In the last month my articles for the Brentwood Gazette have been celebrating the gradual easing of lockdown restrictions, allowing those who have been furloughed to get back to work and those families who have been kept apart to get together again.
Sadly, last Friday saw the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and the Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty, slow down the easing of restrictions – squeezing the brake pedal, to use the PM’s analogy.
This means some of the businesses which were among the last to be due to reopen on 1 August have been told they will have to wait another two weeks. The worst blow for Brentwood and Ongar has been the news close contact services, such as facial treatments, and wedding receptions of up to 30 people cannot start until 15 August at the earliest.
I am fully aware of the impact of this decision on many small businesses in Brentwood, especially those who work from home or in studios in the garden, and have written to the Department of Business and the Treasury to find out if any further support can be made available to those who still cannot get back to their work.
For those who had organised pared down wedding receptions, with no more than 30 people able to take part, there is more disappointment. They can get married but the post-ceremony gathering of friends and family will not now be permitted.
That said, progress has been made in tackling the virus. Testing capacity has increased exponentially. A contact tracing system is up and running. PPE is being made in the UK and distributed across the nations. And there are new treatments, like dexamethasone and remdesivir, for those who get ill to shorten recovery times and reduce mortality rates.
However, Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, has warned we may have reached the limits of what we can do in terms of lifting lockdown. We still need to keep coronavirus under control, and priority is being given to locking down individual areas where spikes in cases occur. It’s something we should all keep in mind as we go about the things we are allowed to do.
In the words of the PM: hands, face, space. This is the new normal and COVID-19 is not ready to go away yet. www.alexburghart.org.uk
