Christmas cheer is in short supply, but here’s to Christmas hope
IT’S pouring with rain and dangerously strong winds are forecast for Boxing Day. Although the jams are easing, thousands of lorries remain trapped at the port of Dover. And we now have two new strains of coronavirus to worry about, as well as the original virus, forcing even tougher restrictions on our normal lives. Merry Christmas!
The season of goodwill used to be a time when the most serious worries for the majority of us were linked to over-eating and drinking and waiting with some trepidation for the credit card bill to arrive in the New Year.
How wonderful it would be if that was all we had to worry about this Christmas.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock yesterday stepped up to the lectern for an unscheduled Downing Street press briefing to tighten the restrictions even further from Boxing Day, putting more areas into the highest Tier Four level and bringing Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly – which had been one of only three areas in Tier One – into line with Devon in Tier Two.
Questions are now being asked about why a full national lockdown would not be a better solution to what appears to be a growing and extremely dangerous problem. We know the new variant of coronavirus is present in all areas, including here in the South West. How many new cases will it cause?
Ministers are still anxious to avoid what they are calling disproportionate action, which is why areas like the Westcountry – with low but growing rates of infection – are still among the least restricted parts of the country. That’s welcome, but only if the rates are held down. It would be far more damaging for areas like ours to find that rates soar and tighter restrictions become necessary later – but too late to save lives and ease pressure on the National Health Service.
In the meantime, all that we in Devon and Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset can do is adhere to the rules in our areas – and, where we can, exceed them. The only Christmas cheer Mr Hancock could bring to yesterday’s press conference was the continuing hope that the vaccine will provide a route out of the crisis for all of us. Official approval from the regulator of the Oxford University/ AstraZeneca vaccine will help speed up delivery of lifesaving jabs to more people more quickly. That cannot come soon enough.
The economic impact of the crisis cannot be underestimated. And the effect of lockdown in other areas of health and well-being remain a concern. But there is surely a feeling growing that with the roll-out of the vaccines it might be better to take the pain of tight restrictions now with the hope that by the spring things could be looking brighter.
It is, of course, Christmas Day tomorrow and the vast majority of people here in the Westcountry will have made – then re-made – plans. We’re all hoping for an enjoyable day, despite the circumstances. Christmas is a time for reflection, but also for looking ahead. All we can hope for is better times. To all WMN readers, we say, have the very best Christmas you can.