Theme parks in England will close by Thursday as a result of the latest pandemic lockdown in the United Kingdom, bringing an end to the 2020 season for some of those parks.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered people to stay home except for specific reasons starting November 5. A wide range of businesses will need to close as a result, including leisure destinations such as theme parks. The lockdown is expected to last through December 2, however some government officials have said that they expect restrictions to remain in place beyond that.
England's theme parks over the past day have been issuing official closure notices:
Within the past few days, theme parks in France, Germany, Belgium, and Italy have been ordered closed as the next wave of Covid-19 washes over Europe. At this moment, The Netherlands' Efteling remains the largest park on the continent that has not yet closed again due to the continuing pandemic. But while The Netherlands' current daily new-case rate is lower than France's on a per capita basis, it's higher than the United Kingdom's and more than double the United States' rate and triple Germany's. The Netherlands tightened business restrictions last month but so far has not ordered parks to close.
Tweet
It really isn’t as simple as that. I live in Wales and whilst the current Welsh lockdown is designed to save lives it is only designed to save lives from Covid. The Welsh health system has effectively been closed all year (I have been unable to get treatment as all ‘non essential’ or ‘routine’ appointments have been cancelled), and the impact of the back-log of illnesses and conditions will only come to be seen over the next couple of years. Equally the financial cost is huge. As a business-owner in Wales I have lost nearly half this year’s income and the Welsh Government have not been able to compensate me adequately. We are lucky in that we have savings so are not destitute but many businesses in my community are only just hanging in there. Another lock down may well see them go to the wall, and that’s the big issue here. The need is clear - to balance saving lives with saving livelihoods and that decision is anything but simple or clear cut....
@David Brown
I sincerely wish you and yours good luck during this next shutdown. I myself live in Las Vegas and have seen first hand that the balance between saving lives and saving livelihoods isn’t an easy line to walk. Our city took heavy restrictive measures by shutting all but non essential businesses down in March, only to re-open a tad bit early in June. The need to restart the local economy far outweighed the need for business closures at that point. Now we’re seeing an extreme increase in positive cases (Hospitalizations are sure to follow) and whispers of another shutdown is looming for us as well.......It seems the balancing act will never end at this point.
@sneakertinker: I can relate. Illinois was the only state to meet all the CDC requirements for reopening thanks to two-month shelter orders and doing well. But now, once more, indoor dining is bad after spikes as folks just got too lax and thought "it's over." It doesn't help we're surrounded by other states (Missouri and Iowa the worst) who never did any of that and cross-traffic spreading it.
Now, it's the conflict again of economy vs health (having the third largest city in the country doesn't help our numbers) and why it's going to remain rough for a while.
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
This is what happens when you don’t take the right action at the right time... has England followed the advice Wales and Scotland acted on a few weeks ago (and wasn’t exactky secret) the action required now would have been less.