Fuchsia

A pretty fuchsia in a pot in my front garden for Flower Friday. More admin this morning, I'm chipping away at it. Before the pandemic I used to go to 7 group meetings a month on various topics and for the last 18 months none have been held, although 4 did continue over Zoom at times. Today was my first meeting in person, it was the U3A photography group. It was really nice to see a reasonable number of previous members and three new ones and we quickly got back into the swing of it. I was quite surprised, given the average age, that only two of us wore a mask during the meeting (except when we were talking) and I did also suggest that the door got propped open to improve ventilation in the room. I also shared a car for the first time, both wearing masks and windows partly open. 

Day 522 / Day 33 of Step 4 of Roadmap Easing (for my record only)
England's R no. has risen to between 0.9 and 1.2 and PHE says the daily growth rate has increased to between -1% and 3%. The ONS weekly infection survey in private households estimates 1 in 80 in Eng with the virus (stable), 1 in 200 in Scotland (stable), 1 in 130 in Wales (up) and 1 in 50 in NI (stable). AZ says that its coronavirus antibody treatment reduces the risk of symptomatic coronavirus by 77%, great news for those with compromised immune systems. The UK has approved its first drug (called Ronapreve) which uses Monoclonal antibodies in the prevention and treatment of acute infection from coronavirus. All those arriving from Afghanistan will quite rightly be offered their first dose of the vaccine. The WHO is looking to investigate new pathogens that could move to humans from animals and lead to another pandemic, and is looking for 25 experts to sit on a panel - better late than never! South Africa ditched 1m doses of the AZ vaccine from initial evidence it wasn't effective against the Beta variant, this evidence was later found to be incorrect. Prof Whitty has been working in a Covid ward for 4 weeks and says 'the majority of our hospitalised Covid patients are unvaccinated and regret delaying' and that 'some are very sick, including young adults'.