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As expected, it's plainly obvious that the more 'rural' parts of the country have had fewer historical hospital admissions for Covid-19, and are presently experiencing significantly lower hospital admissions, compared to the parts that have big urban populations. So Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Eastern England, South West England and South East England all have low numbers. And London, the Midlands, North West England and North East England all have rather higher numbers.
This must broadly indicate the risk of infection in different parts of the country. Of course, it must be true that even in the low-admissions areas there will be hot-spots, most obviously the cities and big towns. Still, I think there is a strong argument here for some parts of England safely moving down the new 5-stage risk scale faster than others. It's surely clear that if you go to - say - Eastern England, and avoid the towns, it's pretty safe. Same for the South West. And to a lesser degree in the South East too.
This broad picture will no doubt get refined in the weeks ahead to show which are the real trouble-spots, and which are almost free of the virus. And once you have that detail, will it remain right to insist that 'virus free' areas continue to stay on the same alert level as the ones that have a persistent problem?
This broad picture will no doubt get refined in the weeks ahead to show which are the real trouble-spots, and which are almost free of the virus. And once you have that detail, will it remain right to insist that 'virus free' areas continue to stay on the same alert level as the ones that have a persistent problem?
I suspect that the government will strongly prefer to have the entire country - all of England anyway - march in step together, with no local relaxations. A differentiation between areas would of course tend to brand the cities and big towns as virus-soaked - high-risk places to visit - and imply that the people living there are all infected, and all of them a risk to the 'healthy' areas. That would quickly lead on to the notion that city-dwellers must stay in quarantine, and not be allowed to spread their disease to the countryside. That's clear already from the reaction of places like Dorset and Cornwall, who have declared themselves closed to visitors (meaning, chiefly, city folk). And of the Lake District, to the prospect of Merseyside and Manchester escapees flooding into the area this weekend.
Who knows, it might well become impossible for a city-dweller to book travel facilities and holiday accommodation in the nation's holiday areas for a long time to come. It might even divide the country into the 'clean' and the 'unclean', as if something like leprosy were the issue, at least in the minds of those predisposed to think in that way. Such is human nature, sadly.
Who knows, it might well become impossible for a city-dweller to book travel facilities and holiday accommodation in the nation's holiday areas for a long time to come. It might even divide the country into the 'clean' and the 'unclean', as if something like leprosy were the issue, at least in the minds of those predisposed to think in that way. Such is human nature, sadly.
Which is all a pity, as moving down to stage 2 everywhere across England (i.e. almost back to normality) or even stage 1 everywhere (i.e. the virus has been eradicated, and we can all do as we please) will take so much longer.
Whether it's published or not, with ever-increasing testing the government will soon have that finely-detailed view of where infections are happening, down to at least postcode level, and a good idea of who must be causing it. I think they'll want to keep that information secret, and use it as a tool for homing in on the virus-spreaders, and dealing with them. Meaning that the people responsible will be made to stop doing whatever it is that leads to infecting others. I'd further assume that the residue of reckless, irresponsible, and frankly mad spreaders of this virus will get the same kind of police attention that those who deliberately spread HIV (and hate messages) receive.
