Another Bee

Another lovely sunny day today, I did some gardening and some pc stuff. The Police have clarified that your daily exercise must be from your home, you're not allowed to drive to somewhere to exercise, so no more driving 15 mins to the remote beach like I was before the lockdown. Roadblocks for checking why you're out are being used in some places and non compliance can get you a £60 fine. The argument is that you might need hospital treatment if you have an accident and to reduce the number of people using petrol stations. At least it's now clarified (per the newpapers, not on the official bulletin).

Day 11 / Day 3 of Lockdown (for my record only)
UK deaths up 113 to 578 (Eng figures low yesterday as cutoff changed and only covered 8 hrs); Italy up 712 to 8215 and Spain up 655 to 4089. There are more that half a million cases Worldwide. Tech giants incl Amazon & Microsoft are helping the NHS use 111 data to plan the consequences of moving resources. There are predictions that the NHS might need up to 30,000 new ventilators. Current production is being ramped up supported by other well known engineering companies, and Babcock and Dyson have both designed new style ventilators which need signing off before production starts. There are calls for people to 'clap for our carers' from their doorsteps at 8pm. Police get new powers to enforce lockdown rules. People threatening key workers by coughing or spitting on them will face serious criminal charges. Self employed represent 15% of workers and by the end of June they are to get a taxable grant of 80% of the average of their last 3 years earnings up to £2,500 pm providing trading profits are under £50k. Applies if over 50% of work not with another PAYE job. Chancellor warned that tax/NI rules will be aligned to other workers going forward as this support has been provided.