Xmas Jigsaw No.3

Firstly many thanks for the hearts on my seal photo yesterday, much appreciated. I finished off my third xmas jigsaw this morning. I washed my bedding and was hoping to dry it outside, but there was light drizzle in the air, a very grey and damp day - I definitely chose the right weekday to go and see the seals. More admin completed, a few more xmas cards posted, plus a load of ironing done. 

Day 638 / Day 5 of Plan B (for my record only)
A year ago today it was announced that a new variant had been identified and cases were rising rapidly in London and the South East - talk about deja vu! 59,610 new cases were reported today. The Health Secretary told Parliament that the Omicron doubling time is around every two days and that actual cases of daily infections is estimated to be 42 times higher than confirmed cases. He also announced that all 11 countries will be removed from the red list from 4am Wed. Nicola Sturgeon says ‘the R no. for Delta is 1, and the R number for Omicron appears to be 2 - and is possibly above 4.’  She also advised people to cut their social contacts and ‘limit the number of households to 3, and make sure you test before you go’ (3 households doesn’t apply xmas eve, xmas day and Boxing Day). 513,722 booster jabs were given yesterday, a great achievement although far short of the number of nearly a million a day needed to meet the PM’s promises. The 15 min observation wait is being suspended to speed things up (here you just sat in your car for 15 mins). 2m invites were sent out yesterday. Over 650,000 booked a booster on the NHS website yesterday, plus c50k primary vaccine jabs. The good news today is that 2 doses of Pfizer appears to give 70% protection against hospitalisation from a real world study of Omicron in South Africa, and 33% protection against infection. From today, the double jabbed (in Eng?) who are close contacts of Covid cases must take LFTs for 7 days. They were briefly available online again, but it didn’t last long. The govt is talking to Royal Mail about the contract and is working with Amazon now too. Some issues briefly with the PCR online in person booking site today too.  Dame Kate Bingham told the Science & Technology Committee that the Valneva vaccine (that we cancelled the contract for) was based on the whole Covid virus rather than just the spike protein - sounds like a silly decision. Some West End theatre productions have had to cancel shows due to Covid cases.