While we should keep a sense of perspective about the coronavirus pandemic, following the most basic advice on how to protect yourself and your family is only common sense.

Yet you do not have to look far to find those who are not socially distancing.

In supermarkets and other businesses, floors have been marked to help guide people on how far they should be standing apart from those not in their household.

Even this is not enough for some.

In fairness, most, if not all, of us can have moments where it slips our mind.

On our roads we know there is no such thing as a perfect driver; we all have lapses, we all make mistakes.

With this virus, even those for whom infection control is intrinsic to their employment have not been immune.

We saw this with the North-West hospitals outbreak, which caused the region to be "locked down", being subject to harsher restrictions than elsewhere in the state.

It has perhaps not been recognised enough how successful we were in preventing that outbreak from becoming one of widespread community transmission.

That's down to the actions of the authorities but also the overwhelming majority of people who heeded public health advice.

Undoubtedly, this saved lives.

The danger now as we continue to feel a sense of relief at having not had a case in Tasmania for some months, prepare to open borders to other relatively COVID-free states, and call for restrictions to be eased further is one of complacency.

There is an element of "monkey see, monkey do" in human behaviour.

The more people stop social distancing - ignoring those "please stand here" signs on the supermarket floor - the more others will do likewise.

If this goes out the window, if we are no longer conscious of maintaining greater personal space, what next? Do we stop washing our hands so regularly and thoroughly, or covering our coughs?

We all need to keep reminding ourselves, every day, to take these basic precautions.

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