Coronavirus: Why the new normal is merely a thin veneer
It now looks likely the UK will suffer a longer lockdown than European neighbours, a worse economic hit and a higher death toll.
Saturday 20 June 2020 14:43, UK
This was the week when things started to feel a little more normal.
Shops opened their doors for the first time in three months - even if the cheery assistants were wearing protective visors.
Football is back - even if the fake crowd noise doesn't quite feel like the real thing.
And when the sun is out, the parks are busy with people playing tennis or having picnics - even if the playgrounds remain eerily deserted behind the padlocks.
The COVID-19 alert level may have been reduced from four to three, but it doesn't take much to scrape away the thin veneer of normality.
Lockdown may have been eased, but it's certainly not over.
When I braved the high street this week, I couldn't help notice more staff than shoppers in many stores.
My local pub is doing a "Pint Through" - but with nowhere to sit and drink it, it's hard to see it doing a roaring trade.
Schools will stay stubbornly closed to millions until September - leaving children bored and lonely, and parents wondering how many hours of TV is acceptable to watch in a day.
The economic reality of lockdown is starting to cut through, and on tomorrow's Sophy Ridge on Sunday we'll be speaking to the head of the TUC, Frances O'Grady, to talk about what it means for workers and the chef Yotam Ottolenghi to discuss the impact on the food and hospitality industry.
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The number of people claiming out-of-work benefits climbed to 2.8 million people in May, according to figures out this week.
That number will only move in one direction once the government begins to wind down its furlough scheme over the summer.
It's obvious to see why ministers are keen to start easing the lockdown and get people spending again - but will we be able to?
In March, Boris Johnson said the UK could "turn the tide" on coronavirus in three months.
That deadline has now passed and it's hard to escape the thought the government had hoped to have been able to lift restrictions sooner.
The two-metre social distancing rule - that makes it impossible for some businesses to viably open - remains in place, despite calls for it to be cut to one metre.
There are rumours that UK staycations may not be permitted on 4 July as expected, to the dismay of the struggling hospitality industry.
The aspiration that all primary children should have some time in school before the summer holidays has been quietly dropped - now the ambition is to get them back by September.
It's not hard to see why. According to the government's own numbers, the number of new cases remains stubbornly flat and the rate of infection is stuck at 0.7-0.9. Ministers had hoped both those numbers would be dropping faster.
To make matters worse, there are concerns over the contact tracing system that we were told was the key to lifting the lockdown safely - where new infections could be quickly identified and suppressed.
Figures on Thursday showed at least a quarter of people who test positive for coronavirus were missed by contact tracers following up on who they could have passed the virus to.
The government has also admitted defeat over its much-hyped test-and-trace app, and is switching to a model based on Apple and Google technology.
If people are to start shopping and spending, first they must be convinced that it is safe to do so.
It now looks likely that the UK will end up with a longer lockdown than our European neighbours - a more significant economic hit - and, tragically, a higher death toll.
Sophy Ridge will be talking to TUC leader Frances O'Grady, Labour MP Rachel Reeves and chef Ottolenghi on her programme on Sunday at 8.30am on Sky News