Who would refuse to hand over their name and a contact number when they go to a pub or café just now?

It’s easy, there’s no inconvenience, simply scan a code, tell it to the staff or write it down on the sheet of paper.

Some people argue about privacy and freedom and human rights and other spurious nonsense as justification for withholding their personal details.

There is no breach of your human rights, because it is not a human right to go the pub, contrary to what some might tell you.

What there is, is human responsibility, a responsibility to other humans to protect one another from a virus that has reached every part of the globe and is still growing at this very minute.

There have been more than 20 million cases worldwide and three quarter of a million deaths since this epidemic escalated into a pandemic at the start of this year.

In countries where numbers were brought under control after months of lockdown, like France and Spain, numbers have been rising again as people are given more freedoms and lockdown is eased.

Countries which were seen as the model for containing the virus, like New Zealand, and Australia have had to introduce new restrictions in certain areas to prevent a nationwide spread and to stop what has happened in Europe, Asia and America happening there on the same scale.

The list of countries where quarantine is needed on return to the UK has been extended again to include France.

And at home localised lockdowns in England and Scotland have been necessary to contain cases.

It is not just the Scottish Government who is saying contact tracing is crucial at this time.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director General of the World Health Organisation, spoke this week of the efforts to prevent outbreaks as devastating as we witnessed in March and April from taking hold again.

He said: “Chains of transmission have been broken by a combination of rapid case identification and comprehensive contact tracing.”

That’s what we are doing when we give our names when we go into a pub, café or restaurant.

We are helping to break the chain, which as we knew got out of control.

We are supplying the health authorities with the details needed to carry out tracing to work out who could be infected due to where they have visited and stop the virus in its tracks.

That is why the Aberdeen outbreak is now beginning to slow and hopefully will be able to come out of the local lockdown soon.

Without it people would not know if they are at risk and would unwittingly go about passing it on to others like happened in February and March leading to the nationwide lockdown.

Some people, in not wanting to comply, seem to have forgotten the devastating impact the virus has had.

Have they forgotten the rapidly rising daily death toll, hospital staff struggling to cope and people in intensive care fighting for their lives because of a seemingly unstoppable virus?

Have they forgotten the people with serious conditions locked away in their own homes shielding for months on end unable to even enjoy the meagre one hour a day outdoors exercise?

The care home staff powerless as residents died in front of their eyes. and the families unable to be with those they loved in their final hours?

No-one wants to go back to that, so we need to do what we can to stop ourselves catching the virus and to prevent it from being passed on if we do.

That’s why all over the world varying degrees of restrictions are still in place and no-one is able to lead a normal life.

Some people rushed headlong towards the lockdown exit route, when the door was barely ajar, perhaps understandably, but when it is done in great numbers we have inevitably ended up with new cases.

Some people thought and think the lockdown was unnecessary.

If you are a Covid denier, or a lockdown decrier that’s up to you, your opinion is your opinion, even when it is stupid and selfish.

But you could have the decency to self-isolate at home with your views while shouting at the rolling 24-hour TV news.

That way you can let the responsible people, the customers, the staff and the owners, who want to see a safe re-opening of the economy, that will allow those sectors still closed to also get back to work, do so.

So, when we are asked to give our name and a contact phone number to staff we can all just do it and hopefully everybody benefits through mutual co-operation.

It is quite simple and now from today it is the law.

If your name’s not down you’re not getting in.