According to business surveys, the number of people working from home in the United Kingdom has increased exponentially during the coronavirus epidemic period, and even once the crisis is officially over, businesses expect the number of people working from home on a permanent basis to be around 22%, as opposed to just 9% in pre-epidemic days.
The Telegraph reports that a poll found that 35% of respondents feared that returning to work in a traditional office environment could negatively impact their mental health.
Senior politicians and economists in the UK are now voicing concern that people are unnecessarily cautious, leading to a prolonged period of recovery that is damaging the UK's economic prospects. The Telegraph quotes a "veteran Conservative" MP as saying that, "The government is guilty now of having scared the public so much that they are now completely irrational about Covid-19."
Indeed, his opinions would appear to be borne out by the facts. Data from the Office for National Statistics released this week show that the number of deaths from all causes (i.e. not just Covid-19-related deaths) is below the five-year average, as it has been for the last three weeks.