Lockdown thread

PostmanBitesDog · Post by **PostmanBitesDog** » 24 Mar 2020, 16:17

world class male wrote:
ddtc wrote:Are post offices open?
yes with banks too

Things have changed lately.

BBC: 'Coronavirus: Bank Branches Close as Virus Affects Access
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52021246

Scores of bank branches are closed and others have restricted opening hours as a result of the coronavirus crisis. Branches are permitted to stay open, despite the strict curbs placed on shops and gatherings by the government to slow the pandemic's spread. Yet staff availability means many are closing, sometimes at short notice. People are being encouraged to use online banking, as telephone contact is also under strain with long waits to be expected.

What is the situation with your bank?
Lloyds Banking Group, the largest of the sector in the UK, has temporarily shut a host of its branches. The same is true of the Halifax, which falls under the same banner. TSB has closed the doors on about a fifth of its branch network. Others have said the situation remains under review, especially as staff levels are expected to fall as more people enter self-isolation.

Yesterday on my way to the train station heading home, I passed a bank in the city center and noticed that a long line of people were waiting outside to get in. A bank staff member wearing gloves was letting customers through the glass door one at a time and locking it after each one enters, does their business and leaves. Freaky.

clashcityrocker · Post by **clashcityrocker** » 24 Mar 2020, 16:21

PostmanBitesDog wrote: Yesterday on my way to the train station heading home, I passed a bank in the city center and noticed that a long line of people were waiting outside to get in. A bank staff member wearing gloves was letting customers through the glass door one at a time and locking it after each one enters, does their business and leaves. Freaky.

This is how our customer service points should be operating.
Most are too small to accommodate more than one person.
And we should be restricting the opening hours as well.

PostmanBitesDog · Post by **PostmanBitesDog** » 26 Mar 2020, 18:37

The problem with trying to learn origami during the lockdown is twofold.

[Okay, I'll get my coat. ]

PostmanBitesDog · Post by **PostmanBitesDog** » 26 Mar 2020, 19:34

Horoscope.jpg

PostmanBitesDog · Post by **PostmanBitesDog** » 03 Apr 2020, 18:41

PostmanBitesDog wrote:

[Caution: Strong language.]

Jonathan Pie continues his lockdown hell:

PostmanBitesDog · Post by **PostmanBitesDog** » 16 Apr 2020, 18:55

Lockdown to continue until at least May 7th. So three more weeks of piling up the retained business mail in our office.

The Guardian (April 16, 2020) - UK Lockdown to Continue for at Least Three Weeks, Raab Confirms

PostmanBitesDog · Post by **PostmanBitesDog** » 18 Apr 2020, 17:18

Right then,

Two things that still fail to register with a lot of people here in Britain is the need for the lockdown to be strictly enforced, and that it's kept in place for as long as necessary. Lifting it too soon, or the public having a haughty attitude towards the lockdown, could lead to another wave of confirmed cases. Perhaps even worse than the first wave, as was the case in late 1918.

1918 Double-Humped Curve.jpg

The three weeks-long lockdown here in the UK maybe burdensome to a lot of people, but it's for the best when the aim is to flatten the curve and combat COVID-19's spread while preventing it from re-emerging.

A recent interview on a radio show in New Zealand, with one of the country's former prime ministers, raised an interesting point. Helen Clark, who was also a former Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), mentioned that unless rich, developed countries helped out poorer ones, the coronavirus will "keep circling around."

Clark: "This first wave will eventually peter out [...] but it will come back until we deal with it decisively by supporting countries with very limited means to do so. We're all in it together."

Meanwhile in Michigan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer is under heavy criticism from angry citizens (mostly right-wing Trump supporters) demanding she lift the state's lockdown. She's not backing down as yet, and she's making the right call. Rather than an immediate cessation to Michigan's lockdown, Whitmer plans to gradually lift it in the next few weeks, but only in some parts of Michigan first, and only after the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 show a significant decline - and not just what the statistics have shown in the past three days.

Governor Whitmer.jpg

AngardWolf · Post by **AngardWolf** » 18 Apr 2020, 17:40

Fortunately according to polls at least it seems the majority of Brits are happy for the lockdown to be extended and there also seems to be rising support for the idea we locked down too late to begin with - hopefully we won’t hesitate to keep putting lives before the economy and if future lockdowns are needed they’ll be implemented swiftly (though today’s Telegraph quotes a government source as saying if it hadn’t been for public pressure they wouldn’t have implemented this current lockdown, which is pretty worrying, if not surprising).