Tier 4 could last more than a month, says health leader
CHRISTMAS is looking different this year, after Wokingham entered a lockdown over the weekend.
With families unable to meet those outside of their household, festive plans have been blocked by the newly-created Tier 4.
While there are some exceptions to the rule — support bubbles and children of separated parents can still mix — the Saturday announcement will have been a shock for many.
Cllr Charles Margetts, executive member for health at the council, said staff were not warned the borough would jump from Tier 2 to Tier 4 in a matter of days.
“This is going to be very painful for businesses in the borough, and those who have been forced to change their Christmas plans,” he said.
“More notice would have been helpful.
“But one has to assume the data passed under the prime minister’s nose on Friday was pretty bleak.”
In Tier 4, households are banned from forming a Christmas bubble and residents cannot leave their home without a reasonable excuse.
This includes work, when working from home is impossible, volunteering, buying food or medicine, withdrawing or depositing money.
Residents can leave their home to access medical help and to escape risk of harm — such as domestic abuse.
People can meet with one person from another household — while keeping two metres apart — for exercise. This must be done in an outdoor, public place.
Children under five, and up to two carers for a person with a disability who needs continuous care are not counted towards the outdoors gatherings limit.
To manage the spread, Cllr Margetts said the covid marshals will be deployed to key wards in the borough, where infection rates are the highest.
This includes Earley, Lower Earley, Winnersh and Wokingham. The council also aims to work with Reading Borough Council to create a cross-border approach, to minimise infections.
Cllr Margetts said he expects Tier 4 lockdown to continue for three or four weeks, but “probably longer” in order to see a drop in Covid-19 infections.
To make this happen, Cllr Margetts hopes to see residents take the pandemic as seriously as they did in March.
Over the last week, a record number of positive tests for coronavirus have been recorded in the borough.
The latest figures, published on Sunday, December 20, by Public Health in Berkshire, show that there were 113 cases in Wokingham.
This surpasses the total on Thursday, December 17, where 110 cases were reported.
The grim figures mean that there have now been 3,141 confirmed cases in the borough and the weekly rate is now 260.6 people per 100,000, up from 246.6 on Saturday.
A similar story is told across Berkshire.
Reading has reported 146 new cases, and a rate of 336.3 per 100,000 people.
Bracknell Forest reported 108 cases, and a rate of 319.1 per 100,000 people.
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead had 116 cases, and a rate per 100,000 people is lower at 208.
In England, 32,155 cases were reported on Sunday, bringing the total number of people who had had coronavirus in the country to 1,743,893.
The same day, Labour leader Keir Starmer blasted prime minister Boris Johnson for the way in which he had made the decision to create a new Tier 4 level, calling the decision to cancel the planned Christmas relaxation of rules “heart-breaking”.
“Sadly, the measures the Government announced yesterday are necessary and we support them,” he said.
“But there is no getting away from the fact – and what angers people the most and frustrates me the most is that – yet again – the prime minister waited until the eleventh hour to take this decision.
“It was blatantly obvious last week that the prime minister’s plan for a free-for-all over Christmas was a risk too far. And yet, rather listening to concerns and taking them seriously the prime minister did what he always does: dismissed the challenge, ruffled his hair and made a flippant comment.”
Mr Starmer also said that the prime minister’s claim about the new strain of virus only just coming to light didn’t “stand up to scrutiny”, saying it had been spotted in September and that by not taking action sooner, Mr Johnson had undertaken “an act of gross negligence”.
“The alarms bells have been ringing for weeks, but the prime minister chose to ignore them.
“A virus of this sort demands early action. Decisive action. A clear plan and a clear message. Yet we have had none of that.”
For more information about the restrictions, visit: www.gov.uk/guidance/tier-4-stay-at-home
