Sorry to dampen the flames of hate for Bolton but this isn’t solely down to Boltonians breaking rules, it’s the nature of the variant itself.
This situation is very different to previous outbreaks because of the higher transmissibility of the Indian variant.
You think the schools and supermarkets in Bolton are not the same as the ones in your town?
You think people in your town weren’t doing the ‘it’s only a quick brew and we were sat apart on two separate sofas’ indoors gatherings whilst we were told not to? The explosion of numbers are not indicative of mass rule breaking in one northern town, far from it.
The variant is easier to catch, much easier than the Kent one that spread very quickly here at Christmas. What is happening in Bolton will happen pretty much everywhere, it’s called exponential growth 📈 their numbers are higher because clearly someone brought in the variant there and didn’t follow and quarantine guidelines properly, or they did and this thing still managed to get out of control.
If we see this high rate of transmission continue around the country then every town and city will be in Bolton’s position in a matter of weeks especially now we are mixing more freely indoors and so many people travelled from India to the UK.
We may also end up being caught off guard by the rate the variant will progress. I expect Covid fatigue has started to set in for many people who may now pass off a cough or sore throat as being nothing more than a ‘summer’ cold over the coming few weeks because the numbers may appear lower when in actual fact they haven’t yet caught up. Add to the mix a false sense of security because they may have had a vaccine and we’re looking at a potentially difficult situation.