I remain confused about what day of the week it is. This is despite the fact I regularly look at my diary (electronic and paper) to make sure I’ve haven’t missed anything. Time continues to bend and stretch and mutate in strange ways.
A good day all in all. A couple of good video work chats. A walk through Dulwich Park which was remarkably quiet given how sunny and warm it is. I went to M&S. It seems that many shoppers still do not understand the concept of direction arrows. A catch up with a friend. I did have a little cry but that’s OK. I got stuck in thinking ahead the next year or so. But now I’m back to now.
And for an exciting evening ahead… might be time for a few more episodes of Buffy.
Chatter continues on the possible relaxation of some elements of the lockdown. From what I saw in the park, even with it being so quiet, there were a few people sunbathing, a couple of folks having picnics. They might think we’re there already.
For me, what I would be very excited about is if it meant we could go out more often than once of day for exercise, and for essential shopping. I’m used to working at home. But I miss the solid 50 mins of working broken up with a short sharp 10 minute walk around the block. The process of walking, of mild distractions like patting a cat or two along the way, helps me think. Doing a few minutes of exercise or dancing about my flat doesn’t have the same effect. And I could probably go out more often without being ‘reported’, but I don’t. It goes back to my view that if we all did that, we’re screwed (even more).
But are we there yet? Another 539 deaths across all settings, bringing the total to 30,615. I think we’re still playing catch up on death reports from care homes and at home. Still no widespread community testing.
And news out today which is deeply worrying, and to be honest, downright terrifying – Black and Minority Ethic (BAME) groups have a higher risk of death if they catch this bloody virus. OK, we already knew this. The Office of National Statistics have dug a little deeper. Initial speculation a few weeks back was this might be linked to where people live, social deprivation and similar issues which have a huge impact when it comes to health inequalities and healthy years lived. But when all of this is taken into account, for black people, they are still almost twice as likely to die as white people.
There’s still a way to go to understand what this all means. The data isn’t as yet sufficiently detailed to understand the full detail of what’s going on. And it’s critical that this work is done quickly so that public health policy interventions, and other interventions, can be identified and put in place, to protect communities that are being most hard hit.
On the plus side, 5,400 homeless people were given the opportunity to move into hotels. The aim was to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and clearly the homeless are some of the most vulnerable. On the not plus side, is that the numbers of newly homeless are swelling, many of whom will have recently lost their jobs due to the pandemic. At least a proportion of these people won’t be able to access government funding as they might be overseas workers and the like. At least in London, I suspect the figures will be high.
This weekend is a Bank Holiday (Public Holiday for my Aussie friends) so tomorrow a holiday to mark VE day. Obviously there will be none of the usual markings of the day. In living in lockdown, days seem very much the same.
So that’s it for Day 45. Stay safe, stay well, and stay home!