Keeping people safe: enforcing social distancing


Today the Prime Minister will announce a series of tough new enforcement measures targeting the most serious breaches of social distancing restrictions as a number of lockdown restrictions are eased this weekend.  


  • The majority of the public have been diligently following the rules and playing their part in keeping the virus under control, but none of us can afford to be complacent which is why the government is strengthening the enforcement powers available to use against the minority who continually break the rules. 
     
  • That is why in the coming weeks, the government is doubling fines to those who repeatedly flout face covering rules to a maximum of £3,200, and will introduce on the spot fines to those who host or facilitate illegal gatherings of more than 30 people.
     
  • These measures come as a number of culture, sports, leisure and business sectors across England are permitted to reopen this Saturday: 
    • Indoor theatre and music performances can recommence in front of socially distanced audiences, while bowling alleys, skating rinks and casinos will be allowed to open their doors for the first time. 
    • We are piloting a number of both sporting and business events, in order to ensure both sectors can resume once again as safely as possible in the months ahead. 
    • Wedding receptions of up to 30 people will now be permitted. 
    • Beauty salons, tattoo studios, spas and barbers in England will be able to offer all close contact services and treatments once more under our new guidance. 
       
  • Our plan to reopen society and the economy is conditional, and as more lockdown restrictions are lifted this weekend, it is vitally important that we all continue to follow public health guidance and that people wash their hands, cover their face and make space.

Comments

Jim said…
increasing fines on people not wearing a face covering that is pretty much useless (otherwise we would have been wearing them from the start, and would be annually for the flu pandemics) marvellous.

You mentioned in an earlier post that dealing with this pandemic was never going to be easy, and I absolutely agree with that. But to be frank the governments responce to covid 19 has been absolutely diabolical. Once again, they failed to open the nightingales and segregate covid patients, leading to thousands of noscomial cases. They moved people from hospitals into carehomes untested, in effect killing thousands, they stopped testing at a time when it was most critical, instead telling people to isolate at home with family members, exposing them to repeated indoor exposures.

Its been absolutely shambolic, the government are an absolute and utter discrace, and thats me putting it mildly.

Cases per 1m population we rank 52nd

Deaths per 1m population we rank 6th


that's not the mark of a well handled issue is it?
Anonymous said…
Jim, we're world leading on every metric
Chris Whiteside said…
With all due respect, not everything written above is factually correct.

Not true that there is no separation of patients who have or are suspected to have COVID-19 - the hospitals in Cumbria have them on separate wards and have separate entrances to the hospitals.

There were some actions taken on moving patients from hospitals to care homes which have proven to be tragic mistakes and we need to learn from that.

Britain never stopped testing as a whole, we were always trying to increase the capacity to test which took longer than it should have. In the meantime there was a need to focus the testing capacity we did have on those who it was most important to test. I'm not saying that the decisions made on this were perfect, but whatever had been done would have been wrong.

Every time the government changes any policy they either get people saying they should have acted faster, should have taken longer to give people more time, or usually both. There criticisms can't all be right. You can't change the policy faster than you can communicate it out to people.

All international comparisons should be taken with a bucket load of salt, it is extremely difficult to be certain that the right like-for-like comparisons are being made, but no, the UK is not at the top of the list on every metric.
Jim said…
1 they should have been in seperate hospitals, that is why they built the nightingales, then failed to open them

2 you are dead right they need to learn, but "some actions" is very mild.

3 Britain stopped testing people, they told them to isolate at home with their familys and not report they had it until it was critial, critical ones were almost always subsequent family members. What ever had been done may not have been perfect, but 52 hightes cases, 6 highest deaths.

4 they keep on changing the policy faster than they can communicate, look at the manchester restrictions announced on blooming twitter.

5, Comparisons have to be made, how do we know anything with out comparison, thats what we do, this restaurant is better than that one, this road is smoother than that one, this car is faster than that one. Our government made a bigger cock up of dealing with covid than most others.

I never said we were top of the list on every metric. I said we were 52nd in case rate and 6th in death rate.
Jim said…
Final point above, I retract. Realised you were answering the anonymous post.
Chris Whiteside said…
Indeed I was, and indeed that is what you said. Retraction accepted.

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