JEFF Williams (Letters, Oct 10) despairs over the UK government’s response to the coronavirus crisis.

He described their changing contradictory policies that are too loose to prevent the spread of disease yet too tight to prevent economic disaster.

I can only agree. From the very start the government seemed to be reacting to bad events rather than planning how to avoid bad events.

The relaxation of lockdown would always lead to a second wave without a functioning test and trace system in place, while the lockdown of northern cities cannot stop what is a national phenomenon.

So here, locally, we now become less the onlookers blessed with low levels of infection.

In recent days, our local infection levels have been rising alarmingly.

It was 40 weekly cases per 100k population for week ending Oct 1, rising to 137 for week ending Oct 9.

If such a rise continues, by the week ending October 18 we would see our local levels equalling those we now see in the locked-down northern cities.

We can all do our best to prevent the spread of coronavirus but the evidence seems incontrovertible.

It is not the coronavirus that is running out of control. It is just behaving like viruses do.

It is actually our government that is running out of control.

MARTIN RODGER

Bloxworth Road, Parkstone