Having been born on the Island, it pains me greatly to see that Brading and Sandown have one of the highest rates of infection from Covid-19 in the whole country.

How could this have been allowed to happen?

I now live in New Zealand, where there have been less than 2,000 cases overall and a total of 25 deaths, none of which have occurred since the middle of September.

Now 25 deaths is serious enough for a country with a population of around five million, but if cases and deaths had been in the same proportion in the UK, the total number of cases would be 26,000 and the total number of deaths would have been about 325.

The UK government had the opportunity to take the same kind of decisive action that the New Zealand government took.

They chose to "go hard and go early" and imposed a total lock-down for four weeks and following that, a ban on international travel and a ban on travel from one region to another.

Both the UK and NZ are island nations and controlling the borders should be a straightforward operation.

Similarly, the IW is an island and it is total nonsense for the Island's leaders to say that they cannot control movement from the rest of the country which was under a higher alert level.

Those areas were banned from travelling, they should have been turned around at the ferry terminals on the mainland before they boarded.

Regrettably, the greed of those retailers, hospitality providers and ferry companies who were not prepared to play the long game has resulted in even more cases and deaths.

If only the government had acted more promptly and more decisively and the IW Council had been prepared to show some leadership, residents of the UK and the Island might now be able to enjoy the freedoms that we are currently able to enjoy here in New Zealand.

The economy is booming here because Kiwis are staying at home and spending at home. Domestic tourism rates are going through the roof and we have the freedom to go about our business almost as normal.

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