EMPTY streets, busy supermarkets and panic buying became the norm during lockdown in the last few months.

Working from home, online medical consultations, doorstep deliveries of all “essentials” have become the “new normal”.

Rainbows with the signs, “Thank you NHS” have been snapped painted on the road outside Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital and pinned to fences and gates throughout the county.

The Basingstoke population has been forced to adjust to a new way of living, including cars queuing up on the last day before McDonalds closes down and pockets of people trickling in to Covid assessment centres.

Rush hour showed Basingstoke’s dual carriageway deserted at the height of lockdown as people followed the Government’s guidelines and stay at home.

The term ‘social distancing’, referring to the action or practice of avoiding other people or groups socially or emotionally, originally appeared in the 1950s.

And 70 years later, it has returned and become an integral part of everyday life where humanity has learned to become a genius at estimating the distance of two metres without tape measures.

It has become the new language of 2020 as demonstrated by police roaming the empty streets of Basingstoke and issuing fines for anyone seen breaching the Government’s rules.

Hampshire police became the public watchdog for breaking up mass gatherings and stopping people from travelling hundreds of miles to visit their families during the outbreak.

But now as lockdown begins to ease, we can look back and reflect on the stringent measures the Government put in place to keep everyone safe.

It meant sacrifices, and temporarily giving up certain luxuries of life to help the NHS reduce the infection rate by staying at home, and only leaving the house for essential journeys as the UK starts to take steps towards lifting lockdown.