THE Covid-19 emergency is the biggest threat facing the country since the second world war and it has the potential to be even bigger.

This is the stark warning from veteran Tenbury councillor Tony Penn who was a schoolboy living in Coventry during the war.

Mr Penn, aged 85, is a councillor for Tenbury on the Malvern Hills District Council.

He is currently self-isolating with his wife Janet at their home on the outskirts of the town.

Mr Penn remembers the blitz but says that the current crisis is just as worrying and perhaps more so.

“I have never known anything like this, it is completely unprecedented,” said Mr Penn.

“There has been nothing like it since the war which I remember living in Coventry.”

Mr Penn says that everyone has a responsibility to follow the advice of the Government and stay at home.

“I can understand why older people may feel they do not want to spend part of what remains of their life cooped up at home.

“But this is not about us as individuals but about our duty to the community. If we go out and become ill we will put even greater pressure on already over stretched health services.”