Exit criteria will boost confidence

Some businesses are already braced for a longer shutdown than others and the island’s financial strategy is right to begin to recognise that support packages will need to become more sophisticated in response to that.

Next week we will learn just what the criteria will be for the gradual return to a new normal and hopefully get more guidance on just what that will be.

The figures are encouraging – new infections are ticking along in ones and twos every few days, rather than the double digit rises when things took off, while the number of active cases has shrunk from a peak of just above 160 to 41 and they continue to decline. This promising picture, allied to moves across Europe in countries that have been hard hit to announce the lifting of different restrictions, creates an environment for change.

The public in the UK is nervous of any relaxation, according to a YouGov survey, and options like basing lifting restrictions on age or previous infection were particularly unpopular.

It underscores the difficult decisions facing governments trying to plot a route through what was a health crisis and is increasingly an economic and social one.

Here, many islanders and businesses were more cautious than the government when the virus was first confirmed, for example moving to home working and cancelling travel before it became official guidance.

The States will have to move at a rate that the community is comfortable with, but already we are seeing more life returning to our roads and around 1,600 businesses applying to open up again in one form or another.

Many now crave a sense of normality – one of the things the crisis has taught us is the value of what we often took for granted in the everyday.

Learning how we move on from here will offer everyone some more hope and foster a greater understanding of the decision-making process.