Tufty and Baby

It was an unexpectedly sunny and warm day today, albeit very windy, so I looked and managed to get a ticket for Pensthorpe this morning. Lots to photograph as usual, my favourite being the red squirrels. I've added a shot of a baby one in Extras, I had my lens on that doesn't focus well and unfortunately it wasn't properly in focus. I've also added two flamingo chicks (out of 4 that I could see) and a duckling. More Olympics this afternoon, I love being able to watch for a few hours and go from canoeing, to shooting, to gymnastics, to BMX, to rowing, to boxing and so on! 

Day 500 / Day 11 of Step 4 of Roadmap Easing (for my record only)
Daily cases are up for the second day and the no. of patients in hospital is creeping up. Prof Tim Spector of the Zoe Symptom Study says the recent 'sudden drop' in people testing positive in Govt data is 'very suspicious' - it's not been seen before and numbers in the Study are rising  In the week to 21st July, 689,313 people were pinged by the app in Eng and Wales (a new record), and 597,260 were id as close contacts by T&T of the 307,758 testing positive. PHE says that vaccines have prevented 22M infections and 60,000 deaths in Eng. My confidence in the new Health Secretary is still falling, today he said that 'no one really knows' how many Covid cases there might be during the rest of the summer - surely in the absence of a new variant, there should modelling giving a reasonable estimate! Only 63.7% of tests are turned round within 24 hours, the PM promised 100% by the end of June. NHS Eng are estimating that 31.9% of 18 to 29 year olds are unvaccinated, with fewer men than women getting a jab.  JVT says a 'bumpy' autumn and winter can be expected. Those on furlough has fallen to 5% of the workforce. A brilliant 1bn doses of the Oxford /AZ vaccine have been distributed to 170 countries around the world and at cost - so proud of all involved and I hope companies like Pfizer eventually decide to donate a lot of the profits they're making from Covid vaccines.