Bright Flowers on a Wet Friday

Fortunately I remembered to take a photo of my clematis flowers this morning before the rain arrived this afternoon and scuppered my original plans to meet up with friends. So instead I tackled the large pile of ironing that has been looking at me for a few days.

Day 445 / Day 19 of Step 3 of Roadmap Easing (for my record only)
There were 6,238 new cases today, the highest since 25th Mar and up 49% on last week, albeit not reflecting a material rise in hospital admissions so far (usually 3 weeks behind case data rises, but this time we should see the vaccine impact). The ONS surveillance survey shows an even bigger increase of 76.5% in England to w/e 29th May, to 1 in 640 in private households having COVID. Biggest increases were in the NW, East Midlands and SW. The R no. for Eng rises again to 1.0-1.2 and in Scotland is 1.1-1.3. There are also 'early signs' in the ONS data of an increase in those testing positive in Wales to 1 in 1,050 (a 262.5% increase but from a low number), but despite this the Welsh First Minister announced a phased relaxation of restrictions from Monday. Trends in NI and Scotland are broadly unchanged, but 'uncertain'. The MHRA approves the Pfizer jab for 12 to 15 year olds as the benefits outweigh the risks, and the JCVI will now look at whether vaccinations should be offered for 12 to 17 year olds. Nepal's PM has asked the UK for vaccines to support it as it deals with one of the highest infection rates in the world. A study has found that people who've had the Pfizer vaccine have fewer antibodies targetting the Delta variant as against other variants, although fighting the virus isn't solely down to antibodies. A staggering 1m people in the UK reported experiencing 'long COVID' in the 4 weeks to 2/5 per the ONS, with 376,000 having had (or suspected they had) the virus at least a year ago.