So, here we are then. Is this week six of lockdown or week seven? I’m beginning to lose count as the days and weeks roll on.

The only differentiation I can see now is that the government’s daily press conference takes place earlier on Saturdays and Sundays. Even Bank Holidays have lost their meanings, being pretty much the same as the day before…and the day after.

So what’s the current state of play then, in your opinion? Personally, I think it’s pretty dire.

I was criticised recently by some irate readers when I suggested the UK’s response was too little, too late in all aspects of its handling of the coronavirus crisis.

But frankly, I think I was right, and those blindly thinking the government has done a good job either don’t understand the situation or are choosing to ignore the mounting death toll out of misplaced loyalty to the government.

The fact is we were too late to recognise the danger, despite seeing nightly scenes of horror on our televisions of intensive care units in northern Italy being overrun with doctors having to take ‘battlefield decisions’ to just let some (usually older) patients die without treatment because there weren’t enough ventilators.

We were too late going into lockdown. When there was evidence the virus had actually arrived on our island (the key word here is island, and I’ll return to that later) the government still allowed mass gathering sporting events to go ahead – the Cheltenham Festival, Liverpool’s Champions League game, huge Stereophonics gigs in Wales.

The government ‘suggested’ we stop going to bars and restaurants, but commuter trains and buses were still rammed at rush hour.

Despite getting a month’s notice that Covid-19 was heading our way, the procurement of personal protective equipment was – you guessed it – too little, too late.

I’m given to understand that protecting those who live and work in care homes is now a priority, yet the evidence seems to suggest that wasn’t the case at the start of the pandemic response. Dare I suggest this is too little, too late.

And yet the government’s strategy is an ‘apparent success’. Obviously these are not my words but the words of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Making his first address to the nation after being discharged from hospital, Mr Johnson said: “It is still true that this is the biggest single challenge this country has faced since the war and I no way minimise the continuing problems we face.

“There will be many people looking now at our apparent success and beginning to wonder whether now is the time to go easy on those social distancing measures.”

I suppose it all depends on how you measure success. I don’t think the families of the 28,446 dead announced at the government press conference on Saturday night would consider that success.

And heading for the second-highest death toll in the world (only behind the USA) doesn’t feel like much of a success to me.

(Before you start reaching for your keyboards, yes I know worldwide death statistics haven’t necessarily been counted or collated the same way, so we may actually only be the third or fourth worst country in the world for deaths, so that’s some comfort, isn’t it?)

Or frontline staff dying because they don’t have the correct PPE isn’t particularly successful either.

But then again, it all depends on your criteria and definition of success. You only have to look at the message the government has drummed into us: Stay Home; Protect the NHS; Save Lives.

It seems to me that the entire thrust of the government’s Covid-19 response has been to stop the NHS being overwhelmed and to that extent I suppose they can give themselves a round of applause and a pat on the back. Just a pity that almost 30,000 people had to die along the way.

Getting two out of three right isn’t bad, is it?

I’ve tried to avoid getting into the minefield of statistics but there are some figures I would like to share with you.

New Zealand has a population of just under five million people.

Northwich has a population of, being generous and taking the wider area into consideration, about 50,000.

By Sunday night, New Zealand’s death total to coronavirus (an island nation that can control its borders) was 20 (yes just 20). The total number of deaths in the Northwich area up to April 18, according to the Office of National Statistics, was 26.

Yes, more people have died in Northwich of coronavirus than in an entire country.

And let’s look at Taiwan, shall we? It’s another island nation with a population of 23.8 million people. How many coronavirus deaths have occurred there?

Just six (yes six).

Compare that with the 17 deaths in the Knutsford area which has, being generous, a population of around 20,000 if you include the villages.

We are an island nation, but at the time of writing, people are still flying into our country and don’t even have their temperature taken, let alone go into 14 days’ isolation.

Here’s the thing, both New Zealand and Taiwan acted quickly. They had vigorous ‘test, trace and isolate’ policies and they didn’t go for ‘herd immunity’.

They were focused on a clear and obvious danger and weren’t sidetracked by taking a holiday break in the country or crowdfunding for Big Ben Bongs for Brexit.

Sorry if this doesn’t fit in with your view of the world but as the author Ben Shapiro wrote: Facts don’t care about your feelings.