Abedeen in tier 3 for Christmas

For the second time this year we’ve had to cancel a holiday due to covid. We were due to go to the highlands on Monday for 6 days to self-catering holiday accommodation but they’re moving Aberdeen into tier 3 on Friday at 6pm which effectively puts a fence around the city for everyone living here. We’re no longer allowed to leave while tier 3 remains in place.

We are naturally quite disappointed and even a little bit annoyed. Every week since mid-late November I’ve been hoping they might bring in tougher restrictions so we woudn’t have to lock down over Christmas. This is the time we have annual leave and I find it hard when I can’t go for walks in the hills. Walks in nature are so important for health. We’re not even allowed to go to Aberdeenshire for a hill walk even though Aberdeenshire is the same tier as Aberdeen.

I have the COVID sympton study app on my phone which I’ve been using since it was first released early this year. It shows ONS data (Office of National Statistics) which provides a nice graph of estimated cases over time. It’s hard to see why, when you see this graph, this is the week they bring in tougher restrictions. Why not in November when there was a higher peak?

Even more illogical is there’ll be a Christmas nationwide relaxation of restrictions from the 23 – 27th December allowing people to travel around the UK but only if they plan to meet another household who lives in the area they’re travelling to. Indeed not just two but three households are allowed to mix at this time. The biggest risk factor for catching covid, or so I thought, was from members of your own household so why they’re allowing this but not allowing individual households to travel alone and stay in self-catering accommodation is pretty nonsensical. Many experts are calling for the reversal of the Christmas bubble rules. There’ll likely to be a big increase in cases after Christmas as a result.

I can handle not going into other peoples’ homes. I can handle all the pubs, restaurants, and cafés being shut. But I really struggle without my walks in the hills and for the third time this year this is what is before us. It’s strange because the past couple of walks we’ve done in Aberdeenshire have been very quiet. On our recent walk in Braemar we didn’t see anyone at all except when we were in the village and even then we didn’t go anywhere near them. Why ban that but allow households to mix? It doesn’t make sense. The vaccine can’t come soon enough.