Vaccine will help put nightmare behind us

YOGI Berra (1925-2015) was a famous US baseball player and coach. However to those living this side of the pond he is most well-known for the tautological quote “it’s déjà vu all over again”. Which is how it seems at the moment, with we in North East Lincolnshire under a national lockdown despite having – thankfully – one of the lowest rates of Covid-19 in the country. And once more it is London where rates are the highest.

Let us though hope that the rollout of the vaccine is as quick as it can be, so that we can finally put this nightmare behind us.

In the meantime, however, it is worth looking at the reasons for Covid affecting the capital more than us in Grimsby and Cleethorpes.

To begin with, the density of population is far greater. Astronomical housing costs means many Londoners are forced to live in flats, where people live closer together.

Here, the multi-storeys were pulled down several years ago, while individuals can largely afford to rent or buy a terraced property. Thus they are not physically so near to any neighbours, making it harder for the virus to spread.

We are more isolated geographically, being the borough at the end of the A180. Outside of summer we don’t get the influx of visitors which can be a factor in passing on Covid.

North East Lincolnshire also forms a relatively small travel to work area, with those commuting invariably doing so by car. Our industrial estates lie on the outskirts of town, whereas most of those coming to London to work are employed in the city centre itself. And on buses passengers sit facing the direction of travel, enabling social distancing measures to be more effective. By contrast tube trains tend to have seating where people face one another. We’ve been hearing tales of how people want to leave London, in order to buy more affordable homes where it is less of a challenge to stay at home. I would not be disappointed if this trend continued, and public life was less dominated by what goes on in the capital.