There certainly seems something incongruous about dropping our restrictions when our rate of new cases is fourth highest in the world. Even the USA is below us at number 9 and we are proudly exceeded only by Brazil, India and Indonesia.

The NHS covid app is certainly going to have a problem if the criteria are not changed. Imagine 40000 new cases day, soon will be, and for each new case 5 people are pinged as having been in close contact and must self isolate. That equals 200000. Let’s say they have to do this for 10 days. That means over the first 10 days you now have 2 million people stuck at home.

Imagine the impact on the economy. Businesses will not need to be ordered into lockdown – they will be closing for want of available staff. They already are. And whether you accept that the rate of hospitalisation is no longer in direct relationship to the number of new cases, actually if you think about it, it is. Merely that fewer are needing to hospitalised; thank goodness for that.

But it is certainly a bum steer for those who have been jabbed and still get caught by this virus and however pandemic it may become, it still has to be the optimum position not to catch it at all; to avoid even the possibility of long covid. That looks less and less possible as the days go by.

Has the change of Health Minister brought about this remarkable change of approach or was it coming anyway? And have certain football matches accelerated the rate of transmission of the disease as has now been suggested?

And there are big numbers of new cases in other countries which have not had the vaccinations we have. Take a look at Johns Hopkins table again here:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#main_table

This all has the capability of turning really very much nastier. Keep a close eye on it.

But why not contemplate a holiday? Slovenia is beautiful in the summer. Ever been to Lake Bled? Low cases too!

Adrian Leopard 09-07-21

Photo Erin O’Brien