As of today, people living on their own can form support bubbles with someone else. For many people this is really welcome news, and I can empathise with them since I live alone and, theoretically, fall into this category.
I’m not going to get into all the criticisms. It’s not a perfect system, and the priorities of government do come across as … weird. But I try and keep this blog fairly positive overall.
When it comes to vulnerable single people or vulnerable people in the households they want to form support bubbles with, this is clearly more complicated. With regards to shielding people specifically, they’re not able to form support bubbles, but apparently there will be a further announcement regarding them next week. I wonder if it’s something like you can form a support bubble if the household you form it with also shields.
But for those of us who fall in the middle category, we have some tough decisions to make. I personally don’t feel comfortable doing this with my family (parents and brother living together) as things stand, because my mum goes out to do shopping for all of us. My first thought was that it was one more lockdown-easing rule which I wouldn’t be taking advantage of because I wouldn’t feel safe to.
However, I only discovered today that supermarkets have delivery slots available for non-priority customers. (Since I don’t fit the high-risk criteria, I’ve been unable to get priority.) Which opens up the possibility of my mum not having to go out. I haven’t discussed this with her yet, since it’s something I only just realised was a possibility, but plan to raise it with my family when we Facetime tomorrow.
To everyone who doesn’t fall into the right category, or who have chosen to not form support bubbles because of vulnerability or other reasons … hang in there. You’re not alone.
