IT has now been two months since the beginning of the UK’s third national lockdown, and finally we have a road map in London of when restrictions will be eased – as long as there are no more huge spikes in infection numbers and no new surprises await us with virus variants.
Things are finally improving here, and it shows that even with the new more virulent B117 “UK” variant of the virus, strict lockdowns and vaccination can bring the reproduction of the virus below 1 and stop the outbreak.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson tentatively announced that schools would be reopened on March 8, and on April 12 outdoor beer gardens, restaurants, gyms, spas and regular shopping would resume with social distancing and masks. May will come with another easing of restrictions, hopefully allowing for indoor dining.
And June 21 is set for the day the country reopens (nightclubs and stadiums and all) in the middle of summer.
The aim is for this to be the last massive lockdown for the UK. Hotel quarantine – a much less strict version then the Australian version – has also finally been implemented for people coming to the country from designated COVID red zones.
Besides a week where the temperatures plummeted and London was covered in snow, winter here has been monotonous, grey and bleak.
For the majority of January, deaths per day were higher than 1000 across the UK, and the daily infection rate peaked at 68,000 on January 8.
Even with vaccination being implemented very quickly – 20-30 per cent of the population has already had its first vaccine dose – people have more or less accepted that restrictions will be in place for a lengthy period.
Social distancing has been taken very seriously, though it remains difficult due to the density of our population.
People are optimistic about the vaccination program and how quickly it has progressed, though many are not expecting a quick way out of all this, and with summer around the corner people seem a lot more cautious about society opening up, compared to last year.
Like most people in their 20s and 30s in London, living in a share house has its pros and cons during a pandemic. It’s been a life saver to have company, but the houses are so small and ventilation is quite poor during the cold winter months.
The suburb close to where I live, Stamford Hill in north London, at one stage had the highest per capita number of coronavirus cases in the world.
Thankfully, three of my four house mates – including myself – have been vaccinated.
We all aren’t able to work from home, so it’s surprising that we never became infected.
Current restrictions allow forming a bubble with another household to go out and exercise, but there is no indoor mixing allowed whatsoever.
In the waning days of winter, this weekend there was some respite from the bleakness, with sunny blue skies and temperatures reaching 13 degrees.
The daily coronavirus total is now around 7000 – the lowest in months.
Everyone was out in the parks having a picnic, and life seems fairly similar to how it was leading up to the easing of restrictions last time. However, it seems we still have a long way to go until we are out of the woods.
Many of the patients in the hospital where I work are still hesitant to come in for scans, and some sites are doing an inpatient-only service, with only the most urgent of outpatient scans being allowed.
For now, though, waking up and taking near empty public transport in the early hours of the morning and queuing outside supermarkets for supplies will remain my normal life.
The days are getting longer, temperatures are getting higher – and there is hope we may finally be past the worst.
