Why life has been ‘extremely challenging’ on the Scottish islands with just 70 COVID cases

On the face of it, Scotland’s Orkney Islands have been a safe haven from the horrors of the coronavirus pandemic.In the 13 months since the UK’s first two COVID-19 infections were identified, Orkney has had just 70 cases.

Its infection rate – 314.3 per 100,000 people – is by far the lowest in the UK.For a place where so few have caught the virus and people still have a degree of freedom, however, islanders say life has been much less “normal” than you would perhaps expect.