New lockdown is a timely wake-up call

Weariness of restrictions is understandable – but this outbreak is a warning the Covid threat is still out there

The announcement of a renewed lockdown in Aberdeen yesterday came as a bolt from the blue to many people. It should not have done.

The warning signs that such a move was likely to be necessary were there for all to see – and increasingly clear in recent days.

The imposition of a series of local lockdowns in England was one sign. Despite sometimes marked differences in approach between the Scottish and UK governments, particularly in their messaging over lockdown, in the broad analysis the two have followed largely similar paths through the pandemic.

The willingness of many lockdown-weary young people to throw caution to the wind when it comes to social distancing and hygiene guidelines was another.

It was not only First Minister Nicola Sturgeon who wanted to cry when she saw images of drinkers packed outside pubs in Aberdeen at the weekend. Those pictures will have sent a shiver down the spine of many people up and down the country – not least because many of us have seen similar scenes played out around other pubs near our homes.

It has not of course only been younger people who have started to behave as if we are no longer in the midst of a pandemic, but the preponderance of young adults among the new cases of Covid-19 in Scotland suggests that this is where a large part of the increased risk of the infection spreading lies.

To most people, who have followed the guidelines sensibly and with self-sacrifice over the last four-and-a-half months, the dangers were clear. The fact that they were not so obvious to those packing into pubs has been a source of bafflement and anxiety.

How then do you get the message across to those who no longer seem to be listening?

The answer is not easy. The time we are in now was always going to be one of the most difficult for encouraging and enforcing sensible behaviour. Lockdown was far more straightforward, when the rules were fewer, and easy to understand and follow. Now it is a little more complicated.

Psychologists had warned, too, that fatigue with the restrictions was likely to be a factor.

It must be hoped that the lockdown in Aberdeen will, in the words of the First Minister, be a “wake up call” that will make those who have forgotten the risks we all still face think again.