An Indoors Day

As storms were forecast today, my friend M and I postponed our planned catch up today in Ely. She lives in MK and they’ve had heavy rain there and I heard there was torrential rain in Ely with lots of standing water. We’ve had rain here part of the day, but not torrential. So instead I’ve done some paperwork, some housework, finished my jigsaw, watched some Olympics and tried to get some sense out of someone at Amazon!!!

Day 501 / Day 12 of Step 4 of Roadmap Easing (for my record only)
A small decline in new cases today and in the R rate in Eng to 1.1 to 1.4. The measure thought to be the most accurate is the weekly ONS infection survey of private households. Today's data to w/e 24/7 showed 1 in 65 with the virus in Eng (still going up), 1 in 110 in Scotland (down), 1 in 160 in Wales (up), 1 in 65 in NI (large rise). However, the ONS data takes longer to go down as they show those with Covid, whereas the dashboard records new cases. There are also queries about the hospitalisations data as it shows those in hospital with Covid, not those hospitalised due to Covid with those admitted for other reasons being 23% of the number reported. Not wanting to be left out from the Govt giving contradictory messages, the leader of the opposition has joined in. Having been critical of the Govt being too lax over easing Covid restrictions, he's now saying they they should bring forward the day double jabbed people don't need to self isolate if they're a  close contact of someone with Covid and are encouraged to get a PCR test instead. The CDC in the States has said that the Delta variant is as contagious as chickenpox, and more contagious than the common cold and flu. Israel is to offer a third dose of a Covid vaccine to those over 60 from Sunday if at least 5 months has passed from their 2nd jab, as Israel is seeing a spike in cases. A study has found that the probability of a vaccine resistant strain emerging increases considerably if tools such as mask wearing and social distancing are abandoned. Data from the Zoe symptom app shows symptoms vary by gender and age group. The man who assaulted Chris Whitty has been given a suspended sentence. Japan's PM has warned that infections are spreading at an unprecedented rate and has extended the state of emergency in Tokyo.