Moon Rising

Another sunny day today and this afternoon I nipped over to Cromer to visit the bank and go for a walk. It was lovely to see the late light over the pier and the moon rising. It was noticeably quiet in Cromer. This afternoon G and I had tickets for the wonderful Candlelight Tour at Holkham Hall, but we had a chat this morning after the briefing by the CMO yesterday and decided to cancel. They were lovely about it and refunded our money - which means we'll definitely support them going forward. I also had a nice catch up with my sister this morning. 

Day 640 / Day 7 of Plan B (for my record only)
There were 88,376 new daily cases today, another record. The R number for Omicron is thought to be between 3 and 5, the current R number for Delta is 1.1-1.2. The 'S Gene target failure' in tests indicates c35% of cases in England are of Omicron. The CMO said that Omicron is 'going to be really concentrated in a very short period of time, very possibly; so may peak quickly and fall away quickly too. He also said 'each six months will be better than the last six months'. A SAGE expert says it sounds possible that 1m could be isolating on xmas day. He also said that over half of people infected don't get tested. Researchers say that Omicron multiplies 70 times faster than Delta in human airways, but that the infection is significantly lower in the lung itself than the original - not yet peer reviewed. From Saturday, France is banning British visitors without 'compelling reasons' to travel, which don't include tourism and business. A record 745,183 boosters were given yesterday, a great achievement. In Scotland less than 20% of people with the NHS app use it to inform people they've tested positive, in Eng & Wales it's estimated at 50% - unbelievable! The Professor leading the Zoe symptom study has said again that Omicron cases are more 'cold like'. The Queen has cancelled her traditional pre-Christmas family lunch, good to see our head of state leading by example, unlike our PM.