Happy New Year
Happy New Year everyone. We hope the new year is treating you all well?
We thought we would start the first entry of the year with a round-up of some of the highlights.
The two major things that happened was the start of the Runway Project and the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccinations.
It appears the Runway Project is going to schedule or to the best schedule they can when working with temperamental sea conditions that have caused intermittent delays when offloading the aggregate, but the hope is to have the first half completed in the first quarter of this year. This will then allow the flights to land there whilst the project switches to the other half.
When COVID hit the world, the island went into its own lockdown, we were cut off from the outside world until plans were put into place to control the island's arrivals and departures. Some companies carried out practice runs of how they would operate from home if a positive case found its way into the population, perspex screens were installed where customers would come into contact with workers, spacing lines were drawn on shop floors and strict quarantine rules were implemented. We have had several positive cases on the island over the last year and as I type two cases arrived from the last US flight a week ago but because of those strict quarantine rules, the island was notified, threat levels were raised to Orange Alert (positive case in isolation) and life continued as normal. Almost 100% of the island have now been double vaccinated with the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and received their Pfizer-BioNTech booster with the rollout of Pfizer-BioNTech jabs having started for the 12-17-year-olds as well.
A travel corridor between Ascension and St Helena was opened, which meant isolation wasn't required when you travelled between the islands, providing the islands were COVID free at the time of travel.
Towards the end of the year, local football started again after a 2-year absence. 7 teams started the season, the most in over 10 years, 3 teams were represented by the runway contractors and RAF although they withdrew after the first round due to the worry of injuries could slow progress on the Runway Project.
Post 16 / 6 form studies started on the island from the new School year, providing school leavers who opt in the opportunity to continue their studies via distance learning in a dedicated Class Room at the School.
The Public Library was moved from the School premises to the building formally known as Tasty Tucker or The Galley for the older readers of this Blog.
Sharks! Sharks have been a constant presence in the shallows around the island for the last few years. At times in December, it was harder not to see a shark at the Pier Head than it was to see one. No one knows why they have moved closer to shore, two theories include food shortage further out to sea and following the sound of boats back to shore as they associate it with an easy meal when the boats are out fishing.
Well, those were the highlights from 2021, I'm sure there were others, if you can think of any why not drop them in the comments below.
We'll try our best to give a round-up each month to keep you updated with life on 'the rock'.