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Over 70s are now in home-quarantine for two weeks here (to begin with) . Dug the Scrabble and the Yatzee out yesterday. Fortunately we stocked up on wine on a w/e in Germany a couple of months ago. Also hoping for a bit of good weather (we finally got snow that stayed, a couple of weeks ago) so that I can get some gardening done without interruptions.

I have been pressing NCC for information about how council intends to tackle this viral infection threat. We now have an extraordinary all members meeting after the council’s emergency committee meets tomorrow. I hope this will give some answers to some of the questions I am getting. I have also asked about what might happen if our schools have to close, especially in respect of school meals and exams. Here is the initial response off our cabinet member for Children’s Services, for which I thank him. There is no HM Government directive YET to close our schools. This may happen in the next week or so but as it stands – they remain open. I have been involved with Children’s Services on Continuity Planning and asked for detailed plans to be put in place on some key areas of work with children. If schools are ordered to close we are developing plans for how we offer online learning portals. We are looking at how we can offer food/ meals to the most disadvantaged pupils who may be impacted over the loss of the school meals service. This detailed work includes how we can open kitchens, work with supermarkets and restaurants. We are awaiting information from the Dept. for Education on exams and how these are managed. Coms work is being prepared to manage messages over the coming week.