Stand firm as we’re so close to beating Covid

IT’S currently tempting, as the lockdown wears drearily on, to look beyond the pandemic. Some are booking holidays, with a view that it will be clear by summer – despite Dominic Raab’s warnings not to book too soon. Others are holding on with grim fortitude, trusting that the vaccination programme will gain critical mass as the hotter weather comes through, giving us the chance of a glorious summer.

Yet more have their eyes on the further distance – at the “Roaring Twenties” that some believe will ensue when the pandemic finally abates. None of these are bad ideas, and hope is a human necessity.

But to reiterate: we’re still living through the worst of it. Yesterday Health Secretary Matt Hancock had to repeat his refrain that we shouldn’t “blow it now” and PM Boris Johnson added the situation is precarious and improvement will be gradual.

But note also that the PM expected things to be “very different by spring”. More than four million people have been vaccinated in the UK – the fastest programme in Europe, including half of our over-80s. The jabs are flowing so fast that the only real issue is the speed of supply, and although deaths remain tragically high, infections are now dropping.

All that said, it will be a while before the vaccination programme reduces pressure on the NHS.The next review is February 15, when we will know more. Let’s hope it brings the first green shoots of spring.