Some positive news - Mrs Steels went back to work today after the best part of nine months off with Long Covid. She's pretty knackered, but only doing part time hours to start with, to allow her time to get her stamina back up. Such a relief - at Christmas time she was worried she'd never work again.
Long Covid pay decision for key workers could take a year A decision about whether key workers with long Covid should get compensation could take more than a year, government advisers have told the BBC. It comes after 65 MPs and peers wrote to Boris Johnson asking for the illness to be made an "occupational disease". More than a million people in the UK are thought to have long Covid, including over 120,000 healthcare workers. The government says it is committed to supporting people through the pandemic. Frontline key workers who believe they caught long Covid through their jobs are becoming increasingly worried about what financial support is available to them if they cannot return to work. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57146120
Nice to see that the section of the NHS app which gives your vaccine status for travel purposes is up and running, after a few clicks you get to a QR code and some details, including in my case those of my first jab, which apparently ‘expires’ on 21 June this year…..getting second next Monday, be interesting to see what the expiry date on that is. The NHS app has multiple layers of identification required (photos, passwords, passport copies) and, as one who is resigned to the fact that my details are out there and tracked anyway, and always will be unless I retreat from the world and live in an off grid cave, it seems secure. Of course you can always give your phone to someone else, but that’s not a weakness of the technology. The app is also useful for ordering repeat prescriptions and booking GP appointments (though not at my practice at the moment). I wonder how many of those people on the 150 planes that went to ‘amber’ countries for a holiday on Monday will really self isolate properly on their return? The guidance on this has been contradictory (“you can go, but please don’t. Unless your aunt is ill. Or something”) but common sense should also play a role.
Common sense would suggest that allowing 110 incoming flights from India since it was finally placed on the red list wasn't a good idea. It's OK though, because a spokesperson for the Department for Transport says, 'We have adapted and bolstered our world leading test and quarantine systems for incoming passengers since the start of the pandemic'. That's a relief.
please log in to view this image Jeremy Vine On 5 @JeremyVineOn5 Should people who refuse to have a vaccine be denied freedoms - like going to the pub? Ministers have been left "frustrated" with people that end up in hospital with Covid, having turned down a jab. So should we say: "if you don't have a jab, you can't enjoy normal freedoms"? please log in to view this image 5
UK’s Indian Covid variant surge fuelled by test-and-trace failures, report finds (msn.com) Only yesterday they were repeating the bollocks about it being 'world-beating'.
Heard on the radio this morning that test and trace was being downsized hugely, lots of people laid off. Perhaps we’ll get some of the money back. Or perhaps not. Apparently the rise in cases has not been accompanied by a huge rise in hospitalisations in the hotspots, which is very good news indeed. We just need to keep on getting people vaccinated, keep on tracking new variants, and accept that COVID will be with us like colds or flu, and that’s fine as long as it’s mild disease.
Yes heard that too. The variant is more transmissible but no worse on symptoms. So it may take over from the Kent variant as the major player in this country, but there are less hospitalisations, and less progression to death. All good. There is a definite siphoning off of vaccines to hot spots though. I know of three centres who are delaying second jabs down here in the south. I think they are using them to bring in earlier 2nd jabs for the vulnerable in areas where the Indian variant is highest. The call to the vulnerable people in that area to get jabs is also working, with many more of the people who did not respond to their initial call coming forward, maybe because they lost relatives in India. Yes it is still going very well....I think the government are just waiting to see the results of the test events in order to decide whether to go with a complete release in mid June...even if they don't I cannot see it being put off by more than 2-4 weeks
@PoliticsForAlI More here : Death rate in England lowest since records began please log in to view this image Death rate in England lowest since records began Just 851.2 people per 100,000 died last month, the lowest figure since the ONS started recording mortality rates in 2001 telegraph.co.uk 1
Got an email and a text today reminding me about my appointment for a second jab on Monday. Jolly efficient. I think booking through the website ended up a good idea, I have heard of people who relied on their GP practice to contact them having to chase back to get a time for jab#2, whereas I booked both jabs at the same time.
Mrs Rangercol had her second jab this morning, organised through the surgery. My second jab is in 3 weeks time at the Kassam stadium, Oxford.
Mrs SB, who is ten days behind me, has just got a message from the NHS saying she can book an earlier time if she wants, presumably to do with this reducing the time between jabs gap, and possibly also linked to us both getting AZ, which there will only be demand for second doses for, given that all the under 40s are being offered Pfizer/Moderna. Bloody hell, she got a slot tomorrow afternoon. Neat. This seems the opposite experience to round Beth’s way. Odd.
Snap! My second one due tomorrow and efficiently sent through a reminder. We also have just started an Open Studio for our glass art over the next two weeks in Dorset, so also decided it would be good to take the free lateral flow tests periodically through the two weeks as a safety precaution for ourselves and visitors. Hopefully we don’t get any false positives!
