Possible vaccine respite in the new year makes Covid rules somewhat easier to bear now

This assessment jolted the public, which only weeks earlier had not even heard of the virus.

Fourteen weeks sounded such a long time. If we had known what we know now, we would have been delighted for the pandemic only to last for such a brief duration.

It is eight months since the UK went into the first lockdown. Now restrictions to try contain Covid are the most severe they have been since that first period of controls.

Recently there was speculation that there might perhaps never be a vaccine, or not one for years. Suddenly the news is much better. It might even be that the first doses are given out in Northern Ireland before Christmas, depending on the new jabs getting authorisation.

This is by no means the end of this long-running tragedy.

As is obvious, and as the health minister Robin Swann confirmed yesterday, it will take many months to inoculate most of the population: certainly into summer and beyond.

But some of the most vulnerable people will be at the top of the queue for this treatment, which will be a major relief to those groups. Those who were most at risk endured a long period of isolation, with only a brief respite over the summer.

It is sensible to put carers among the first people to get vaccinated. They have been among the heroes of this crisis. Often on low pay, they put themselves at risk to maintain vital help to some of the most frail people in society — people who were often unaware of what was unfolding around them.

Keeping Covid out of care homes has been a huge challenge. The virus swept through some premises. In others, harsh, and almost cruel, measures were used to exclude it.

Carers also provide key assistance to people at home, and so posed a risk of introducing it into homes.

The prospect of respite in the new year makes restrictions that bit easier to endure now.

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