Future looks brighter but Covid is not going away

If someone had told us six months ago we as a city, country and planet would have been through what we have been through, we probably would have looked at them strangely. That would have been hard to believe.

But it is almost equally as hard to believe that we might – just might – be coming out the other end of this pandemic.

While many countries around the world are still experiencing massive spikes, the UK appears to be returning to some sort of normality in terms of the virus.

And it is encouraging to note that the city is now among the ‘safest in Britain’ despite a small jump in positive cases.

Out of 150 top-tier councils in the country we came 140th in terms of low infection rates despite three new positive cases in the past week.

The city hasn’t recorded a coronavirus-related death since early June.

So the signs are good and politicians have praised the people of the city for their hard work during lockdown.

Yes there were people who gathered on Southsea Common and beaches but by and large city residents have used their common sense to curtail the virus.

The number of deaths, both in Hampshire and the country, have been scary and we must never forget than one life lost to Covid-19 is one life too many.

For every death the number of people affected runs into thousands in our region alone.

Only time will tell if the government have got things right in terms of lockdown and the easing of restrictions in recent weeks.

Now that the likes of pubs and restaurants are open again, and gyms and other activities will be allowed to resume later this month, we will start to see if those decisions were the correct ones.

One thing is for certain – this virus is not going to go away anytime soon and much as it is good we can go out and about again, we must always remember that we don’t want to reverse what we have already achieved.

My four-year-old put this latest killer question to me, ‘Daddy, does this mean that coronavirus has gone away?’

My mini Paxman threw this verbal right hook as we made our way into the play park for the first time in three-and-a-half months last weekend.

The trip was preceded by an overheard conversation about his mum’s eagerly anticipated mercy dash to the salon and his Old Man’s plans to meet up with his pals for a pint or few.

Taking all these new developments in personal freedoms into account you can hardly blame the little fella for asking whether the virus which has rocked everybody’s world this year has finally slung its hook.

Like most parents of small children, we always think long and hard before deciding which version of a story we will present to our youngest – sleepless nights are never in anybody’s best interests.

However, in the case of the pandemic, we came clean early and explained to him why he must sing Happy Birthday (twice) whenever he washes his hands and why licking his fingers and eating toast off the kitchen floor is even more unacceptable now than it was previously.

The changes that every child has had to endure since March

In truth, the one thing our human whirlwind wants to do is hug his friends again

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