It turns out that our friends across the pond are just as fed up with all these lockdowns as we Americans. Sheffield City Region Mayor Dan Jarvis, a member of the Labour Party, is moving the region into Tier Three after another spike in coronavirus cases. Tier Three is England's "very high" level of alert. That means that pubs and bars "that do not serve substantial meals have to close." Further restrictions will force the closure of betting shops, adult gaming centers, casinos, soft play centers and gym classes.
One Barnsley woman interviewed by the BBC said she's had enough.
"I think it's all ridiculous," she said. "We should never have been in lockdown."
Here's how it should have gone, she said:
"All the vulnerable should have been helped and kept safe. And all the rest of us, I'm 83, I don't give a sod."
“I’ve not got that many years left of me and I’m not going to be fastened in a house.”
— BBC Yorkshire (@BBCLookNorth) October 21, 2020
Here’s how one 83-year-old in Barnsley reacted to the news that tier three restrictions will be introduced in South Yorkshire from Saturday.
See more here: https://t.co/Kmf1y5Msfe pic.twitter.com/58YJYfIzvU
"I look at it this way, I've not got all that many years left of me and I'm not going to be fastened in a house when the government have got it all wrong," the woman continued. "We need - how can we get the country on its feet? Money-wise, where's all the money? By the end of the year, there's going to be millions of people unemployed, and you know who's going to pay for it? All the young ones. Not me, because I'm going to be dead."
Bless this woman's heart. And honestly, she's expressing what a lot of folks have been feeling all over the world this past year. It's time to let us out of our bunkers.
While leaders made this decision after recording a record number of new COVID cases in the UK, the BBC notes that that may be misleading because only now has testing become more available.
It comes as a further 26,688 new coronavirus cases were recorded on Wednesday, while another 191 people were reported to have died within 28 days of a positive test.
It is the highest ever number of recorded daily cases. However, mass testing was not available during the peak of the pandemic, when daily cases were estimated to have reached as many as 100,000.
The Yorkshire lockdown comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson moved other major areas such as Greater Manchester into the Tier Three "very high" COVID alert levels.