I have been studying the tier system that the Scottish Government came up with last week while also reading the concerns of Aberdeen City Council about the fact that Aberdeen is in tier 2.
In view of the fact that most of the affected areas appear to be in and around Glasgow, in my opinion they should all be in tier 4 – especially if the government are determined to contain, or indeed reduce, the rate of infection in Scotland.
Tier 4 would include all areas with a case rate over 300/100,000 and those appear to be South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire and Glasgow City.
Tier 3 would include all those with a case rate over 200/100,000 such as East and West Dumbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, North and East Ayrshire, Renfrewshire; West Lothian and Dundee City.
Tier 2 would then include all those with a case rate over 100/100,000 such as South Ayrshire, Clackmanshire, Midlothian, Falkirk, Stirling and Edinburgh City.
Tier 1 would be made up with all those having a case rate over 50/100,000, such as Fife, East Lothian, Inverclyde, Dumfries and Galloway, Perth and Kinross, Angus, Argyll and Bute along with Aberdeen City.
Tier 0 would therefore be made up of all those areas with a case rate less than 50/100,000 such as Borders, Aberdeenshire, Highland, Moray, Orkney and Shetland.
The above lists would certainly be more acceptable to us living in this area, whereas those in Tier 4 would no doubt be considerably unhappy – including the First Minister herself.
EFM.
Trump cure
See how the world stock markets have soared and that’s just after the first weekend without Donald Trump as United States president.
Could this be more fake news or are we really nearer an effective vaccine for the dreaded Covid 19?
Dennis Forbes Grattan.
NHS neglect
why keep relying on “positive tests” for Covid? Why not just look at the figures from the last few years and watch how the statistics follow the same pattern every year? Why does nobody seem to remember how overwhelmed the NHS was in winter 2018?
The problem is not the virus, it’s the fact that the NHS is underfunded and, let’s face it, has been poorly run for years.
It’s not the workers on the floor who are at fault, but how hidebound the systems have become.
G Chisolm.
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