THE RATE at which Covid cases are increasing in our community is concerning. Brunswick in south Leamington, for example, now has one of the worst rates in the country. I urge everyone to continue exercising caution. Take lateral flow tests at least twice a week. Wear a mask in indoor spaces. If you are socialising with people outside of your household, please consider doing so outdoors which is safer. Get your jab.
I’m afraid the Government has once again let the virus get out of control and we are paying the price again. Fortunately, cases are not feeding through into hospitalisations and deaths yet, but it is early days. The impacts are still significant – people having to self-isolate, disruption to our children’s education, the upheaval for businesses and institutions who experience outbreaks. Even people who have had both vaccinations are reporting contracting the virus and, while they are ok now, how hard it hit them.
The delta variant is the key driver for new cases due to its greater transmissibility. The reason it has made its way into the UK is because the Government have failed to close our borders since the start of this pandemic. It took the Government 22 days to place strict travel conditions on India from the date it knew the variant was here – allowing thousands of arrivals in April. Worse still, instead of being focused on keeping cases low and accelerating the vaccine rollout, the (now former) Health Secretary Matt Hancock was too busy having an affair in his office – with a friend from university he employed to work 15 days a year for £15,000.
Please do everything you can to keep yourselves and others safe and let’s hope we can bring the case rates down. I have been liaising with the local Director of Public Health to help where I can and will continue to do so. Finally, a big thank you to everyone involved with the vaccination programme locally who are gradually providing our way out of this pandemic.
As ever, I can be contacted by email at [email protected] or by ringing my office on 01926 882006.
Matt Western
