Plea to follow Covid rules at New Years from Wiltshire Council
They want people to continue doing the right thing to stop the spread of the virus
The Public Health Director for Wiltshire has called on residents to make sure they are sensible this New Years Eve and follow all the restrictions.
Kate Blackburn says she knows that it will be quite hard to not celebrate the end of 2020, but we've still got a long way to go to beat this virus.
Unlike the Christmas Day bubble, there is to be no mixing of households inside for New Years Eve.
In addition, the Wiltshire Council area is now in Tier 3, meaning tighter restrictions than we've been used to for the last month or so.
Kate told Greatest Hits Radio:
"This virus does like people and it needs people in order to spread so if you shut off that mechanism for the virus then we can start to bring the case rates down so in terms of celebrating the new year or saying goodbye to this one, you must only do that within your household, you should not have anybody else within your household.
We know as soon as people are mixing with people socially, as soon as they're with people outside of their household it just gives the virus an opportunity to spread and it spreads quickly and once we see case numbers go up we then see that spread within more vulnerable people in our population and that's when we see pressure on the healthcare service and sometimes, very sadly, we see deaths."
THE SIMPLE MEASURES WORK
Cases have been increasing once again and we are being asked to make sure we are doing the simple, consistent measures on a regular basis.
Kate added:
"In terms of any respiratory virus we know what the precautionary measures are that help to prevent that risk of transmission so washing hands, I know we say this a lot, but washing your hands for 20 seconds with soap and water helps to deactivate the virus on your skin and then it makes it harmless to you. Staying two metres apart from somebody else means that you have far less risk of those droplets that are being expelled containing the virus from coming into contact with anyone, for the Christmas period you can think of this as the length of a polar bear. Those things are really key."
For full coronavirus advice, visit the gov.uk website.
WILTSHIRE POLICE BACKING UP CALLS
Chief Constable Kier Pritchard said he appreciated that it had been a difficult Christmas for many people but it was important to stay focused on the bigger picture:
“Like most of 2020, New Year’s Eve is going to be different this year and we all need to continue to play our part in trying to control the spread of Covid.
“The Government has been clear that the only relaxations to the Covid restrictions were for Christmas Day – restrictions remain in place for New Year’s Eve and beyond. These restrictions are in place to protect us all.
“I would continue to urge everyone to understand and adhere to the restrictions in their area and take personal responsibility for your actions in light of the rapid rise in cases that are being seen all across the country.
“We will continue to have an increased policing presence within our communities, engaging and encouraging people to follow the restrictions in place, but my officers will not hesitate to act if there are any flagrant breaches to the rules.”