New Pictures

These are the new limited edition pictures I bought yesterday from a gallery by local artist called Niki Bowers, here's her website https://www.nikibowers.co.uk/view-all  I had my second hair cut this morning, this time having it washed and dried as well as cut. The hairdresser said the vast majority of clients are good, but one or two complain about their policy that clients must wear a mask. Quite a lot of tourists in town today, but not as many as I saw when I drove through yesterday when it was heaving. 

Day 156 / Full Day 148 of Lockdown / Day 46 of Step 3 (for my record only)
UK deaths up 12 to 41,381 (revised basis), with new daily cases up by 1,089 (only the one day under 1k then!). The WHO said the spread of the virus is being driven by people in their 20s, 30s and 40s who are unaware they are infected. Ireland has 'significantly' tightened restrictions in response to a rapid increase in cases, with employees expected to work from home where possible, limits on outdoor and indoor gatherings, warnings to avoid public transport and over 70s asked to limit interactions. France is to make face masks compulsory in most workplaces from Sept. 

It was confirmed today that Public Health England is being disbanded and a new body set up called the National Institute for Health Protection led by Dido Harding with responsibility for dealing with pandemics, biological weapon threats and infectious diseases. A bold and possibly risky move in the middle of a pandemic, with a boss that hasn't succeeded with Test & Trace and uncertainty where the other responsibilities of PHE will go. ONS surveys show the number of people suffering from depression in the UK has almost doubled during the pandemic, unsurprisingly. What was a little surprising is that 84.9% of people had feelings of stress and anxiety impacting their well-being which is amazingly high. There have been over 35 million meals claimed under the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme in 2 weeks, costing the taxpayer £180m. M&S is to cut 7,000 jobs in addition to the 950 cut announced last month.