An Early Start

On my exercise walk today I saw this farmer out spraying the oil seed rape crop and another driving a tractor across a ploughed field, both before 8:30. I've added another shot across this field as an Extra. I had a lovely chat with my sister P and showed her the work I've been doing in the garden via FaceTime. Then I had a fab catch up with my friend A. Nice relaxing afternoon reading in the sun in the garden. 

Day 39 / Day 31 of Lockdown (for my record only)
UK deaths up 638 to 18,738 (UK no.s in briefing slightly out for last two days), Italy up 464 to 25,549, Spain up 440 to 22,157. In the US more than 15% of the workforce are now unemployed. The WHO reveals an estimate that half European Covid-19 deaths have been in care homes.

The govt is finally talking about adopting a 'test, track & trace' approach with 18,000 being hired and trained for the tracing. Capacity for testing is now 51,000 tests daily and increasing rapidly, but exceeds demand so now any essential worker or someone in their household can book a test online starting tomorrow. Home tests and mobile sites being introduced. A community study to understand the virus spread is being done in conjunction with the ONS & the University of Oxford, starting with regularly testing a sample of 25,000 people in the Community, then increasing this in phase 2 to 100,000. 

The deficit is potentially going to increase to £260bn, a level not seen in peacetime and a BoE policymaker says it's the worst economic shock in several hundred years. Amazon donates £250k to support bookshops hit by the virus. The BBC is broadcasting a joint fundraising tonight with Comic Relief and Children in Need called The Big Night In, which has just included a funny sketch featuring Prince William.