Covid: Poor social distancing means it’s not surprising we’re heading back into near-lockdown – Alastair Dalton

It would be comical if it wasn’t so serious.

Not everyone is paying attention to social distancing. (Picture: Allan Crow)

From what I describe as a “suicide granny” careering down a supermarket aisle straight for me to a masked old man complaining I was giving them too wide a berth, it’s still a mad world out there trying to avoid catching Covid.

Eight months on from being told to stay two metres away from each other, it’s becoming increasingly irritating that too many people simply haven’t got the message.

We are encouraged to walk more for our physical and mental health, and this will become more important as winter draws in and the temptation to lounge about in our often poorly-ventilated homes becomes stronger.

But the way some pedestrians are acting, you could be taking your life in your hands by venturing out.

That might sound alarmist, even hysterical, but there are two things to bear in mind.

First, the 2m social-distancing rule was set by the Scottish government – it is official, and the “default physical distancing requirement”.

Crowds of people flocked to Portobello Promenade in Edinburgh in the summer and some regrettably failed to stick to the social-distancing guidelines (Picture: Lisa Ferguson)

In July, Nicola Sturgeon announced a review of the evidence by the Covid-19 Advisory Group “makes clear that the fundamental science around distance and transmission remains unchanged and that risk increases with proximity to an infected individual”.

That default has been reduced to 1m in shops, cafes and bars where additional safety measures are in place, such as mask-wearing and one-way systems.

But pavements aren’t one way and pedestrians don’t have to wear masks, so 2m still applies out there.

Second, and I might be completely wrong about this, but if folk aren’t bothering to keep their required distance on the street or in shops, as I’ve found, what hope is there that such individuals will pay any attention to it in other situations, like stopping for a chat with people they know?

This is probably a very unfair comparison, but police are particularly interested in people on the fringes of criminality, such as fare dodgers on trains, because that’s often found to be the tip of the iceberg in terms of their illegal activities.

So are those who chose to ignore, or are still ignorant of, the need for social distancing, more likely to break other Covid restrictions like visiting other people’s houses with the extra risk that brings – and therefore there’s even more reason for the rest of us to give them a wide berth?

In the case of those worrying encounters I’ve mentioned, the old lady who seemed intent on pushing right past me in the supermarket returned my horrified look as I shrunk back against the shelves with a fixed glaikit grin as if social distancing was some big joke.

As for the masked old man, that was a first. Encountering him in a car park, he looked like he was changing direction so I altered my path. But rather than acknowledge my thoughtfulness, I got a barrage of abuse along the lines of “Is there something wrong with me? I’m wearing a mask”.

Thankfully, such cases are the exception, and most people I pass are conscious of the need to distance.

If I stop, that’s normally enough of a reminder for the others. But I’m told that can look weird – and I wish I didn’t have to.

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