When will the COVID era paraphernalia be taken down?
Posted by NewActuator2170@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 113 comments
Five or so years ago signs were put up everywhere reminding everyone to socially distance, perspex barriers were put up in shops and one way arrows / footprints were put on the floor of supermarkets.
Coming up to 3 years after the last restrictions were lifted a lot of the signs and perspex barriers are still in place, how long are people realistically expecting them to be up for and is this a regional thing with some parts of the country being quicker to put things back to normal?
Feisty_Type3650@reddit
I work in retail. Our Perspex screens have reduced the amount of colds I get hugely. They’ll stay until they break I think.
novelty-socks@reddit
These objects and signs are just part of our social fabric now. If anyone was going to remove them intentionally they'll have done it long ago.
They'll gradually get covered up and replaced as buildings are refurbished and businesses change hands. But there isn't going to be a "we're done with COVID" moment when they all disappear.
Plenty of comparable examples too. Still see the odd bit of London 2012 signage here and there on the tube. And I remember an "opens 2000" wayfinding sign for the London Eye at Waterloo tube station that was there until at least 2010.
JamesL25@reddit
Indeed, this is still at Kings Cross
Phinbart@reddit
Similarly, the Rabbit mobile carrier/service markers that, AFAIK, are still here and there around the capital.
Single-Aardvark9330@reddit
I imagine most of it will be there until it breaks/furniture is replaced
Too much time /effort to get rid of it otherwise
geesegoosegeesegoose@reddit
Until we get to the point where they decide it's of historical importance and decide to preserve it.
luke-uk@reddit
I look forward to an r/mildilyinteresting post in 2050 where someone finds a “2m distance” sticker in a shop or something.
Rastapopolos-III@reddit
The chances we get to 2050 without another pandemic necessitating a load of new stickers is pretty slim.
Neither_Process_7847@reddit
We managed a century since the previous one - we might be lucky again!
TheShakyHandsMan@reddit
Lots more international travel these days. The Spanish flu was spread by large population movement post WWI. If it had come at another time it is likely not to be as widespread as it was.
MaleficentWay9066@reddit
There will be no shops in 2050. Only the Turkish barbers will survive.
maersyl@reddit
And the American candy stores!
YchYFi@reddit
Short sighted.
Vape shops will be last ones standing.
thomas105@reddit
Nah, they will all have caught fire and burned everything around them down
wolftick@reddit
Don't have to wait til then. I'm sure I've seen them posted between the banana wet floor signs and the aeroplane drains.
donalmacc@reddit
A family member of mine built an extension onto a semi detached cottage that had been there for 200 years in the 00s, and moved the front door to the side. The nest door neighbours just had permission approved for a different designed extension but were told they had to relocate the front door to the side to match the character of the area!
Scorpiodancer123@reddit
Until the DFS sale ends and the call centre isn't experiencing an unusually high number of calls.
R90GTI@reddit
They’re leaving them up ready for the next outbreak.😷
tk1178@reddit
The fact that you have a mask wearing emoji shows just how much covid has affected social media.
YchYFi@reddit
Feel like I'm currently experiencing it.
Killer cold flu thing right now.
Ok_Note_2791@reddit
lol next outbreak "please refer to the old signs"
OwineeniwO@reddit
There are still traces of WWII signs around.
kjus13@reddit
Could you give an example, please?
OwineeniwO@reddit
https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-samsung-ss&hs=EOAV&sca_esv=e0db249db5055037&sxsrf=ANbL-n4lAIHq7xTrGelogo_08e7-IewX0w:1777978387936&udm=2&fbs=ADc_l-byipRaccqV0jmfPhi1DgzPtklXGmVkws8Z_lBff884vwWzYGOXmwhR8m6ZBpcqcPIqddKEOjVMB89MzS34w78SwWdy_5XxHxgCt0q997zVA1-3eDnmW-5cTWs6G2bAnBe_9wiJxP6L57bvmUKRub9vFoj0MUdh4nD2Ib6IXZ3uPILLIOZ3w1muQ57GjIXBvLEB1QzyaCSngzDip2Plqkwuz7RgHO6uB_gRncjrP_Yly-YmV8Y&q=ews+signs+still+visible+from+ww2&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjTuuzR_aGUAxUlWUEAHV2qGzkQtKgLegQIFBAB
FantasticWeasel@reddit
Roman walls too.
SoggyWotsits@reddit
And roads. Sometimes seen beneath the tarmac that doesn’t last two minutes!
aslat@reddit
Romanes eunt domus
sheepandlambs@reddit
Don't call me an eunt, you domus.
missuseme@reddit
Romani ite domum
aslat@reddit
Now, write it out a hundred times
PhillyDeeez@reddit
Now write it 100 times!
OkPhilosopher5308@reddit
People called Romanes they go the house?
Consistent-Pirate-23@reddit
Romans go home is an order so you must use the imperative
Gone_For_Lunch@reddit
People called romanes they go the house?
OwineeniwO@reddit
True, but there are remains of painted signs still on some walls from WWII.
Dennyisthepisslord@reddit
This morning I was running on a flood defence that's now obsolete built hundreds of years ago so what's a sticker saying maintain social distance really
StrangerThings1106@reddit
The perspex barriers on supermarket cigarette counters and in petrol stations, whilst originally put up for covid, now serve a new purpose. To protect staff from aggressive assholes and to stop people jumping over the counters and stealing cigarettes/vapes. They are the only places I still see them. Since 2020, people have become increasingly entitled, impatient and hostile.
racloves@reddit
The counter at my local mini Sainsbury’s is like they’re locked in a vault. You have to put your meal deal into a plastic bit that is slid under the counter to get scanned by the cashier. It’s like a bigger version of those things you get at the counter of the post office or bank to slide your documents under. The staff have body cams on. I don’t think I live in a particularly bad area but I guess it must be worse than I thought
fsv@reddit
I think they’re all like that now. I’ve not seen a Sainsbury’s Local that didn’t have that arrangement for a while, and I’ve been to quite a few including in very “nice” areas.
DoorlessSword@reddit
They are not all like that. I haven't seen a single one like that up here at all. They just still have simple perspex sheets at most. This is in the north too
fsv@reddit
How weird, all the ones near me are like fortresses now. Thick perspex sheets right up to near the ceiling and topped off with a cage-like structure.
Even the one in the centre of Harrogate is like that.
DoorlessSword@reddit
Aye but that's Harrogate, can't trust anyone there lol
skankyfish@reddit
The two I've used in central Newcastle recently aren't like that. In fact I don't think Central Stat9has any barriers at all
Tannerted2@reddit
Buses still have them too in my area when they never did before.
Honestly im cool with it. A bus driver could see a couple hundred unique people a day, adding a barrier that doesnt affect the job or service at all while adding a mild disease barrier is probably a good thing to keep.
highrouleur@reddit
Part of my job during covid was fitting the extra screens on buses. We still have to keep gaps between the drivers cab and the saloon at smaller than 5mm, the FTA give us points (bad) if they inspect our vehicles and find a bigger gap
DoxBolt@reddit
Buses in Plymouth have had the screens forever i think, I dont remember them without a screen
Snoo63@reddit
I want to say that Covid (the virus) might have caused that.
StreyyK@reddit
I remember how grim it felt going out for my daily hour of allowed exercise and seeing the laminated "social distancing" posters hastily cable-tied to lampposts had been replaced with proper metal signs. Really quite shit that they are mostly still up.
parklife980@reddit
I've kinda got fond memories of that permitted one hour of outdoor exercise. I was determined to make the most of that one hour and went out for brisk walks, determined to get a bit further every day before turning back at the half hour mark. I did get further and further and got quite fit as a result of it.
Once they relaxed the rules and let us out for as long as we wanted, I got lazy again 🙄
Nebulousdbc@reddit
Christ what a weird time that was, that the government "allowed" us to have an hour outside our homes.
ALA02@reddit
Is it sociallt acceptable yet to admit that you pushed it a lot longer than an hour (obviously I still made sure I kept a big distance between me and anyone else)?
pib712@reddit
Straight to jail
fsv@reddit
An hour was never specified in legislation. You could exercise as long as you liked.
parklife980@reddit
It'll be up there in tales of the past, along with government allowing us only a certain amount of food rations during the war.
Crittsy@reddit
Why take them down? the recommendations were sound for preventing airborne viruses, e.g. in the winter following the rec would lessen transmittal of influenza & rhinovirus infections.
Historical_Project86@reddit
Why would you expect it to be taken down? We are still in the COVID era.
DiDiPLF@reddit
I'm responsible for taking it down in my office, the easy stuff went ages ago. The stuff that's hard to move gets a look at once in a while hoping that the glue has deteriorated enough to get the stickers off but usually looks worse after I try to remove it so I don't mess with them much anymore.
BuncleCar@reddit
Some went fairly quickly but others now seem permanent
chris_567295@reddit
Perhaps employers want to reduce the risk of their staff catching illnesses from customers?
ExecutiveChimp@reddit
...such as COVID, which is still around
EndearingSobriquet@reddit
Given COVID is still here, killing and disabling people, it really ought to stay.
Phinbart@reddit
The university I attended, at least when I left in 2022, had a load of signs on plinths that asked people to keep their distance stored in one dimly lit area of its underground bus terminal at one point. Not sure why they chose there to stash them all, since the signs themselves were only pieces of paper in a frame that could be repurposed easily and readily around campus.
My workplace, a care home, also has a couple posters around the premises referring to COVID, although in toilets and staff areas and mentioned in otherwise perennial advice on ensuring proper handwashing and donning of PPE.
Although a local shopping centre has since taken down their lifts-adjacent poster encouraging folk to socially distance, which featured a picture of two people doing just that, on a bench wearing masks... in spring last year.
bondinchas@reddit
Funny you should ask that as my local pharmacy took down their perspex screens only last week.
I'm not sure whether it's a good omen though. (calm before the storm?)
Phinbart@reddit
Ah, so we know the people to blame for setting in motion the butterfly effect that will lead to the hantavirus pandemic, then(!)
Altruistic_Grocery81@reddit
These are still on the ground in Cambridge which blew my mind last month.
Phinbart@reddit
There's a road sign with the same text still erected outside Eldon Square bus station in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
opaqueentity@reddit
Yep that one was my first thought when I saw this post
I_ALWAYS_UPVOTE_CATS@reddit
That could be part of a pandemic walking trail in 50 years.
StrangerThings1106@reddit
Well that appears to be painted on the ground, a little harder to remove than a poster or sticker.
Evening-Web-3038@reddit
Yea, there's one in Liverpool city centre (near the Cavern Club) on a lamppost! Blows my mind...
breakwater99@reddit
I bought a t-shirt during Covid that reads:
When this virus is over
I still want some of you
To stay away from me
Motor-Command-2680@reddit
I unscrewed a metal one i found in the middle of knowhere at a water treatment plant last year.
Its on the wall now in my man cave.
HeartyBeast@reddit
When we get around to it
pajamakitten@reddit
The hospital I work at cannot get the one way stickers off the floor. They tried with one of them and failed miserably, so they did not bother trying with the others.
DrakeManley@reddit
There are still bin wagons in service near us that have stickers saying "Thank you Gateshead for all you're doing to fight Covid" and painted rainbows on some roads still thanking the NHS.
semicombobulated@reddit
Given that I see one or two people every day who are still wearing covid masks, I guess some people just want all of the precautions to stay around forever.
El_Zilcho@reddit
Never going to go, this country has a massive aversion to removing anything no matter how obsolete and inadequate they are now. Case in point schools built out of raac and dogshit from the 60's
parklife980@reddit
When the supermarkets by mine reopened after one of the lockdowns, they had the rule of only allowing a certain number of people in the store at once. They had the security guy on the door, only letting people in when other people left.
After that going on for some time, they installed traffic lights above the door to replace the security guy.
That was right at the time they lifted the restrictions, so I don't think the traffic lights were ever used, but they're still there.
I can imagine in ten years time, kids asking what are those lights for above the doors? And the kids rolling their eyes at the far-fetched tale...
Rootes_Radical@reddit
The ALDIs around here still have them over the doors, I’ve noticed them at a couple recently.
I think they might even just be green all the time.
BarSalt970@reddit
There is an empty bottle of hand sanitiser in my work that has been empty since 20th February 2020. I know that, because thats the day that my team were sent to work from home and I used it on the way out. Well, didnt use becausecit was empty.
Well, its still there on the warehouse floor.
Nebulousdbc@reddit
There's one at work that has grown mould inside it somehow????? I think the alcohol has evaporated and all that's left is the filler
MJLDat@reddit
It’s the modern day ‘Keep calm and carry on’ or ‘Air Raid Shelter 👉’ signs.
klymers@reddit
I don't mind the perspex barriers but I would like the stickers to go. The ones on the floor look really worn and dirty.
robduckyy@reddit
We still have the signs up at work in the toilets. Such a small workplace too, there's only about 20 people work there and no one cares.
You need not to care more
IanM50@reddit
Since the 1970s the UK government has been advised by biological scientists that a pandemic virus was coming, the previous outbreak being in 1917. In 2014 the then government decided to destroy the stocks of ppe, face masks, and other things that were being stored for this purpose to save money on storage. This being the same government that scrapped the green godess fire engines and stored green ambulances.
Biological scientists today are stating that another pandemic is likely within the next 20 to 30 years due to greater interaction with wild animals across the world and in fact a new virus, also being called a novel virus - one that our human bodies have not seen before - has recently spread from animal to human and onto a second human.
It is perhaps safer and cheaper to leave the perspex screens where they are.
Rhesus-Positive@reddit
What's the reason for getting rid of them? It's not like I need to reach out and gently stroke the cheek of the Home Bargains checkout staff
Specimen_E-351@reddit
How do you expect to get the real bargains?
Chemical_Ad_1618@reddit
🤣
fblthpthewise@reddit
Do not seek the ‘real’ bargains, they’ll find you.
Vixrotre@reddit
I was somewhere a little while back that had multiple "Must wear a face mask here" posters. Medical setting, probably GP or vet, I don't remember.
I got a little panicked cause I didn't have a mask and I wasn't sure if I was allowed on the premises without one, since the signs said I wasn't. Staff didn't wear any, but there were no other people waiting when I came in.
HereGiovanniSmokes@reddit
Having worked a blend of retail/hospitality during that period it wouldn't have stopped the problematic people anyway. They'd take their masks down and stick their heads around the screen to talk in to our faces and then apologise and put their masks up to other customers when they arrived to protect the people they thought deserved it.
Familiarsophie@reddit
To be honest some of them should be taken down. Reception at my work has a massive full Perspex screen put up which made it impossible to communicate through. Oh, and one of the receptionists was hard of hearing and would get pissy with you for not being loud enough (you honestly needed to scream to get through her hearing and an inch thick perspex sheet)
fblthpthewise@reddit
People still need reminding not to be manky bastards. So I think it needs renewed.
Chemical_Ad_1618@reddit
People are still dying from Covid just at much lower levels
greetp@reddit
Not my job
rose-a-ree@reddit
you want to encourage breathing on strangers faces? What's wrong with you?
Matt__Clay@reddit
With the percentage of blokes I see not wash their hands before leaving the toilets I would rather a level of COVID restrictions were permanently in place.
parklife980@reddit
I think there'll be a correlation anyway between blokes not washing hands before leaving toilets, and blokes not following COVID restrictions regardless
Sad-Peace@reddit
We need a national day when we all agree to just take them down in unison. 'National Covid Cleanup Day'. There's a footpath near me that's been closed since 2021 for building works next to it and it still has a big banner about wearing a mask
parklife980@reddit
And then a few days later there'll be the outbreak of Covid-26 or whatever.
And then there'll be the conspiracy that they took all the Covid-19 stuff down to make us ill again and control us all again
/s
Timely_Resist_2744@reddit
Parts of the London Underground still have pink signs from the Olympics and Paralympics...
The covid signs will only go during refurbs and redecorating (which won't be any time soon), and even then half of them will just have something put over the top, which will give future generations something to go down a rabbit hole and look into when it's inevitably rediscovered in about 50yrs time (same as when they take modern shop signs down and find ones from decades ago underneath).
PolarLocalCallingSvc@reddit
There's British Rail signs from 60 years ago left up at some railway station staff areas.
So for the COVID signs I guess maybe 2075?
BrewDogDrinker@reddit
Found Farages account.
MATE_AS_IN_SHIPMATE@reddit
Those floor stickers are a bastard to remove and I can't be bothered.
Active_Definition_57@reddit
I don't think there are many left around my way. Although, I think my local pharmacy may still have one, generslly there are far fewer than there were about 2 years ago.
InEachHomeAHeartache@reddit
Have you tried going on your hands and knees with one of those little scrapers to get those stickers off a concrete floor? I think the ones on the ground are such a pain to get off that no one can be bothered - they'll be there for years like the faded adverts you get on the sides of houses!
Crafty-Strength1626@reddit
What about the pillboxes
JeffSergeant@reddit
I love it, my favourite is the one on the lifts in the local shopping centre that says 'maximum 2 people' and semi-regularly causes morons to have massive arguments.
scare_crowe94@reddit
“Someone’s else job to take them down”
But those people aren’t employed to do that anymore, so everyone just puts up with it I guess?
Poo_Poo_La_Foo@reddit
I guess with something that is obsolete (rather than outright wrong) there's not much urgency to remove them. It's not harmful being there, so they'll just update stuff as and when it is necessary.
Evening-Web-3038@reddit
I go to Liverpool occasionally for work and they actually have a Covid-19 sign up on one of the lampposts! It's so weird haha.
Looking at google maps, you can just about make out the sign on the July 2024 photo...
sezzy3@reddit
It costs to remove it so likely only when they need to get rid of it
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