It is good to have the Prime Minister back in No 10. If nothing else, his extended absence only serves to remind us just how awful this disease can be – even though many can have it whilst showing few or no symptoms.

His first job is to respond to the calls for a timetable on how we will come out of the lockdown. Businesses and individuals are, completely understandably, eager to know how this will end.

Businesses need to make plans for investment, set timetables for when to bring staff back from furlough, have conversations with suppliers and customers about co-ordination of supply chains. Restarting the economy is fraught with complexities.

Similarly, individuals and families also need that steer on how their lives will re-emerge from lockdown. And this uncertainty continues whilst other countries begin to open up.

The problem is, others may have opened too early. Singapore, having thought it had got through the problems now finds itself retreating towards lockdown again.

Political leaders are concerned about the speed of opening up in different parts of their countries – Germany is a case in point.

Spain has opened to allow school age children to come out of their homes for the first time in month – a concession that we take for granted with our exercise hour.

There are two problems to setting out a timetable for exiting lockdown. The first is that if we get this wrong, many will die.

That is a huge burden for anyone making the decision about easing social distancing. A genuine life and death decision over the future of those people we represent.

The second is more practical. Set a timetable of what will happen and businesses will get the chance to plan.

In theory, a good thing, until best practice from other countries doing likewise across the globe proves that relaxing social isolation is counterproductive.

If we set a timetable, only to come out too early, or find we must change our plans, what extra chaos would that cause to business?

There is no answer. One group of society understandably want early release: another, equally understandably, wants to protect lives and the NHS.

Everyone will have an opinion and their opinion will be based on their own experiences. I don’t suppose we will ever know when the right moment is, even with the benefit of hindsight.

This is a simple trade off – lives affected by coronavirus against lives affected by economic strife.