Hereford police commander Sue Thomas, in her regular column for the Hereford Times, praises the way Herefordshire has responded to the upheaval caused by the coronavirus crisis

It has been an interesting and challenging few months for all of us, and hopefully we are now starting to see things improving from the impact of the coronavirus.

Things have happened and things we have seen are all ones which we would never have thought possible in our lifetimes.

For most, it has made us stop and think about life, what matters, what is important and what we can live without.

I hold the responsibility to lead the multi-agency response to emergency-type situations and the group have met continuously throughout the last few months.

We have dealt with key concerns such as the availability of personal protection equipment (PPE) for health workers, how we can support vulnerable members of our communities and how we can ensure a local testing facility in the county.

We also had regular updates on how people were responding to measures to keep themselves isolated and social distancing.

It is with great pleasure that we saw the people of Herefordshire play their part in fighting the virus.

Most people, most of the time complied with the expectations, and for those that did not there was more firm action, but thankfully those occasions were very few.

So, we have moved into another stage – shops, pubs, bars start to open and work hard to provide the goods and services to assist the county to get back on its feet.

The people of Herefordshire have worked hard, and I know we can continue to do so to ensure that the virus is managed, people are safe and we all play our part to keep the county as great as it is!

I appeal to everyone to sense-check yourselves, your family and friends that you are doing all you can to fight this virus – we can do this!