Good news at last – the number of UK deaths involving COVID has now fallen to almost insignificant levels. Week 33 recorded just 139 deaths involving COVID which is the lowest number since the outbreak began – just over 1 percent of all deaths (10,577). So our beleaguered and incompetent government now faces the task of trying to persuade the public that COVID is not the deadly killer that was originally expected. It seems that multiple U turns are now the order of the day.
The main impact of COVID for rural areas has been the enormous new influx of visitors from the cities. The wide open spaces of Northumberland are a magnet for city folk who have been trapped by the virus and can no longer take their escapes abroad. Arrangements for traffic management, parking and toilets are hopelessly inadequate. We are having to cope with often bad tempered city folk who have little understanding of the countryside.