The 12 Blogs Of Christmas #9

We woke up to snow this morning and lots of it. A little late for Christmas Day but a pretty sight all the same. A blanket of it covers large swathes of Northern Ireland as the country enters the fifth day of a six week lockdown. There were over 2,100 positive coronavirus cases yesterday, a record high for our tiny nation. These are scary times indeed as the new variant of the virus sweeps all before it. Our only hope seems to be the vaccine.

Or should I say vaccines, as a second one named Oxford AstraZeneca has been approved for usage. It will start to roll-out from 04 January and will be administered in addition to the Pfizer jab currently being delivered to the most vulnerable members of our community. The plan is for priority groups to have been vaccinated by Easter which will requires a minimum of one million vaccinations per week from this point onwards.

Our National Health Service is on standby and army medics are also being considered to speed up the process. It is hoped that the vaccination deployment, combined with the current lockdown, will allow us to creep towards some sort of normality by the summer. An announcement was made this morning that schools are to remain closed throughout January. It really does feel as is we are entering hibernation for the remainder of the winter.

As a family we are battening down the hatches and hoping for better times ahead. This morning’s wintry spectacle cheered us for there will be many bleak mornings in the weeks ahead. We’ve been very careful so far, doing our best to keep safe and adhere to the government guidelines. It’s been difficult and frustrating but we hope and pray there is light at the end of this seemingly endless tunnel. I hope this will be the case for all of us. Keep safe everyone.