SIR: Current evidence proves conclusively that a lockdown is effective in suppressing the virus spread. But the imminent three-tier approach has no clear evidence of success, and instead has caused people to lose faith in the process, and to look for ways to avoid, frustrate and ignore the rules.

We need an effective combination of lockdown and release, to remove all of the doubt and confusion, and allow normal life to progress until we have a working vaccine. Would people accept a lockdown for the first 10 days of every month (1st till 10th) followed by 20 or 21 days of business-as-usual, with appropriate common-sense distancing? We'd all know what was coming and could prepare accordingly, and these short and sharp breaks in transmission would prevent an exponential rise of cases, and avoid NHS overload.

Ron Venturi,

North View,

Oram's Arbour,

Winchester