Sensible actions will put us on the path to normal life

THE Government plans radical action to ensure schools go back as completely as possible in the coming term, and it is quite right that the classrooms should be full again. Schools are the key to a complete return to normality, and the young have suffered quite enough from missed classes and cancelled exams.

The full reopening of schools should be the keystone of a more general effort to get the whole nation back to normal, assuming the good news about Covid continues. The vaccine has greatly reduced the danger from the disease, and doctors are far more able to treat it. Severe provisions to prevent its spread, once vital, need to be reviewed to see if they are not too stringent.

And one such provision is the requirement to isolate for seven full days after a positive test. Is this length of time really necessary in the aftermath of the vaccine and the booster, and since the evidence began to pile up that those who contract the Omicron variant will in many cases suffer only mild illness? Huge numbers of NHS staff are now compelled by the rules to stay away from work.

The same must be true of many other services and industries, of the Civil Service and of public transport. Surely a more flexible regime is now needed, both to arm the NHS against the growing pressure (not only from Covid) that it faces every year at this time, and to allow a more general return to work.

Many are still deeply worried by the pandemic, and everything reasonable must be done to reassure and protect them. But a growing number are beginning to feel that it is time to learn to live with the virus, not by rash, rushed relaxation of rules but by sensible, cautious, lasting measures that gradually return us to normal life.