Spring has come. It is just one week since most parts of the UK economy were reopened: shops, leisure centres, outdoor dining and so on. True, this is nothing like the normal life we remember, for foreign travel remains stymied and most offices are yet to reopen fully. But we can start to catch some feeling for the path back to a world where we can meet our friends and relatives, a world where we can behave like human beings again – with all humanity’s joys, and indeed its irritations.
This is of course simply a British perspective on a universal movement, with different parts of the world moving at different speeds. The US is reopening steadily, treading a difficult path between the now rapid rollout of vaccines and the still worrying prevalence of the virus.
Europe is moving more slowly, with particularly worrying levels of infection, and sadly deaths, in several countries. But it, too, is beginning to step up the pace of vaccinating its citizens, and it is possible to see a situation where, by the summer, the spread of the virus will be under control.
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