Shropshire Star comment: We can't get too far ahead of ourselves

Tills have been empty for too many months. It has been a season of hardship, of letting staff go, of hoping for the best, of training and putting in place new mitigations. Finally, the nation is taking the first major step on the route to normality.

Yet we see warning signs all around that Covid-19 remains a presence. The Indian variant is the latest cause for concern. It is typical of this virus that just when optimism was at its highest, a stark reminder comes that we are far from being in control.

The Indian variant is racing quickly through populations in different parts of the UK and the lesson of the Kent variant shows how problematic it might become. Yet we must also realise that the Indian variant will not be the last. There will be others from different parts of the world. Until all of us are safe, none of us are safe. The only way through this pandemic is to create herd immunity on a global scale through the use of vaccinations. Until then, Covid will continue to tear through communities.

For Britain, the opening of new parts of the economy represents a further challenge. It will boost the nation’s mental health and provide commerce with much-needed impetus as we look to regrow the economy following a period of severe contraction. Many will be eager to be back at their place of work following a dislocating time of furlough. People are keen to work, they are determined to get back to the activities that pay the bills and provide their lives with structure.

There are dangers, of course, in the activities that many are about to engage in. As people start to travel overseas, paying a high price for holidays, there is joy within the travel sector that operators can move away from ever-increasing losses and start to generate cash. The flipside, of course, is that we must not put ourselves into a position where we start to import more variants from around the world, potentially undoing the hard work and sacrifices that have been made. We are in a challenging position.

Yet we must also resume our normal lives. There is a punitive cost to pay for lockdowns and we must work with the scientists to safely open the economy. Business hates uncertainty. Yet, business has only known uncertainty since early 2020. We remain in a state of flux. There is concern that sectors of the economy may open only to close again, with the awful costs involved. Boris Johnson, for the many faults he exhibited and errors that he made, has been right to be firm in sticking to his guns.

For some weeks, there have been noises off that we should re-open more quickly. Those are quickly followed by concerns that variants might cause further local lockdowns. Yet local lockdowns, as we have seen in Leicester and elsewhere, do not work. Nor did the tiering system, which pitted region against region. The course that we have set, where we look to irreversibly open, is the correct one.

The ace in humanity’s pack is the vaccine. That is what saves lives and confers immunity. Without it, we would not be able today to re-open. And so while many will delight at being back to normal and while many have been working hard for days and weeks to prepare, we must continue to focus on critical areas.

More people must get the jab and we must not yet drop our guard in the fight against Covid-19.