Felbrigg

This morning G and I went to Felbrigg. First we took some photos around the beautiful walled gardens, I was after butterfly shots but they weren't obliging. Then we went for a walk in the sunshine around the estate, followed by a drink and snack we'd bought with us. Just lovely.  More work this afternoon on digging out the old large shrub, it's not helped by the previous owner not clearing rubble or stones from the bed before planting. So I got particularly delayed by a wrist sized root resting on a vertical full brick with lots of stones around it. 

Day 127 / Full Day 119 of Lockdown / Day 17 of Step 3 (for my record only)
UK deaths up 12 to 45,312 with new daily cases up by 580. The first phase of human trials on the Oxford vaccine has shown it successfully produces an immune response of both antibodies and T cells. Phases 2 & 3 of human trials are already underway. Govt already has a deal for 100m doses and has done deals for 60m from Valneva and 30m from BioNTech and Pfizer. The experimental drug SNG001 trialed on critically ill Covid-19 patients had a 79% success rate in preventing the disease from progressing in preliminary trial results. It's an inhaled formulation of beta-interferon and larger trials are now needed. 

Blackburn with Darwen now has a higher rate of cases than Leicester. An imam in the area is reported as testing positive having led a funeral at a mosque attended by 250 people last week in contravention of the legal limit of 30. Test & Trace programme is illegal in that the Govt admits it didn't conduct a data privacy impact assessment. The outbreak at the T&T centre mentioned yesterday has been confirmed. The chief economist at the BoE has said that roughly half of the 25% fall in activity during Mar/Apr has been clawed back since.