5 happy news stories to cheer you up over the Easter weekend

As lockdown is extended for the next 3 weeks, and the sun splits the trees as we go into a long weekend, it’s easy to feel anxious, to feel stuck. We know by staying apart, together we are flattening the curve, halting the spread of the virus and saving as many lives as we can. It doesn’t mean the days aren’t difficult, however. For some cheering up, it’s worth reminding everyone that good things are still happening every single day. Here are five recent things to help keep your spirits high this Bank Holiday 

Hope of a COVID-19 vaccine by September

An Oxford professor has claimed a COVID-19 vaccine could be available for use by September, despite officials saying a working one was at least 12-18 months away. Sarah Gilbert is a professor of vaccinology at Oxford University and is leading a team of researchers in developing a vaccine to prevent the virus.  In an interview with The Times, the professor said: “I think there’s a high chance that it will work based on other things that we have done with this type of vaccine.” “It’s not just a hunch and as every week goes by we have more data to look at … I would go for 80%, that’s my personal view.” See the full story HERE. 

This pet gerbils miniature art gallery

Quarantine, day 14. Me and my boyfriend spent the whole day setting up an art gallery for our gerbil. pic.twitter.com/kswEukLc7s

— A happier day (@AHappierDay) April 6, 2020

A couple stuck inside during the novel coronavirus lockdowns have used their free time to make an adorable art gallery for their pet gerbils. Marianna Benetti and her boyfriend Filippo Lorenzin constructed the miniature exhibition last week to keep their pet entertained during quarantine. The tiny space was furnished with carefully curated rodent-themed takes on classic works of art — including the “Mousa Lisa.”

These newborns wearing tiny facemasks

Look at these newborns in Thailand with special little facemasks… your baby won’t get one in this country! Unless the wonderful public make them and supply them pic.twitter.com/kzful15jnI

— MrsAitchBee #stayhomesavelives (@MrsAitchBee) April 10, 2020

Getty images uploaded a few photos by Lillian Suwanrumpha taken at Praram 9 Hospital in Bangkok on Thursday. The photos, taken in the maternity ward, show nurses in surgical masks cradling newborns wrapped in blankets and sporting itty-bitty plastic visors – it’s both utterly adorable and slightly heartbreaking.

The #DearHeroes campaign 

dear heroes is LIVE ?@MaterTrauma? ?@TheMaterFoundat? ?@MaterNursing? This is just Brilliant ?@HSELive? ?@SimonHarrisTD? https://t.co/1PU60zpnMp

— Sarah Jayne Miggin (@Sjmiggin) April 10, 2020

Messages of thanks and support and support are being projected across the Mater Hospital in Dublin to show appreciation for frontline healthcare workers. The uplifting messages are part of the #DearHeroes campaign, which aims to give the public the chance to thank people working on the frontline of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Easter bunny is an essential worker

So your little ones won’t have to fret, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has confirmed that while we might have to stay inside this weekend, the Easter bunny will not. Leo Varadkar released a special ‘eggs-emption’, declaring the Easter Bunny’s permission to continue his work. Thank goodness!

Main photograph: Unsplash