A HOLLOW RING TO HANCOCK’S BOAST ABOUT 200K TESTS
■ Matt Hancock boasts about reaching 200,000-a-day Covid-19 testing capacity (Metro, Tue). Sadly, a huge number of the PCR machines used to carry out the test in the testing hubs are standing idle. Public Health England, the NHS and the government are too incompetent to get the samples in. Only a fraction of these tests are getting done. Swabs, reagents (used for chemical analysis) and collection are still lacking. As for the track-and-trace system… don’t even go there. Their promises ring hollow.
Steve-The-Scientist, London
■ I’m an untested key worker on minimum wage transporting Covid swab tests to lab facilities. I think the health secretary’s 200,000 testing ‘capacity’ is all very well but I cycle past Nottingham’s vast Boots Covid-19 testing site most days and see maybe one, two or sometimes no cars at all with people driving through for a test.
G Kinch, via email
■ So a key plank of the government’s policy is that people who are identified as contacts of a confirmed Covid case will have to self-isolate for two weeks. This makes sense but for many this means living on Statutory Sick Pay, which is only £96 a week. Those on zerohours contracts won’t even be eligible for this. I wonder how many people who feel completely well will follow Dominic Cummings’ example and put the safety and well-being of their family over the needs of wider society?
Marilyn Tyzack, Devon
■ The rules have consistently stated that social distancing is essential but the populace seems to think this has now changed with the lockdown being relaxed. It has not. The country asked the government to treat them like adults and the country has responded by acting like children.
Alan, Weston Turville
■ I’ve just visited our local park. Mums and children were gathering in far bigger groups than six. Children had climbed over the padlocked gates to play in the playground. This has been the situation for the past couple of weeks. Obviously these mothers consider lockdown to be over. Hopefully they are not the same ones who say school is unsafe. I don’t think the government’s instructions are going to have any effect, even if it’s localised lockdowns.
Sue Frost, Dover
■ I’m classed as one of the vulnerable but cannot understand why 100 per cent of the nation should be punished to shield ten per cent. This minority could have been protected without shutting down the whole country.
Roger, Wolverhampton
■ How can government ministers be expected to do the right thing when scientific advisers can’t agree among themselves? Even different countries
don’t agree on what is the best way out of lockdown and many of them have seen positive outcomes.
It’s advantageous to unlock as soon as possible, taking into account the huge damage to the economy, which will take years to recover.
Of course, a resurgence of the coronavirus is disadvantageous so a balance is required. If we don’t take the early opportunity we shall never know. It’s acknowledged that a vaccine may take many months or even years – we can’t stay in lockdown that long.
S Gill, Warrington
■ If the weather was cold I’m sure people would be happy going back to work and wouldn’t be saying that lockdown was ending too soon. Everyone is quite happy with three months of lying in the sun and the photos of them on the beaches compacted together shows just interested in their health they are!
Ian, Ormskirk
■ Anyone looking at pictures of our beaches has to be conscious of the total absence of lockdown before the so-called easing on Monday. Police are hamstrung in their efforts to move people on because of the new Dominic Cummings rule – ‘I’ll do what I want, to heck with the rest of you’ – now being followed by the masses. Boris Johnson, says he must not do it again or he’ll take action. Perhaps Mr Cummings will sack Mr Johnson!
Scientists are warning of the dangers of easing. Never has a country been led by so ineffective a government with so many leading ministers in hiding.
Bill, via email