“People paying the price for Stormont Covid catastrophe”
West Belfast, with its high proportion of healthcare workers, low paid staff and poverty, is facing a growing catastrophe.
“The BT11 postcode is now second only to Derry in the number of coronavirus infections per 100,000, with 787.5 recorded on the Department of Health dashboard.” – according to the Irish News.
“The area, which stretches from Upper Springfield Road to the the M1 motorway and runs from Suffolk Road to Milltown Cemetery and includes Andersonstown,” it said, “is the epicentre of the Belfast outbreak, but the adjoining area of BT12 and BT17 (extending out into the Twinbrook estate, Hannahstown and Dunmurry) are facing the next highest in the city at 704.4 and 673.8 respectively.”
Pól Torbóid, a Lasair Dhearg spokesperson from the West of the city, said that “whilst Stormont politicians would like to place the blame on working class people with insinuations of ‘house parties’ and not following guidance, the truth is much more obvious. The extreme majority of citizens in areas like Belfast and Derry are following all the guidance placed in front of them, and often at huge personal cost.”
“These figures are representative of the demographic makeup of these working class areas where people often have little choice but to face the virus head on through their places of work, which is often times precarious and low paid; or indeed in the epicentre of the fight against the virus as part of the health service.”
“When all this blows over, and we look back at the toll of this pandemic, it’ll be working class people who will have paid the highest price due to Stormont government ‘guidance’.”
ENDS
