Think Covid-19 strategy is like a game of Russian roulette

LAST week I asked question, would I be allowed to have a pint and dine at my favourite restaurant after the completion of the “firebreak” on November 9 (“A pint and a nice meal? Will it really happen?”, Echo letters, November 2)?

I didn’t have to wait long. On Monday First Minister Mark Drakeford proudly announced in the coronavirus update that, yes, I could visit a restaurant have a meal and drink a pint of beer. Unbelievably not only that, you could also have total of four persons from separate households attending the restaurant. Amazingly I could travel a sensibly any distance as long as it was in Wales.

However, there was another rule that I couldn’t meet anyone outside my home if they were from a separate household. I understand the theory being if you did and it started to rain you would be more likely to allow people outside your household to congregate inside and therefore more likely to catch the dreaded coronavirus. They justified the four different households inside by saying it was under a controlled environment with social distancing that would be applied. Also the time limit indoors would be restricted to two hours.

As a result of my new-found freedom I can arrange to see friends I have in Rhondda Cynon Taff (RCT) and other parts Wales and raise a glass to Drakeford & Co. In my opinion this would be far more likely to spread the virus. The infection rates in Caerphilly, RCT and Cardiff are sky high.

According to our Health Minister Vaughan Gething, the firebreak will start taking effect two or three weeks after November 9, which basically is by the end of November, early December. Gething has declared it will be a massive breach of trust by the the Welsh Government if they don’t end the firebreak. I don’t know about you but allowing four different households inside a pub having a meal is vastly more dangerous than congregating in my garden with four different households. Being the cynical old me, was this four inside rule to allow the younger generation to meet inside a pub/restaurant a ploy to get the same generation to vote for his party in the forthcoming local elections in May? As you know, 16 and over will be able to vote.

This government, unlike Boris & Co, will not under any circumstances admit their failings. This was demonstrated recently when despite more than 60,000 signing a petition saying they had got it wrong with non-essential items in supermarkets they blamed it on the supermarkets for not interpreting their hastily brought in rules.

On a serious note, this Welsh Government are playing Russian roulette with our lives, with the infection rates so high in the most populated areas of Wales.

They should be honest and admit you shouldn’t be relaxing the rules when the death rate and infections are so high and only likely to be marginally better at the beginning of December.

If they don’t immediately commence lockdown rules immediately after the firebreak in RCT and Merthyr Tydfil, more lives will be lost. Paul Fenton

Penarth

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