COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 21st July 2023

 COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 21st July 2023

World to date: Officially reported COVID cases 691,770,965, losses of life 6,901,646

The final witness has testified for the first phase of the UK COVID Inquiry. There's a lot to sift through and evaluate, so an interim report is expected next year, and it'll be a long time before the final document. By then it'll likely be another degree warmer, fish will contain too much plastic to count as fauna, and no-one will really care about a report stating the obvious inadequacies we all lived through. They hope. 

A recent UK study has looked at just how many children have been hospitalised with COVID in England. 

• Between July 2020 and February 2022, 3,226,535 children and teenagers in England tested positive with COVID for their first time. 

• 29,230 (0.9%, almost 1 in every 111 of those who tested positive) needed hospital admission - some were tested on arrival to hospital with various other ailments, but 21,000 (around 3 in every 4) were taken to hospital and admitted specifically due to COVID. 

• 1,710 (5.9% or 1 in every 17 of those admitted to hospital) involved paediatric critical care.

• 70 deaths occurred in which covid-19 or paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome was listed as a cause.

•  8,415 (28.8% or more than 1 in every 4) of those children admitted to hospital were aged under 1 year. 

COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 7th July 2023

 COVID-19 Coronavirus and other virus UK and World News Update 7th July 2023

World COVID Statistics: 691,207,603 officially reported cases and 6,898,266 losses of life.

Happy birthday to the NHS! 

On Wednesday the UK NHS was 75 years old, and so was the first baby born in their care. Most of us in the UK have lived entire lives without fear of financial ruin because we got poorly or had an accident. We can ring an ambulance, book an appointment with a GP, become pregnant or turn up at A&E without having to worry if we can afford it. That is a very precious thing, and it has been underfunded and squeezed for a long time. In order that the NHS care for us, we really needed to take better care of the NHS. Thank you to anyone who has ever worked for the NHS. 

Yesterday the UK Government lost their legal battle to keep some of Boris and his mates' WhatsApp messages and notebooks secret from the COVID inquiry. They argued that some of it is 'irrelevant', and the High Court decided the COVID inquiry can be the judge of that. I think the Government are out of legal options now - they've got to hand it all over by 4pm Monday.

(For reference, the Christmas party video with catered snacks, flirtatious dancing and shiny paper hats is amongst things previously deemed irrelevant by our Government.)