Snow - Day 8

The gulls were enjoying some bits of apple I'd thrown into the snow. A bitterly cold day again as although temperatures crept up to 2C, this was easily outweighed by the 40mph gusts of wind. I've also added an Extra of the woodpigeons enjoying their valentine day meal out. Another enjoyable morning watching the Australian open, then later I enjoyed a favourite film on 2, the Powell / Pressburger's A Matter of Life and Death with David Niven. 

Day 335 / Day 40 of Lockdown 3 (for my record only)
UK deaths up 258 to 117,166 (revised basis), with 10,972 new cases, 23,341 patients in hospital, 2,943 on ventilation and 1,715 new admissions. Absolutely brilliant news that c15.1m have now received their first dose of the vaccine. England has met the target of offering a vaccine to the 4 most vulnerable groups: care home residents and their carers; frontline health and social care workers; everyone 70 and older; and the clinically extremely vulnerable. There's no data on take up rates in these categories. Another 1.2m letters have been sent & a further 1.2m will be sent this week to the next 2 groups: the over 65s; and the more clinically vulnerable. The next target is to offer a 1st dose to all over 50s by the end of April. Such an amazing achievement only 13 months after we found out about the virus, amazing work by the scientists, the Government in financial support for developing vaccines and smoothing the path to manufacture; and the frontline NHS, pharmacies and volunteers. Data collected from the Zoe Covid-19 surveillance app by King's College London, is showing that 50,000 users vaccinated (a sample with a lot of healthcare workers) showed 67% protection after 3 weeks. The Govt is looking into the idea of vaccine certificates, one key issue being that the UK does not mandate people to be vaccinated, but relies on persuasion, and would not want to see discrimination. There are calls for Long-Covid to be recognised as an 'occupational disease' for frontline workers.