Indeed. Tim Martin has offered to serve it up in pint glasses.

As I understand it from articles I have read, the issue was that there was no antibody test which met the required reliability standard (minimising false positives or false negatives).

According to the latest information, an antibody test supplied by Roche has now been selected as having the required reliability and this will be purchased for the desired purpose. I shall check for related articles.

Here you go:

https://www.med-technews.com/news/roche-s-covid-19-antibody-test-approved-for-use-in-the-uk/

No reported issues at my school, which has ~25% of its 1650 pupils getting the vouchers.

I genuinely have no idea on why they're dithering so much.

Given that Abbott and Roche have the CE-marked kits available - and you can eaily buy one yourself - you do have to wonder why the gov't isn't moving with haste towards rolling them out.

IMO they should be treating antibody testing with the same urgency as testing for Covid-19 itself.

PHE/NHS are incredibly slow and that problem needs to be looked at when the inquest into what should have been done better is opened.

However, the Roche test has been approved now and will be rolled out:

https://www.med-technews.com/news/roche-s-covid-19-antibody-test-approved-for-use-in-the-uk/

A bit like the Windrush scandal, eh, MM?  Just a shame if you happened to be one of those illegally deported from the UK and now unable to return to see your family? Hey Ho... never mind....

The rate is decreasing

Indeed. To quote Black Adder, the government / NHS / PHE (strike out according to your view) we appear to have moved no further than an asthmatic ant. 

Jimmy Kranky suggests no change to lockdown in Scotland. I wonder what would happen if the rest of the UK deviates?

The way it works at my school (can't speak for the others) is that the parents sign into a website and are given a voucher code to use (on line), or they can get paper vouchers sent to them. The ones I've seen are pretty generic gift voucher codes, they can be spent on anything (even DVDs!)

There's a Facebook group that's been set up by parents at my school and believe me, if anything goes wrong you hear all about it on there. (It's a public group, so you don't need a Facebook account to see it).

I just don't see how phase 4 for is doable 

Less tests yesterday and more + cases I believe ?

​

Nicola Sturgeon has announced Scotland's lockdown "must be extended" 

Quote

 

The coronavirus lockdown "must be extended" in Scotland and easing any restrictions would be "very, very risky", Nicola Sturgeon has announced. The first minister said she would prefer all four UK nations to keep the same rules and only change them in tandem - after Boris Johnson said he wants to "get going" on plans to slightly reduce restrictions in England.

But she did say she is considering allowing people in Scotland to exercise outdoors more than once a day. A further 59 people are confirmed to have died in Scotland with COVID-19 - taking the total to 1,762. Ahead of an expected address by the prime minister to the nation on Sunday, Ms Sturgeon said she would "not be pressured into lifting restrictions prematurely before I am as certain as I can be that we will not be risking a resurgence" of infections.

"If the prime minister decides that he wants to move at a faster pace for England than I consider is right for Scotland that is of course his right," she told journalists at the daily briefing in Edinburgh. "I will respect that and I will not criticise him for doing that."

 

https://news.sky.com/story/scotland-lockdown-must-be-extended-easing-it-very-risky-sturgeon-says-11984609

​

We'll already know what he is going to say as it will all be leaked by then. Suits me. Gives Joe Public time to absorb each measure as it is known. Too much to digest all in one go if it all came out together.

On a different tack I find that some Companies are hiding behind this crisis to give poor customer service. It's an easy excuse to use. My three year lease is up on my car and I should have a number of financial options. I've been phoning, emailing and asking questions on their website for six weeks. Finally after a very threatening email from me and four days before the end of the agreement I get a reply. It didn't answer one specific question and said - sorry, you had to apply for the extension to finance three weeks ago! I'd been requesting details of that for six weeks!

As far as I understand car sales are down so they should be less busy than usual. Showrooms are definitely shut so that's another busy daily communication they haven't got. When it started they said they were still operating but some staff were working from home. (More like skiving at home!). They never once answered the "vulnerable" hot line or any of the options and the line just went dead after ringing a few times. It was only a phone and online service before anyway.

I'm afraid the Corona virus has become a convenient excuse for some. 

But it is trending downwards, you can’t just look at one day in isolation. If that changes then I’m fully on board in extending the lockdown.

Your forelock-tugging defence of the Tories is as comical as it is predictable. You're like Maunder with a less girly growl.

New cases have been running at around 4 thousand since early April. This is still too high. Again, we need to find out what is driving this figure so at least we can try and address it.

With such a high infection rate number, the base number is so big we'll very quickly be in lockdown mode again, and it'll be worse as well.

You misunderstand the point. I was referring to your apparent fixation with outsourcing to the private sector, when it should be obvious that such a blanket approach is flawed.

Your second sentence is just a repeat of your previous nonsense.

How about looking at this issue dispassionately and without an anti-Tory rant? Whilst individual failures are depressing for those affected, in a large system it is the statistical numbers which are significant. You deal with the corner cases when they arise, but if a system is working for 95%, then there is not that much wrong with it. This is why I get cross with anecdotal evidence being weaponised against a whole approach for political reasons.

Journalists should do the leg work and research to see if whether a problem is a systemic issue or not, rather than emoting that Gladys from Wrexham has a problem - so she might have, but that does not mean the general approach is invalid.

If 5% of parachutes failed or 5% of medicines didn't work it would be a systemic issue

Indeed. Don't expect any response though.

It's a different world up in the moors 🙄