Peter Rhodes on how life goes on, saving petrol and the steepest street in the world

The joy of motoring in lockdown times. A reader tells me his car is now doing three weeks to the gallon.

Good news on how people react to each other while out walking, at least in my local park. We no longer say “good morning.” Instead, we step out of each other's way to create a safe space and people have started saying: “Thank you. Good luck. Take care.”

Amid all the coronavirus mayhem, you may have been surprised at the extensive coverage of Baldwin Street, in Dunedin, New Zealand, being declared the steepest street in the world, ahead of the Welsh claimant, Ffordd Pen Llech in Harlech. Don't be. The lesson of history is that even in the direst times, life goes on. I recall searching through a newspaper archive and finding, while the Battle of Passchendaele was at its height in 1917 and more than half a million soldiers were dying, a large display advert reminded members to attend the annual meeting of the local allotments society. Beans keep you sane.

Using my battered and somewhat cloudy crystal ball, I predict that this week will bring some troubling statistics, not on the numbers of deaths caused by coronavirus but on those deaths caused by the campaign against coronavirus.

It began a few days ago in Scotland. The health service reported people taking “huge risks” by not seeking medical help, presumably because they believe the NHS is overstretched or simply want to avoid hospitals. In one recent week, overall deaths from all causes in Scotland were 60 per cent higher than average at 1,741 fatalities. The country's interim chief medical officer, Dr Gregor Smith, said clinicians across the country reported that NHS Scotland was “eerily quiet” in terms of non-coronavirus cases. He said: “People are perhaps making a choice not to present just now . . . . but there are huge risks for people to hold on to symptoms like chest pains or bleeding.”

So people die from coronavirus but other people die from avoiding coronavirus. The equation changes. In Whitehall, the bean counters, and the body counters, will be number-crunching.

Hidden in the latest figures showing a dramatic fall in patients at A&E will be the drunks, the crack-heads, the reckless and the plain silly attention-seekers who jam so many A&Es and who are now staying away. Good riddance.

The good news, and admittedly it's rather thin good news, is that this virus is stalking us at the beginning of the summer. Each day gets longer and, in theory, warmer. And while there is no proof that sunlight or warmth will kill coronavirus, at least summer raises the spirits. Imagine if we were now in October, slipping towards the dank gloom of winter. The national mood would be far bleaker.