‘Thousands of lives will be lost’ - warns senior police officer
THE lives of thousands more people across Lancashire will be lost to the coronavirus than would otherwise be the case - if the public does not stick to new rules about staying at home.
That was the stark message from the senior police officer in charge of coordinating the county’s response to the crisis.
Lancashire Police’s deputy chief constable, Terry Woods, said that officers would be “proactively” enforcing the government’s demand for people to remain indoors other than in a limited number of circumstances.
He said that most people were abiding by the restrictions, but warned that the force would take action against anybody flouting the rules. It is currently permissible to leave home only to buy basic essentials, for a health need or caring responsibility, to travel to and from essential work and to undertake one period of exercise daily - all while socially distancing yourself from others.
“If people don’t start listening and behaving in the way the government are instructing, we are going to have thousands more people die in Lancashire than we need to.
“That’s not scaremongering - it’s fact,” he said.
“The majority of people are doing what we need them to do, but everybody has got a special excuse not to do things.
“I’m really confident that we have got a good plan - but there is no way on God’s Earth we can pull this off if the public don’t absolutely adhere to what they’re being told. The health service will not cope with a significant blip in people requiring ventilation.
“People will die - and that’s just as brutal and plain as it is,” said DCC Woods, who leads Lancashire’s Local Resilience Forum which is leading efforts to deal with the consequences of coronavirus in the county.