There is some positive Covid-19 news to focus on – the vaccine rollout

Plenty more coronavirus events occurred over Christmas, with the news that Israel would be heading into a third lockdown since March, this one lasting two weeks – with an option to extend that by another fortnight. And Boris Johnson faces pressure from some quarters to place the rest of England under tier 4 measures.

Around 6 million people in east and southeast England went into tier 4, the highest level the country has, on Boxing Day. The measures include a “stay at home” order, and a number of experts have said it would be best for the prime minister to act early by putting the restrictions in place across England in order to control the spread of Covid-19.

That is not what some will want to hear, but the pressure will likely grow in coming days. All you can ask is that the government acts decisively, rather than the constant swift switches in measures seen before Christmas. Care must be taken; Swiss minister Alain Berset admitted on Saturday that his government had made a mistake in easing its coronavirus restrictions too quickly during the second wave.

There is better news on the horizon, though. While our government has already started the vaccine rollout, a number of other European nations are to begin over the weekend. Germany, France, Spain and Poland are to start vaccinations today, while Hungary got ahead by beginning vaccinations on Saturday.

The quicker vaccines can be rolled out across as many parts of the world as possible, the safer we will all be. That is the news to concentrate on as the number of infections continue to climb. With restrictions and a sensible rollout of the vaccine, we can begin to push the virus back.

And we will be here to provide all the information you need about the rollout – as ever.

Yours,

Chris Stevenson

Voices editor