A year in, new battle against Covid awaits

One year ago today, the first case of Covid19 was announced in Scotland. Since then, all our lives have changed beyond recognition to shield ourselves from this virus and to accommodate measures designed to bring it under control.

The past 12 months have been extraordinarily trying and have required us to make painful sacrifices.

The discovery of three cases of the socalled ‘Brazil strain’ could mean even more trying times and further sacrifices. It is the eventuality that everyone dreaded: a deadly new mutation reaches Scotland’s shores just as we were making progress in bringing the original virus under control.

A major public health operation is now under way to track anyone who might have come into contact with a carrier of the virus. efforts are being made to contact, test and isolate other passengers on the flight the trio took from London to Aberdeen.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman called the emergence of the new variant ‘a concern’ but stressed that the Scottish Government was ‘taking every possible precaution’. nevertheless, she underscored how it illustrated Covid’s seriousness and said it ‘reinforces the need to minimise the spread of the virus’.

It is only natural to feel dismayed by this news but we must not become disconsolate. Science has already proved its ability to rise to the challenge by producing multiple vaccines in a relatively short period of time – in fact, yesterday marked a milestone as the number of people given their jab hit 20million.

So science will surely rise to the challenge of the Brazil strain and soon enough we will have another vaccine that tackles that mutation.

now there must be renewed efforts on testing and tracing, a continuing commitment to lockdown and even more caution around allowing all but the most essential travel to Scotland.

We have made it through the past year and we will keep making it through until the pandemic is over.