The summer on temporary hold

 

The summer has been paused due to concerns over the extent of case rising of the Delta (previously known as the "Indian" ) variant until July 19th with just a few relaxations around things such as weddings and  few events going ahead as "test" events  and the break on when people and businesses can be evicted for being behind on rent shunted forward to March 2022.

Of itself that doesn't surprise me because it is generally accepted the variant is something like 60% more transmissible so you need a higher ratio of people with at least once vaccination and more including all vulnerable groups on double vaccinations to keep the transmission and hence the number of cases down.   

The good news is the vaccine especially where both doses have been given does reduce the number of severe cases up to and including needing hospitalization down and those that are seem to recover quicker than the initial Covid form so take less time in hospital.

By today all adults over eighteen will be able to book their vaccinations and a combination of intense surge testing and mass immunization in hot spots including all of the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire with their modern day "City Regions" of Liverpool and Greater Manchester cases will be flattened as well as nearby Leek here in Staffordshire where it is clearly linked to high schools and colleges so were already on eighteen plus vaccination.

I see masks and much of the one metre plus rules staying in place for the foreseeable future although it must be stressed we WILL need to live with this virus, keeping ourselves safe rather than be kept on permanent restrictions because as sad as the impact of Covid has been on health and deaths, the measures being taken to deal with it are also having a severe affect on health from operations and treatments postponed leading to people losing health, massive impacts on mental health even amongst those less vulnerable, time lost in physical well-being and education and so on.

We can't permanently pause society due to concern about NHS capacity, we need to address that capacity issue through increasing it.