Here are the key stories for the day, with thanks to our WhatsApp group who keep these coming in all day – there are now 123 members of the group, with every street represented.

Editorial:

I am now running a morning and afternoon delivery run in the Postman Pat van round the whole Village.

Yesterday morning, I delivered flour from Vanessa to Aitch, a crowbar to Peters Close and kindling to Water Yard. The afternoon's run involved the swapping of puzzles and toys between various houses.

Don't be embarrassed to ask! Please let me know if anything needs to be moved around. It is much safer for us all to have one van on the road than lots of cars going around the Village.

Sarah's book swap was certainly working yesterday with good feedback and one very happy young customer.

Roger's jigsaw swap idea was popular, with several exchanges made already. I'll be building a library of photos of available jigsaws when I get chance. Let me have any more photos of jigsaws you would be willing to swap.

Nationally:

• UK reported hospital deaths from Covid-19 went up by 861 to 13,729. This is an increase in the daily total but may reflect missed reporting deadlines by some counties. The number of new positive tests yesterday was lower than the previous day.

This chart has aligned the epidemics from 4 countries with different approaches to the crisis.

Locally:

The Government is now publishing date in a much better format, allowing us to look at the numbers of new cases reported in Northamptonshire each day. On the 14th April no new cases were reported, which seemed to be unlikely. On the 15th April, 17 cases were reported. It is possible that this reflects a missed reporting deadline from the day before. There is still a downward trend for infections in the County.

Daily links (all verified):

And finally . . .

As the end of the 4th week approaches, it has slowly dawned on us that barbers and hairdressers perhaps should be key workers . . .

Stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.