A Day of Three Thirds

Ok, not equal sized portions, but we started overnight with Storm Franklin (yellow warning here) with winds reaching 43mph and gusts of 59mph at 8am at Weybourne and cloudy. Then at 1pm the wind dropped right down and the sun came out, so I took the opportunity of a walk by the sea at Weybourne. The waves were still a bit choppy, but otherwise it was glorious. Then a few hours later the rain came again. I was quite surprised at how much standing water there was on the roads on my trip out.

Such a shock to hear of the death of Jamal Edwards at the age of only 31. A young music entrepreneur who did a lot for charitable projects and who appeared to just be on a mission to help people. RIP Jamal.

Day 707 / Day 26 Post Plan B (for my record only)
The PM has just made a statement to Parliament about the dropping of legal requirements in England around Covid and the planned dropping of testing (in England?). Again there seems to have been a lot of chaos around the announcement and good governance seems to have gone out the window. Liaison with devolved governments seems poor, the Cabinet meeting was delayed and only went ahead at the last minute, and Parliament didn't get much of a chance to debate it (unclear if they get a chance to vote on it). And of course, communication is again vague (he's already corrected himself at least once) and contradictory. There will be a briefing at 7pm which I hope will be clearer. I never thought I'd see a UK PM go against WHO advice, the views of the BMA and a number of NHS leaders, the views of the devolved governments, the views of a lot of MPs and of many scientists. 

Key changes will be:
- restrictions in England to be scrapped on Thursday;
- free symptomatic and asymptomatic testing will end in Eng from 1st Apr (he seemed to contradict the symptomatic testing later on);
- vaccinated contacts of positive cases will not be asked to test for 7 days and no legal requirement for close contacts who are not vaccinated to self-isolate;
- contract tracing to come to an end;
- those testing positive will be encouraged to follow guidance and stay at home, but Covid provisions attached to statutory sick pay will end on 24th March;
- from 1st April free testing and interventions will be targeted at the most vulnerable (their contacts / carers are the ones who need access to free tests too - a box of 7 is thought likely to cost £20!);
- from today the guidance is removed for staff and students in education and childcare settings to undertake twice weekly asymptomatic testing;
- the ONS surveillance survey is thankfully to continue, oddly as he admitted that there is 'considerable uncertainty about the future path of the pandemic' and there could be 'significant resurgences'.

An additional booster vaccine will be offered in Spring to people over 75, residents in care homes for older adults, and people aged over 12 who are immunosuppressed following a JCVI recommendation. (It was said this would make 4 jabs, but those severely immunocompromised have already had 4 jabs???)

The PM said those most at risk will have access to antivirals that they need - but I was invited for a third primary jab plus booster, but have been told I'm not entitled to antivirals. I know people who shielded who have been told the same. The Daily Mail has reported for a while that the confusion around who is most at risk and that severely ill people are often struggling to access vaccines and treatments that the PM thinks they have access to. There also appears to be confusion over the access to testing to give access to antivirals. This in part seems to be down to unclear JCVI guidance and a lack of clarity in the NHS of who decides your status. 

The PM also said it's up to the NHS to decide about testing requirements for staff - I wasn't clear on the funding for those tests.