What a Difference a Day Makes

After two lovely sunny days, there was horrible weather her today, very foggy and cold with rain at times. G and I went for a walk at West Runton beach this morning. We haven't been for a while and got quite a shock as the tides have bought in a lot more flint stones. There was almost a 'path' near the cliffs themselves, but to get to the sandy beach we'd have had to cross about 10m of flints  -  it wasn't worth a twisted ankle! You could also see some cliff movement and loose boulders at the bottom of the cliffs, plus broken pipes on the beach after cliff falls. The sandstone cliffs were very wet looking and making 'noises' in places as if another rock fall was imminent. 

Day 641 / Day 8 of Plan B (for my record only)
93,045 new cases were recorded in the UK today (another new record) and the total for the last 7 days is up 38.6% on the previous week. The R rate in England is up at 1.0 - 1.2, with a daily growth rate of between 0% and 2% (reflects transmission 2-3 weeks ago, so doesn't reflect Omicron). The ONS weekly infection survey of private households to 11th Dec shows 1 in 60 with the virus in England (unchanged); 1 in 80 in Scotland (unchanged); 1 in 55 in Wales (down a tad); and 1 in 50 in NI (down a tad) - again this is out of date. Omicron is now the dominant strain in Scotland, London and almost in the East of England. Boris says that Omicron is a 'very serious threat' and that people should 'budget their risk' - this analogy is nonsense, you can't take lots of risk one day and none the next and expect it to balance out within a reasonable 'risk budget'! Last night new restrictions were announced in Wales from 27th Dec, including the closure of nightclubs, social distancing in offices and extra customer protections for customers and staff in retail settings. He also urged people to downsize their festive plans. Today he said the CMO for Wales will be writing shielding list about the steps they can take to protect themselves. The UKHSA says lateral flow tests are as likely to detect Omicron as other variants. Imperial College researchers say the risk of reinfection with Omicron is 5.4 times greater than with Delta. Denmark is closing theatres, cinemas, concert halls, amusement parks, museums and art galleries from Sunday. A Danish study says the Moderna vaccine causes a rare heart condition in 1 in 23,800 people vaccinated, compared to 1 in 71,400 for Pfizer. The BBC is reporting that the man who is heading the inquiry into lockdown parties at Downing Street last year, himself invited staff to a 'Christmas party' in his office last year - the Cabinet Office has not responded yet.