Normality returning, but some restrictions aren’t adding up

SIR,

Happy days, the beer is flowing again.

So bit by bit normality seems to be returning. The shops are open, the hotels are open once more, the caravan parks are busting at the seams. The roads are busy again, although there are no busloads of Tourists about, yet.

For some reason swaths of parking have been removed from our towns. The reason given is to allow for safer social distancing on the footpaths but, if this is the case, then what about the rest of the footpaths that remain? Is there no need for improved social distancing here?

Then again, there is the pub situation, where you must order a substantial meal while going for a drink. What is the reasoning here – does eating food deter you from catching COVID-19?

The most time allowed in the pub is 105 minutes. At first this seems reasonable until you realise that they are also allowing our children back into the classrooms next September, where they will be in the same room for the best part of seven hours of the day, five days a week.

Does this make any sense? Normality seems to be a little frightening. COVID-19 has not gone away and the programmes on television lately showing those dying of the disease brings home the true horror of it all.

Even those who survive in many cases take a long, long time to recover.

However, the sun still shines and the rain still falls. The wind blows softly through the trees and life must go on.

The hunt for the vaccine is on, and the sooner it comes the better.

Sincerely, Michael O’Meara, Faha,

Killarney.