UK News 18th January
Progress on vaccines but still too many cases
Head of NHS England says 53 thousand health staff are off work for virus reasons. He says there are new Covid cases coming to hospital every 30 seconds. It is a very serious situation. Positive news is that they expect 1.2 million people to have vaccine this week. There are ten new mass centres for vaccine opening this week. They hope to get vaccine to 15 million people by February 15th.
Stay at home? Really? More than before?
A lot of people say that people are not staying at home. We see a lot of photos from shopping centres and beaches and people are in crowds. Many do not wear masks. Are people ignoring the rules? Here are 3 graphs which show that people are moving around more than in the first lockdown.
We can get the information from mobile phones, from navigation apps on the phone.
The first shows that in March there was a big drop in transport. The drop is not so much now and is going up again.
The second graph shows that there was a bigger drop in driving and public transport and even in walking during the first lockdown.
The third graph shows the same for shopping, parks and going to work.
The answer is “yes” – more people are going about than in the first lockdown. Not good.
Footballers kissing and hugging
We have to keep our distance, why should footballers get to kiss each other and to hug when they score a goal? Bad example. Now pressure to stop the celebrations when they score.