The Last Ladybird?

More rain again this afternoon, but I managed to get out into the garden this morning. I spotted what may be the last ladybird I'll see this year, and I've not seen many at all in 2020. It's the men's singles semi-finals at the French Open today, so a lot of tv watching for me :)

Day 208 / Full Day 200 of Lockdown / Day 26 of Rule of Six (for my record only)
UK deaths up 87 to 42,679 (revised basis), with a 13, 864 rise in new daily cases (down 3,676 since yesterday - all over the place so I assume that's T&T processes in Eng and not the virus), 3,660 patients in hospital and 436 in ventilator beds. The R rate is reported as down to 1.2 to 1.5 (from 1.3 to 1.6 last week), but has gone up to 1.3 to 1.6 in the East of England. The Imperial College / Ipsos MORI study reports 45,000 new infections a day. The ONS reports 17,200 new cases a day in private households in w/e 1/10, up from 12,600 the previous week. Daily new cases in Italy are beginning to rise at 5,372 today. The Spanish Govt imposes a 15 day state of emergency in Madrid to bring down virus levels. 

The Chancellor announced an expansion of the Job Support Scheme to support workers in UK businesses forced to shut by law due to stricter lockdown measures. The Govt will pay 67% of those workers salaries if off at least 7 days up to £2,100 per month, and the scheme will run from 1st Nov, being reviewed in 6 months. In Eng business grants are to increase with up to £3k paid every fortnight. GDP grew by 2.1% in Aug which was below forecast and 9.2% below Feb. Sky News reports that the 'herd immunity' open letter includes fake names, homeopaths and therapists in its 15,000 'medical' practitioners. Sky News also reports that the NHS app has only sent one alert since launch about an outbreak in a venue even though it's been used for millions of check-ins - and that for privacy reasons the message is simply 'We are letting you know that you may have been exposed to coronavirus when you were out'. Hopeless - this can't replace the old system of taking contact details and tracing contacts.