Under det här året har världen förändrats framför våra ögon.
Tidigt i våras ställdes vi inför en gigantisk utmaning i form av en pandemi.
Det nya coronaviruset tvingade oss alla att göra stora uppoffringar.
Så mycket av det vi håller kärt har vi fått avstå.
Så mycket av det som är vardag har vi fått ställa in eller undvika.
Och i kväll, sent i november år 2020, är det tydligt att det kommer att dröja innan vi kan återgå till det normala.
Därför kommer jag ännu en gång be er om något mycket svårt men helt nödvändigt.
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Den lilla respit vi fick under sommaren och hösten är verkligen över.
Då kunde grannar och vänner ses utomhus och fika. Vi kunde träffa våra sköra släktingar ute i friska luften.
Livet blev inte som vanligt – men det fanns stunder under sköna sommardagar då det nästan kändes så.
I våras var det många som sa att det trots allt underlättade livet att coronaviruset slog till i ljusa mars och inte i mörka november.
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Människors hälsa och liv är fortfarande i fara.
Och faran ökar.
Allt fler smittas.
Allt fler intensivvårdsplatser används för att vårda svårt covidsjuka patienter. Allt fler dör.
Låt oss komma ihåg att över 6 000 människor i Sverige redan har dött med covid-19.
Låt oss komma ihåg att kring varje avliden finns det människor som berövats en älskad förälder, ett älskat barn eller en älskad vän.
Låt oss komma ihåg hur utarbetad vård- och omsorgspersonalen var.
Och låt oss komma ihåg att de fortfarande sliter, dag och natt, för att rädda liv.
Det vi som land gör fel nu får vi lida för senare. Det vi gör rätt nu får vi glädje av senare.
Det vi gör nu påverkar hur luciafirandet kommer att se ut.
Hur julfirandet kommer att se ut.
Vilka som fortfarande kommer att vara med oss i jul. Det kan låta hårt. Det kan låta brutalt.
Men det är precis så hård och brutal verkligheten är.
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Vi vet hur man ska göra för att platta till smittspridningskurvan.
Vi har gjort det förr. Vi gjorde det i våras.
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Vi tog ansvar för Sverige. Vi skyddade oss själva, våra närmaste och människor vi inte ens vet vilka de är.
Vi tog ansvar och vi gav personalen i sjukvården och omsorgen en chans att klara den akuta krisen.
Vi gjorde det gemensamt. Det är vår styrka, Sveriges styrka.
Under hösten har för många slarvat med att följa råd och rekommendationer.
Men nu ser vi hur folk börjar ta ansvar igen. Hur resandet minskar och hemmajobbandet ökar.
Fortsätt så - och håll ut.
Men alla måste göra mer.
Det är på dig och mig det beror.
Så:
Håll dig uppdaterad om vilka råd och rekommendationer som gäller där du befinner dig. Träffa bara människor som du bor med.
Om du bor ensam, välj en eller högst två vänner att umgås med. Men fortsätt hålla avstånd. Stanna hemma vid minsta symtom.
Tvätta händerna ofta och noggrant.
Och du som arbetsgivare: om det går, möjliggör för dina anställda att jobba hemifrån.
Alla saker som du skulle vilja göra, men inte är nödvändiga: Ställ in. Boka av. Skjut upp.
Det dröjer tills vi är igenom det här. Och till dess är det här den nya normen för hela samhället, för hela Sverige.
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Till dig som känner att allt är mörker nu vill jag säga: läget är inte hopplöst.
Sverige är under prövning. Men Sverige kommer stå pall. Sjukvården och omsorgen fungerar, trots allt.
Hus och vägar byggs, trots allt.
Våra barn får utbildning och lust att lära, trots allt.
Vi ska ta situationen på mycket stort allvar, men vi ska göra det med behärskning, fasthet och mod.
Till dig som eventuellt känner att det här inte angår dig vill jag säga detta:
Även du som blir lindrigt sjuk kan smitta andra. På restaurangen, på jobbet, under hemmamiddagen, på bussen eller i butiken.
En främling du smittar kan bli väldigt sjuk. En vän du smittar kan behöva vård.
En mor- eller farförälder du smittar kan komma att dö.
Det är för de människorna du ska göra uppoffringar. Det är för de människorna du måste visa beslutsamhet, självdisciplin och ansvarskänsla.
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När vi är igenom den här krisen ska alla kunna minnas hur vi hjälpte varandra.
Minnas solidariteten. Minnas känslan av gemenskap och känslan av att göra rätt. Minnas hur vi pressade ner smittspridningen och lyfte vårt land.
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Men då måste vi här och nu visa vår sammanhållning och vårt ansvarstagande.
Och att det är starkare än det virus vi ska besegra.
Nu gör vi det här.
Tillsammans.
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Bilaga 3 – Prime Minister’s statement on coronavirus (Covid-19): 23 March 2020 Good Evening,
The coronavirus is the biggest threat this country has faced for decades – and this country is not alone.
All over the world we are seeing the devastating impact of this invisible killer.
And so tonight I want to update you on the latest steps we are taking to fight the disease and what you can do to help.
And I want to begin by reminding you why the UK has been taking the approach that we have.
Without a huge national effort to halt the growth of this virus, there will come a moment when no health service in the world could possibly cope; because there won’t be enough ventilators, enough intensive care beds, enough doctors and nurses.
And as we have seen elsewhere, in other countries that also have fantastic health care systems, that is the moment of real danger.
To put it simply, if too many people become seriously unwell at one time, the NHS will be unable to handle it - meaning more people are likely to die, not just from Coronavirus but from other illnesses as well.
So it’s vital to slow the spread of the disease.
Because that is the way we reduce the number of people needing hospital treatment at any one time, so we can protect the NHS’s ability to cope - and save more lives.
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And though huge numbers are complying - and I thank you all - the time has now come for us all to do more.
From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction - you must stay at home.
Because the critical thing we must do is stop the disease spreading between households.
That is why people will only be allowed to leave their home for the following very limited purposes:
shopping for basic necessities, as infrequently as possible
one form of exercise a day - for example a run, walk, or cycle - alone or with members of your household;
any medical need, to provide care or to help a vulnerable person; and
travelling to and from work, but only where this is absolutely necessary and cannot be done from home.
That’s all - these are the only reasons you should leave your home.
You should not be meeting friends. If your friends ask you to meet, you should say No.
You should not be meeting family members who do not live in your home.
You should not be going shopping except for essentials like food and medicine - and you should do this as little as you can. And use food delivery services where you can.
If you don’t follow the rules the police will have the powers to enforce them, including through fines and dispersing gatherings.
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close all shops selling non-essential goods, including clothing and electronic stores and other premises including libraries, playgrounds and outdoor gyms, and places of worship;
we will stop all gatherings of more than two people in public – excluding people you live with; and we’ll stop all social events, including weddings, baptisms and other ceremonies, but excluding funerals.
Parks will remain open for exercise but gatherings will be dispersed.
No Prime Minister wants to enact measures like this.
I know the damage that this disruption is doing and will do to people’s lives, to their businesses and to their jobs.
And that’s why we have produced a huge and unprecedented programme of support both for workers and for business.
And I can assure you that we will keep these restrictions under constant review. We will look again in three weeks, and relax them if the evidence shows we are able to.
But at present there are just no easy options. The way ahead is hard, and it is still true that many lives will sadly be lost.
And yet it is also true that there is a clear way through.
Day by day we are strengthening our amazing NHS with 7500 former clinicians now coming back to the service.
With the time you buy - by simply staying at home - we are increasing our stocks of equipment.
We are accelerating our search for treatments.
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And we are buying millions of testing kits that will enable us to turn the tide on this invisible killer.
I want to thank everyone who is working flat out to beat the virus.
Everyone from the supermarket staff to the transport workers to the carers to the nurses and doctors on the frontline.
But in this fight we can be in no doubt that each and every one of us is directly enlisted.
Each and every one of us is now obliged to join together.
To halt the spread of this disease.
To protect our NHS and to save many many thousands of lives.
And I know that as they have in the past so many times.
The people of this country will rise to that challenge.
And we will come through it stronger than ever.
We will beat the coronavirus and we will beat it together.
And therefore I urge you at this moment of national emergency to stay at home, protect our NHS and save lives.
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Bilaga 4 – Prime Minister’s statement on coronavirus (Covid-19): 22 September 2020
Good evening, the struggle against covid is the single biggest crisis the world has faced in my lifetime.
In less than a year this disease has killed almost a million people, and caused havoc to economies everywhere.
Here in the UK we mourn every person we have lost, and we grieve with their families.
And yet I am more certain than ever that this is a struggle that humanity will win, and we in this country will win – and to achieve what we must I want to talk to you directly tonight about the choices that we face – none of them easy – and why we must take action now.
I know that we can succeed because we have succeeded before.
When the sickness took hold in this country in March, we pulled together in a spirit of national sacrifice and community. We followed the guidance to the letter. We stayed at home, protected the NHS, and saved thousands of lives.
And for months with those disciplines of social distancing we have kept that virus at bay.
But we have to acknowledge this this is a great and freedom-loving country; and while the vast majority have complied with the rules there have been too many breaches – too many opportunities for our invisible enemy to slip through undetected.
The virus has started to spread again in an exponential way. Infections are up, hospital admissions are climbing.
We can see what is happening in France and Spain, and we know, alas, that this virus is no less fatal than it was in the spring, and that the vast majority of our people are no less susceptible, and
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the iron laws of geometrical progression are shouting at us from the graphs that we risk many more deaths, many more families losing loved ones before their time;
and I know that faced with that risk the British people will want their government to continue to fight to protect them, you, and that is what we are doing, night and day. And yet the single greatest weapon we bring to this fight is the common sense of the people themselves – the joint resolve of this country to work together to suppress covid now.
So today I set out a package of tougher measures in England – early closing for pubs, bars; table service only; closing businesses that are not covid secure; expanding the use of face coverings, and new fines for those that fail to comply;
and once again asking office workers to work from home if they can while enforcing the rule of six indoors and outdoors – a tougher package of national measures combined with the potential for tougher local restrictions for areas already in lockdown. I know that this approach – robust but proportionate – already carries the support of all the main parties in parliament.
After discussion with colleagues in the Devolved Administrations, I believe this broad approach is shared across the whole UK. And to those who say we don’t need this stuff, and we should leave people to take their own risks, I say these risks are not our own.
The tragic reality of having covid is that your mild cough can be someone else’s death knell.
And as for the suggestion that we should simply lock up the elderly and the vulnerable – with all the suffering that would entail – I must tell you that this is just not realistic, because if you let the virus rip through the rest of the population it would inevitably find its way through to the elderly as well, and in much greater numbers.
That’s why we need to suppress the virus now, and as for that minority who may continue to flout the rules, we will enforce those rules with tougher penalties and fines of up to £10,000. We will put more police out on the streets and use the army to backfill if necessary.
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And of course I am deeply, spiritually reluctant to make any of these impositions, or infringe anyone’s freedom, but unless we take action the risk is that we will have to go for tougher measures later, when the deaths have already mounted and we have a huge caseload of infection such as we had in the spring.
If we let this virus get out of control now, it would mean that our NHS had no space – once again – to deal with cancer patients and millions of other non-covid medical needs.
And if we were forced into a new national lockdown, that would threaten not just jobs and livelihoods but the loving human contact on which we all depend.
It would mean renewed loneliness and confinement for the elderly and vulnerable, and ultimately it would threaten once again the education of our children. We must do all we can to avoid going down that road again.
But if people don’t follow the rules we have set out, then we must reserve the right to go further. We must take action now because a stitch in time saves nine; and this way we can keep people in work, we can keep our shops and our schools open, and we can keep our country moving forward while we work together to suppress the virus.
That is our strategy, and if we can follow this package together, then I know we can succeed because in so many ways we are better prepared than before.
We have the PPE, we have the beds, we have the Nightingales, we have new medicines – pioneered in this country – that can help save lives.
And though our doctors and our medical advisers are rightly worried about the data now, and the risks over winter, they are unanimous that things will be far better by the spring, when we have not only the hope of a vaccine, but one day soon – and I must stress that we are not there yet - of mass testing so efficient that people will be able to be tested in minutes so they can do more of the
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things they love. That’s the hope; that’s the dream. It’s hard, but it’s attainable, and we are working as hard as we can to get there.
But until we do, we must rely on our willingness to look out for each other, to protect each other. Never in our history has our collective destiny and our collective health depended so completely on our individual behaviour.
If we follow these simple rules together, we will get through this winter together. There are unquestionably difficult months to come.
And the fight against covid is by no means over. I have no doubt, however, that there are great days ahead.
But now is the time for us all to summon the discipline, and the resolve, and the spirit of togetherness that will carry us through.