A cautiouswelcome to the reopening

ITWAS always going to come. Wokingham borough has been affected by the coronvirus pandemic since the end of February,. At the time, lockdown couldn’t come soon enough. If there’s one certainty about entering a tunnel, no matter how long it is, at some point you come out of it. And over the course of June, we will start to emerge from that lockdown tunnel. From next week, some pupils will be returning to school – we still have reservations as to whether it’s too soon – and markets can start to get back to normal. In the middle of the month, shops will once again be able to serve us, albeit with social distancing rules in place. And in July our pubs will be able to start pulling pints again – hopefully our summer won’t be a washout. These are all good signs and we’re looking forward to life starting to get back to some kind of normality. But there is a big question mark over the second wave. Are we rushing to get back to normal? Is three months of lockdown enough? Why are we reopening without the test and trace regime recommended by the World Health Organisation? And is there enough hand sanitiser to go round? There are many problems that reopening will bring, but we give a cautious welcome to our re-emergence from our chrysalis. As we step out and blink at the sunlight, as we point to happier times ahead, we look forward to life returning to a new normal.