The UK government is launching what it sees as a pivotal part of this country slowly emerging from the current lockdown with its lock and trace programme.
It’s a change that’s going to require people in England to absorb and act on new rules around self-isolation.
Matt Hancock said that sticking by those rules will be voluntary for now, but added it could become mandatory.
The Health Secretary appealed to people’s “civic duty” and said that he trusted the public “to do the right thing”.
But the actions of Dominic Cummings – and the debate about whether he did the right thing – could hang over this command.
There have been numerous warnings, including from some Tory MPs, that trust is something of a two-way street. However, it may only be clear once this new way of combating the virus actually starts to bed in, whether public trust has been really eroded and to what extent.
