Covid: Politics: Is the Government taking liberties with our liberty?

So, how will we learn to live with coronavirus for the rest of our lives? And is the Government taking liberties with our liberty?

A leaked Whitehall document confirmed UK ministers were considering more flexible working, including possibly making home-working the “default” position. Yet some people fear this would create “zombie towns”.

Yesterday, Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Commons Leader, told MPs employers “should facilitate” workers’ wishes to return to work amid the pandemic.

“It’s really important we get back to normal. We want to have vibrant towns and cities, we want people coming back into work, we want commuting systems, trains, buses and so on that are financially viable, and that means people coming back to work.”

Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office Minister, has suggested a hybrid model, admitting home-working could become the norm for many. “We won’t go back to the status quo,” he noted.

Read more: Covid: Inflation virus looms if we keep up with spend, spend, spend

Self-isolation, the document said, would become normal practice for those who in future showed Covid symptoms or tested positive and that, even when social distancing was lifted, masks would continue to be the norm in certain settings.

Many firms would be required to introduce better ventilation systems for those workers in offices.

And while double-vaccinated people could travel to amber countries without having to quarantine on their return, in order to prevent new variants entering the country, strict border controls and post-travel isolation for some travellers would be needed for years to come.

Experts from the Government’s Sage science advisory group have told ministers how a raft of measures was “likely to be needed beyond the end of the current roadmap process” to avoid the likelihood of having to reverse parts of it. They have pointed to other countries with low Covid rates, which have decided to “retain some baseline measures” to reduce the impact of sporadic outbreaks.

In the Commons, some Conservatives who rebelled against the extension to Freedom Day for England – which is reflecting a similar position in Scotland – expressed their exasperation at the state continuing to control people’s lives.

Tory backbencher Richard Drax decried how Britain had become “muzzled, acquiescent and fearful” and said: “I’m not surprised the nation has been beaten into submission when day after day, hour after hour, we’re deluged with dire warnings of doom and gloom by Government advisers of one kind or another.”

Sir Robert Syms insisted the country had “won the battle” against Covid and what ministers needed was a “damn good holiday” as he highlighted how his own county of Dorset with a near one million population had just one person in hospital with coronavirus.

Conservative colleague Mark Harper, who chairs the lockdown-sceptic Covid Recovery Group, expressed concern about Whitehall chatter that restrictions would be “coming back in the autumn and the winter as cases rise”.

The Prime Minister insisted the leaked paper meant “absolutely nothing to me” and his intention was to “bring back the freedoms we love” on July 19.

However, if, as we are being told, we will have to learn to live with Covid, then it seems likely some restrictions, like wearing masks in shops, will be reintroduced on a regular basis, say, during winter.

Yet getting the balance right between returning our freedoms while keeping people safe will continue to be very difficult and could create social tensions as, over time, the emphasis falls more on personal responsibility than on legislation.

Earlier this week, Mr Rees-Mogg hit out at the prospect of facing restrictions that “never end”.

Read more: Sausage row reveals much about the UK's relationship with continental cousins

He warned: “You can’t run society just to stop hospitals being full, otherwise you’d never let us get in our cars and drive anywhere,” insisting: “There has to be some proportionality.”

The Cabinet minister added: “The Government doesn’t have the right to take charge of people’s lives purely to prevent them seeing the doctor.”

The hope is that once the vast majority of people get double-vaccinated and the infection numbers begin to recede sharply, the country will in time come to regard Covid-19 like flu and pneumonia, which kill around 20,000 people a year across the UK, but which have not led to widespread restrictions on how we lead our lives. A booster jab every autumn is about as difficult as it gets.

As Delta variant infections currently rise, Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, offered an optimistic outlook. “If that very high protection against hospitalisation continues, despite spread in the community, then the public health crisis is over.”

Another infectious disease expert, Dr Susan Hopkins, who revealed scientists were monitoring 25 new variants and investigating eight, predicted the global pandemic would last another two years.

“Until… we get some level of control over everything, we will continue to see variants emerge, we will continue to run behind as we try and understand this, and we will get to a position of stability, where we are with… seasonal influenza.

“So we have some time to go. And the world will need to be vaccinated before we get to a stable situation.”

Of course, learning to adapt to survive is basic to human nature. The hope must be that science, which has been our saviour so far against Covid, will again help us find a way to make the prospect of learning to live with this horrible virus as painless as possible.

Our columns are a platform for writers to express their opinions. They do not necessarily represent the views of The Herald.