Tidings of joy to all - but from a safe distance

Firstly, we hope everyone had as pleasant a Christmas Day as possible under the circumstances. We’d all rather not have had tiers on our mind. But despite this, there are still more than just crumbs of comfort to be had from the year. We have seen great sorrow, yes – illness, death, separation, and economic hardship. But we have also seen great community togetherness. We’ve seen plenty of empathy, kindness and selflessness. Many have gone the extra mile, to use the hackneyed phrase, and many have done it not for praise but simply because it is the right thing to do.

It would be wonderful to think that the calendar year would draw a close to talk of furlough, restrictions, R rates and the like. We’d love to think that the perils of 2020 would disappear at the end of this week, but we know they won’t. We know from infection rates, and from the bulk of Hampshire being in placed in tier four as of today, that things are headed in the wrong direction again.

But in the face of this, we can resolve to all play our part in making this pass as quickly as possible. We can all aim, now we have knowledge of this virus and the steps we can all personally take, to make 2021 a year when we do our utmost to stop its spread.

We report today that there are forecasts that Queen Alexandra may be more than 35 per cent full with Covid patients by New Year’s Eve, and we publish an open letter for the hospital trust’s chief executive Mark Cubbon spelling out that the hospital is under pressure.

As he says, working out how the virus is transmitted is not difficult – it spreads when there is human contact. Some contact is inevitable, but not all. The sad fact remains that if we distance ourselves from each other, the less likely it is that the disease will be passed on. It’s not the happiest thought for a Boxing Day – but this year it remains one of the most important.