WE ALL want normal back. But the fact is that the old normal is lost and gone forever. For the foreseeable future, and indeed for perhaps years to come, our normal will mean social distancing, anxiety as we take cautious steps back into society, uncertainty about our children’s safety, about our jobs, our businesses, our futures.
No amount of wishing this will all go away will make it go away. We need to hold firm for another while so as to come out of this safely.
Despite Boris’s very animated 15-minute speech on Sunday evening – saying lots of stuff about controlling the virus, but saying nothing really at all – politicians here in the north have underscored the ‘stay at home' message most of us have been adhering to. The Stormont executive has already extended lockdown here until May 28.
But it is evident from our busier roads and our streets that dedication to those measures is waning badly. Over the bank holiday weekend there were pictures on social media of street parties happening in Derry and Belfast, with in some cases dozens of people gathering in the streets with friends, singing and dancing well into the small hours. There were DJs, singers, marching bands and streets doing ‘rock-the-boat’ like there was something serious to celebrate.
I can understand people’s frustration at being ‘locked up’ for such a long period of time. I can understand people wanting some lightness in their lives as this virus ravages the population. I can comprehend people want to let off steam, cheer people up and keep spirits high. I can understand people want to let their children play. But now, when we have come so very far, is not the time. Street parties, street entertainment and street gatherings are a really, really bad idea when there is a deadly virus floating around looking for hosts to make sick.
Italy and Spain were allowed to come out of their lockdown because, as boring and frustrating as it was, people stayed in and just went out for medication or food. They were strict about their lockdown, even though it no doubt drove their population to distraction as it has done us.
In the grand scheme of things, despite over 400 people tragically losing their lives to this virus, Northern Ireland has escaped relatively unscathed so far. Some 32,000 people have died in England. Over 80,000 people have died in America.
We have done well so far in trying to keep this deadly bug at bay by locking down and staying away from one another for now. But looking at images and videos of street gatherings and parties all over this city in recent days, Northern Ireland, after all its hard work, could well become a virus hotspot.
This crisis is far from over. We need to continue to be careful. Everyone is frustrated being at home, having had their normal life stalled, work stopped, businesses fall, and with us all feeling seriously under pressure due to being confined. But those restrictions are there for a reason – there’s a new deadly, invisible virus around that not even the doctors treating it understand. It has made old and young alike sick and killed them too, and is super infectious.
People are still catching this bug. It has not magically gone away because people are fed up staying at home. People are in serious conditions in our hospitals with it right now. The results of gatherings and parties and the self-relaxation of lockdown measures will not be seen in our hospitals for two weeks, when people start showing up at A&E sick and needing help. We can avoid that.
People have lost loved ones to this virus. Families in this city and beyond are mourning a precious life, gone far too soon. Other people, especially our older and more vulnerable population, are anxious and worried about picking this virus up, knowing they wouldn’t survive it.
We need this to be over for the sake of our health workers, for the sake of our sanity, our city, our businesses and our normal way of lives. We don’t need to drag this lockdown out over the summer and beyond – but that’s what new outbreaks will result in.
Now is really not the time to drop our guard. We do not need to become the next coronavirus outbreak hotspot. Because the results of that are horrific and heartbreaking. Now is the time to be sensible and continue to hold tight to one another in this storm.
