Excess deaths have now returned to pre pandemic levels.

I'm not quite willing to call it over until we see what the winter season brings, but I would say we're close.

That said, COVID is not going anywhere. It will likely become milder and milder over time as we gain more population resistance, but it's still an unpleasant virus and potentially dangerous to the immunocompromised and frail. Moving forward, we have a responsibility to protect vulnerable people from ALL respiratory viruses, through measures such as masking around people who are vulnerable, not visiting nursing homes with symptoms, etc.

I'm not afraid of getting COVID any more, I'm still taking precautions out of habit. But we ALL have to keep protecting the vulnerable...there are people in care homes who could die if they caught a simple rhinovirus and we need to keep remembering that.