A need for perspective as Covid-19 death toll rises – The Yorkshire Post says

It means 2,352 families across the UK are now mourning loved ones – a number which eclipses the weekly attendance at some professional football matches.

Only those who lived through the Second World War will have endured loss of life on this scale previously – hence why this ordeal is such an emotional burden for a country which, weeks earlier, was brimming with optimism ahead of a new decade before the world started to pay a painful price for public health complacency.

Now, as the death toll mounts remorselessly, it’s even more important that everyone perseveres with the ‘stay at home’ advice so that the nation’s NHS and social care heroes can save as many lives as possible.

Yes, this is a living nightmare – the country’s economy and existence has been turned on its head – and Ministers continue to face difficult questions about the availability of testing for Covid-19 and supply of PPE protection equipment, a state of affairs now described by medical leaders as “a crisis within a crisis”.

They are legitimate lines of inquiry after previous promises proved to be ambiguous.

But, frankly, the challenge facing national, regional and local leaders is an invidious one and it is only thanks to their collective efforts, thus far, that the outlook is not even bleaker.

In the meantime, the country should draw comfort from the words of Prince Charles on the importance of communities following his own recovery from Covid-19.

“None of us can say when this will end, but end it will,” he said. “Until it does, let us all try and live with hope and, with faith in ourselves and each other, look forward to better times to come.”

It is a heartfelt sentiment that this newspaper, for one, echoes.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

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Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor