At the moment, there is a virus circling, to some it is fatal. In March 2020, the government put in place a lockdown to try and contain the virus and for a time it did slow down the illness. However, in September, schools, pubs and businesses were allowed back open; we were back to being a normal functioning society but the numbers of the cases just kept increasing.
On Thursday 5th of November, Boris Johnson placed a second lockdown on Britain, multiple businesses were to be shut down unless they were essential, but this time, schools remained open. During the first lockdown, the number of Coronavirus cases were high, but steady. Since schools have reopened, the numbers have been rising at an alarming rate. Also, the range of shops which were allowed to stay open, shows that it was not a true lockdown as before. The Havering infection rate from March to the 4th of September was 1161 and from the 11th of September to date the numbers have dramatically risen to 4331- from The Havering Weekly newsletter. These numbers show the effect that opening schools and businesses back up prematurely, has had on the number of confirmed positive cases. The data clearly shows the mass increase of people testing positive even during this second lockdown is proving that the lenient measures taken were ineffective.
Putting us into a second lockdown was meant to be a solution to how fast Covid19 was spreading but with schools remaining open, the lockdown has become ineffective. In schools, social distancing at all times is near impossible as you are sat next to each other without masks; it is only the teachers who are social distancing, allowing the virus to become rife throughout teenagers, who then bring it home to vulnerable family members. The main reason for schools being left open was to help with young people’s wellbeing and their education, however the virus has become so widespread that schools are repeatedly having to send home large quantities of students. Is this any better for student’s mental health and learning, continuously being sent home and having to teach themselves without full resources?
Another reason why lockdown is ineffective is because many non-essential businesses have been left open or have found loopholes to stay open. An example of this is pubs. The restrictions have said that pubs and bars can’t stay open unless they are serving food. This then allows pubs that didn’t originally sell food to make this change in order to stay open. It is clear that the economy needs to keep moving, however taking into consideration how high the death toll and infection rate has risen it makes you question, is the government placing money over lives?
On the 2nd of December when the second lockdown is over, different areas of Britain are being placed into 3 different tier levels from medium, high and very high. For example, the London Borough of Havering has excessive Coronavirus numbers and is only being placed into tier 2. However, other London Boroughs with fewer numbers are also being put into tier 2. This allows us to see that government are not catering for each area’s individual needs. With numbers rising in such a way, will the Coronavirus ever be eradicated before we lose more of our community to this highly contagious disease?
