Commons Sense By Beaconsfield MP Joy Morrissey

This week saw more good news from the Prime Minister who reaffirmed the success of the current lockdown measures.

Cases are now over 70 per cent lower across Bucks and the country than they were at the peak around New Year’s Day. The speed and extent in this drop in case numbers is truly remarkable and is a credit to the extraordinary efforts of everyone to stay at home and break the chains of transmission.

As a result, hospital admissions have fallen and the number of COVID patients in hospital is also starting to decline.

As this pressure begins to be eased off the NHS we can at last begin to look ahead to how we will gradually ease restrictions.

This will start with the reopening of schools which the Prime Minister has targeted for March 8.

I realise this seems far away, and if the opportunity arises that schools are safe to open sooner I will of course support this.

However, the Prime Minister is keen to safeguard our world-leading vaccination programme, and cautiously easing the lockdown rather than rushing out of restrictions could subsequently undo all our hard work.

The even better news is that the vaccine rollout goes from strength to strength, with the Health Secretary and many scientists predicting that we could be back to something resembling normality by the summer.

Such a cheering prospect is a much needed source of optimism for many and I’d like to commend you all and encourage you to keep going!