Vogue

G and I had a lovely walk around Pensthorpe on a beautiful warm and sunny day. We even had the opportunity for a drink outside as they'd set up a catering van in the park and had put out a lot of picnic tables - a real treat. Obviously I had to check on the flamingo chick, which is growing up quickly. I thought they looked like they were posing for the camera today. 

Day 171 / Full Day 163 of Lockdown / Day 61 of Step 3 (for my record only)
UK deaths up 10 to 41,514 (revised basis), with new daily cases up by 1,508 and 797 patients in hospital (going back up). Globally cases to date pass 26m, up 1m in 4 days. New cases across Europe are definitely rising at a worrying rate, in Spain today there were 8,581 new cases and 7,017 in France. In India new daily case were 82,860. 

Hydrocortisone will be recommended for use by the NHS on the sickest Covid patients after it was found to reduce mortality. The anti-inflammatory steroid is widely available, cheap and tests on intensive care patients treated for 7 days were found to have a 93% better chance of recovery. Further to the challenge on the easing of lockdown in certain areas, easing has been halted in Bolton and Trafford. The Ofqual Chair has told select committee MPs that ministers were advised to hold socially distanced exams or delay them and that Ofqual had repeatedly warned the DoE of the risks of using estimated grades. The ONS says July saw far more people dying at home in July than normal, potentially a knock on effect from Covid on NHS care.