Flower Friday

I went to Edgefield Nursery this morning to have a look at the plants, but just ended up buying the flowers in my photo and farmyard manure. Another dull day with showers. I've now got a tarpaulin to cover the dug out pond (propped up tent like by an old bird feeder so the water runs off) and weighted down with bricks, but I was happy that the tent pegs arrived this afternoon to help keep it in place. With strong winds forecast tomorrow I still only give it a 50/50 change of not flying off into the sunset! I cheered myself up this afternoon watching a couple of ABBA programmes I recorded the other day. 

Day 229 / Day 17 of The 3 Tiers (for my record only)
UK deaths up 274 to 46,229 (revised basis), with a 24,405 rise in new daily cases, 10.708 patients in hospital and 975 in ventilator beds. Daily hospital admissions are still rising, with 1,489 admitted today. The UK R number decreases slightly to 1.1-1.3 (it seems to be growing faster in Regions with lowest restrictions and increasing at a slower rate in those Regions with tougher measures as should be expected). Italy had 31,084 new cases today, their increase has been far more rapid than ours. A CV variant which originated in Spain accounts for most UK cases - so much for our travel policy!

Minutes from SAGE on 14/10 state that England is breaching the no. of hospital admissions and infections in its 'reasonable worse case' scenario. ONS infection survey shows more than 560k had the virus in Eng last week, with c1 in 100 having Covid and with infections rising steeply among secondary school children. The 51,900 new infections a day is considerably higher than the daily figures reported - the survey will include asymptomatic people, but excludes hospitals and care homes - and is 47% higher than the previous week. It is in line with projections by the CSA and CMO on 21/9 that were dismissed by the Press as scaremongering. After Wales' 'fire-break', the restrictions will remain national rather than local. Tests by Which of face masks shows as expected that those with multiple layers are more effective than single-layer ones. A study by the University of Warwick has shown a 'significant' rise in new infections cause by the Eat Out to Help Out scheme - what a surprise...not!