Surprise

This afternoon I received these fab flowers as a thank you, what a lovely surprise. I'll blip them properly another day, but this was taken at 5:35 and I obviously had to be 'in position' in front of the tv for the Strictly final at 6. What a fabulous final and Bill was a worthy winner for a brilliant show dance, and all 4 couples were fab-u-lous. The Strictly team did amazingly well to put the series on, often at great personal cost of not seeing their families for weeks. It was so worth it, what a tonic it was for the Nation.

Obviously this was a huge contrast to the announcements by the PM at 4 of the virus increasing too fast due to the new variation, a new Tier 4 for millions from tomorrow and a severe curtailment of the easing of rules for xmas. 

Day 279 / Day 18 of the 3 Tiers v2 (for my record only)
UK deaths up 534 to 67,075 (revised basis), with 27,052 new cases, 18,771 patients in hospital and 1,364 on ventilation. Globally cases to date pass 76m, with the UK passing 2m. 5 days since we heard about the new variant of the virus, which was 6 days since it was identified, we were told today by the PM that NERVTAG has assessed that it's up to 70% better at transmitting and could add 0.4 or more to our R rate. This new variant represented 28% of cases in London in w/c 18/11 and at w/c 9/12 it represents 62% of cases and is dominant there and in the East. The map shown of the most affected areas to me looks like a map of where London commuters live. It doesn't seem to alter the course of the disease or the immune response and there is no reason currently to think vaccines won't work against it. However, the huge increase in transmission (doubling every 7 days) is already leading to increases in hospital numbers and this needs to be reduced. The PM said that as the virus changes its method of attack, we must change our method of defence. The following 3 actions were announced:
1. New restrictions in London, SE and East which will be put into a new Tier 4 from tomorrow, which is similar to restrictions in Lockdown 2 and the message is to stay at home. You can meet 1 other person from another household outside. No xmas bubble / household mixing at xmas however, and you can't travel abroad except for work. 
2. New advice on travel , everyone must now stay in their local area.
3. Xmas rules have been revised and now only apply to xmas day for Tiers 1 to 3, where you can mix with up to two other households. 
In Wales the strictest restrictions have been bought forward by more than a week and start tomorrow. Their xmas bubble will now only be with 1 other household and will be for xmas day only. The Scottish mainland will be placed into their Level 4 rules from Boxing Day, with the easing of restrictions only applied to xmas day and a 'strict travel ban between Scotland and the rest of the UK'. NI was already due to have a 6 week lockdown from Boxing Day. The CMO suggested that shielding guidance was again being reviewed. The CMO also said it was like we were already cycling uphill, and now we've also got the wind against us. 31% of the population in England is now in the new Tier 4 including my friends and family in Milton Keynes who were in Tier 2 on Friday, Tier 3 on Saturday, and will be in Tier 4 on Sunday. The US is the first country to approve the Moderna vaccine.