Irish Examiner view: Grim Covid figures must not dampen hope

Worrying statistics but we also need to focus on the positives

Dr Catherine Motherway, intensive care consultant at UHL, receiving her Covid-19 vaccine from clinical nurse manager Margaret Carroll.

The dawn of a new year is always a time to take stock; to stand, Janus-like, with an eye to the past and another to the future about to unfold.

During the last exceptional year, there has been no shortage of number-crunching and data modelling to help us do that as we attempted to chart the progression of a virus that wreaked havoc as it swept around the world.