Mayor welcomes new route out of the lockdown
ASHBOURNE’S Mayor Ann Smith says she welcomes the new Government guidelines as the coronavirus restrictions start to ease, following Boris Johnson’s revelation of a “road map” to lifting the lockdown.
The Prime Minister announced on Sunday evening that the lockdown would remain in place, but that society can now start to take “the first careful steps” towards easing some measures.
He promised he would not do anything to risk the “madness” of a second spike of the virus and said any relaxation of restrictions could quickly be reversed if necessary.
Mayor Ann Smith, who followed the Prime Minister’s announcement up with a live broadcast of her own on the town’s Covid-19 response Facebook group says the time is right for such an approach.
She told the News Telegraph ahead of her message on Monday: “The thing is we’ve got to put our toe in the water somewhere along the line, we’ve got to. We have to test the water.
“I don’t know all the answers, and I know people are a little confused, so I’m going to try and explain the picture here and how it affects us.
“We’ve got to start somewhere. What’s the alternative.
We’ve got to tread very, very carefully and see what happens.
“Every other country seems to have a bit of a spike when they come out of it, and we don’t have the space some other countries have. We’re crammed into an island, so we need to be really cautious. “I think people might have been expecting a bit more from it. I think they wanted to see their families, do this, do that, but we just can’t. We’re still seeing deaths from it.
“This is a new virus, we’re making it up as we go along.
I’m sure they’re doing the best they can.”
The Prime Minister has said that, in England from Monday “anyone who can’t work from home, for instance those in construction and manufacturing, should be actively encouraged to go to work”.
And in his road map he also announced people could exercise as much as they wanted from Wednesday onwards, rather than for just one hour per day, and even drive to other destinations to exercise, or to play sports with other members of their household.
He said anyone who cannot work from home should be “actively encouraged” to go to work, but advised people avoid public transport and ensure they can observe the social distancing rules.
He insisted this was not the end of the strict measures that he imposed on March 23, saying it would be “madness now to throw away that achievement by allowing a second spike”.
He said: “No, this is not the time simply to end the lockdown this week. Instead we are taking the first careful steps to modify our measures.
“If there are outbreaks, if there are problems, we will not hesitate to put on the brakes”.
Schools may begin to reopen by June 1 at the earliest along with the phased reopening of shops, according to Mr Johnson’s new plan.
And at least some pubs, restaurants, hotels and other public places could begin to reopen in July at the earliest “if and only if the numbers support it”.
And a new Covid alert system is being set up, determined mainly by the reinfection rate and the number of cases.
The alert levels will be one to five and the higher the level, the tougher social distancing measures will have to be.
The Prime Minister said the UK had been in level four but “we are now in a position to begin to move in steps to level three”.
■Guide to lockdown, P24&25
The thing is we’ve got to put our toe in the water somewhere along the line, we’ve got to.