Should there be another national lockdown?
Polls
22nd October 2020
GREATER Manchester has been put into Tier 3 lockdown by the government following a rise in COVID-19 cases.
The “very high” alert level, also known as Tier 3, begins today (Friday). It means places like pubs and leisure centres have to close and people are advised not to leave the area.
Unless they are in a support bubble, households are not allowed to meet up with other households. However, schools, universities and places like shops on the high-street will be allowed to stay open.
Greater Manchester joins Liverpool and Lancashire in the very highest level of restrictions.
As the pandemic carries on, views about how to deal with it are becoming more divided. Generally people are talking about the balance between saving lives and saving livelihoods. Those who argue against lockdown say thousands of people losing their jobs, businesses going bust and worsening mental health are all too high a price to pay.
But Labour Leader, Keir Starmer, has called for a “circuit breaker” – in effect a national lockdown across England. He thinks a short lockdown of two to three weeks would bring the virus under control. He said local lockdowns were not working and another course was needed to prevent a “sleepwalk into… a bleak winter”.
Meanwhile, Wales brought in a two-week ‘firebreak’ lockdown, which is a shorter version of the lockdown introduced in March and has similar rules – closing all pubs, bars and restaurants, gyms, and non-essential shops, and stopping people from socialising.
Schools have been shut until the half-term break, re-opening after the lockdown has ended. Wales’ First Minister Mark Drayford said it was “a short, sharp, shock to turn back the clock, slow down the virus and buy us more time”.
Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said that there’s no plan to bring in a similar lockdown to Scotland just yet – but all options are being looked at.
Last week, Northern Ireland became the first country to introduce a second lockdown, closing bars and restaurants (except for takeaways), stopping indoor amateur sports, shutting close-contact services such as hairdressing, and extending the half-term school holiday to two weeks.
15 Comments
afrobob · 4 years ago
Coronavirus is evil
katkid10 · 4 years ago
Ditto.
candyflos · 4 years ago
There should be a local one but not a national one. I hope they keep schools open!
sethini · 4 years ago
Instigating a second lockdown would allow cases to abate and additionally provide the means for the country to reset and reassert its hold over our present situation. It would also allow for the virus to come back under our control and even mitigate the impact if properly managed. It would give the people of this country a way to regroup and come back stronger to fight what is increasingly appearing as a world war - one that can only be won if we let ourselves recuperate, and stand together as the world against the virus.
willowroma · 4 years ago
Ofc I don’t want another lockdown! But I sort of understand if we have one because of our safety
bamboomilk · 4 years ago
I think yes because things are starting to get worse now, but I hope they keep schools open.
hummusgirl · 4 years ago
Obviously for the safety of people in England there should be another lockdown but this could be prevented if the government actually dealt with this situation in the first place. Encouraging people to eat out three times a week and then suddenly shutting everything is not helpful. The government do not get that this has made people so fragile that enforcing another lockdown will not be good for anyone's mental state knowing that we could have just had one proper one and move on.
lobsters98 · 4 years ago
It's not that I like lockdown [it's quite the opposite really] but I think that the sooner covid 19 is gone the better
DOWN WITH CORONAVIRUS!!!
pickles7 · 4 years ago
If there is another lockdown ,which there is going to be on Thursday (at the time I am writing) then how can they be sure that after lockdown things aren’t just going to go back to the way it was before lockdown with the same level of cases ☹︎
panda89 · 4 years ago
I REALLY don’t want one but maybe we need one...
there shouldn’t be one if schools closed I would miss my friends toooooo much!
alyssa07 · 4 years ago
I think that the lockdown is not going to be very useful as not everything is locked down. Schools still being open will just spread it more through children as we often don’t have symptoms and although in most schools they have tons of restrictions it is still hard to socially distance from everyone including teachers, as the teachers in my secondary school teach lots of classes and different year groups they can easily carry it to other year groups spreading it through the school. Locking down schools would prevent this from happening and would slow the spread down a lot overcoming the virus. I think they should have a complete lockdown for 1-2 weeks where you cannot go outside except for going to the supermarket to get food to stop it from spreading. For financial problems I think the government should fund businesses do that they could furlow everyone and people in need could still get money from jobs to be able to survive or buissnesses should stop paying the people that are doing fine and have money to live on and pay the people in need more if possible as it would only be for a couple of weeks I don’t think financial problems would be that bad but I am only 13 so I wouldn’t know lol. This is my long opinion thank you for reading lol
badgehuff · 4 years ago
No I think if it is needed there should be a local lockdown but with schools open and everyone wearing a mask in public places.
ecool · 4 years ago
Same
ecool · 4 years ago
Ditto
smartbryan · 3 years ago
It’ll help stop COVID 19