We asked West Sussex if the lockdown should be extended or not: this is what you said

We asked West Sussex if the lockdown should be extended or not, and this is what you said.
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Foreign secretary Dominic Raab, who is deputising for the prime minister Boris Johnson while he is recovering from coronavirus, announced a three-week extension to the current lockdown in an effort to lower infection rates of Covid-19.

In a poll on the Worthing Herald website, which attracted more than 1,100 votes in a few hours today (April 17), 88 per cent of people felt the lockdown should be extended beyond the next three weeks, whereas 12 per cent said the rules should be relaxed.

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The West Sussex County Times poll, with almost 1,000 votes at the time of writing, also voted 88 per cent in favour of extending the lockdown versus 12 per cent for relaxing the rules, with the same results also for the Chichester Observer, with around 900 votes.

Do you think the lockdown should be made stricter or relaxed?Do you think the lockdown should be made stricter or relaxed?
Do you think the lockdown should be made stricter or relaxed?

Readers were also vocal with their opinions.

Jenny Stone, writing on the County Times Facebook page, said: "I personally feel until daily lost lives goes below 100 we should lockdown. This is about precious lives, one lost is too many.... but we need to get a grip or lose more loved ones from hurrying nature.

"Trees were not grown in a month nor were humans but both can be killed so quickly.... think hard about the risk you pose to others. If you drew a line everywhere you would go and watched how many people then cross the line and imagine you killed them if they crossed you'd realise this is real."

Writing on the Chichester Observer's Facebook post, Janette Coles said: "With the amount of cyclists continuing to blast through my little village, I'm waiting for a command to exercise at home - they seem oblivious to suggestions."

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Brenda Whitlock added: "If people abide by the rules no extensions will be necessary but for all of those that ignore self isolation the longer it will continue."

Thomas Hendrie urged for logic to prevail. He said: "We all have to be sensible about this and ride out the storm. In the end it will be beneficial to us all. Stay safe folks."

Andy Campbell wanted to see even stricter lockdown measures. He said: "Should be a full lock down, not like this half hearted thing we are going through."

Herald readers also had their say on the current lockdown.

Adam Hurley said: "These measures are largely to flatten the curve, to draw out the epidemic to avoid overwhelming the NHS.

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"But they are still important measures for that reason alone and will extend life expectancy for the unlucky ones, even if only by months, by slowing the rate of infection.

"We aren't just hiding until it goes away or until a vaccine/cure exists, because that will take many many months if at all. I think they gave false hopes with such a short extension and we should expect to be in it for the long haul.

"The best hopes for the economy are antibodies tests and Covid 'passports' to allow the immune/recovered to return to work, but will that happen? I would not want to be making those decisions."

Neil Gardner added: "Anyone who thought we would come out of it so soon are massively deluded and obviously have no clue as to the seriousness of this. Still a couple of months before we can go back to work I reckon. Stay safe everyone and thanks to all the key workers out there putting your own lives at risk for the rest of us."

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Brian Phelan felt the rules should be relaxed. He said: "If it’s true that in Korea people are getting this for a second time and that a cure has never been found for any coronavirus before, what is the point in the lockdown as this is here to stay for a very long time and by extending the lockdown it’s only putting the country into financial meltdown for something that is going to spread regardless."

Amber Redman added: "It [the extension] was going to happen, no surprises there. This crisis will last for months, especially if people keep gathering in groups then there is no chance of any changes."

Writing on the County Times' page, Amanda Simons said: "The thing is the amount of people that still can't get the words 'social distancing'; from a few videos posted today from East Surrey Hospital and Westminster Bridge of the crowds of people clapping for the NHS, including police there, we literally have no luck in fighting this.

"I am a key worker and we lost a resident last week and for me I'm home with my children during the day because I can't risk taking them out because there are idiots out there that still can't do the social distancing, putting myself and the children at risk, and then when I trot off to work I'm putting my residents at risk.

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"If we could all just listen and realises the sooner we stick to the rules to sooner life can start moving again. There's just no hope."

What do you think? Have your say in the polls on our Facebook pages.

A message from the Editor, Gary Shipton:

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news, I am asking you to please purchase a copy of our newspapers.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspapers.

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Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

Stay safe, and best wishes.