Berries

Is it going to be a hard Winter with all those berries on my pyracantha hedge? A day of lots of different jobs: completed tax return; finalised updating my will; checked my NI record; wrote a query about Class 3 NI voluntary contributions; updated my State Pension forecast; payed bills; complained to Barclays and chased another complaint with them; sorted out food cupboards; took some water from the pond; put the bin out; wrote and posted a letter. Loads more still to do. We’ve had 1.5 inches of rain today and very blustery.

Day 583 / Day 94 of Step 4 of Roadmap Easing (for my record only)
New daily cases today were 49,139, with numbers for the last 7 days up 17.2%. There were 179 deaths today, with numbers for the last 7 days up 21.1%. All 7 English Health Service regions are seeing increasing numbers of coronavirus positive patients, with the East of England up 32% in a week and the South East up 39%.  Health leaders call for the immediate implementation of Plan B. Despite this and his warning of up to 100,000 new cases a day and potential new variants around the corner, the Health Secretary refuses to implement Plan B and reintroduce mandatory mask wearing, social distancing and encourage working from home. This is ignoring the ‘lesson learnt’ that you have to act earlier than you think, more strongly than you think and broader than you expect. And he seems to be blaming the slow progress of the booster programme on people not bothering to turn up - does he take responsibility for any system failures? At least he reminded people to meet outside where possible, ventilate and wear masks indoors and do regular lateral flow tests (now picking up a quarter of cases) - it will be interesting to see whether the Press report that bit and whether MPs and the Cabinet start following Govt guidance. Over 4m booster jabs given in Eng so far. The UK has struck deals for two new antiviral treatments which are awaiting approval by the Regulator, which will be given to those most at risk from the virus. Charities are reporting that vulnerable patients are being ‘shamefully let down’ by failures in the third primary jab programme and also that some ‘healthy’ people have been invited. A draft report on Covid in Brazil has said that President Bolsonaro should face homicide charges on errors made.