Pond Digging

I made good progress today in digging the pond out, I still need to go deeper down in the centre and do the tricky bit of getting the depths and levels right. I popped to a local timber merchants this morning to get a 1800mm spirit level, it always surprises me what I can and can't buy in Holt! And some excellent news, Wimbledon will go ahead next year, even if the tournament must be behind closed doors. 

Day 215 / Day 3 of The 3 Tiers (for my record only)
UK deaths up 136 to 43,429 (revised basis), with a 15,650 rise in new daily cases, 5,311 patients in hospital and 580 in ventilator beds. The R no. has risen slightly to 1.3-1.5, but it's been pretty stable over the last few weeks due to stronger controls in force after going above 1 at the end of Aug (note the natural R rate for the virus is around 3). SAGE reported that infections are growing between 4% & 7% a day. The ONS infection survey suggests there are c27,900 new cases a day in England and between 312,200 - 362,000 people with the virus w/e 8th Oct. 40% of people in hospital with Covid are under 60. ONS reports that the higher risk of death from Covid-19 for ethnic minorities is linked to where they live and the jobs they do, rather than their health. 

Lancashire joins Liverpool City Region in Tier 3 starting at midnight tonight. The Manchester mayor is still refusing to go into Tier 3, he seems to think he has the right to change the national job support scheme for some reason. The no. in intensive care beds in Gtr MCr is already 40% over the peak in the Spring. A local ICU doctor warns leaders opposing the move to Tier 3 to 'shut up and shut down now'. I agreed in theory with the approach to Tier 3 of the Govt setting basic, common controls and negotiating with local leaders / health advisers about the additional controls needed plus business support appropriate to that area. However, in reality this is just leading to complaints about differences in what happens in different areas and more critically long delays in taking the urgent action needed (5 days for Greater Manchester so far). Local leaders ideally need to step up and take more local responsibility, but I suspect the Govt will have to revert to a centrally designed system even though implemented locally. 

At the briefing this afternoon the PM again referred to the risk posed by asymptomatic spreaders. New faster, simpler, cheaper tests are coming out and will be trialled in the next few weeks for NHS and care home staff, schools, universities and will be provided to local Directors of Public Health for local outbreaks with very high areas prioritised. Stressed that T&T will not be effective if people testing positive and those they've been in close contact with don't self isolate. The T&T representative at the meeting referred to the importance of taking personal responsibility and reducing our contacts, particularly indoors in poorly ventilated spaces.