Express & Star comment: For many coronavirus will never be over

The hope is that the time is coming that it will all be over, and Covid-19 will take its place along all those other diseases which we live with, and society functions as normal.

But for many people it will never be over. With over 120,000 deaths in the past year there has been a tidal wave of grief among the loved ones left behind. That can be multiplied by those who have gone down with the virus and have pulled through.

Many have completely recovered. Others have incompletely recovered. Covid still has them in its grasp, in the form of long Covid, with debilitating after-effects which mean the victims have not been able to rebuild their lives to what they had been before.

Today we tell the story of Karen Peake, a 53-year-old mother, who was one of the early victims of the virus a year ago, and was to spend seven days in intensive care at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. She was discharged on April 13 and today has a measure of survivor's guilt, wondering why she survived and yet younger people than her have died.

The medical teams saved her life, but the reality is that coronavirus has radically changed the life she knew. She has to stop when climbing the stairs. She can only manage a few minutes of walking on the flat. As for her personal light at the end of the tunnel, she, and her doctors, don't know if one exists.

"They don’t know how long it will take to get better, or even if I will,” says Karen.

And then there are the nightmares and the anxiety.

Anyone who still thinks the response to coronavirus was an overreaction, or that it's some sort of hoax, should read what she says. Her story also underlines the fact that there is still much we don't know about the longer term effects of Covid, and there is a need for continuing research and a search for treatments.

It is a reminder too that the impact of coronavirus is going to be felt for a long, long time.