If everyone observes social distancing and curbs their movements, lockdown might be delayed

Robin Swann was asked if he was confident he would get the support he needs from Westminster. He was asked about NHS staffing, and concerns that we are nowhere near where we need to be.

These are all legitimate and indeed important questions.

But at the same time, it is vital that we all understand a few elementary things about this crisis.

The first is that while of course it is crucial that the Province gets every penny of funding it possibly can from the Treasury, we must realise that this is a massive global health challenge for every country on earth.

It is all very well to observe that the NHS faced huge pressures even before the coronavirus, which it did (in part because reform of provision was not enacted by local politicians, despite repeated export reports calling for such), but we must also recognise that no healthcare in the world could cope with perhaps 80% of its population being infected in a short period of time.

If 10% of them are hospitalised, then 8% of any nation’s population could be in hospital within a short period of time.

No health system has the ventilators it will need, not even the richest countries in the world. Germany or Japan or the US.

Therefore we must do our part in flattening the curve, and the single most important element in that in this voluntary stage is that people observe prudent movements and social distancing.

There is not yet a bar on people visiting one another or going to cafes and other such public settings. We all can try to observe a one or two metre distance from other people in that context, as well as relentless washing of hands.

Across Northern Ireland, people are gathering together less closely than they did. But there is still some conduct that suggests many people do not know the seriousness of this.

To maintain freedom of movement that is helping keep businesses alive we need to observe these simple rules. Otherwise lockdown will come sooner rather than later.