MONDAY, January 4, is potentially going to go down in global history as one of the most significant and wonderful days of 2021 as the Oxford Zeneca vaccine against Covid is given for the first time, with a further half a million being administered this week in the UK.

News reports say the aim is to give two million a week, which will mean our entire population will be vaccinated by Easter. That is bloody amazing.

I think we can all agree 2020 was a tough year. Let’s be honest, it sucked. In our country, already split asunder by Brexit, Covid raised its tiny little head and suddenly the whole world literally stopped.

And because it’s a new virus, because it seems so virulent, because it’s already mutated twice, we were all told to stay home, try and manage the spread, isolate, lock down. And we did.

Now a year on, so much has changed it is difficult to make sense and process the changes. Especially as things seem to be able to change literally overnight. On Monday many parents were worried sick about sending their children back to school, as were many of those who work within schools. And as a mum and Granny I get it, and frankly, I would hesitate to send my offspring to school with Covid rates rising and ‘Stay at Home’ being the Tier 4 mantra.

I think with rates rising exponentially at the moment, we as a community should do whatever we can to minimise the spread of the virus while the vaccination programme does its thing. So any government official or headteacher who decides to penalise parents or teachers for refusing to put their children or themselves in a risky situation unnecessarily needs to think of the bigger picture here. As do employers who bully their employees into work when it is totally possible for those employees to work from home.

For the few weeks/months it takes to vaccinate everyone, let's accept that only services which are essential should stay open and allow people to home educate, work from home, be furloughed and let's support them and those small businesses which are suffering under this lockdown.

Now we have a light at the end of the tunnel. It is possible to make sensible plans. We don’t want or need to get into arguments with the government about sending our kids back to school. What we all want is to get this virus under control, support our communities and businesses while we do just that and hopefully be able to have a massive, collective sigh of relief and a great big party at Easter.

I have come out of retirement and applied to become a vaccinator, I feel glad to be able to actually do something. Once a nurse always a nurse.

Monday was the first day for nearly a year when I can say that I truly feel optimism, joy and proud of those who have and are working towards setting our society free again and giving us all hope of a happier, healthier future.

Thank you.