Early on today the news broke that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for COVID-19 - and shortly afterwards we heard that both Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Chief Medical Office Chris Whitty (The man nobody had heard of a month ago, who is now a household name!) had also tested positive. All apparently have mild symptoms and will continue working while in self-isolation. It may be a sign of the times that a positive hail of gleeful comment has been unleashed against Boris on social media - sadly not surprising, but nonetheless distasteful that someone would wish a potentially serious illness on another human being. Allowing for the way the virus spreads, presumably the ill-wishers will be equally as gleeful if the PM's 5 month pregnant fiancee also comes down with the virus- she is of course in the high risk group. For the avoidance of doubt - regardless of your politics, this sort of unpleasantness really does say far more about those uttering it than the person it is directed at.
Anyway! Enough of people who should know better! Today has been another day of sunshine, and we made the most of it by getting out for our exercise first thing for a run/walk around the Town Park. I think I've posted about this on here before - but we are so incredibly lucky to have this fantastic space (pictured above) so close by, and at the moment it's really coming into its own! In fact I had to tick off three of the accepted reasons to leave the house today - exercise, essential shopping (needed bread!) and then "helping someone vulnerable" this afternoon by collecting my Mum's prescription for her. (And no - I couldn't combine those two errands as I needed the bread for lunchtime, and the prescription wasn't going to be ready until mid afternoon.) For those reading back on this later we are only currently allowed out for a few set reasons:
- One form of exercise a day - alone or with members of our household
- To buy essential shopping - food or medicines
- For medical appointments or to care for or help a vulnerable person
- For essential travel to work
We're also being urged to try not to use our cars where possible due to the increased potential for accidents and thus added pressure on the emergency services. Thankfully in Harlow we have plentiful shops within walking distance, so this isn't too much of an issue for us. The supermarkets are also starting to recover their stock levels a bit now - thanks to people panic buying there have been shortages of everything from loo roll to eggs for the last few weeks. Indeed, there is one particular item that I am in urgent need of that I now have to go into the town centre for tomorrow - far from ideal!
Robyn
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