A Jigsaw Week

Yay, most of the snow has now gone. I drove to the post office in the nearby village at lunchtime to post a birthday present and was quite surprised at that time about how much solid ice was still on the non-main roads. As well as watching the tennis last week, I also did a couple of Thomas Kinkade 1,000 piece jigsaws as shown in my collage. 

Day 336 / Day 41 of Lockdown 3 (for my record only)
UK deaths up 230 to 117,396 (revised basis), with 9,765 new cases (lowest since 2/10), 23,341 patients in hospital, 2,943 on ventilation and 1,641 new admissions. c15.3m have now received their first dose of the vaccine. All good news on the stats with the exception of those in hospital still being higher than at the first peak plus prevalence still needing to come down further. The UK as a whole reached the target of offering vaccines to the top 4 priority groups by 15th Feb. It was revealed that a third of social care staff had not received a jab, partly by choice and partly as you can't have it within a certain time of testing positive. Phase 2 of the vaccination programme started today with hubs and pharmacies focusing on the over 65s and surgeries focusing on those with underlying health conditions, with the PM reminding us that 60% of hospital patients with Covid are under 70. Israel is reporting that symptomatic cases are dropping by 94% after 2 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which is equally effective for all age groups, and a 92% drop in serious cases - excellent 'real world' results. The PM is aiming for planning to ease restrictions in a 'cautious but irreversible' way so that this is the last lockdown. On GMB this morning Professor Neil Ferguson said the biggest mistake made was failing to control the rise in infections in the autumn, leading to the 2nd wave. He implied that other politicians were against the tougher action wanted by the Health Secretary and the PM, which I suspected at the time. Lets hope those in the Conservative party and cabinet pushing for quicker release of restrictions now don't get their way again, I suspect Boris and Matt are in a much stronger position politically now.  Release needs to be data driven, not date driven. The mandatory quarantine hotel programme started today with early signs that it needs tightening up. People from red list countries reported travelling on planes with others from non-red list countries, or queuing up with inadequate segmentation. Scotland also is concerned that people from non-red list countries can fly into England and travel to Scotland without going into a quarantine hotel as England only requires it for those from red-list countries and Scotland for those from all countries. Common sense says it must be for everyone coming into the UK from any country, bar minor exemptions.