Editor

Given that the Welsh Governments has, for the time being, retained the rule of two-metre physical distancing, one might ask whether most of the population really understands this concept.

For folk of my age group (70-plus) a quick translation is probably required. The distance is six foot and seven inches. Now teenagers, who should have learned about all this metric stuff at school, but probably never had any practicals, may also be having difficulty.

Having a better understanding of the distance is, of course, only part of the process. There is the need to apply it. Runners can probably be exempted because they never stop for anything and, since they never stop, there is no chance of the virus ever catching them up.

But what of us OAPs and the rest of the population? Starting with us, it has been nice to see so many elderly couples walking together hand in hand. The only possible downside would seem to be that they often seem to have forgotten to switch on their hearing aids. As a cyclist approaching such a couple on a narrow path one sounds one’s bell. Unfortunately, the happy couples so often fail to hear and turn to see what is behind them. Of course it is not only folk of my vintage. The other folk out to enjoy the great outdoors who are tightly clamped between their headphones are also at risk of finding 60kg of lycra bearing down on them from behind.

The reaction of folk who do recognise a cyclist’s warning can also be of interest. Some couples continue to carry on walking two abreast, presumably confident that St Cummings will look after them. Others decide to apply physical distancing by splitting up, with one going to one side of the path and one to the other. Such a move can make them two metres apart, but their distance from the person passing between seems to have dropped out of their calculations.

May I end with a plea to your readers to keep up the physical distancing. The pandemic is not yet over and the bigger the distance, the lower the risk.

Yours etc Dr Peter Cuthbert, Coedlan Y Plas, Aberystwyth

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