Society will endure ugly war against virus

Scaling up the UK’s defences for the coronavirus onslaught ahead is a logistical operation the likes of which has not been seen in peacetime.

Hot on the heels of the UK Government turning the ExCeL Centre in London’s docklands into a temporary 4,000 bed hospital, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon revealed that plans were also being drawn up to create makeshift healthcare facilities north of the border.

Such an undertaking is enormous and is demonstration, if that is still needed, of just how seriously the administrations at Holyrood and Westminster view the Covid-19 crisis and the potential impact it will have on the NHS.

While building new temporary facilities is all well and good, there has to be staff to operate them.

Thousands of former NHS workers have answered the call and are coming out of retirement to offer their services.

What they will face in the weeks ahead is likely to be worse than anything they have seen in their careers to date.

Others are volunteering to support those frontline efforts in whatever capacity is necessary.

These stoic heroes – and there is no other word – are putting their community above themselves and deserve every praise for doing so.

One lead clinician yesterday said a tsunami was about to engulf the NHS, a description that in any other circumstances would be dismissed as hyperbole.

But with the number of confirmed UK coronavirus cases continuing to rise and the death toll climbing, it, sadly, may not be far from the mark.

The NHS is not the only group bracing for the impact of coronavirus. The Fraser of Allander think tank has suggested the financial cost of this crisis will outstrip that of the UK banking sector collapse in 2008, an occurrence that led to more than a decade of austerity politics in the UK.

On this occasion it is small and medium sized businesses who are immediately feeling the heat.

Significant measures to support the private sector have been communicated but, if Fraser of Allander is correct, they will not mitigate all of the damage that is likely to occur.

What is clear is the war against Covid-19 is now on many fronts. It will be ugly at times, but by staying positive, motivated and community-minded the UK will endure the hardships ahead and emerge stronger as a society.