A Sorrento ‘Lemon’ Bauble

This morning I started updating my Expression of Wishes to go alongside my Will and hopefully make things easier for my executors. Always a weird task to do. This afternoon when the rain had nearly stopped I went for a walk with H at Sheringham Park. We had a lovely chat and it was nice to get some fresh air, but boy was it muddy! I’d taken my walking pole, but nearly slipped over in the liquid mud several times. I’ve never seen SP so muddy. Needless to say there were no photo opportunities, so you’ve another xmas ornament from around Europe. 

Day 653 / Day 20 of Plan B (for my record only)
The dashboard reported 183,037 new cases across the UK today, including 5 days of data from NI totalling 22,972 (so if smoothed, the UK total for today only would be c164,660). 15,849 new cases were reported today in Scotland, a new record. Omicron cases now account for over 90% of community cases in England per the UKHSA.  NHS England reported 10,462 people are in hospital with Covid, up 48% from the previous week, with an additional 916 people in 24 hours. Data from 21/12 showed 71% of patients were being treated for the virus and 29% were ‘incidental’ cases, there for another reason but who had the virus. Boris said 90% of people in intensive care hadn’t been boosted (but didn’t say how many of these were yet entitled to get a booster). Pharmacies are reporting that they often have to turn people away as they’ve run out of lateral flow tests and the UKHSA has warned that they may become temporarily unavailable online due to ‘exceptionally high demand’ (indeed they did then run out) and stressed that they should not be ordered until required. PCR home tests were also unavailable across the country for a period of time today (the nearest test centre for me is a 2 hour round trip). There were also no available slots for in person tests across all English regions at one point today and ‘very few’ available in Scotland. One MP has said there is now a global shortage of coronavirus tests.France has reported a European record of 208,000 daily Covid cases. The US Centers for Disease Control is monitoring 89 cruise ships that have reported Covid cases, with another 38 ships being investigated and a further 48 ships ‘under observation’.