We are now four days into 2021 and Boris Johnson this evening addressed the country to confirm that as of tomorrow, we will once again be going into a National lockdown and it is expected to last until the middle of February.
In all honesty, his speech was somewhat disconcerting given the numbers he used to back up his decision. Scientists have confirmed the new variant of the virus is 50-70% more transmissible which means it is much more likely to catch and pass it on. Hospitals are under more pressure than when they were hit with this back in March last year, and in England alone, the number of Covid patients in hospital has increased by nearly a third in the last week to almost 27,000 which is 40% higher than the first peak in April.
A new record of positive Covid cases was made on 29th December where more than 80,000 people tested positive across the UK. The number of deaths have also increased by 27% over the last week and it's looking to rise further.
Boris believes the only way we can get this under control while the vaccine is rolled out, is to put us back into a National lockdown. We are only allowed to leave our homes to shop for essentials, to go to work but only if there is no other option to work from home, to exercise, for medical assistance or to escape domestic abuse. Clinically and extremely vulnerable people must start to shield again too.
Primary and secondary schools and colleges across England have to go back to remote learning but vulnerable children, and those of key workers can still attend. Although children are at less risk of catching it, they are prone to be carriers and so to reduce the risk of them bringing the virus home, it has been decided that it will be safer to keep as many children at home as possible. Free school meals will still be available to those who need them while schools are closed and more devices will be distributed to support remote learning.
The Government also recognises it will not be fair for all exams to go ahead this summer because of all the disruption, and so the Education Secretary will work with OFQUAL (The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation) to put alternative arrangements in place.
There wasn't any mention of Universities though and already there has been a big outcry from students on social media about the lack of support they have received and a demand for fees to be refunded.
The United Kingdom of Chief Medical Officers advised the Prime Minister that the country should move to alert level 5 which means if action is not taken, the NHS capacity will be overwhelmed within 21 days.
Despite this all sounding scary once more, there is something positive already coming out of this and that is the approval of the vaccines. So far, the UK has vaccinated more people than the rest of Europe combined and today we woke up to news that a second vaccine has now been approved which is going to speed up the need to get the most vulnerable protected.
If everyone adheres to these rules, the NHS are hopeful that by the middle of February, those people who fall under the four top priority groups will all have received their injections which means restrictions can start to be lifted and we can start to go back to a tiered system and have more freedom in living again.
The four categories include:
1) All residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
2) Everyone over the age of 70
3) All frontline health and social care workers
4) Everyone who is clinically extremely vulnerable.
Boris is quite adamant that although we have a tough few weeks ahead, this is the last phase of the struggle we have been going through. Let's just hope he's correct!
So for now, we just have to do everything we can to look after ourselves and hope that these awful covid numbers come back down and we can find our way out of this for good!
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