It’s everyone’s duty to contain this virus

THEREhave been points in this nation’s history where people have been asked to make tremendous sacrifices at enormous personal risk.

Each year we remember those who died fighting in the world wars. We could go back to one of the first recorded lockdowns, of the 260 people who died in the Derbyshire village of Eyam in 1655, in order to stop the bubonic plague spreading.

In comparison it is just a minor inconvenience to stay at home for 14 days if you have returned from a quarantine-listed country, been contacted by the test-and-trace teams or had a positive case in your household.

Nobody is being asked to risk their lives, just to ensure that coronavirus does not spread.

Yet people are still not abiding by these simple rules and are selfishly putting others at risk. The report of the outbreak in Bolton being connected to a pub crawl by someone who should have been isolating underlines the problem.

If people think they are above the rules then we will be heading towards a second, extremely damaging national lockdown which nobody wants and the country can ill-afford.

In these circumstances Boris Johnson is right to make it a legal duty to self-isolate, back this up with stiff fines of up to £10,000 and compensate lost income with a £500 lump sum. Lives are at stake here.

But there will be concern about overreach by the state, particularly in the use of police monitoring devices to check people out.

The Prime Minister is facing criticism from his own party and he must listen to what people are saying, particularly over the damage caused by lockdown measures.

These are unprecedented and terrible times and it is up to us all to make sure we emerge in good shape at the end of them.