The initial nationwide lockdown was a necessary step taken by the UK government to prevent the NHS from becoming overwhelmed during the first peak of this crisis. This worked very well from a medical perspective and cases and deaths are now significantly lower than they were two months ago.
However, it’s now becoming clear just how devastating this lockdown was, and is, on the state of our economy. A 20.4% fall in GDP in April alone, one month out of the three we’ve been in lockdown for, is absolutely devastating, and thousands of businesses have closed, causing even more job losses.
I personally feel that, whilst the nationwide lockdown was the correct approach to take for getting through the peak, it’s time to more to a more localised lockdown structure to allow certain aspects of the economy to reopen more where it is safe and to really focus on driving cases down in areas where the virus is still prominent.
Take my region (Dumfries and Galloway) for instance:
We’ve had no new cases for 2 weeks
We’ve had no Covid deaths in a month
Our “R” rate is 0.52, much lower than many regions.
And yet, because we’re in Scotland, all our non essential shops are closed, more businesses are having to close for good everyday, and thousands of jobs have been lost across the region. The education of our children is also being very adversely affected and the schools are remaining shut when there’s been no new cases whatsoever in 15 days.
Because of this, I feel now would be an appropriate time to move to a more localised approach to lockdown, where each council area can implement a more appropriate level of restrictions dependent on the number of cases they have, rather than a nationwide lockdown which is now in my opinion doing more damage than good.
Do you agree that this would be a good time to switch to a more localised approach to lockdown and what would the effects/implications of doing so be?
However, it’s now becoming clear just how devastating this lockdown was, and is, on the state of our economy. A 20.4% fall in GDP in April alone, one month out of the three we’ve been in lockdown for, is absolutely devastating, and thousands of businesses have closed, causing even more job losses.
I personally feel that, whilst the nationwide lockdown was the correct approach to take for getting through the peak, it’s time to more to a more localised lockdown structure to allow certain aspects of the economy to reopen more where it is safe and to really focus on driving cases down in areas where the virus is still prominent.
Take my region (Dumfries and Galloway) for instance:
We’ve had no new cases for 2 weeks
We’ve had no Covid deaths in a month
Our “R” rate is 0.52, much lower than many regions.
And yet, because we’re in Scotland, all our non essential shops are closed, more businesses are having to close for good everyday, and thousands of jobs have been lost across the region. The education of our children is also being very adversely affected and the schools are remaining shut when there’s been no new cases whatsoever in 15 days.
Because of this, I feel now would be an appropriate time to move to a more localised approach to lockdown, where each council area can implement a more appropriate level of restrictions dependent on the number of cases they have, rather than a nationwide lockdown which is now in my opinion doing more damage than good.
Do you agree that this would be a good time to switch to a more localised approach to lockdown and what would the effects/implications of doing so be?