Lockdown in Brighton and Hove, UK

MARCH-APRIL 2020

We weren’t sure whether this period of time should constitute a travel blog as we were unlikely to do much travelling. But as this document also serves as our diary and we were in the midst of a historic world event/horror, we decided it was important to record it.

Over the years we have flown into Heathrow Airport on many occasions, but this time was very different. Usually one of the busiest airports in the world, this Thursday afternoon was spookily quiet. The only ground movement appeared to be our plane with all the rest of the aircraft parked with nothing going on.

Our airplane, the only activity at T5

It was a similar scene in Terminal 5 where a skeleton staff directed us along almost empty corridors to immigration. Usually passing through immigration can take a while, even with the e-gates in use, but today there were no queues and you had a choice of gates to pass through.

On our way to immigration at T5

Empty escalator in T5

All this meant we arrived at baggage claim early so had to wait a bit longer for our bags. Arrivals were no different, very few people and only a handful of shops open. It was the same outside, almost no one milling around, hardly any taxis and our car rental shuttle bus was waiting for us.
This theme continued at the rental car offices where we were the only customers and the whole process was very quick. Away from the airport the slow moving traffic jam known as the M25 was a dream to travel on, almost unheard of for this time of day.

M25 with no traffic, unheard off

We had entered the UK on a repatriation flight and had arrived back into a country very different to the one we had left at the start of February. The Coronavirus had taken hold and the country had gone into a state of lockdown. This meant that with effect from 23 March 2020 there was a government directive in force that stated the following:

1.People should stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives. When we reduce our day-to-day contact with other people, we will reduce the spread of the infection;
2.People should stay at home except for very limited purposes: travelling to and from work (if you can’t work from home), essential food shopping, one form of exercise per day and for medical needs;
3.All non-essential shops and community spaces would be closed;
4.Gathering of more than two people in public would be forbidden;
In addition to these measures, people must stay two meters a part when in public spaces, except for members of the same household.

We first encountered these measure when arriving at the supermarket on our way back from the airport. Customers were required to stand at least two meters apart whilst queuing to enter the shop, with a maximum of 60 people in the shop at anyone time. We would see this procedure being enforced over the coming weeks at all of the establishments that remained open.

Social distancing

Of course we were not like most people, we had returned to the UK as instructed but had no home to go to. Our house had tenants in it so wasn’t available for our use. Fortunately our very good friend Rob offered us a place to stay until some sort of normality returned, which in our case was to continue travelling, something we had been doing continuously for the past four and a bit years.

Our first day back in the UK was the start of a period, length unknown, of following the government rules and hoping these would be effective in the fight to eradicate the Coronavirus.
A routine soon developed for the three of us. Rob was working from home. Anne adopted the role of chef and I did what ever I (Malc) could to help out.

Lemon Drizzle Cake for Malcolm

100 Ginger biscuits for Anne

Coffee and Walnut Cake for Rob

One of the lockdown dinners

Anne and I also took on the role of doing the food shopping, planning in advance to limit this to once a week. We tried to go for a walk each day, keeping at least two meters away from any other person we encountered and stayed locally as per the guidelines.

Sunset at low tide

The West Pier and Brighton Pier at sunrise

Sunset from Hove Beach

Sunrise over Hove Beach

Sunset

West Pier

Street Art in the street where we are in lockdown

Trees blossoming in the streets of Hove

Confined predominantly to the apartment our entertainment was provided by each other together with the TV. Dining together was of great enjoyment especially the devouring of Anne’s delicious creations, often washed down with a nice wine or a spirit or three. There was plenty to watch on TV if not the usual offerings. No sport as that had all been postponed (a major disappointment for me), no live shows because of social distancing but a lot creative alternatives, pre-recorded programmes and a chance to catch up on those things you missed the first time round.
Novel ideas were used to keep in touch with friends and family. The usual phone calls, texts, emails, etc. were complemented with such things as a virtual party. Our good friend Hayley was hoping to celebrate her 50th birthday with a meal and party, unfortunately this had to be called off due to the lockdown. Instead we had a virtual party where all the guests remained in their homes and were linked by video using phones, tablets, laptops, etc.

Every Thursday at 20h00 the nation stops what ever it’s doing and clap in support for the front line workers. This is done from front gardens or by hanging out of windows (which we do). It is a way to show our gratitude to those in the National Health Service who were caring for the sick and the other essential workers who are keeping the country ticking over. In every case, these people are putting their lives at risk to keep us safe.

By the middle of April the original three week government “lockdown” period had come to an end. However, this was quickly extended for a further three weeks, as although there were a few signs of improvement the situation was still serious enough to require these tight controls to continue. The new directive did come with more clarification as to what people could and couldn’t do. But it didn’t deflect the criticism the government had been coming under due to the lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for front line workers and the low number of tests that were being carried out.

South Downs with Brighton & Hove in the background

Devil's Dyke

South Downs National Park, 10mn drive away

Stanmer Woods bluebell display

Stanmer woods

Bluebells

Stanmer Woods

Bluebells

Having now been back in the UK for over a month it is clear that our travels are not going to start again for some time yet. There are signs of improvement in the situation across mainland Europe and the UK has stopped getting worse, but the situation in the USA is still very bad.
As to when we might resume our travels, it’s still unclear. We have cancelled everything up to our South African trip in June, but that now looks very much in doubt. There is a trip to France in late July but realistically we are hoping to resume travels in August when we are due to visit Canada.

We will continue blogging but don’t expect any exotic locations any time soon.

Personal Observations & Interesting Facts

COVID-19 and other Pandemics
A pandemic is an epidemic of disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of people. A widespread endemic disease with a stable number of infected people is not a pandemic. Widespread endemic diseases with a stable number of infected people such as recurrences of seasonal influenza are generally excluded as they occur simultaneously in large regions of the globe rather than being spread worldwide.
Throughout history, there have been a number of pandemics of diseases such as smallpox and tuberculosis. One of the most devastating pandemics was the Black Death (also known as The Plague), which killed an estimated 75–200 million people in the 14th century. Another notable pandemics was the Influenza Pandemic (also known as Spanish flu) between 1918-20, which infected 500 million people and killed an estimated 20-100 million.
Current pandemics include HIV/AIDS and the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic. Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) and now a new strain (SARS-CoV-2) or Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) - declared a pandemic by the WHO on 11 March 2020.

Source to the Coronavirus & Future Implications
What we do know to date is that the epicentre of the disease was in the Chinese city of Wuhan, an important hub in the lucrative trade in wildlife – both legal and illegal. The outbreak is believed to have originated in a market in which a variety of animal-derived products and meats are widely available, including peacocks, porcupines, bats and rats. It’s also a market where regulatory and welfare standards are rudimentary at best.
Some of this trade is legal under Chinese domestic law but the existence of a parallel illegal trade – often within the very same market or stall – allows some traders to launder illicit wildlife products into the system. This situation is very difficult to regulate and control.
We are also reasonably certain that the spill-over event involved the crossover of the virus from animals to humans, similar to the situation with previous contagions like the Ebola and SARs viruses. In each of these cases, the existence of large, unsanitary and poorly-regulated wildlife markets provided an ideal environment for diseases to cross over between species. In a country like China, where wildlife consumption is so deeply embedded in culture, such contamination can, and did, spread rapidly.
The Chinese government has long advocated a “sustainable utilisation” approach to the country’s wildlife. It nonetheless responded to the current crisis by enacting a temporary ban on such markets, effectively closing down a significant sector of its domestic wildlife trade.
In the longer term, the pandemic may provide the impetus to properly address the issue. This is because, while the illegal wildlife trade was once criticised almost purely in terms of conservation, it is now also being considered in relation to broader themes of biosecurity, public health and economic impact.
It is only in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak that the full scale of China’s industry is emerging, with the temporary ban covering some 20,000 captive breeding enterprises and 54 different species allowed to be traded domestically. A report by the Chinese Academy of Engineering estimates the wildlife farming industry is worth around US$57 billion annually. These breeding centres are allowed to operate under loopholes in Chinese domestic law, arguably against the spirit of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
The parallel illegal trade is less easy to quantify, but globally it is valued by the UN at around US$23 billion. Given the resulting pandemic could cost as much as US$2.7 trillion, even on purely economic grounds there is a strong case for increased regulation.
There are compelling arguments for dismantling the trade anyway: animals are kept in abject conditions, and the trade hastens their demise in the wild. But in China the temporary ban remains just that – temporary. Critics argue that we have been there before with SARS and once the dust settled on that particular outbreak, China resumed business as usual.
What would seriously tackling the wildlife trade actually mean in practice? First, breeding centres for endangered species like tigers or pangolins would be permanently closed. This would make it much harder for their products to be laundered through legal channels and sold as more valuable “wild-caught”. Enforcement agencies currently need to monitor these centres closely to check against laundering, and shutting them down would free up resources to disrupt the supply of illegal products entering China from outside.
Such a move would also help reduce demand. Public education campaigns tell people about how the wildlife trade (both legal and illegal) harms endangered species, but the message is mixed: the presence of a parallel legal market still provides such products with legitimacy and sends a message that it is OK to purchase them, thereby increasing rather than decreasing demand.
In any case, the new Chinese ban excludes products such as tiger bones that are used in traditional medicines. Some conservationists and activists are concerned that this exemption will lead to legalised trade under the assumption that better regulation will protect against future outbreaks. This argument is extremely difficult to validate, and most conservationists continue to favour blanket trade bans.
Another worry is that, given humans have short memories, once the danger has passed, public concern will turn to the next big problem. COVID-19 clearly represents an unparalleled opportunity to combat the wildlife trade and ensure that animal-borne diseases do not mutate and cross over to humans. But only time will tell whether this opportunity will be taken or put off once again until the emergence of the next – perhaps even more virulent – pandemic poses an even graver global threat.

Coronavirus (Covid-19) Statistics
Below is a comparison of the Coronavirus impact between the time we left Mexico to return to the UK, (25 March), and the situation one month later, 25 April:

There are now 2,919,404 (551,246 @25 March) cases of coronavirus confirmed around the world since the outbreak began, and 203,164 (24,915 @ 25 March) people have died.
The USA has the highest number of cases, 960,651, and the greatest number of deaths, 54,256.
The other worst affected countries are as follows: Spain 223,759 cases & 22,902 deaths; Italy 195,351 cases & 26,384 deaths; France 161,488 cases & 22,614 deaths; Germany 156,513 cases & 5,877 deaths; UK 148,377 (11,658) cases & 20,319 (578) deaths; Turkey 107,773 cases & 2,706 deaths; Iran 89,328 cases & 5,650 deaths; China 82,816 cases & 4,632 deaths; Russia 74,588 cases & 681 deaths.

However, these figures should only be used as an indicator as each country has a slightly different way of recording their data. It should also be noted that the severity of the numbers are affected by the proportion of at risk members of the community (the old, the BEMA community, etc) in each country.

Social Distancing
Part of the fight against the Coronavirus was to adopt social distancing. Social distancing in this instance required people to stay at least two meters apart, except for the members of the same household.
From what we witnessed, this worked reasonably well when instructions were on hand to advise everybody such as at supermarkets. However, when the general public were left to monitor themselves it didn’t seem quite so good. To be fair most people understood what two meters meant and would take a wide berth when passing in the street or queuing outside one the few shops that were open. But as usual a few spoilt it for the majority, either not knowing how much two meters is or just refusing to abide by the rules. This resulted in the government threatening tougher restrictions which seemed to have the desired effect.

Furlough
It was estimated that millions of workers would be "furloughed" (put on leave) because of the government lockdown. In response to this the UK government introduced a pay scheme to keep employees on payrolls despite not working. Under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, for the period from the start of March to the end of June, the government covered 80% of workers' wages, up to £2,500 a month, if they were furloughed.
Jim Harra, head of the UK's tax authority, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said that the system had dealt with 67,000 claims in its first 30 minutes of operation and can accommodate “up to 450,000 claims per hour”.