The end of masks - the end of lockdown?
Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were shot on 28th June, 1914 and sparked a chain of events that would lead to World War 1 and everything that entailed. The Irish Examiner carried the story the next day in muted fashion on page three, with just a picture of the couple and the caption ‘Great Austrian Tragedy’. The Independent did carry a fuller article, but further back on page five. Neither report would indicate, even slightly, what would follow.
A little more recently, the front page of The Avondhu on 5th March 2020 carried the news that Fermoy was to end its relationship with Nowa Deba in Poland, the town that vowed to be ‘ free from LGBT ideology’. On page 21, however, was an entirely different type of report: ‘Coronavirus makes its impact felt’.
The next week, Coronavirus made the front page, a position it would scarcely leave for some months, both locally, nationally and internationally. Now, almost exactly two years later from that initial report, compulsory mask-wearing is to come to an end, visually marking ‘the end’ of the last 24 months of lockdown restrictions.
The article back on 5th March 2020 told how pharmacies in Fermoy were running low on face masks, sanitiser and handwipes. It must be noted, however, that retail probably didn’t have a large stock of any of these things in the first place. At the time, St Colman’s had a planned school trip to Barcelona that looked like it would happen, and St Patrick’s Day parades were still in discussion.
An article on the Livinghealth Clinic in Mitchelstown was one of the first mentions of some staff wearing face masks, but the centre were at pains to confirm that there was no case confirmed. A Fermoy couple, on holidays in Italy, described the Italian’s response to the outbreak as ‘lackadaisical’. No sports fixtures were cancelled, but bingo in Fermoy was a victim of caution, as was the Operation Transformation final couch to 5km walk in Mitchelstown.
MOVING ON
For some weeks now one can see the abundance of yellow receding. Some supermarkets in Mitchelstown - and across TheAvondhu circulation area - have entirely removed floor markers and in-out barriers. In one sizeable outlet, there is no hint that restrictions ever existed, bar a small sign asking people to continue to wear masks.
As and from Monday, 28th February the compulsory wearing of face masks in almost all settings, except medical, will end.
Finally, in case you wondered, yellow is the colour for a general hazard in HSE signage guidelines. The particular yellow for Covid signs, that may never again be looked at without shuddering, is RGB colour code 255.238.0, in case anyone had a desire to paint the kitchen that exact shade.