Two weeks ago, where I live was in COVID Tier 2, so we could only meet in small groups outdoors. In the mini-lockdown before that, I could talk to my neighbour over the fence, or up on the hill, but not in her garden. Then a week ago, Herefordshire was downgraded to Tier 1, meaning we could if we wished have six people meeting indoors.
We were the only county to be moved down a level, while most of the south east was bumped up into the draconian Tier 4. I have a cynical suspicion that the politicians wanted to demonstrate that it was possible to move down the alert scale as well as up, and decided that minimal harm would be done by picking Herefordshire – a rural and sparsely populated county. Conveniently ignoring that we adjoin Wales, which is struggling to contain a significant third wave.
My house has a Worcester postcode, but is actually in Herefordshire by less than 500m. The rest of Malvern, however, stayed in Tier 2. I think that meant that town was out of bounds except for work or medical appointments, but to be honest it’s getting difficult to keep on track of what is or isn’t allowed. The hotel/pub at the top of the hill is in Herefordshire by less than 20m, so was allowed to serve small groups inside – but only if all the people in a group lived in Herefordshire. Which meant they had to check everyone’s postcode before working out whether they could serve them indoors, outdoors or not at all.
The reprieve didn’t last long though – we’ve been bounced back up into Tier 2 today due to rising cases. Hardly a surprise. I predict we’ll be at least Tier 3 in another fortnight, unless there is a significant change in the virus trajectory. Looks like I’ll be working from home again in the New Year…..
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Pointless, the whole thing, they have destroyed the economy, thousands of peoples jobs and young peoples futures for the sake of a virus that DOES NOT kill the vast majority of people it infects. In fact NHS poor management have killed loads of people in care homes and through lack of treatment since March. At local surgery people (old as well) are left standing outside in cold and wet as receptionists DONT want tpo let them into waiting room.
We just carry on as normal and ignore rules BUT then we see more sheep than people out here.
Lockdown has been great from point of view of no tourists 🙂