Shopping. Being cautious about relaxing the lockdown. Thoughts on population density.

Listening to people from big shop chains talking about how they are going about preparing for reopening, I wonder if things will ever get back to “normal”. Clothes shops have goods on rails, last season’s clothes which will now be sold at sales price, but surely sales will not be able to go on as previously. I can’t imagine our seeing the hurly burly of people rifling through piles of stuff any time soon. And the high streets are going to have significant holes in them as places like Oasis have already gone under and others like Monsoon Accessorise are about to do so.

A report told of the big Zara store in Barcelona, where shops are open again, having a sort of one way system in place but a seriously reduced number of customers. People are understandably cautious. Personally I think that’s how it should be.

I recognise that I am in a privileged position as a comfortably retired person living in a place close to open country and with enough garden space to relax in. But some people have got to go out to work. The thing is that there are already reports of some increase in cases of the virus in London since the relaxation of lockdown there. And as different parts of the country are at different stages of recovery maybe we should have different stages of relaxation as well, as other countries have done.

At yesterday’s press briefing the prime minister appeared to tell journalists which questions they could ask and to tell his medical advisers which questions they could or could not answer. There are suggestions of a possible dictatorship running around! We need to get the economy going again but it seems that much of the rush to get back to “normal” is as much about the government wanting to be popular. This article suggests that we might be rushing into relaxation of lockdown altogether too quickly.

Here is a link to an article looking at why Lombardy suffered more than other regions of Italy. And it’s not all down to football matches in Milan. One factor seems to have been early testing. The neighbouring Veneto region instituted region-wide testing at an early stage and managed to contain the outbreak far more successfully.

Some people thought air pollution might be a factor but that has been pretty much ruled out; cities of similar sizes and with similar levels of pollution suffered less in the Veneto than in Lombardy.

A big factor might have been population density. Bergamo in Lombardy, one of the first places to be overwhelmed, has more or less 300 people per square kilometre, while Brescia and Verona in the Veneto, suffering far fewer cases and deaths, have 200 and 100 people per kilometre respectively.

Now, I have wondered for a while about population density in the UK and our huge number of deaths from coronavirus. We are a relatively small island with more or less the same population as much larger countries such as France. Surely common sense tells us that any kind of contagion is more easily transmitted in places where loads of people live and work in close proximity.

Anyway, here’s a more cheerful story. Uruguay’s Carrasco international airport, outside Montevideo, has not had flights going in and out recently. So they have converted the airport into a drive in cinema. A big screen has been set up, people turn up in their cars and watch the films. They use Whatsapp to order food and drink and snacks which are then delivered to the cars by waiters wearing masks. A nice little bit of enterprise and a good alternative to sitting at home watching streamed movies!

Here we have another sunny day. Soon we will be able to get friends and family together in the garden to enjoy the sunshine. Mr Johnson has given us permission - some people have already preempted that ruling.

I’ve been having fun with phone numbers, trying to text my grandson and accidentally sending messages to a complete, and rather indignant, stranger. All you need is to reverse a couple of digits! Oops!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!