Back in October, Wales implemented the ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown which was rejected by Boris Johnson on the grounds that these things are not long-term solutions. It’s hard to see what good it did Wales now: after a short-term dip, its Covid rates are now at least twice as high as anywhere else in the UK and seem to be spiralling out of control.
The situation is particularly concerning because Wales has been swift to impose strict measures in a bid to contain the situation. No one could venture that a lack of caution is to blame for what is unfolding in Wales. The country imposed its ‘firebreak lockdown’ for just over two weeks on 23 October; it was another week before a similar lockdown was announced by Boris Johnson for England.
First Minister Mark Drakeford has suggested that a refusal to follow the rules might be to blame. ‘Despite the very strict rules we have here in Wales, fatigue – people’s sense of no hope for the future – has meant that not everybody has been willing to abide by the restrictions that are still necessary,’ Drakeford said:
‘We have seen people having house parties, people inviting large numbers of people back to their own houses when that is absolutely not allowed within our rules…Most people in Wales do everything they can to abide by the rules but with coronavirus you only need a relatively small number of people who are not prepared to do that and you see the numbers flying up again.
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