I went to the local Waitrose this afternoon to do some shopping, when what should I see but a queue of, I’d guess, over 100 people outside. My immediate reaction: “I’m a sole carer for my caree. I can’t possibly risk standing around that many other people who might be asymptomatic!” (So I went away again, and came back later, when thankfully there were only about a dozen people in the queue). The elderly and vulnerable may get their own designated shopping hours, but what about their carers? Is anything done for them by the national chains? I would have been happy, for example, if my place in the queue could have been marked, and then I could go away and sit somewhere else where I wouldn’t be surrounded by all these potential sources of infection, but is that an option anywhere? And what about those people who can’t leave their caree for several hours while they queue up? Not to mention that we hear about all these people who take several hours to get up/be got up in the morning because their condition means that they take hours before they can actually get moving - how can they profit from early morning opening? What other options are available?
Is this something Carers UK could be addressing at a national level?