We must snap out of this lockdown inertia

EACH passing day brings more hard evidence that the spread of Covid-19 is under control. The virus is not conquered entirely and possibly never will be. But the risk it poses is fast diminishing.

In London, where the pandemic was at its most intense, new cases are down to around 50 a day, compared to more than 1,000 in early April. On Wednesday, six major hospitals in the capital reported no Covid deaths in the previous 48 hours.

Nationally the picture is also improving at speed. Yesterday there were 187 hospital fatalities, of which just two were under the age of 40 – both with serious underlying conditions.

The death rate within Birmingham’s largest hospital trust has fallen by nearly 90 per cent in a month. More than half of English hospitals registered no deaths at all yesterday.

So for all the criticism levelled at their performance – some of it justified – these numbers suggest the Government’s lockdown strategy has worked.

With the help of a compliant public, they have kept the NHS afloat through a period of unprecedented peril. For that they deserve great credit.

However, as one epic battle is being won, another is just beginning. The battle to save our ravaged economy.

As the early summer sun has bathed the country in a warm glow, millions of workers have enjoyed a ten-week furlough with their families on 80 per cent of salary (100 per cent for the public sector).

But to think this glorious holiday can go on for months without consequence, is a dangerous illusion. There will be a reckoning, and the later it comes the more grave it will be.

For while many have been finding lockdown a pleasant diversion, British industry has been atrophying. Unless new life is breathed into it soon, mass unemployment looms on a scale not seen since the Great Depression.

The crippled aviation and travel sectors are already making swingeing job cuts (which will soon become much worse if ministers go ahead with ill- conceived plans to quarantine all incoming airline passengers for 14 days).

Other industries – hotels, restaurants, construction, vehicle manufacturing, high street chains – will be next to wield the axe as furlough ends. The respected Institute for Fiscal Studies predicts ‘a recession to end all recessions’.

The health implications, both physical and mental, of such a devastating crash hardly bear thinking about.

People can’t really be blamed for being apprehensive about returning to work, or indeed sending their children back to school. For weeks, they have been told lives were at imminent risk unless they stayed at home.

Having first terrified them, it’s now for Government to give them the confidence to break their inertia. A crucial factor is making a success of the ‘track and trace’ system which can identify and fight new local clusters of infection before they are able to spread and create a dreaded second wave.

A new swab test which can detect the virus within 20 minutes will also be a huge help. And from next month there will be daily capacity for 40,000 antibody tests, which can tell people whether they have been infected and so have immunity.

All highly encouraging. But with every day of lockdown costing the country another £2.4billion, there’s no time to lose.

Yes, Covid-19 still poses a threat to the elderly and other vulnerable groups, and they must be shielded. For the vast majority, though, the risks are small to infinitesimal.

Britain must recognise this and get back to work. For unless our dormant economy is jolted out of hibernation, economic Armageddon beckons.