Vaccine rollout and fairness over Tiers are key to region’s recovery – The Yorkshire Post says

THE slowing down of GDP in October, coinciding with the latest lockdown, confirms what most people have long suspected – the economy’s future depends on the successful rolling out of Covid vaccines.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak.Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

To that extent, the bleakness of the latest data is offset by the new-found national optimism after the first patients began to receive Covid inoculations at hospitals.

This week, potentially, marks the beginning of the end, though the latest high stakes over Brexit are not exactly helping business confidence.

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As such, it is imperative that the Government uses the advent of vaccines, and the increased data that it now has available on Covid infection rates, to refine its Tier system of restrictions – it’s illogical to leave large swathes of North in Tier 3 when the virus is now most prevalent in London where the rules are less rigid.

When will cities like Leeds have Tier 3 restrictions lifted?When will cities like Leeds have Tier 3 restrictions lifted?
When will cities like Leeds have Tier 3 restrictions lifted?

Not only does such an approach risk compromising the compliance and patience shown by the overwhelming majority of families for nearly nine months now, but it will make it harder for these areas – communities already paying the highest price for Covid due to their social demography – to be at the forefront of the economic recovery.

Now it is important to stress that Yorkshire, and the rest of the North, is home to a great many individuals who have shown incredible ingenuity and innovation to adapt to the specific challenges posed by Covid and protect not only their enterprises but the jobs of so many of their staff.

They have not received sufficient recognition for their endeavours. It’s time to put that right. They can also only do so much. Respectful of the many measures put in place by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, they, nevertheless, expect the Government to define its ‘levelling up’ mission – it’s had a year since the election to do so – and then begin to implement it. Covid has just made this task even more important. And urgent.

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