We are in a new phase with Covid-19. The vaccination programme has dramatically changed things and the future looks a lot brighter.
While daily Covid-19 case numbers and hospitalisations have risen, which was forecast, the dark clouds some had feared have not blocked out the light.
With the usual pressures on the health system returning, as we enter the autumn and winter, and the pandemic still in the mix, what does the rest of the year look like?
Are we near the end of the worst of this pandemic? Health service pressures ahead This week, record levels of overcrowding in hospitals were reported and it is still only mid-August.