Buzzy

Not me, but the bees were very buzzy today, although quite sluggish in the cold and rain. I did some more hoeing in a small gap in the rain and also finished a jigsaw. A planned walk with friends got postponed due to the poor weather. 

Day 87 / Day 79 of Lockdown / Day 10 of Step 2 (for my record only)
UK deaths up 245 to 41,128 with only 1,003 new cases but still 443 new hospital admissions. Boris announced more lockdown changes, a key one being the introduction of a support bubble from Saturday for people living on their own to mix with one other household (no switching) with no restrictions. It's incredibly complicated and another very bumbling explanation by Boris, not helped by the CMO saying something contradictory (so don't rely on my explanation). So.....it applies if you're single and single includes having children under 18 living with you, but doesn't apply if you're shielded. Another household can be more than one person (1 per CW) and some reports are that the other household can include someone with a flatmate, and some say not. You can stay overnight with the other household, some say you can live there, some say not. A single grandparent can therefore help a child with their childcare (providing not mixing outside the bubble) but two grandparents living together cannot. Other changes are that zoos, safari parks and outdoor cinemas can open from Monday and individual prayer can be done in places of worship. It's reported that up to 10M could be waiting for NHS treatment by the end of the year. 

Virus genome sequencing in the UK together with other data and analysis has concluded that the virus entered the UK via at least 1,356 different routes through inbound international travel (many of these lineages have now died out). 14% of lineages were from Italy in late Feb, 34% from Spain in early to mid-Mar, 29% from France in mid to late Mar. Up to beginning Mar the UK had 1,75M inbound visitors per week, the UK Govt advised against all but essential travel on 17th Mar and advised British travellers overseas to return to the UK on 23rd Mar. One scientist has said that locking down a week earlier would have cut the death toll in half (the same scientist who had to resign for breaking lockdown rules).