Sun at Last

Ok, so the sun was only out for a couple of hours this afternoon (despite full sun forecast all day), but it was still welcome and some insects made a brief appearance. 2 lots of washing and weeding today.

Day 368 / Day 73 of Lockdown 3 / Day 12 of Step 1 of Roadmap out of Lockdown (for my record only)
UK deaths up 101 to 126,026 (revised basis), with 4,802 new cases, 6,544 patients in hospital, 879 on ventilation and 494 new admissions. There was a slight increase in the R rate reported today at 0.6 to 0.9, with a daily infection growth rate of -6% to -3%. Rates in private households in Scotland have gone up to w/e 13/3 and are now 1 in 315, rates in other nations are still going down at 1 in 340 in England, 1 in 430 in Wales and 1 in 315 in NI. The UK saw 7% more deaths than normally expected in 2020 (Eng 8%, Scotland 6%, Wales 4%, NI 5%). The early signs of a new wave of the virus in Europe have progressed to the beginning of a potential third wave now and France has put a third of the country back into lockdown. Worryingly France has between 5-10% of cases being of the South African variant, and experts say we won't be able to keep it out forever. 26.3m have now received their first dose of the vaccine and 2m have had their second dose (a record of 660,276 vaccines given out on Thurs) and now half the UK adult population have received a jab. Finland has suspended use of the AZ vaccine, France is allowing it for over 55s only, and Germany has resumed vaccinations and Ireland is to within days. £19.1bn was borrowed  by the Govt in Feb. A domestic cat in Italy with respiratory symptoms has been found to have the Kent variant of Covid. The co-founders of BioNTech think they can use mRNA vaccines to tackle cancer tumours within a couple of years.