Our Covid-19 vaccination programme continues to be world leading. As I write on Sunday evening, we are now up to 88.0% of adults having had a first vaccine dose and 70.3% having had a second dose. With vaccination rates so high compared to the rest of the world, we’ve been able to press ahead with the final stage of the government’s roadmap and the easing of legal restrictions. Of course, something no longer being illegal doesn’t mean we should rush out and do it.
Keeping restrictions indefinitely was unsustainable and has other consequences. It is right to follow the scientific advice and ease the final restrictions when transmission is lowest in the summer months, while highlighting that people must continue to exercise caution, common sense, and sound personal judgement.
Our vaccination programme has substantially weakened the link between infection and hospitalisation or death, with the latest data showing that one vaccine dose is 80% effective against hospitalisations with the Delta variant, increasing to 96% after two doses.
As I write, we have now seen new cases fall sharply for five successive days. This has only happened before during a national lockdown and therefore this shows we are now in very different times thanks to the high levels of vaccine rollout. This is very welcome and blows apart Labour’s carping from the sidelines. Just last week, the Labour column in this paper said in response to legal restrictions ending: “The end result? More than likely another lockdown in a few weeks’ time.” The irony is that Labour have refused to set out if or when they would have eased restrictions. In reality, Labour would have kept the country in perpetual limbo with all the harm that would have done.
We should also remember that Labour would have left the UK struggling to develop a vaccine, as Keir Starmer was calling for the UK to remain in the European Medicines Agency rather than secure our own vaccines, which we successfully did. Boris Johnson and the government have provided real leadership throughout the pandemic and are bringing us out on the other side.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group
28th July 2021
