30th December 2020
Footballers are dropping like flies with positive COVID tests. Everton's match against Manchester City on Monday was postponed because of an outbreak among City players and there was a question mark over whether Sheffield would be able to play Burnley yesterday, but that match did go ahead in the end. Today Stan and I will both be watching, but hoping for a different result! Liverpool need to beat Newcastle to be sure of staying at the top of the table, while Newcastle are languishing down at 14th and could definitely do with a boost.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved and is going to be rolled out PDQ, starting on Monday. They're talking about vaccinating two million people a week. I'll believe that when I see it!
There's also been a formal review of the tiers and more places are being moved up a tier. Liverpool is going into Tier 3 and Oxford is staying in Tier 4. They haven't announced any new Tier 5, which was something that had been suggested in the press. Basically, we're all just locked down again, except that people can go into work if they can't work from home and children will still eb in school - but some not until 11th January and others not until 18th January except for the ones that will go back next week. All clear as mud, which isn't exactly great for teachers planning what to do at the beginning of term (.e. next week). The same goes for universities. They've been told not to allow students back - except for medics, nurses, teachers etc. - but there's no clear plan for exactly how long they're supposed to be taught at home for, and students are wanting to know who pays for the accommodation that they won't be using. Martin Riess has been tearing his hair out over what to do with overseas students who are already in Oxford or who were already on their way here when the announcement was made. Words fail me!