A Treat

I was in town first thing to get my hair cut, so treated myself to an almond croissant from the bakery. I did a bit of gardening before the rain started, and a bit more sorting in the garage. Then I watched the Extras from my West Side Story blu-ray (good extras). 

Day 751 / Day 42 of no Legal Covid Requirements in England (for my record only)
The latest REACT-1 survey from random testing from 8th to 31st Mar shows that 6.37% of people in England had Covid (the highest level yet at 1 in 15), with prevalence increasing in over 55s. The Govt has removed funding for this study, today’s report was the last, but the ONS survey across the UK continues. Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust has declared a critical incident due to ‘extreme pressures on service’. This is a day after South Central Ambulance Service also declared a ‘critical incident’. 6 hospitals across West Yorkshire and Harrogate issued a joint warning to stay away from emergency departments except for ‘genuine life-threatening situations.’ Bizarrely the Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre being built in Oxfordshire has been sold to an American company - this is despite it receive £200m in public investment and its intention being to help prepare the country for future pandemics. The US FDA has said that current Covid vaccines are not well matched against the BA.2 sub variant which is currently dominant in the UK (the new XE sub variant is a mix of BA.1 and BA.2). Business leaders have called for the reintroduction of free LFTS due to the impact on business of high staff absence. Airports are seeing huge disruption at the start of the Easter holidays due to staff Covid absences and staff shortages following job cuts during the pandemic. Over 100 flights were cancelled today. Germany has backtracked on its decision to drop mandatory self isolation from 1st May, saying it was a mistake and sent the wrong signal.