I think it’s important to acknowledge that community transmission of the virus are at a real low (1 in nearly 4000 figs from last week, and that number dropping).
At the height of the pandemic before lockdown (when community spread was arguable highest) I was working in a large London hospital and most of us had little or no PPE (restricted to ITU) and were commuting on packed public transport. We’ve had almost 30% staff test positive for antibodies. More will have had the virus but not developed measurable antibodies. 0.08% of total staff died. Of course any death is too high but this is pretty low considering how many of us were infected. We also have a high BAME workforce and the trust employs many thousands of staff. What we don’t have (along with employers of most people of working age) is many staff aged above 65.
So I think if you’re going back to work or school and are of working age it’s important to remember that the risks of becoming very ill or dying from covid-19 are very small. The chances of coming into contact with covid-19 are also much lower than they were.
We shut down a lot of services to cope with covid and it’s only now that these are being restarted. GPs haven’t been referring anywhere near the usual numbers of patients for cancer symptoms. People are presenting too late with symptoms of cardiac disease or stroke. Months of people basically going under diagnosed. We’re now also going to start seeing morbidity from a wave of unemployment.