It was Sajid Javid and he said nothing new, other than trying to stick the tail on the donkey with an up to 100,000 case prediction during winter.

How many countries will close their doors to us if we get to that? And can we get to that without a lockdown?

Morocco closes tonight, also for Germany and the Netherlands. It will be shame if countries think that closing borders again will help.

Just did a double-take when I saw this, as it is slightly ambiguous and I interpreted it to mean DE/NL were closing doors to the UK. Rather, it is Morocco closing the door to arrivals from the UK, Germany and the Netherlands.

I haven't found official Moroccan statement, but my reading from that article was that travellers from UK (and DE/NL) are still allowed to enter Morocco, just direct flights are banned. Did I understand wrong?

We have to wait for something official, but I think you are right based on what has been said.

Not good if this is true:

Posturing..

If countries are going to do anything I'd imagine they'd just add a testing requirement rather than an all out ban.

Daily data:

Cases 52,009 (45,066 last Thursday)
Deaths 115 (157)
Patients admitted 959 (719 on the 10th)
Patients in hospital 8,142 (7,0061 on the 13th)
Patients in ventilation beds 872 (781 on the 13th)
People vaccinated up to and including 20 October 2021:
First dose: 49,554,407
Second dose: 45,460,122

The rolling seven day daily average for cases is now up 17.9% on the previous week and the same measure for deaths is up 10.8%. The rolling 7 day daily average for deaths is 130.3 today.

Not sure what sort of reassurance they are expecting? Would 'plan B' of making people wear masks in shops, on public transport and if they go to the toilet in a restaurant and introducing covid passports in England placate them? Wales introduced the passport and never removed the mask rules, yet has the highest covid rates in Britain by some distance. Similarly Scotland's cases went through the roof despite masks when the schools went back. That rise thankfully reversed and the rate seems fairly stable at the moment.

​​​​​England by contrast did not take off like Scotland when the schools went back; it's taken longer, but it's now rising albeit slower and the psychological barrier of 50k has been broken again.

It will never happen because of the chaos it would create, but the quickest way to get cases down (if that is the objective some are demanding) is to shut the schools. c45% of the daily cases rates in England are in under 20s, with the bulk of that age group unvaccinated and of school age. It is not the fault of this age group that they are largely unvaccinated - only recently were the 16-17 and 12-15 year olds offered the vaccine. The one dose strategy being pursued also seems to be a complete waste of everyone's time - we know one dose isn't so effective with Delta and it is very bad policy for travel as these kids wont6be deemed fully vaccinated.

I was against JCVI guidance on the vaccine for 12-15s being overruled as I thought this to be a pretty poor use of vaccines within a group that very rarely become seriously unwell. However, we have a largely unvaccinated group of people subject to mass gatherings five days a week - the consequences of this are quite predictable. These infections are clearly spilling over, to an extent, which is causing rising hospitalisations and, unfortunately, deaths. Therefore I have to conclude that the previous policy on vaccination of 12-15s was not the right one.

Masks and vaccine passports are window dressing if the objective is to get cases down as quickly as possible - measures should be targeted where the cases are occurring. Close the schools and vaccinate in greater numbers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/w...ain-virus.html Interesting take by NYT

Perhaps but a) it’s behind a paywall and b) the NYT has become increasingly erratic in its reporting.

Once you have read the headline "Rise in Cases and Deaths Tests Britain’s Gamble on Few Virus Restrictions" there is nothing more in the whole story. If you want to get past the paywall disable JavaScript.

Daily data:

Cases 49,298 (44,932 last Friday)
Deaths 180 (145)
Patients admitted 1,065 (829 on the 11th)
Patients in hospital 8,238 (7,110 on the 14th)
Patients in ventilation beds 892 (783 on the 14th)
People vaccinated up to and including 21 October 2021:
First dose: 49,603,139
Second dose: 45,486,950

The rolling seven day daily average for cases is now up 18.1% on the previous week and the same measure for deaths is up 15.8%. The rolling 7 day daily average for deaths is 135.3 today. When boosters are added, there have now been above 100 million jabs given in the UK.