Ministers have recently been treading very lightly when discussing the final stages of the “roadmap” out of lockdown. Matt Hancock said on Tuesday that the Government hasn’t ruled out ending the mask mandate on June 21st, adding that both the introduction of Covid vaccine passports and the continuation of “social” distancing beyond this date also remain on the table. The latest suggestion comes from the Environment Secretary George Eustice, who says we could see a return of tiered lockdown restrictions. When such a system was last imposed, 99% of the population in England lived under the toughest two tiers, with just 714,000 people living under “tier one” restrictions. Eustice now says that tiered restrictions could be used to combat “local outbreaks” of Covid in areas where people might have become “too lax” about the rules. MailOnline has the story.
Environment Secretary George Eustice revealed Number 10 was “closely monitoring” several localised coronavirus outbreaks that have cropped up in recent weeks.
Analysis shows that while national infections have continued to plunge, there are 34 areas across Britain where cases have spiked in the past fortnight and are now recording rates twice as high as the U.K. average.
Mr Eustice said scientists were unsure what was driving the flare-ups – predominantly in the North of England – but suggested people may have become “too lax” with Covid rules, or the highly infectious Indian variant could be driving cases.
Asked if local restrictions could be reimposed to squash local outbreaks during a round of interviews today, he said: “We can’t rule anything out.”
He told Sky News: “But our plan that’s been set out by the Prime Minister, the reason we’re being incredibly cautious about exiting lockdown, is we want this to be the last. We want to try and avoid having to get into a tiered system and regionalisation. We tried that last autumn, we know that in the end we had to go for a full lockdown.”
Most social distancing restrictions in England are to be lifted on June 21st as part of the final step in Number 10’s roadmap out of lockdown. Boris Johnson this week raised hopes that an end to Covid measures may be in sight, suggesting social distancing could be scrapped completely by next month.
The tiered system last summer was heavily criticised for being too convoluted, with people in neighbouring streets often living by a completely different set of rules.
The Prime Minister himself admitted they were “confusing” as he struggled to explain the difference between restrictions imposed in the North East in September.
The average infection rate in the UK has fallen by 15% to 40.1 per 100,000 people in the fortnight up to May 4th, according to the latest statistics.
But analysis shows that 28 local authorities in England, four in Scotland and two in Northern Ireland are recording double the national case rate.
Quizzed about the hotspots this morning, Mr Eustice told Sky News: “We are not sure what could be driving it, whether it’s particular variants that have taken hold or people being a bit too lax about restrictions that are in place… but we are monitoring the situation closely.”
Worth reading in full.
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I hate change and I hate illogicality (probably on the spectrum). That only makes me wish to get back more urgently, staying where we are now is disgusting to me, and that’s saying something, I was mostly miserable before 2019.
Yeah me too. I see revolt, even with armed methods, as logical and justified because of the complete abuse of power and complete ineffectiveness of the measures. If the UK had 1000 deaths per million or less, maybe it would have been kinda worth the year spent under house arrest. But it wasn’t, and the collateral damage only adds to the sheer toll that has been taken. I would never want anyone to have this kind of power over me ever again.
Thanks Dan, I’ve always liked what you have to say. You ask
‘why am I saying this (about lockdowns being disproportionate) now ?’
I don’t know Dan but, apart from the vaccine issue, we’ve known that for the past twelve months.
Well, not to split hairs (ooops – I suppose I am) thirteen months now and, very sadly, counting.
We’re still in lockdown because our leaders are a combination of incompetent and wicked, exact proportions of each debatable.
People tolerate it because of the unprecedented, unopposed global propganda effort, and because fear is a powerful motivator, and because of sunk cost fallacy.
Yes – there a lot of syndromes going into this. But, for sure, the fundamentals are not getting better.
We’re still in lockdown because of an Agenda.
“Are We Being Kept in Partial Lockdown by Status Quo Bias?”
No. We’re being kept in partial lockdown because there is now a huge global industry dependent on lockdown, masks, distancing, vaccines, testing and fear remaining in the longer term. An industry which has deep pockets and is financing the media to keep the fear going.
That too.
It’s a cross between political ideology and financial gain for a very few people.
Yup, plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.
Economic melt down, Masks, tests, PPE and fear all advantages for China.
Not just China, though they are arguably benefitting the most as a country. Look at who the partners of the WEF are and you will see they benefit too, which includes a lot of companies and organisations based in the UK, USA, Canada and Germany, to name a few others.
Perhaps we’re still in lockdown because this is meant to be the new normal, and will “help with climate change” and the destruction of Western capitalism and a new socialist one world order so favoured by political leaders across the world.
We might be allowed a few summer months to enjoy ourselves and be grateful for it, before another winter of restrictions.
Boris said early last year, as lockdown was first imposed, that there’d be no return to normal, and there’ll be a new normal instead. Everyone should have taken notice of that.
Isn’t it interesting that the people who seem to shout the loudest about climate change are the biggest personal users of resources. Just take our own Boris – 6 or more children, then bill gates with 3 or more children and jets and yachts I think. Is it just for the poor to stop having children and cut back on their meagre homes and cars?
You forgot Al Gore, the biggest hypocrite of all, who has made billions from the scam, owns several massive properties and travels the world in private jets.
I certainly picked up on Boris’s warning pronouncement, along with him quoting phrases out of Klaus Schwab’s publications and wearing a WEF lapel badge at one of the coronavirus briefing sessions.
Klaus’s Agenda.
Long felt they are trying to transfer this to so called “climate change”.
Anybody who has become comfortable with the present status quo is insane.
And guilty of supporting and complicity in crimes against humanity.
That is the majority it seems.
Yes – the saddest exposure about humans that has come to light in my lifetime.
To be precise – it’s induced mass psychosis.Only relative ‘comfort’ – a retreat from fear.
It’s quite scary to think there are actually people out there who are not only evnjoying every minute of this insanity but would be quite happy for this madness to carry on indefinitely – I’m convinced that there are some who would actually welcome curfews and even more restrictions than before … .
Hannan :
“To say “just another couple of weeks” is much easier if you are a government official at home on full pay”
… or saying anything as a privileged establishment journo-politician on the Lords gravy train?
Cynic, you are as bad as me!
It’s not about a virus. It’s about a bunch of amoral war criminals controlling your life
A young man in my village who doesn’t bother to work and has hair down to his waist, last March in the very early days told me “there is no virus, this is about the economy”. I often think about that.
To answer the question at the top of the article: we are being kept in lockdown because certain influential members of SAGE want to continue with it and the government is happy to oblige. The BBC’s attempt to portray Johnson as a lockdown sceptic is truly laughable.
Leave Francis Rossi out of it please.
The Status Quo is probably better than the WHO