Good News part 11 - Picnics galore as we head into spring

[OrangeBananaFish]

Hope no-one minds me starting this. Apologies if another has started too. Please can someone add the pretty pictures.

Useful links:

coronavirus.data.gov.uk

www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

www.covidmessenger.com Thanks to LittleOwl for all her hard work!

ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

www.omnicalculator.com/health/vaccine-queue-uk

NB Please don’t take this too seriously- it depends what vaccine delivery speed and uptake you estimate so it’s not written in stone.

Please note, this is a thread to share good news and for wobblers to be reassured. Doomploppers will be met with scorn and derision!

40% of adults have been vaccinated.

40%🥳

Any other numbers about on Twitter or something?

The government site isn't updating and I need my fix😳

Talking of haircuts, my 21 year old has a full beard and long curly hair now. He got it cut just before lockdown 1 with short back and sides. He looks like a stoner just back from trekking round Machu Picchu or something.

My good news for today is my household had to do surge testing for the South African variant in our little corner of the borough. It was the first test for 3 of us. We all got negatives! It wasn't exactly surprising to us but we felt like we did our part!

GBK is Gourmet Birger Kitchen @Inastatus

😋

Ganesh Ranganathan has deaths at 213, I can't find much on cases.

Talking about haircuts I actually dreamt last night that my hair appointment had been rearranged post lockdown but I got the time wrong and missed it and then was told I had to wait 2 more months and it's ridiculous how genuinely distressed I felt when I woke up 😂😂😂

Thanks four

They have updated it now. Must have heard me complaining

@TJ17

Talking about haircuts I actually dreamt last night that my hair appointment had been rearranged post lockdown but I got the time wrong and missed it and then was told I had to wait 2 more months and it's ridiculous how genuinely distressed I felt when I woke up 😂😂😂

😂

Good spot Truely. Cases sub 6k, testing almost a million, worth the wait. Deaths a little higher than previously stated, 236.

7 day case figure is down nearly 35% which is really really good.
Last friday the daily figure was about 8500

@tobee - oh lovely! Enjoy 😊

Spare a thought for those of us in Wales who are home schooling for another week!
But.... I was anticipating no return for ds1 (y9) until after Easter but school plan for 2 days in school between 15th March and Easter holidays 🥳

Can anyone remember what daily numbers were like as we came out of last lockdown? July/August time?

I make those July days about the early to mid 800s of cases per day

Difficult that because we really weren't testing then like we are now

So must have been way higher

Can't remember who said it but looking at hospital admissions and deaths is the only way to compare. However now the vaccine is affecting them. That won't help much either

www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/call-to-end-harmful-uk-lockdown-early-after-sharp-drop-in-number-of-deaths-1.1176802

I've just seen this in the news here, is this being reported in the UK news too? 3 weeks ahead of the sage figures. I haven't seen it and I don't want to use news from the place mumsnet hates to fight the doomploppers because I'm scared it would be dismissed or derail a thread. But when people keep saying sage are worried it would be lovely if their figures were wrong.

Our local secondary school tested 1349 students this week and only 3 were positive (0.22%)

New variants unlikely to hold UK back. Article in The Times today. Behind a paywall so I can't read in full but very positive for those of us looking forward to normality.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/covid-variants-scientist-optimism-summer-vaccines-5b2wkwwm9

That’s really interesting re the figures being ahead @starfish88

For whoever was asking upthread re increase in testing.
I have checked coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/testing and tests include the lateral flow ones as well as the 'proper' ones, so increase in testing this week will at least partly be due to secondary schools.

My county and LA have gone pale green.

@louisejxxx

That’s really interesting re the figures being ahead *@starfish88*

Yes. But as much as I would like to see restrictions eased earlier I do think it would be best to see what impact schools end up having otherwise we'd never hear the end of it!

I do think the five week break between easings makes sense to measure and absorb the impact of the change and to fire out another 10 million jabs to mitigate the effect.

But it will be interesting not see what happens. There's certainly a growing appetite to move faster.

Oh don’t worry I’m under no illusions it will change anything. I think the approach they’re taking is the right one with the break, and when the kids go back to school the weeks will start flying by for me.

I don't know if this has been asked already, but I'm puzzled. An article this morning says that the R rate has risen for the first time since January. How can that be true if all the other figures are falling? Is the R rate calculated on old data?