We must rise to challenges of new normal to stop virus spike warns Sheffield health boss

It is a sign of the new normal that my own health centre is asking for volunteers to marshal the expected queues for the flu vaccine – shades of queuing for football tickets before on-line facilities.

I muse about my local visit at friend’s funeral at local crematorium which proved to be a more sadder experience than I anticipated, with restricted numbers, social distancing and such a short time slot to allow for sanitation between funerals – not the send off I, or indeed my friend’s family would have wanted, but inevitable in today’s Covid-19 world.

After the furore of school exam results, we look forward to the resumption of schools re-opening and their new normality will have to balance staff and pupil safety, where the challenges of having social distancing will have to be judged against the need to engage and associate together.

The about turn on the wearing of masks will certainly not helped preparations, but teachers are a resilient bunch and no doubt will respond with innovative solutions.Recent intelligence indicates 50 of the largest employers have no immediate plans to return to their places of work. This, if replicated, has all kinds of implications, not least for the local economy that feeds off workplace activity.

Working remotely from home has had all kinds of benefits not least personal safety and convenience, but the return of schoolchildren may precipitate a longing for more socialisation and work place comradeship.

I suspect this will encourage more employer/employee dialogue to introduce more acceptable work patterns, involving a mix of periods at home and work, that can be applied in a more flexible manner.

These changes, with all their consequences, both good and bad, will, I suspect, become more permanent in the future.

I spent a few days at the coast and saw large numbers of people enjoying welcome staycations and using the discount scheme to access local restaurants etc.

Certainly I can understand attractiveness of a staycation over the unpredictability of foreign holidays as I examine and way up the risks of arranging a trip abroad.

However, a huge downpour distracts me and I remind myself of a need to access local supermarket on my return to Sheffield and have the mask to hand.

Above all is the thought ‘are we in for a another wave of coronavirus’, with the catastrophe that will have on morale, lives, economy and education, if it becomes a reality.

Hopefully after their summer holidays, the Government will have to instil confidence that they have learnt lessons, particularly in using local knowledge and networks, to test, trace and establish effective self isolation, while keeping communications simple and timely.

A second spike is by no means inevitable if we all follow the preventive measures, but would be particularly devastating if it became a reality for many, not least the elderly and vulnerable who have already endured months of self isolation.

Let us enjoy rest of summer, look forward with cautious optimism to the build up to Christmas and that we can overcome the challenges of us all keeping safe, before a vaccine becomes available.