CHARLES GRHAM - Impatience could lead to fatal mistakes

As the weeks of lockdown crawl by, so restlessness grows that we haven’t regained any of our freedoms yet.
Those in key worker roles were remembered in solemn silence on TuesdayThose in key worker roles were remembered in solemn silence on Tuesday
Those in key worker roles were remembered in solemn silence on Tuesday

The only letting-up so far has been a few construction projects restarting and B&Q deciding to let customers back in store instead of continuing its car park click and collect scheme.

We can be grateful that the weather has been nice to allow us to do lots of outdoor DIY and gardening jobs and enjoy our exercise hour to the maximum.

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Imagine having to go through all this – including standing in long queues outside supermarkets – if those storms (Ciara and Dennis – remember them?) which battered and flooded the country in the weeks before Covid-19 was first detected here, were still raging.

It’s inevitable that patience is fraying, but we also know that to drop our guard now could put the nation’s health and economy in an even worse state that they are already.

The figures for coronavirus hospital admissions are, encouragingly, on the wane. But in Wigan alone the statistics for deaths are showing little sign of slowing. The total, now topping 150, has gone up by about a third is little more than a week.

Those in key worker roles were remembered in solemn silence on Tuesday.

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Fatalaties are the last figure to start going down, we are told, but even when that happens there are still many other unknowns about the behaviour of this disease – not helped by insufficient testing so far – which should prevent us from thinking we have it beaten. We don’t even know if it is possible to catch it more than once because it’s so new.

I am sure our Government is keeping an eagle eye on other countries further along the curve to see what works and what doesn’t when they ease their restrictions. Then it could perhaps tenatively follow best practice in several weeks’ time.

Meanwhile it must prioritise advice it gets from scientific experts over that of wealthy party donors who want their firms up and running again regardless of risk to workforces or the public. Equally it mustn’t be tempted by all the armchair amateurs who have decided that they are now an authority on this new plague and what chances we can take with it.

To think we can somehow return to the way things were within a few weeks, crammed into bars, restaurants and football stadia is, regrettably, as naive a belief as that of curing yourself of coronavirus by injecting bleach.