A lengthy battle to get back to normal

Today we disclose a new poll that proves people overwhelmingly back the Government and its measures to fight the coronavirus. Populations do tend to rally around governments in a time of crisis, but 67 per cent support is an extraordinary number, showing that people feel Boris Johnson has acted proportionately and with real authority. Eighty six per cent of respondents also say they are willing to sacrifice their freedom of movement to contain the disease, up from 72 per cent the previous week.

The fact that the Prime Minister himself has come down with Covid-19, but is still working remotely, shows he is leading from the front – and he has written a letter that will go to every household this week urging people to obey the new rules and stay at home unless they are buying food, exercising or going to work.

The letter comes with a warning: “Things will get worse before they get better.” The number of people who have died from coronavirus in the UK has now topped 1,000, and the figures suggest we are currently following the same trajectory as the continent.

We haven’t known such national unity for a very long time, but nor have we been braced for such tragedy. Britain is going to suffer some devastating losses, particularly among the elderly and the vulnerable. The work being done to save as many as possible is a moving expression of our common humanity.

Hopefully, Britain has bought enough time for the NHS to build the necessary capacity. The efforts in this regard have been extraordinary, such as the conversion of the ExCeL centre in London into what is, effectively, a giant field hospital – the largest such operation since the Second World War. The biggest hospital in the country, St George’s in Tooting, has about 1,300 beds; the ExCeL centre, renamed NHS Nightingale and constructed with the help of the Army in a fortnight, will have 4,000.

The comparison with the war is fitting: Britain has 8,000 ventilators and is this week ordering 10,000 more, but has also instructed manufacturers to turn production over to ventilators, just as it once ordered factories to churn out guns. Meanwhile, around 750,000 people have volunteered to help the NHS and thousands of retired medical staff have returned to work to help. The country has been mobilised.

The vast majority of us, however, are locked down. There will be negative health effects; the economic consequences will be devastating. That is why we need to do whatever is necessary to control the coronavirus as soon as possible, so that the country can turn its attention to an exit strategy. We cannot possibly live like this for – as per the very worst estimates – 12-18 months. A near-permanent lockdown would wreck the economy to such an extent that this, too, would cost lives and end any hope of paying the final bill.

The bright light on the horizon is testing. The Government is starting, rightly, with front-line NHS staff. After that, it needs to roll out the testing as widely and as fast as it can, so that we can move towards a situation in which those who can, go back to work – and those who are infected can stay in isolation until their status changes. Britain needs to gather as much information as possible, otherwise the strategy risks being wholly reactive.

There are going to be some dark times ahead. The public is looking for hope that life might return to some semblance of normality sooner rather than later.

We haven’t known such national unity for a very, very long time, but nor have we been braced for such tragedy