TWO years ago, along with the whole country, my husband and I went into lockdown and stayed indoors.

He was considered clinically vulnerable and apart from hospital visits, to this day, he has not been in a pub, club, restaurant or shops over that time. I now make rare shop visits and we had two Christmases without family and no hosting of our family Sunday roasts.

Again, two years ago and through to last year, we all regularly watched and expected those daily updated Covid-19 figures from Downing Street and the NHS.

We all knew the rules, we stayed indoors, we didn’t meet family and friends and if possible, we worked from home. We did social distancing, face masks were normal practice in shops and public transport and of course we clapped every Thursday for our NHS and key workers.

What has now happened? So much other awful news now headlining and dominating the world. We have a huge crisis on our hands.

But the virus has gone nowhere. It is out there and seizes every opportunity it is given to spread. Cases are rising so fast and are now higher than ever in the UK.

However, despite this, restrictions have still been lifted and because it doesn’t seem top of the government agenda any more, even Partygate is on the back burner, but will reignite when public perception seems to assume we no longer have a problem.

We watched the vaccination programme roll out last year. Once again we all watched television and saw those daily figures with the fall in the case numbers together with the decreasing death rate, and the population was reassured.

But the virus is still here, reinventing itself in ways that make it easier to attack us and survive and become more transmittable.

We do still have clinically vulnerable people remaining indoors, still unable or scared to go out and now more at risk, with people abandoning the precautions that had become acceptable and the new normal.

With restrictions now a choice and not obligatory, this is now allowing the virus the freedom to spread like wild fire.

Every time we allow the virus to transmit, we give it an opportunity to further mutate and reinvent itself and challenge our vaccines.

For some it is still a killer on the loose to attack us and there is still a huge battle for our NHS to win.

People accept and do not question that restrictions still remain in place in hospitals and medical surgeries.

We need to take it seriously, it has not gone away.

Penny Gilbey

Chalky Road

Portslade