When my partner was released from his Covid cage, after two clear lateral flow tests and nine days of isolation, we both sighed with relief. I cooked scrambled eggs and he bolted them down, just in time for his first work meeting of the year. (Ever the model employee, he had timed his Covid to coincide precisely with his annual leave.) While he talked to faces on a screen, I dismantled the Christmas tree he had barely seen. It was his birthday and I was determined to give him a lovely day.