Are you bored of Covid? I most certainly am.

The problem, of course, is that Covid isn’t bored of you, not by a long chalk.

I realise I may sound like a stuck record but the fact remains coronvirus most certainly hasn’t gone away, as the most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics show.

In fact, last week cases were on the rise in almost all areas of Warrington, according to official data. On July 1, Warrington currently has a total of 574 reported active cases, an infection rate of 274.1 cases per every 100,000 residents.

(Of course, now free testing has ended along with the requirement to report if you have Covid, the actual number of cases is likely to be much higher.)

On the same day, Covid cases in England were at their highest level since April 16, with the national rate of transmission standing at 246.3.

Latest data shows that Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 now make up more than half of the Covid-19 cases in the UK and are driving the increase in infections while the ONS estimate shows that locally 1 in 25 people last week had Covid, an increase from 1 in 40 compared to the previous week.

And the official advice from Warrington Borough Council is to consider wearing a face covering in crowded and enclosed spaces to provide additional protection while infection rates are high.

What I do find interesting is that the message doesn’t seemed to have found its way to Warrington and Halton Hospitals Trust.

I have to go to Halton Hospital in Runcorn to have blood taken every two or three months (nothing serious but thanks for asking).

On my previous visit, the mask mandate was still in place with all members of staff and visitors wearing face coverings.

But last week, all the staff were maskless.

I queried this with the nurse who took my blood and she told me it was because the trust had dropped the mask mandate a couple of weeks ago but conceded that every patient who turned up to have their blood taken wore a mask (including me).

Is it any wonder with mixed messaging such as that we are in the middle of another wave of infections?

I’ve long since given up on the government and its cack-handed response to the pandemic but if we can trust health professionals to protect us properly, who can we trust?

On a different matter, I expressed my sympathy a couple of weeks ago for Warrington South MP Andy Carter who is one of four Tory MPs on Parliament’s privileges committee.

The reason I felt sorry for him was the invidious position he found himself, having to sit in judgement on his ‘boss’ Boris Johnson.

The committee is investigating if Johnson misled Parliament on four separate occasions when he made statements about ‘partygate’ in the House of Commons, saying all the Covid rules had been followed.

So now I’m guessing the pressure is off Mr Carter and his three fellow Conservatives on the committee as the chances Johnson will still be Prime Minister when the committee makes its report are slim, although given Johnson is becoming more and more Trump-like, it wouldn’t surprise me if he wasn’t still squatting in No10 come autumn, claiming his premiership had been stolen, that he has a mandate and that only ‘the people’ can get rid of him.

But the good news is it doesn’t matter if Johnson is still in post or not, the work of the privileges committee goes on and will make its findings known later in the year.

And finally, I am endlessly fascinated and sometimes amused by the changing trends in baby names. This week, the list was published of the most popular names in the first half of the year and you won’t be surprised to hear that neither my first or middle names appear – I think you’d need to go back to the list from 1962 for me to stand a chance.

Anyway, in with all the Lilys, Sophias, Olivias, Amelias, Muhammads, Noahs and Jacks I was a little taken aback to see Aiden creep in at 20th on the list. Where on earth did that come from?