Struggling to set decisive course to beat the virus

IT’S DOUBTFUL if the people of Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees entered this week with any faith in the Government’s ability to manage coronavirus.

Instead, with their lives under renewed restrictions on movement and meetings between households, those people would be perfectly justified in feeling that they are at the mercy of the muddle and failings that pass for trying to contain the pandemic.

The rushed and ill-prepared announcement that plunged a large swathe of West Yorkshire into uncertainty and even fear was characteristic of the hash that has been made of dealing with Covid-19.

It wasn’t only family lives and plans to celebrate Eid that were thrown into chaos, but businesses too.

The impact of coronavirus on people’s livelihoods in the three areas was already likely to be devastating, because they are not the most affluent places in Yorkshire and any economic blow will hit especially hard.

But now, with them under an indefinite period of local lockdown, the threat to jobs and the ability of firms to stay afloat must be even more serious.

Residents can only hope that their fate is not to be that of the people of Leicester, now 19 weeks into lockdown with no end in sight.

There are some serious questions for the Government to answer over these announcements that have created such difficulties for Bradford, Huddersfield and Halifax, and all the smaller places clustered around them.

The first has to be why was there no warning that this might be coming? If there was an upward trend in cases, then surely that should have been flagged up and efforts redoubled to nip them in the bud before moving to a lockdown with seriously damaging effects on the areas’ economy?

And was enough done to communicate to the local populations that they were at a heightened risk? If the people had been made aware, there can be no question that they would have responded by taking extra precautions to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.

Was it necessary to shut down entire metropolitan districts, including towns and villages far from the densely-populated inner-city areas where the virus is most likely to spread?

In Liverpool, where there has been a spike in cases, most have been tracked to a single council ward, where health officials are focusing their efforts. Could this targeted approach have worked in Yorkshire?

Instead, we got a sledgehammer announcement that raised more questions than it answered. Should people go to work, as the Government has urged, or continue to stay at home? Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees can only guess. And how are the new restrictions to be enforced? If it is to be a police responsibility, they are faced with an utterly impossible task in trying to establish if people from different households are meeting.

Nor is it clear if the local lockdowns will prevent children returning to school next month, raising the possibility of their education being compromised still further and presenting parents with continuing childcare problems that might make it difficult for them to go back to work.

There is a distinct air about what is happening in West Yorkshire of the Government making up policy on the hoof and then hoping for the best.

We were told weeks ago by the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, that a “world-beating” £10bn test, trace and isolate programme was on the way, which would be the key to combating flare-ups.

Then yesterday, a new rapid

Even NHS staff are not being tested regularly, despite being at heightened risk of catching the virus.

test for the virus was announced that will give results in 90 minutes. That’s good news, but where is all this testing? Whilst other countries in Europe have managed to get their programmes operational, ours is at best patchy.

At the same time the rapid test was announced, the Government admitted that it was pushing back the deadline for all care home staff and residents to be tested because there aren’t enough kits. Even NHS staff are not being tested regularly, despite being at heightened risk of catching the virus.

Eight months on from coronavirus arriving in Britain, there is still the sense that those running the country are struggling to set a decisive course to beat it, or at least find a way to live with it. Only two weeks ago, Boris Johnson was telling the nation that it was likely some sort of normality would be restored by Christmas. How hollow that sounds now, especially in Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees.