As of Midnight last night, England has returned to a state of National Lockdown to help lower the "R-rate" of Coronavirus infections, helping the NHS to care for those infected and ultimately saving lives. This is a truly regrettable situation, but the decision taken by our Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been made to protect the British people from this deadly virus.
Until December 2nd, we must stay at home as much as possible. You should only leave home for specific reasons, including:for education; for work if you cannot work from home;for exercise; for medical reasons, appointments and to escape injury or harm; to shop for food and essentials; and to provide care for vulnerable people, or as a volunteer. Adults living alone will still be able to form support bubbles, and children will still be able to move between homes if their parents are separated.
Unfortunately, Non-essential shops, pubs, bars, restaurants, leisure and entertainment venues will all have to close until December 2nd –but will still be able to open for takeaway. Essential shops will stay open: there is no need to stock up on food, medicine or hygeine products.
Those who are clinically vulnerable, or over the age of 60, will be advised to be especially careful tofollow the rules.The Government will not ask people to shield in the same way again. However, for the clinically extremely vulnerable, the Government has issued new guidance on keeping safe.Letters will be going out later this week to all those identified as clinically extremely vulnerable, providing them with further detail on the updated guidance and on how to access the support available.The updated guidance for those deemed extremely vulnerable includes:
Stay at home as much as possible, except to go outdoors to exercise or attend health appointments. People can exercise with those they live with or in their support bubble. Work: if people cannot work from home, they should not attend work. They may be eligible for Statutory Sick Pay, Employment and Support Allowance, Universal Credit or the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme during this period of national measures. If you are unsure on how to access this support and are a constituent, please email Conor.Burns.MP@Parliament.UK and I will endeavour to help you.
As strict as these rules are, this is not a complete return to the same rules applied in March, differences include:
These are time-limited measures - on the 2 December, we will seek to ease restrictions, on a local and regional basis, according to the latest data.
The Government's priority remains keeping young people in education-so formal and informal childcare, early years settings, schools, colleges and universities will all remain open. Our senior clinicians still advise that school is the best place for children to be.
We will also keep provision for non-coronavirus healthcare needs going. Unless your clinicians tell you otherwise you should continue to use the NHS, get scans, go to appointments and pick up your treatments.
I encourage you to follow these rules, as in doing so our lives it will help our lives get back to normal. If you need any assistance related to this, or any other issue, please email Conor.Burns.MP@Parliament.UK and I will do my utmost to help. For an exhaustive list of new restrictions, please visit https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-national-restrictions-from-5-november.
I wish you and your family well over this difficult time.
Best wishes,
Conor
