No Pots of Gold

I had a few things to do in town this morning, so I risked getting wet. The rain started as I got back to the car park, so I got a rainbow photo. My replacement microwave is also faulty, but with a different fault. When cooking for 4 mins or more, the plate the food is on has a small circular very hot spot, plus the food isn’t heating evenly. JL answered after 35 mins, needed a different dept so transferred me, then I got cut off after 1 hour. I’d left my no. as this happened before and they rang me back half an hour later. I declined the offer of a third of the same make and model and am having a refund. Then I watched Promising Young Woman, a difficult watch at times, but a brilliant film. 

Day 621 / Day 132 of Step 4 of Roadmap Easing (for my record only)
Boris gave a press conference at 5 with the CMO & CSA about the Omicron variant. 2 cases linked to travel in southern Africa have been found so far in the UK (targeted testing to be undertaken) and Germany and Hong Kong have now also identified cases. The CMO outlined the why variants can be of concern: spreading rapidly - omicron already represents c90% of cases in one province in South Africa; escaping immunity from vaccines / prior infection - i) more infectious - given the high no.  of spike proteins, theoretically there is a reasonable chance of this; ii) more severe disease - unknown as yet. The CSA outlined the 3 things we need to do: 1 limit seeding - control cases coming into the country; 2 limit spread in the country - detect it, control contacts, contain clusters; 3 ensure we have the best defences - vaccination / boosters, anti virals and how used. The PM had already outlined actions in addition to those outlined yesterday to achieve these 3 goals. Slowing the seeding allows scientists to study it, more people to get vaccinated / boosted and to prepare the NHS. So 4 new countries added to the red list, and ALL people arriving in the UK must take a PCR test with 2 days and self isolate until they get a negative result. To slow the spread, all contacts of those with Omicron must self isolate for 10 days, and we must ‘tighten up’ mask wearing in shops and on public transport (he later confirmed we must wear them and the Health Secretary will give more info in next few days). For the best defences, the Health Secretary has asked the JCVI to look at giving boosters to wider groups and to shorten the period between 2nd jab and booster. All to be reviewed in 3 weeks. They praised the scientists in South Africa for identifying the variant and sharing the info quickly. My view, good that they’ve acted quickly (there’s substantially less risk in acting quickly and finding later it was too much, than in not acting and finding later when it’s too late that you should have), but I think they should have immediately implemented Plan B to reduce current cases in case it does escape to some degree vaccine immunity. It was also announced today that all secondary school pupils in England will be asked to take a Covid test on site when returning to school after the xmas break.