Stephen Powis:

Tomorrow we take a big step towards normality, but we must not forget the threat Covid still presents

One year ago the nation was beginning its first weekend in the tightest national lockdown and today we come to the end of what we all hope will be the last. Tomorrow, groups of up to six people or two households will be allowed to meet outdoors, offering millions of us the first chance in months to see close friends and family. We all hope this weekend marks a turning point: the last under the toughest limits on our freedom and the first when we can look forward to a week during which we can experience something akin to our pre-pandemic routines.

The future looks much brighter now than in those dark and anxious first days of March’s shutdown. The NHS, as our chief executive Sir Simon Stevens has said, has experienced a year we won’t want to remember, but one we are unlikely to forget. We’ve treated nearly 400,000 people with Covid-19 in our hospitals, with clinicians offering treatment to everyone who would benefit from it.

As well as treating the people in front of us, the NHS has also saved lives through our contribution to the research and development of the first ever treatment for this novel virus, dexamethasone, which has saved an estimated one million lives globally. And of course the NHS vaccination programme is rightly a source of national pride, offering the first ever jabs outside of clinical trials and vaccinating more than half of adults already.

This combination of pace and precision – carefully moving through the priority groups, starting with those most at risk – has not happened by chance. It is down to careful planning and extensive preparation, combined with the sheer hard work of countless NHS staff. But while the prospects for the country undoubtedly look rosier we have seen false dawns before and must remember that Covid remains a clear and present danger.

Yes, we have 30,000 fewer people in hospital than at the height of the winter wave in January, but on the anniversary of lockdown, the NHS was treating the equivalent of two whole hospitals more Covid patients than last year. Yes, the daily reported number of deaths has dropped, but today there are still around 3,000 families waiting anxiously for news of their loved one being treated for Covid in an NHS hospital bed. Yes, the NHS vaccination programme has successfully vaccinated more than 25 million of the most at-risk people, but we still have work to do. Yes, the NHS and the world are now more knowledgeable about the virus and therefore better equipped to treat it than this time last year. But we know that new variants remain a very real danger, just as we saw in January when more than 100,000 people – one person every 30 seconds at one point – were admitted to hospital.

So yes, our prospects look immeasurably brighter and more positive, not just compared with this time last year but even to two months ago, but tomorrow’s easing does not mean job done. In fact, this week marks only the latest in a series of milestones that will mean the country can begin to loosen the curbs on our day to day life.

Now, looking out ahead to the rest of the year, one of the greatest threats we face is complacency. This virus still has the capacity to wreak more havoc and ill health on a significant scale. Families, businesses and the health service all want the pressure, risk and life-limits of Covid-19 to be over as soon as possible.

At a government press conference exactly a year ago today, I said to the country that if we were going to beat this virus it won’t be “because we are somehow lucky. It won’t be because somehow the virus is acting in this country differently from any other country, it will be because every citizen in this country, the British public, has complied with the instructions the Government has given. We can beat this virus, we can reduce the number of deaths, but only if we reduce the spread and the transmission. Every one of us has a part to play.”

Thanks to the people of this country demonstrating an extraordinary resilience and discipline, and thanks to the efforts of thousands of staff and volunteers delivering the NHS vaccination programme, one year later we are beating this virus – but it is not yet beaten.

The number of infections has fallen, fewer people are dying or are seriously unwell and this week the country begins to experience the benefits of the past year’s hardship. We’ve made enormous progress that we need to build on and not squander the gains we’ve made. We need to hold our nerve and drive for the line so everyone can get back safely and soon to our normal lives.