We need town-by-town Covid breakdowns

The advent of multi level area-wide restrictions sure - ly requires a detailed look at how and where people travel. Corvid-19 travels with people. It does not recognise artificial regional boundaries.

Consider my region of Dumfries and Galloway. The distance b et ween Stranraer in the West and Langholm in the East is 112 miles by car. The distance between Kirkcudbright in the south and Kirkconnel in the north is 55 miles.

While it is 72 miles by car from Stranraer to the county town Dumfries it is only 56 miles to Ayr or two hours on the ferry to Belfast. Langholm is 39 miles from Dumfries but only 21 miles from Carlisle.

Treating all of Dumfries and Galloway with its low population density of 66 persons per square mile as one unit for Covid-19 purposes is ridiculous. There was one outbreak in Ann an where our council did provide more specific information but that information was not kept updated and became misleading.

Other Scottish regions will have similar circumstances.

It would be far better if information were tabulated by each individual town, particularly in sparsely populated regions. If such information were readily available then people in say Stranraer could look at the covid-19 statistics for Ayr, Dumfries and Belfast and make informed choices.

Small shops which are essential in small towns like Kirkcudbright or Castle Douglas could remain open relatively safely while others are closed elsewhere.

We are bombarded by information which is not designed to help but rather to make one party or another look good. This virus is not going away by Christmas but many small businesses will be.

Ever y person in Scotland is surely entitled to readily available and current information which will keep them safe and preserve as many jobs as possible. We needs must be wise.

KEN CAREW

Minden Crescent, Dumfries