The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has announced the reintroduction of a full national lockdown, similar to that back in March 2020.
This is due to the new variant that has seen hospitalisation rates 40% higher than the first peak in April 2020, that means without taking action now our NHS could be overwhelmed in 21 days. As a consequence, our NHS has been moved to alert level 5.
It is the hope of the NHS that by the end of February, the top four priority groups will have received a vaccine. These groups are:
- People in care homes & carers
- 70+ years of age
- All health and social care staff
- Clinically extremely vulnerable
The Department of Health have confirmed that vaccinations for these priority groups will commence in Dover & Deal from 11th January 2021. It will take time for everyone in these priority groups to be vaccinated but the programme will be underway from Monday.
People must stay at home and should only leave for limited reasons such as shopping for essentials, seeking medical assistance or fleeing domestic violence.
People who are extremely clinically vulnerable are once again asked to shield. A letter will be sent out from to those in this category outlining the necessary steps they should take.
Primary and Secondary schools alongside colleges have moved to remote learning. As before, only children of key workers or those who are vulnerable can go into school physically. This means that not all exams will go ahead this summer and an announcement will be made on the exact measures to be taken in due course.
Early Years settings will however remain open. And children who are eligible for Free School Meals will still continue to receive them, with further details to follow.
All information relating to the latest rules and requirements can be found here.
These are difficult times but we now must work together and follow the rules:
🏡 STAY AT HOME
💙 PROTECT THE NHS
👨👩👧👦 SAVE LIVES
We have had a tough Christmas period, with these additional coronavirus measures, and lorries seemingly parked up on every corner following the irresponsible French border closure. I worked tirelessly to get extra police and the army called out to clear our streets – this was successful. Now my focus will be on ensuring that trade continues to flow smoothly across the Channel, as well as pressing for additional traffic management measures so that issues can be more quickly resolved.
On a brighter note, over Christmas we did secure multi-million pound Government town centre funding for Dover. I will continue to work with our team of Dover District councillors to secure more investment for Dover, Deal and our villages. Investment to bring more jobs and money for us all.