A Day of Reflection

Today I finished off the painting, had a lovely catch up with my friend H and did a U3A Zoom quiz.

Whilst on blip I marked one year of Covid as the anniversary of when Boris first addressed the Nation and put some restrictions on us, the country is marking it today, one year since the first lockdown was announced. I was scribbling some brief thoughts and decided to type it up and use it as my blip (my record of Covid as you know). As a result, I've come to the conclusion that the Govt has done more well than badly, and that some of the poor outcomes were due to inherent factors and the state the country was in at the start. This photo is of the things I think have gone well and why, I've added an extra of the things that I think haven't gone well and why. What has always struck me is how little time most of the key players had been in post at the start of lockdown: PM - 8 mths; Health Sec 15 mths; Chancellor - 5.5 wks; CSA - 2 yrs; CMO - 5 mths.....and I would have hated to be having to make the decisions they have had to. A traumatic year, I'm glad we took a minute's silence to remember all those who've died during the pandemic. 

Day 372 / Day 77 of Lockdown 3 / Day 16 of Step 1 of Roadmap out of Lockdown (for my record only)
UK deaths up 112 to 126,284 (revised basis), with 5,379 new cases, 5,461 patients in hospital, 748 on ventilation and 373 new admissions. 28.3m have now received their first dose of the vaccine and 2.4m have had their second dose. The CMO says that there will definitely be another surge, possible vaccine supply issues and problems with variants. The ONS says that 149,117 have had Covid put on their death certificate. Next week will see the introduction of a new £5k fine in Eng for people travelling abroad without good reason.  Researchers think the common cold could 'block' coronavirus. A poll suggests that people are likely to continue some lockdown behaviours including working from home, walking, and shopping locally.