Why it’s been vital to highlight how serious the Covid situation has been

THIS year has been one most of our r readers will want to put behind d them.

The unprecedented disaster of coronavirus has killed thousands, closed businesses and inflicted horrendous uncertainty on the whole nation.

The Burton Mail has been relentlessly covering Covid-related news in the town and county ever since it started affecting the UK back in February.

It has been top of every news outlets’ reporting agenda for months now – and we have been no different.

And as part of Journalism Matters Week, we have decided to address s readers to explain our approach to reporting on the virus.

Like many towns and cities across the nation, Burton has been badly affected by the pandemic and was declared under threat of a local lockdown last month.

It comes after an outbreak, primarily across four wards in town – Horninglow, Eton Park, Shobnall and Anglesey – that started in July.

At the time of writing, according to government figures, there had been 881 Covid cases in East Staffordshire, meaning 735.7 in every 100,000 residents had been infected.

A total of 132 people from the borough had sadly died within 28 days of a positive test – a rate of 110.2 deaths per 100,000 residents.

Although figures in the last few weeks have been comparatively low in the context of other boroughs in the West Midlands, our death and infection rates have been high com

pared to most UK districts since the start of the pandemic.

And that is why, despite criticism, we make no apologies for highlighting the seriousness of the situation in our borough.

While we understand our reports may cause concern for readers, we have a duty to report the facts provided by certified official sources – and sadly do not always make for

positive reading.

That said, we will always try to provide context with them, stating whether numbers have gone up or down and how they compare with other areas.

And we are always keen to highlight any positive stories that come out of the pandemic because there is one thing for sure – Staffordshire and Burton are proud and resilient

communities and can get through these dark days.

Throughout the pandemic you have never given up, nor will you, and more than anything you have shown what a wonderfully caring part of the world this is. We have seen many great acts of kindness since the pandemic began. People from all walks of life have gone above and beyond to look out for others.

You have quite simply made us proud.

Be it talented singers cheering up their neighbours with impromptu gigs, lorry convoys beeping in support of the NHS or children’s selfless acts of kindness to help the vulnerable, we have consistently reported on the strength our communities have shown, at times, in the face of overwhelming adversity.

And we also understand that life must go on, despite the seriousness of the pandemic.

To that end, we always seek to report all the information readers need to continue their lives as close to normally as they possibly can.

We remain committed to reporting all the same news we did before, including crime, human interest, politics, entertainment and travel. We can get through this together. Do you have anything to say about the coverage of Covid-19 in the media, or any coronavirus-related comments you would like to share? Email editorial@burtonmail.co.uk