Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot

Another hot and sunny day today as you can see from the heat haze on my photo of Black Prince steaming through the countryside. I took the photo from the bottom of Sheringham Park, but it wasn't the photo I intended. I walked all the way down the hill, then climbed back up multiple steep steps in the hillside to get to the gazebo from where I was intending to take a panorama view. Except when I reached the top of the steps, the gazebo was closed off! So it was back down the steep steps as fast as my dodgy hip allowed to get this photo. Then it was a long climb back up the hill to the car park! For those of you in the East that have had enough of the heatwave, I can assure you this is the last day.......the reason being that my garden parasol, base and circular bag you fill with sand to weigh it down all arrived from Amazon and I put it in place this afternoon. If that's not guaranteed to bring rain, I don't know what is! I've added an extra of a Comma that kindly visited the garden this afternoon. 

Day 493 / Day 4 of Step 4 of Roadmap Easing (for my record only)
More confusion today as having implied on Monday there would be a list of critical workers provided by Govt who would not have to self isolate if asked, then on Tues saying that employers would each have to apply to the Govt for dispensation, today a Business Minister said a list of critical workers will be 'quite narrow' and will be announced 'soon'. 618,903 people in England and Wales were pinged by the NHS Covid-19 app in the week to 14/7, a new record (607,486 in Eng). In the same week, T&T contacted a further 428,000 in England and told them to self isolate, and 259,265 tested positive in Eng. So c1.3m (adults?) plus c1m children in Eng off due to Covid which is 4% of the popn. Unsurprisingly given the high prevalence of Covid, the pingdemic, and the shortage of HGV drivers, there are some empty shelves in shops, some garages are running out of petrol and some businesses / transport / public services are struggling to keep services going, particularly in those areas more affected by Covid. Even some police services say response times are 'under strain'. Customers are being urged not to panic buy. All totally predictable if you let the virus spread by removing virtually all restrictions and don't have a 'test to release' system in place for close contacts of those with Covid. 

On the positive side, there were 39,906 new cases today, down c18% on those reported a week ago. 1 in 100 people in their 20s now has the virus according to PHE. The ONS is reporting that 40-50% of unvaccinated people are showing signs of having had Covid from an antibody study, so have 'a degree of immunity'. PHE estimates that the vaccination programme has prevented 52,600 hospital admissions to date in England. The Vaccine Minister said in the Commons that vaccine passports could be introduced for music venues and festivals as well as nightclubs, plus sporting and business events. China has rejected the WHO proposed next stage of the investigation into the origin of Covid.