A Sad Day

G and I met JohnRH and W at Blickling this morning for a walk, it's my first visit to Blickling in 7 months. It was a real treat to catch up, this is one of the lovely houses on the estate. I was listening to R4 in the car on the way home when the programme was interrupted to announce the very sad news of the death of the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. What a life well lived and such incredible service to the country, not least his war service and his support to the Queen. I gave a donation to the  Duke of Edinburgh award scheme which he established and gives opportunities to young people to grow skills, experience and most importantly confidence. 

Day 389 / Day 94 of Lockdown 3 / Day 33 of Step 1 of Roadmap Easing (for my record only)
UK deaths up 60 to 127,040 (revised basis), with 3,150 new cases, 3,005 patients in hospital, 421 on ventilation and 233 new admissions. The R rate in Eng is 0.8-1.0 with 1 in 340 in Eng with the virus week to 3/4, 1 in 300 NI, 1 in 410 Scotland and 1 in 800 in Wales. 31.9m have now received their first dose of the vaccine and 6.5m have had their second dose. An astonishing 131,893 new cases in India yesterday, 89,293 new cases in Brazil, 80,161 in the US and 55,941 in Turkey - just a reminder that this is far from over. The EMA is reviewing 4 serious cases of rare blood clots with low platelets including 1 death after the Johnson & Johnson single shot vaccine, a similar type of vaccine to the AZ one. PHE are saying that vaccines have prevented 10,400 deaths to the end of March in people over 60. UK property values rose 6.5% from Mar 20, the start of the pandemic.