesday, when I will be on call during the afternoon, possibly the only person in the office.

The Government is to encourage an “al fresco culture”, with more drinking at pubs being outdoors. This should commence on July 4^th, or at least that is when pubs and bars can open. It will be interesting to see whether the city centre is busy. On a normal pre-lockdown weekend evening drinking and dancing go together, even in quite small bars. Now there will be no dance floors. For many the “lively and vibrant atmosphere” is precisely why they travel into town on a Friday night, but with no dancing, the restricted capacity in establishments that is required for social distancing, and, with both universities closed, and the consequent absence of students, the atmosphere may be quite constrained.

I receive an e-mail from a friend at church in response to my procedures and protocols for minimising the risk from Covid-19, and dealing with the actions to be taken if we know a visitor has suffered Covid symptoms. She is a medical professional, and points out, very nicely, that we cannot ask anyone to tell us that they have symptoms, nor can we notify their contacts of this fact. That is the job of the Government track-and-trace team. She is perfectly correct, and I amend the procedures to remove any requirement involving notifications. I must now check guidance to find how we will be notified of a Covid case so that we can arrange a deep clean. In practice we are a close church community, and will probably know about a case in our own congregation, although not necessarily from visitors.

While shopping I meet a colleague from our office “admin” team, who, like me, was shopping at our local Co-op. ,With her usual job “on hold” she has been tasked with delivering free floor stickers to local shops, to encourage social distancing. With surprising forethought, the Council has not printed a specified distance on the stickers. “2m apart” stickers would have been obsolete within a week.

My nursing dog-walking friend and her colleagues have received the results of Covid antibody testing. She is negative, she has not had Covid-19, but estimates that 70% of her colleagues were positive, many of whom have had no symptoms. This is not a statistical robust statement, and maybe 70% is a high estimate, but even if this is halved it is still 1 in 3 of staff. I don’t know how many were working directly with Covid patients. Some of her colleagues had previously been tested for coronavirus after suffering symptoms, did not to have Covid at the time, but now have a positive antibody result, suggesting an asymptomatic infection at another time.

I receive a call from a contractor visiting our church tomorrow to install replacement emergency exit doors. I check that neither he, his workmen or their households have suffered Covid symptoms, and I go through the precautions to be used; signing in, wiping handles etc. In my procedure I required that all equipment be cleaned with an antiseptic wipe before being brought into the building. I was thinking of laptops and similar at the time, and I make a decision that this is maybe not practical with drills, hammers, chisels, saws, screws and nails, which could, I suppose, contaminate our new doors.

The Covid spike in the Leicester East constituency  finally hits the national headlines, with the local MP saying that the Government is not acting quickly enough to impose a lockdown, the City Mayor demanding the facts so that appropriate action can be taken in the appropriate areas, the Home Secretary saying that it should be dealt with locally, and promising that resources have been made available to the “area”, whatever that means, and the Health Secretary stating, at the time of writing,  merely that he has the powers to impose a local lockdown. I have more than a passing interest in this. The locations of businesses and schools affected are spread across a large area of the city (plus at least one town immediately outside of the City boundary). My Team is already out and about on call in the city, and sometimes need to enter potentially affected homes.

 The Coronavirus peak in Leicester makes the national news headline all day. Last night the Government stated that lockdown, or at least the form of semi-relaxed lockdown that we currently have, “could” be extended in Leicester beyond 4^th July, when the rest of the UK can enjoy a pint, or have a haircut. Today the Government escalates this to “may” extend the lockdown. The reason for indecisiveness is unclear, possibly the Government checking that the legislation can require such local restrictions. The Leicester Director of Public Health confirms that there have been 944 cases of Coronavirus in the City over two weeks.  The City Mayor states that he is still awaiting details of where cases have occurred.

It is not until 10pm tonight that further information is released. It is clear that the number of coronavirus cases in the City are very high, 10% of the total national number of cases in the last two weeks. 30% of the total number of cases in Leicester throughout the pandemic have occurred in the last 2 weeks. It was expected that the current social isolation guidance, to be relaxed further from 4^th July for the rest of the country, would continue in Leicester for a further two weeks, with hairdressers, pubs and restaurants remaining closed. In fact, lockdown in Leicester has been tightened, with non-essential shops closing, having only been allowed to open again after full lockdown two or three weeks ago. There is no timescale for re-opening of such shops, let alone hairdressers and pubs in Leicester, merely a review of the situation in two weeks. The exact boundary for restrictions remains unclear.

The sharp increase in Leicester cases suggests a link to an event, which may be a community or culture related event, or maybe just the initial relaxation of lockdown. In our semi-rural idyll, we have been able to safely meet with friends and family in our garden, easily maintaining social distancing, and with miles of local country footpaths to exercise in fresh air. In much of the affected area of Leicester residents doing the same as us, meeting and exercising outside as allowed under current rules, will find it more difficult to manage social distancing.

Generally following the edge of the built-up area, rather than the City boundary, avoids the issue of one side a road being in lockdown, while neighbours on the other side have more freedom, because in many areas the City boundary runs down the middle of streets. There are a few suburbs that always emphasise that they are County, and should never be confused with their City counterparts, despite sharing a postcode. They will be disgruntled at being caught in the same net.