Stick to the rules because Covid is going nowhere fast

Sir, – The cacophony from the licence and hospitality industry regarding the new tighter restrictions is deafening, and my sympathy is with them.

Having invested physical and financial resources to first establish their businesses, and then to see their ‘babies’ get starved of clients must be dispiriting.

The north of England are unhappy about their current restrictions.

Italy is four weeks ahead of UK in terms of Covid infections and today they have made face masks mandatory outdoors.

In Belgium, Brussels has shut all cafés and bars for the next month.

Germany predicts a 10,000 spike if social distancing and mask wearing is not observed. We are not alone in this. Doing nothing is not an option. Allowing infection to increase will result in more hospital admissions.

These additional admissions will restrict beds for regular admissions like cancer treatments, hip replacements and of course many other necessary procedures.

Letter writers advocating ‘letting the Covid rip’ are sadly deluded and it likely won’t be them who are devastated.

Covid is not going away any time soon, sticking with the rules is our only personal option, but the UK Government could extend the furlough to help those businesses and individuals affected so that they can survive, until we get back in control of behaviours.

Furlough costs, but so does the collateral damage pushed into the benefit systems, and we all know how well the DWP operates.

Alistair Ballantyne. Birkhill, Angus.