I agree the lack on pandemic is annoying me,it just doesn't feel relevant at all. There are so many stories they could do about it... It actually seems odd people talking about going into town and doing things.
They could easily get over the time difference by saying there's a local flare up - if things really were different for us. They'd only need to film one scene with some characters saying how sad they are that the rest of the country can do X,Y, Z and they can't because Weatherfield's R number was up or something...and pop it at the beginning of the episode.