Well. That was that then. Covid-19 phase one. 12 weeks of bizarre life re-assessment, 1 hour (then 2) beach trips, 5 kilometre runs, 6 bottle wine subscriptions and some banana bread baking. Oh, and about 20,000 paddleboards sold. But the serious numbers? Thankfully only 13 deaths in Jersey of people below the age of life expectancy that they could relate to Covid-19.
E
ven with the premature deaths which could be related to the Coronavirus, the total number of deaths in Jersey for the first six months of the year was 321. Sound a lot? What if I told you it was 356 in 2019 and 403 in 2018? Bottom line; fewer people have died during our Covid-19 pandemic than would usually have died, by quite a wide margin. Almost 30% less than two years ago. So, where’s the baseline; what is normal? The death rate has fallen, the streets have emptied and the world is taking stock. So where do we go from here?
It feels as though we’re in the eye of the storm and I do hope that we collectively identify a safe path out. The ‘second wave’ hangs over, or is at least looming on the horizon like a roaring sea. I’m just hoping we can steer around it or that the weather improves. The impact of the idea of coronavirus on our collective wellbeing has already left our society in a state of fragility. It’s a feeling that is noticeable in the cotton wool bubble of Jersey, so I’m thankful have experienced the pandemic more lightly than elsewhere in the world.
It’s certainly going to be a patchy remainder of 2020 and I’m happy we can still get to print and tell some positive and measured creative stories to highlight that there is still life beyond coronavirus news. I’ve hated just about all media channels these last three months; fantastical, negative, doom-mongering news channels seeking to sensationalise every single octogenarian’s demise and strike fear into the heart of the island. I’d say we were adequately provisioned in the end, right?
We might even have been able to make do with just one hospital if the media circus hadn’t stirred up the masses and tightened the nooses of coloured ties around some politician’s necks via Zoom. I’m just glad that we, as Gallery, can still cover a car park with inflatables and demonstrate that this is a beautiful island; we still have our families, simple pleasures, culture and a world beyond Coronavirus.
Make the most of your summer staycation and we’ll see you in the Autumn.
BD
