A Winter's Morning

It was the first frost of the year overnight, I was going to drive down to the bakery this morning, but took one look at the icy windscreen on the car and went back inside! H and I went for a beautiful but cold walk around Felbrigg, it was muddier than ever at the bottom of the woods. I spotted the sheep in the extra unable to resist having a good scratch! I did a load of ironing this afternoon whilst watching the tennis tour finals.

I can't believe the Home Secretary wasn't asked to resign after the independent report into bullying said she broke the ministerial code, but instead the report's author resigned. 

Day 250 / Day 16 of Lockdown 2 (for my record only)
UK deaths up 511 to 54,286 (revised basis), with 20,252 new cases, 16,444 patients in hospital and 1,426 on ventilation. The R rate at 20/11 is down slightly to 1-1.1, with a daily infection growth range of 0-2%. The ONS says CV infections in England appear to have 'levelled off' recently, with the infection survey showing daily cases rising by 38,900 in w/e 14/11, down 22% from the previous week. However, prevalence rose to 1 in 80 having the virus. Rates are rising in the East unfortunately. MH says the 2nd peak is flattening. Globally cases to date passed 57m last night, up 1m in under 48 hours, with the US passing 12m and India passing 9m cases to date. Deaths in the US yesterday alone were 2,065, with 192,240 new daily cases and deaths in Mexico passed 100,000 today. The WHO says that more cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the last 4 weeks than in the first 6 months of the pandemic (presumably part of this is as more are now tested). 

The Govt has asked the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) to assess the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine for use in the UK. If approved, vaccination will start in Dec, with bulk rollout next year via vaccination sites, hospital hubs and community rollout by GPs and Pharmacists. Rollout will depend on the speed of production of the vaccine(s). A leaked draft NHS plan indicated that all age groups will have started being vaccinated by the end of Jan - not sure I believe this as it would be substantially more than the 1m a week reported previously and the vaccine would have to be available from the manufacturers. A large study has shown that people who've had the virus are safe from reinfection for at least 6 months. The WHO has advised against the use of Remdesivir as there is no evidence it improves survival or the need for ventilation. The circuit breaker lockdown in NI has been extended by another two weeks. The Deputy CMO is now self isolating.