good news is LHR is in Hillingdon :)

There you go with all those logic and facts again! What sort of argument is that fer goodness sake! I'm not letting that get in the way of a good story! :) :) :)

The guidance has now been revised to ask people to minimise travel to these areas rather than essential travel only

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57246973
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19...t-is-spreading

Areas are:
Bedford Borough Council
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council
Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council
Burnley Borough Council
Kirklees Council
Leicester City Council
London Borough of Hounslow
North Tyneside Council

Obviously there is still no legal issue with travelling in these areas, it is guidance only - the exception is Scotland's law change mentioned here https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/33268547-post4984.html

I think it is also worth noting that the Steps law we are under in England since 29 March is set up in a way which would easily allow different areas in to in different Steps levels, although since end of March all of England has been in the same Step level. However, currently even in the most restrictive Step level (Step 1) there is no movement restriction so clearly there isn't an expectation of having movement restrictions even for any areas which do get moved back to Step 1. There would be restrictions on businesses, and on gatherings/meetings of course. And if necessary the government could add in movement restrictions if they did wish to do so.

On public transport:

1. Alight at Hatton X (Piccadilly Line) and then
   1. Take bus 423 towards Terminal 5 from Stop E (next to the overpass, on the right of the main exit), alight at Compass Centre, stop BW
2. Alight at Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3 (Piccadilly Line/TfL Rail) and then
   1. When exiting the station go straight (so not towards T2 to the left or T3 to the right), go upstairs on the lift and through the bus ticketing hall. From the left-hand bank of bus stalls you can take:
      1. Bus U3 towards Uxbridge, alight at Compass Centre stop BW
3. Alight at Heathrow Terminal 5 (Piccadilly Line/LHR Express) and then
   1. Exit towards the car park on the ground floor; consult the signs there to find the right bus stop, but it should be the first platform on the left)
   2. Take Bus 423 towards Hounslow Bus station, alight at Compass Centre stop BA (outside the Arora hotel)
4. There's also the Bus 81 from Hounslow West or Slough.

Remember that the LHR Free travel zone is no more so you've got to pay for the buses.

If you're driving then use the A4/Bath road if coming from London; if you're coming from the M25 exit at T5 and follow the Perimeter roads. Be mindful of the speed cameras, the limit is 30 and there's more cameras than plane spotters. I'm sure there's parking available, the place is littered with car parks, but as to which car park is in use for vaccinations.. I don't know.

Hope this helps.

I cycled around the perimeter road a month or so ago, and everything is well sign posted as I recall for the vaccination centre and the drive-in testing centre.

This page from Hounslow suggests that Heathrow Terminal 5 Long Stay Car Park provides two hours free parking.

Daily data:

Cases 3,180 (2,696 last Wednesday)
Deaths 9 (3)
Patients admitted 115 (89 on the 15th)
Patients in hospital 954 (940 on the 17th)
Patients on ventilator 128 (124 on the 18th)
People vaccinated up to and including 25 May 2021:
First dose: 38,378,564
Second dose: 23,616,498

The rolling seven day daily average for cases is now up 18.0% on the previous week and the same measure for deaths is flat at 0%. The rolling 7 day daily average for deaths is 7.7 today. The data is not looking so good today, however the number of vaccinations given is still increasing.

Mr Shapps has been talking to the media today (as usual). These are some of the interesting bits reported by the BBC:

My bold above. Reported elsewhere that France may require travellers from the UK to quarantine on arrival because of the Indian COVID variant.

For the latter bolded point, I rather think that is not up to him.. unless he is referring to test to release/the day 2 test for green list countries. In which case that is a big thumbs up.

we are like a month into the ‘variant surge’ looks good to
me

And now confirmed.

https://www.france24.com/en/france/2...-variant-fears

Watch this space also, there may be an amendment to the SI coming that will force all people coming from Amber list countries to pay for day 2 and 8 tests, even if they're leaving prior to the day 8 tests. Too many people arriving saying they're leaving before day 8 and hence only booked a day 2 test when that's not quite true. YMMV and let's see if it does come into play, as it's ridiculous and putting things back where they were originally.

It's almost certainly not up to him, but OTOH, I can't imagine he's dumb enough to openly state that if it weren't a realistic possibility.

Slightly worrying numbers on ventilator are up for the first time in weeks. My first question is how many of them are fully vaccinated (and I wouldn’t expect an answer at this stage). I hope the answer is none.

They are in beds with mechanical ventilation provided with the bed unit. Which is a complex way to weave around the various definitions of intensive care bed arrangements. What it means is that 128 people are sufficiently ill that they are getting 24 hour nursing one on one. Not many will actually be on a ventilator as such. About 70% have not had a vaccine at all, or one dose only in the last 20 days. The rise from 124 to 128 isn't too concerning, given during late January it was 4,000 in ICU.

Whilst the absolute number remains small, given the previous trajectory I’m not sure today’s figures could be seen as ‘good’. However, this is only one day, we have seen this recently and it hasn’t led to a continuing rise, so let’s hope this is merely a blip which is counteracted by more people getting immunity by vaccination.