lockdown

Number of inactive adults in England rises by 1.3m since Covid

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This story goes nicely with “And Finally…”. It leads me to reflect that England with its relatively limited access to open countryside is not in its areas a green gym. Indeed in many urban places there are better facilities and opportunities to get active than in rural settings.

About 1.3 million adults have become inactive since the height of Covid, with at least 12 million taking less than an average of 30 minutes’ exercise a week, as activity levels only just begin to recover towards pre-pandemic rates.

The Active Lives Adult Survey, which is the largest study of the matter in England and has 175,000 respondents, tracked adults’ activity for a year from November 2020, with the data taking into account the impact lockdowns had on activity levels.

Just over 60% of adults (28 million) were active, achieving more than 150 minutes of activity a week, while 27%, or 12.4 million adults, were inactive, with less than 30 minutes of activity a week. A further 11.5%, or 5.2 million adults, were fairly active but did not reach an average of 150 minutes a week.

The data also showed that while activity levels dropped during periods of lockdown restriction, since coronavirus became less prevalent and restrictions were eased activity levels had begun to stabilise and were now recovering. In mid-March 2021, 61% of the population were active, compared with 58% 12 months earlier.

Covid: Indian variant could disrupt 21 June easing, PM says

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I think there is no doubt that rural places will be adversely affected if we can’t push on with the re-opening of the country. However it also seems to me that we are on a knife edge here. This story tells us:

The Indian virus variant could pose “serious disruption” to lockdown easing in England on 21 June, the PM says.

Boris Johnson said if it was found to be “significantly” more transmissible there could be “some hard choices”.

The wait between jabs will be cut from 12 weeks to eight for the over-50s and clinically vulnerable because of concern over the variant, he added.

Cases of the Indian coronavirus variant have nearly tripled in the past week, Public Health England figures show.

Surge testing is already taking place in 15 areas across England, including Bolton, Blackburn, London, Sefton and Nottingham.

According to Friday’s government figures, a further 17 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive test and another 2,193 coronavirus cases have been recorded.

Speaking at a Downing Street briefing alongside the UK’s chief medical adviser, Prof Chris Whitty, Mr Johnson said first Covid vaccine doses will also be prioritised “for anyone eligible who has not yet come forward”. Currently, England’s vaccination rollout is open to people over the age of 38.

The prime minister said he did not believe that the “present evidence” showed a need to delay the next stage in the easing of lockdown in England on Monday – when pubs and restaurants will be allowed to serve customers indoors and six people or two households can meet in a private home.

Farm makes £50,000 after diversifying into goat Zoom calls

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Whoever said farming was out of date, behind the times of lacked innovation needs to read this – fabulous and very funny…..

A farm in Lancashire has added a new source of income by allowing the public to book a goat to join in on their lockdown video calls.

Since taking over Cronkshaw Fold Farm from her mother in 2016, Dot McCarthy has diversified the farm into a sustainable business, including educational trips, weddings and accommodation.

But when lockdown made many of these income streams impossible, she adapted her business model from bricks and mortar to ‘bricks and clicks’ – a term for businesses that combine in-person and online services.

“We started virtual activity videos with our local community,” said Dot. One activity involved communicating through mirrors and flashes of sunlight to spell out letters of the alphabet.

“We taught local kids to mirror signal the word PIES – we love pies in Lancashire – and as we’re up on a hill overlooking the valley, we were able to watch all their mirror signals from people’s houses.

Cronkshaw Fold Farm also received unexpected publicity from Dot’s second digital offering: charging £5 to book a goat to join a Zoom call.

“This started as a joke,” she said. “I came up with the idea, told my employee Emma and we agreed it was completely wacky and we should prioritise other money making ideas.

“I put it on the website that evening anyway along with Emma’s email address for bookings. When I woke up, I had loads of missed calls from Emma saying she’d been inundated with emails and couldn’t keep up with the demand for goat calls.”

The success of Dot’s venture has led to newspaper articles, podcast features and an interview on ITV’s This Morning.

“We’ve had everyone from the European management team of Facebook, to NHS staff in need of a cheer up, to virtual church services – the vicars always seem to choose Mary the goat and I am pleased to say we have made over 50k so far,” she said.

When Dot wasn’t busy doing Facebook lives and Goat Zoom calls, she was hard at work bagging up manure to sell to local people growing their own fruit and vegetables.

“We made more than £1000 in just a few delivery runs and our part-time farm school teacher picked up lost work hours doing manure admin instead.”

Covid: Regional rules ‘probably going to get tougher’, says Boris Johnson

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I really am getting fed up with lockdown as we enter 2021. Still as this article indicates we have more pain to go and thank goodness for the prospects of a return to normal with the vaccine. I don’t think we have had enough analysis of the rural impacts of the pandemic although as I indicated in the last issue of Hinterland the marvellous exposure of the joint work of the National Centre for Rural Health and Care and the Nuffield Trust is a great cause for revelation – you can still read the article here should you wish.

Regional restrictions in England are “probably about to get tougher” to curb rising Covid infections, the prime minister has warned.

Boris Johnson told the BBC stronger measures may be required in parts of the country in the coming weeks.

He said this included the possibility of keeping schools closed, although this is not “something we want to do”.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for new England-wide restrictions within 24 hours.

Sir Keir said coronavirus was “clearly out of control” and it was “inevitable more schools are going to have to close”.

It comes as the UK recorded more than 50,000 new confirmed Covid cases for the sixth day in a row, with 54,990 announced on Sunday.

An additional 454 deaths within 28 days of a positive test result have also been reported, meaning the total by this measure is now above 75,000.

Dogs feel stress of pandemic too, says animal mental health expert – Health News UK

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There is a serious tinge to this story. Dogs I suspect are the thin canine line between many isolated people and mental health challenges at the moment. I celebrate the great support we get from our three friends every day and what’s more I know it will continue until their dying day. Its no surprise to me that they, according to this article, share our anxiety therefore. It tells us:

DOGS could be struggling with the mental impact of coronavirus just as much as their owners, according to an animal mental health expert.

Dr Robert Falconer-Taylor is warning that our four legged friends could by suffering anxiety passed on by their humans who are increasingly stressed out due to the pandemic.

To combat this, Dr Falconer-Taylor says we should be creating ‘Comfort Caves’ so that worried pets can feel safe and secure in their homes.

Dr. Falconer-Taylor says: “A refuge can give your pet a sense of control over the source of their stress and enables them to feel safe.

“Pets without somewhere to retreat to can struggle, so building a den – or preferably, several dens – in the rooms where your pet likes to relax will help to support them.”

Covid-19: Firms warn of ‘catastrophic’ impact of new coronavirus rules

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Rural firms often with a high proportion of hospitality businesses are very susceptible to the impacts of the more acute lockdown approaches associated with our current covid regime. This article points out more widely the lobby in favour of adequate support for businesses forced to close or operate in a defacto closed environment. This article tells us:

Firms are calling for more financial support to avoid “catastrophic consequences” from tougher coronavirus restrictions.

Without more help there could be mass redundancies and business failures, the British Chambers of Commerce warns.

Its call for a new approach comes as tougher restrictions are imposed on large parts of the UK.

The government said it had already put in place support worth more than £200bn to help firms cope.

“We know this continues to be a very difficult period for businesses,” a spokesman said. “That’s why we have put in place a substantial package of support.”

The government has already announced extra support for firms affected by new measures to control the virus, including providing two thirds of workers’ wages where firms have been told to close. Firms will also receive grants of up to £3,000 per month.

There is additional funding for local authorities and devolved administrations.

The director general of the BCC, which represents 75,000 firms of varying sizes across the UK, has written to the prime minister calling for a new set of criteria to be applied before imposing tougher restrictions.

“The situation for business grows graver by the day,” Adam Marshall wrote.

“Enhanced support must be given to those facing the indirect impacts of restrictions and closures – in supply chains, tourist destinations and town and city centres.”

Leak reveals possible harsher three-tier Covid plan for England

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I don’t think there is enough scope for rural sensitivity when blanket approaches to lock down are applied across the whole of England. It seems to me that we are sometimes at risk of political correctness trumping insightful approaches through a one size fits all approach. If the approach to managing covid is implemented as per this article I hope it will be more nuanced, in the context of “place” than set out in this article.

A new three-tier lockdown system is being planned for England, with leaked government documents paving the way for potential harsher restrictions including the closure of pubs and a ban on all social contact outside of household groups.

The draft traffic-light-style plan, seen by the Guardian, is designed to simplify the current patchwork of localised restrictions, which apply to about a quarter of the UK. It also reveals tougher measures that could be imposed by the government locally or nationally if Covid cases are not brought under control.

On Sunday the number of cases jumped by 22,961 after it emerged that more than 15,000 test results had not previously been transferred on to computer systems, including for contact tracers.

Called the “Covid-19 Proposed Social Distancing Framework” and dated 30 September, it has not yet been signed off by No 10 and measures could still be watered down.

Alert level 3 – the most serious – contains tougher measures than any seen so far in local lockdowns since the start of the pandemic. They include:

  • Closure of hospitality and leisure businesses.
  • No social contact outside your household in any setting.
  • Restrictions on overnight stays away from home.
  • No organised non-professional sports permitted or other communal hobby groups and activities, such as social clubs in community centres.
  • Places of worship can remain open.

Schools are not mentioned in the draft. A government source said this was because Boris Johnson had made clear that classroom closures would be a last resort and the reopening of schools was considered within Whitehall to have been a relative success.

Any attempts to impose more stringent measures are expected to provoke renewed anger among Conservative backbenchers, who are likely to demand a vote in parliament should they come into force.

Home sales in UK villages surge:post-lockdown buyers leaving cities for houses in commuter areas

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Here is a key coronavirus impulse to city flight – according to this article…

The number of homes sold in the UK so far this year has almost caught up with the number of sales agreed in the whole of 2019 – despite the total halt brought to the property market for seven weeks of lockdown.

Whereas in recent years a surge in sales has been led by London buyers, most of the home buying hotspots for 2020 are in villages.

The figures from Rightmove are the latest indication of an urban exodus following coronavirus lockdown, with people swapping city flats for houses and outside space in more rural locations as they look to a mid-term future with less or even no commuting.

The stamp duty holiday on homes up to £500,000, announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in early July, has kicked both buyers and sellers into gear with tax savings of up to £15,000 available until the end of March next year.

While some villages have seen more sales agreed in the first nine months of this year compared to the whole of last year, no areas of London have achieved the same distinction.

The strongest market in the capital is in Upminster in the borough of Havering on the Essex-London border, where sales agreed so far this year are up 42 per cent on the same period last year.

“The national sales agreed trend is an important and early indicator of future completed transactions and it’s encouraging to see that whilst it’s still playing catch-up, it has been improving at pace over the past few months,” said Rightmove’s Miles Shipside.

“National statistics are drawn from hundreds of local markets, with villages and market towns peppered across the country benefiting most from the post-lockdown boom in activity and a shift in buyers seeking out more serene scenery.”

Covid tests sent to Italy and Germany as UK labs are overwhelmed

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As virus numbers begin their rise I worry on the strength of articles like this about just how much of a grip we have on the virus and how effective the proposed track and trace measures are. Without them I fear vulnerable groups in heretofore non impacted rural settlements coming into the eye of the storm.

The government’s coronavirus testing programme is dealing with a backlog of185,000 swabs, with tests being sent to Italy and Germany as local labs are overwhelmed.

Not even a week after the government was forced to apologise for continuing delays to Covid testing, the Department of Health and Social Care insisted on Sunday that the capacity of the NHS test-and-trace system was the highest it had ever been but there was a “significant” demand for tests.

This includes demand from people “who do not have symptoms and are not otherwise eligible”, the DHSC said.

Leaked documents revealed the 185,000 backlog and the fact that tests are being sent to German and Italian laboratories for processing, according to the Sunday Times.

The UK’s gathering Covid-19 autumn storm

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I fear the most challenging winter perhaps in my approaching 60 years. Perhaps I am too much of a pessimist but as set out below there are some very worrying straws in the growing autumn wind….

Teachers, councillors, parents and teaching unions now fear that the same incompetence by ministers will spill over and have consequences when schools reopen. Headteachers say that the government has been so distracted by the exam farce that it has left schools in the dark, giving little guidance on reopening plans over recent weeks. Universities are wondering how they will handle the admissions chaos that has resulted in more students reaching their required grades than they have places to offer. 

For many people, including the prime minister, August was a month to try to get away from Covid-19. But September will be when reality strikes, and leadership is needed more than ever. The end of the holidays and the return to “normal” will be anything but. Many hundreds of thousands of working people are expected to be made redundant as the furlough scheme winds down. Any job opportunities there are in a shrinking economy will be fought over by ever larger numbers as graduates join the competition for employment.

The chancellor Rishi Sunak was expected to deliver an autumn budget next month, preparing for potential tax rises and to begin to pay the huge bills already incurred from Covid-19. But such is the anxiety over a second wave that it may be delayed until next year, when the true cost of Covid is known.

As winter approaches, the inadequate test-and-trace system will come under more pressure, exposing it as anything but the “world-beating” system ministers claim it to be.

To add to the uncertainty, Brexit battles with the EU will resume in earnest soon after MPs return to Westminster on 1 September, and fears will grow that the UK will end its transition period on 31 December without a deal, thereby inflicting more harm on the economy at the very point when it will least be able to afford it.

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