Tuesday 1st December 2020 – The circle of doom
A colleague is the first person I know to have been notified to self-isolate by the NHS App, or as he described it, “The Red Circle Of Doom”, an unmissable notification on his phone, consisting of red circle with the number 10 in it. He must self-isolate for 10 days after being close to someone 4 days previously who had since tested positive for Covid-19. He has no idea who the infected person is, although as a parent who collects his son from school, I imagine that the school gate gathering could be the source.
A dog walking friend is also self-isolating after being close to someone who has tested positive, although as the owner of a basic 10-year-old Nokia basic phone he would either have been texted by Track and Trace, or more likely, notified by more traditional methodology, a phone call from the infected person.
One of my dog-walking-nurse friends is the first person who I know who has been offered a Covid-19 vaccination. She has an appointment in two days’ time to receive the Pfizer vaccine. She had already decided that she would prefer the Oxford vaccine, something to do with the development of the vaccine involving antibodies from primates, but, as I pointed out, in this case life is not like a box of chocolates. She cannot rummage to find the coffee-cremes. For many years flu vaccines have been sourced from a variety of pharmaceutical companies, but recipients receive whatever their GP provides, and no-one questions the source.
Wednesday 2nd December 2020 – Border controls
Lockdown finishes and effectively starts again as we leapfrog Tier-2, jumping from pre-lockdown Tier-1 straight into Tier-3, along with the rest of Leicestershire, and indeed most of the North of England. Our village is close to the North-South border. My sister lives in neighbouring Northamptonshire, Tier 2, and e-mailed about Christmas arrangements. Maybe our traditional Boxing Day get-together could be in her garden, as permitted in her Tier? I pointed out that the “Christmas Bubble” rule which applies to our Tier 3 means that we can only mix with two households, which will be applied to local family members. Also travel from Tier 2 to Tier 3 is not allowed, and so if we visited Tier 2 Northamptonshire we would not be allowed to re-cross the County Line from Tier 2 back into our Tier 3. We would be Stateless.
However, my sister, in Tier 2, is Christmas-Bubbling with her daughter, who lives in Tier 3 Leicestershire. So, then, she is allowed into Tier 3 to visit her daughter, because they are bubbled together, and then she can visit us in the same County without crossing Tier boundaries. Maybe we could all dog-walk in a public area near us, as permitted in Tier 3. I can feel hot-dogs on Croft Hill could be an option. But my sister would then need to re-visit my niece’s house on the way home because she can only re-enter Tier 2 from Tier 3 after a visit to her Christmas Bubble household.
No wonder that, under normal circumstances, legislation is published, and then clarified by decades of Case Law.
Wednesday 9th December 2020 – First vaccination!
We are emerging, blinking and stumbling, into the light at the end of the tunnel. Or least those at the front of the crowd are enjoying the sunlight. The UK is first country to commence vaccinating the population against Covid-19. Margaret Keenan was vaccinated at her local hospital in Coventry under the glare of dozens of cameras from the international press. This is the best news for months. I wont be the only one looking forward to my “jab”, and, more importantly, to the more relaxed life that follows.
A week ago I noted that a friend, a nurse, had an appointment to be administered the Pfizer vaccine the following day, 3rd December, at Leicester Racecourse. On the day of her appointment the news headlines were that the Pfizer vaccine had only just been approved for use in the UK, and certainly not yet distributed. It appears that someone had been overly optimistic when arranging appointments for Leicestershire health workers. Sure enough her appointment to be vaccinated, a week before Margaret in Coventry received hers, had been cancelled.
Hospitals across the UK have been designated as vaccination hubs for the surrounding locality, but a map of the hubs has, until this evening, had a gap in the middle where Leicester should be. It seems that the Trust that manages Leicester hospitals didn’t read the small print that dictates that hubs must be hospitals, not racecourses, and so the City which has been locked down for longer than any other, has been unable to administer vaccines. Leicester General Hospital has been approved as a vaccination hub today, and vaccinations will commence at the weekend.
We do seem to have moved from the final stages of vaccine development to vaccine rollout in the UK in a remarkably short time. It is only a month ago that Pfizer announced that the results of trials found their vaccine to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants. Three weeks later it was approved in the UK, and the first patients, across the UK, received a vaccination just a week later, while the rest of the world is still playing catch-up.
I chat to a neighbour who had just received her flu vaccination. The nurse told her that getting the population Covid-inoculated will be a logistical nightmare. I don’t expect to be protected until at least Easter.
Saturday 19th December 2020 – Good news for some
Medium and large breeds of turkeys will be breathing a sigh of relief, celebrating a stay of execution. Nearly 18 million people, mostly In the South East of the UK, are in a new Tier 4 from midnight, and must celebrate Christmas in their own homes, with only immediate family. There will be no gathering of extended family around the dining table, that requires a 25 pound bird. Even those of us in Tier 3 can only invite two other households. There can be no mixing of households on Boxing Day for a brisk walk and a large helping of left-over turkey curry.
Arrangements have been in place for all students to test for Covid before travelling home for Christmas, but this may not have gone according to plan. A friend has a niece at one of the Manchester universities, who reports that a large proportion of students travelled home without being tested, since a positive test result would have meant self-isolating on campus over Christmas. Also many students are working in Manchester until a few days before Christmas, and do not want to risk missing out on income if an early test is positive, nor risk spending Christmas on Campus if a late test is positive, and so have avoided a test. Allegedly less than half of the student population has been tested.
Wednesday 23rd December 2020 – A good year for Christmas tree growers
My final working day before Christmas, with no lunchtime Christmas drink or two at the pub, just two of us in the office. Not even “anyone for a cuppa?”, as we all carefully handle only our own mugs. Despite the festive season we had a busy day, and so even have the traditional early finish to go home and help wrap presents did not happen.
A late present idea of a particular book for a relative proved too late even for Amazon, and so I attempted click-and-collect from Waterstones, without success. The nearest store stocking the book was in Bedford, and an internal transfer to Leicester was not allowed “because of Covid”.
A friend has a Christmas Tree Farm and reports a 30% increase in sales, presumably by those who would normally go on holiday for Christmas, or maybe usually spend Christmas enjoying another relative’s tree, but who now having to stay at home with their own tree. For my friend the additional precautions to keep staff and customers safe have been worth it. Although busy, his customers, as he put it, all behaved themselves, keeping distanced, and with few exceptions all wore a mask as they browsed the trees.
Christmas Eve 2020 – Best wishes for your very peaceful Christmas
And So This Is Christmas, And What Have We Done? Another Year Over And A New One Just Begun. This year John Lennon’s words would be followed by a resigned sigh. The chorus promises that War Is Over, but it isn’t, and even though the battle seems to have turned in our favour, I’m not sure for how long this will last.
I am unusually pessimistic because I have concerns about the Covid variants that have appeared. Like the ghostly appearances A Christmas Carol, we have had Covid Past and now Covid Present, and now we are waiting to see what Covid Future brings. Scientists advise that that there is “no evidence” that the vaccines now, or imminently, available will not be effective with the new variant, which I read as “It is too early. We don’t know yet”, in which case a precautionary approach is needed while the spread of the current variants, the appearance of any more Covid varieties, and the effectiveness of vaccines is monitored.
And so I will finish this entry with best wishes for a very peaceful Christmas. For those in the UK it will be more peaceful than usual, as we gather around the turkey or nut roast with fewer, if any, visitors. Those who have no choice but to be alone may be comforted by knowing that many others are in the same situation. Hopefully we will all use the experience of Zoom/video calls/Facetime/Teams/WhatsApp that we have gained thanks to the Covid lockdown, or even an old-fashioned phone call, to unite us all this Christmas.
Christmas Day 2020 – A tale of Christmas Dinner North and South
This morning I listened to Classic FM while making the morning tea, with Christmas messages from listeners in recently designated Tier 4 London, who had been preparing vast hams, huge turkeys, and mountains of pigs-in-blankets, intended for a large family gathering, but which was now feeding just two. In contrast our Christmas dinner ended up serving more, not less, than originally planned, when a brief visit by a relative, intending to chat outdoors on the doorstepto my stepson, just for a few minutes, ended with in invitation to dinner, and consequently we exceeded our three-household limit by one. Nevertheless, there were just 5 of us in total, two of whom lived alone, avoiding going out, and one of whom had tested negative for Covid-19. I have no doubt that such tweaking of the rules, subject to sensible precautions, were taken across the UK.
Thursday 31st January 2020 – 2020 was not quite as expected
The end of a year of experiences that no-one expected, and not everyone has survived. We have been lucky – no infections in the household, and the various lockdowns and restrictions have merely been an inconvenience. Myself, wife, and most of the time my stepson have had each others company, we live in a nice house in a rural area, with dogs that give us an opportunity to socialise safely outdoors with other dog walkers. Anyone living alone in a city centre bedsit or studio flat would have had a very different experience.
We must remember those who have lost friends and loved ones through Covid, or have been unable support loved ones as they would wish because of Covid restrictions. For some it has not been an “interesting” year, it has been a year of stress and grief.
With the roll out of vaccinations, we can hopefully look forward to a New Year in which life returns to normal, or maybe a new normality which allows life to carry on as it was at the beginning of the year.
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A New Year and a new lockdown. A friend contracts Covid, and another suffers from Long Covid.
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Life in the UK changed for everyone in March 2020.