Four months after the formal start of the lockdown designed to stop the exponential growth of the spread of COVID-19 and to stop the NHS being overwhelmed by people needing intensive respiratory care, the country is making progress - progress with caution, but progress nonetheless.
It’s a year since Boris Johnson became Prime Minister and, although a third of that time has been largely dedicated to dealing with the social and economic effects of a global pandemic, his promise to unleash the potential of the whole of the UK has not been forgotten.
In the last twelve months this transformative Government has enabled the UK to leave the EU, kept its promises on the NHS by enshrining the biggest ever cash boost in law, started our drive to recruit 20,000 more police officers, and increased funding for every pupil with £14.4 billion more over the next three years.
We have already seen the effects of these policies in Brentwood and Ongar, with more police officers joining Essex Police, the Brentwood Community Hospital stepping up to the plate to Help COVID-19 patients and our local schools benefitting from additional support. There’s much more to do, but coronavirus will not blow us off course.
This week, the Prime Minister has unveiled the Government’s obesity strategy, spurred on by his own experiences as a COVID-19 patient in intensive care earlier this year. There is no doubt the PM’s time in hospital made him realise how a patient’s ability to recover from COVID is helped by having good health and is one of the reasons behind the strategy which aims to get the country more active, healthier and eating better so we can protect and reduce long-term pressures on our NHS.
Coronavirus has given us all a wake-up call of the immediate and long-term risks of being overweight – we must use this moment to get healthier, more active and eat better. Despite the changeable weather July has brought us, this is the time to get out and about, on foot or on bikes, to enjoy our wonderful countryside and woodland, and to rediscover favourite places to stop for a healthy snack.
