Friday

On March 10th, the world was a different place: The Cheltenham Festival began, 3.000 football fans travelled from Spain to Merseyside to watch Athletico beat Liverpool, pubs and restaurants were still open and the Government was dragging its heels regarding a lockdown. Events later in the week would change that, but I mention the date because locked away in the data on deaths released by the Government yesterday was the breakdown that only about a third of the deaths occurred in the previous 24 hours. Most had happened in the week before then, but 10% happened in March, with the earliest on the 10th.

Meaning the up to date figures are not that up to date after all, and to base any potential future action on incomplete data would be foolish, but then the Brexiteers are in charge.

People have been discharged from hospital into care homes without being tested, bringing with them the virus into confined facilities, where the virus can rampage through. No one is yet counting these deaths in the UK, the French are, and this makes up 20% of their figures.

Meanwhile the "Nightingale" hospitals that have been springing up and remain very underused, the reason for which is that any hospital that transfers a patient to one has to supply staff and equipment too, thus depleting already stretched resources at their own hospital. And yes, the above is true, @peston stated this last night.

The lockdown is to continue for at least three more weeks, but there is no plan beyond that. It seems the only plan was to flatten the curve in ICU admissions, and everything else, everyone else, was to be sacrificed so Government ministers could say the NHS wasn't swamped. That thousands are dying at home or in care facilities is a mere inconvenience.

It seems the Government plan is herd immunity after all, meaning hundreds of thousands of deaths, but at a slower rate. There is no plan for mass testing or tracking contacts, Ministers get angry when questioned about what the exit strategy; there isn't one.

Social distancing might continue for another year, with there being no crowds at sporting events, in pubs, restaurants. What businesses could survive that?