Time for a Covid diary lest we forget

WITH no drugs or vaccine, Government says it has hired more than 25,000 people to track and trace carriers of Covid-19. But what the Government has failed to do is to plead with us all to become diarists, recording faithfully the names and addresses of all the people that we meet face to face as we go about our daily tasks.

This would make the life of the trackers and tracers much easier and save taxpayers’ money, for we have to underwrite their salaries and expenses.

Otherwise the job of trying to control the coronavirus will be very difficult.

Just think for a moment – could you remember all the people you have come into contact with over the course of 14 days? Do you even know their names, let alone addresses or telephone numbers?

Now I, as an oldie, have been in lockdown for the last ten weeks but I cannot remember all the people I have come into contact with during the last 14 days. For a start, on my daily walk, I will stop and chat with others similarly exercising, always observing the two-metre distancing.

This is something I have never done in the past despite having lived in the area for some 57 years. I know not their names or where they live, except that they must be local. So I would not be much help to a tracker.

Then numerous people have been delivering parcels to sustain us. I have no idea of their names and have kept no record of when they rang the bell. Another problem for the tracers.

I am not knocking Government’s idea – anything that will help to get this dreadful killer under control must be experimented with – but it would help the cause if we were encouraged to keep a log of all the people that we come into contact with, noting down as much information as possible.

For those at work, the task could be enormous, especially for people travelling on public transport. That must surely be virtually impossible. We are all now living in a different world. However, we must all do our bit, even those of us on lockdown.

Russell Luckock is chairman of Birmingham pressings firm

AE Harris