Lockdown was Boris Johnson’s only option

Lockdown is brutal. I don’t want it, you don’t want it, nobody ‘wants’ it. We are, however, at an intensely difficult moment in our fight against Covid-19. The latest wave of the virus is out of control, with the new variant significantly contributing to the huge hike in coronavirus cases. Our healthcare system is reaching the point of no return. This means that there is little choice than for us to face up to the reality that we are in the midst of a crisis – and that Boris Johnson had little choice but to tell us all to ‘stay at home’ once again.

1,041 deaths from Covid-19 were recorded yesterday, and the high number of those dying from this disease looks set to continue. These grim figures are despite a much improved mortality rate, which is possibly attributable to improved understanding and care in hospitals (and probably related to the impact of dexamethasone, a steroid which has been used to treat Covid patients). 

Yet while we understand this disease better than we did when it first hit our shores in large numbers last March, we cannot bury our heads in the sand about the situation we are in and what the coming weeks will look like.