379

COVID, we're told, is in retreat.

Infection data is down, hospitalisations are down.

The former could be down to infections really dropping, or just not enough testing equipment. Jools has been trying for over a week now for LFT which she needs so she can get to the office, but with no luck. She has been on a waiting list at Tesco for two weeks, no stock has apparently come in.

379 people were reported to have died in the previous 24 hours. This is the data lag behind infections that started to increase before Christmas, it barely gets a mention in the news now, these deaths didn't in the bBC bulletins yesterday.

Nearly four Hillsboroughs deaths and it does not warrant a mention, the "and finally" story was still mentioned.

So, the deaths go on, the suffering goes on, while in Westminster the bloodletting is about to begin.

Poetic justice, really.

But no one will be held to account for the deaths, 150,609 using Deaths within 28 days of positive test as a metric, or 174,233 using Deaths with COVID-19 on the death certificate. The excess death data is far, far worse and that is the real human cost.