Coronavirus transmission rate is increasing, so why all this talk of easing lockdown?
Dominic Raab: he reckons it will be all right to lift some lockdown restrictions, despite the fact that more people are catching Covid-19 (again).
Covid-19’s reproduction rate must be decreasing if the UK’s lockdown is to be lifted – and this critical ‘R’ rate is actually rising.
So why is all the talk about lifting the lockdown?
We’re told the speed of coronavirus infections is rising because of the epidemic that has been revealed in care homes…
… and what about the deaths in mental health hospitals and among people with learning disabilities?
These are places that may be reasonably expected to have the proper procedures in place if a pandemic sweeps the UK – unless the government failed to ensure that those procedures were in place, and all the necessary equipment was available.
(It was the government that had responsibility for emergency planning, and for ensuring that preparations were properly carried out.)
But we have a government that is also keen to lift the lockdown because its donors in big business are not making the profits they normally expect, while the people who generate those profits are being told to stay home for their own safety.
This is further evidence that, if Boris Johnson lifts his lockdown even slightly, he will set us on course for a bigger disaster.
The critical ‘R’ rate measuring the spread of coronavirus infections is on the rise again, the national statistician says – raising fresh questions about any lockdown easing.
A reproduction rate of anything above 1 means each infected person is, on average, passing it on to more than one other, but experts agree it must be well below 1 to prevent a second peak of the pandemic.
Crucially, it is the most important of the five tests before the lockdown can be eased significantly. The prime minister himself admitted there is still a “pandemic” in care homes.
The warning came as Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, said any relaxation of restrictions – to be announced by Boris Johnson on Sunday – would be “modest, small and incremental”.
Source: Coronavirus rate of transmission is increasing, says chief government statistician | The Independent
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Just the recent talk of lifting the lockdown has already had an effect. The road traffic going past my house today was definitely a lot busier than it has been, though God knows where all these people were going on a Bank Holiday Friday during a pandemic lockdown. And one of my neighbours said he was going out this afternoon to meet his daughter and grandchild. Another neighbour had his girlfriend visiting. My sister told me on the phone that her neighbour had a mate round helping him to build a garden shed. People are feeling like it’s all over and are starting to disregard the lockdown rules. People are sitting around in the local park. Others are visiting the recently re-opened B&Q. It’s descending into farce.
Fascist tory government’s only priority is and always has been increasing their bros male owned corporate companies’ profits! This is why the fascist tories are talking about relaxing the lockdown! Women and men continue to die and now huge numbers of women and men in care homes/working in them are dying from the virus – but hey big business always supercedes citizens’ rights to protection from a pandemic!!
Anyway the increase in deaths are only occurring in care homes; mental hospitals and women and men with learning disabilities so that’s okay – these groups are ‘of no monetary value to the fascist tories’ so they can all die! Meanwhile back at the ranch it is business as usual with the fascist tories demanding female and male workers ‘get back to work now in order to increase their male masters’ huge profits!