Holt in Lockdown 3

I had a walk out to the post box this morning, so carried on into town with mask on to see whether the lockdown was being taken seriously and it looks like it. The EDP today said the Sheringham Medical Practice is going to join the vaccination programme next week - I wonder if that's just for Sheringham.

Absolutely disgraceful scenes of rioting at the US Capitol last night, incited by President Trump and leaving 4 dead. His Twitter and Instagram accounts have been suspended indefinitely by Mark Zuckerberg. There is speculation that this isn't the end of the story, but just the start - how frightening would that be! 

Day 298 / Day 3 of Lockdown 3 (for my record only)
UK deaths up 1,162 to 78,508 (revised basis), with 52,618 new cases (a near 10k drop from yesterday), 30,370 patients in hospital, 2,821 on ventilation and 3,600 new admissions (a record per govt data, albeit a strangely round no.). The PM promises hundreds of thousands of vaccines will be delivered daily by the end of next week, with c1.5m vaccinated to date. He also announced a new national booking service would be launched and that no-one should have to travel more than 10 miles, with most people vaccinated at local GPs/pharmacies. The Health Secretary visited a GP surgery to mark the start of GPs vaccinating patients, only to find they hadn't received the promised vaccines. The armed forces are involved in planning using 'battle preparation techniques' and the Brigadier at the briefing said it was unparalleled in size and complexity. They will also operate 21 vaccination quick response teams if needed. MH has now removed some of the 'unnecessary' training modules such as fire safety for those giving the vaccine.

There are now more than 50% more Covid patients in England than at the peak of the first wave and number are rising rapidly, but being winter there are now 3 other patients for each Covid patient whereas it was 2 others in Wave 1. New drugs have been approved for immediate use in intensive care against the virus, they have typically been used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Clinical trials have shown tocilizumab and sarilumab reduced the risk of death by 24% and reduced the time in intensive care by up to 10 days when used in conjunction with a corticosteroid like dexamethasone.