Categories
Updates

Thursday, March 19, 2020

We aim to share a daily summary each day – this will include:

  • Information about updates we’ve made to our website and group
  • Call outs for help
  • Summary of local news
  • Key national/international points

If you submit posts, we will often decline posting them to the discussion directly and instead hold them till the single daily summary – to try to reduce the number of posts in the feed and make it easier for people to manage the volume of information. Please continue to submit posts to admins for this purpose.

Headline updates for today

  • The UK Government makes plans to support children eligible for school meals. **“Low-income families whose children are eligible for free school meals will be offered vouchers, food or meals to make sure they continue receiving this support, even if they are no longer attending school due to the coronavirus outbreak.” **(www.gov.uk/government/news/plans-set-out-to-support-pupils-eligible-for-free-school-meals)
  • The Guardian has **a summary of supermarket restrictions on opening hours, items restricted for purchase, priority hours – dedicated times where more at risk customers can shop. **(www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/19/uk-supermarket-restrictions-what-you-need-to-know)
  • As of 1pm on the 19th March, 3,269 of tested cases for coronavirus have been positive in the UK. 144 patients who tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) have sadly died. (twitter.com/DHSCgovuk/status/1240717258013306880)
  • It is important to say that these are cases confirmed by testing only, and that since testing has been suspended for all cases but those needing hospitalisation, we do not have an accurate number of cases in the community.

Team updates:

  • Polly Doodah, an English teacher here in Stroud, has joined our volunteer team of admins and will be handling updates for our Unit on Education, Schooling and Kids. Local teachers have been reaching out to offer online tutoring on Skype. We hope to have that information up and shared shortly.
  • We shared a BBC news update with advice on a concern for many of you: Should you let your children play with other children? (www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51938537)
  • Admin Natasha Wilson has set up a Facebook Group for people offering and requesting housing in Stroud. If you are self isolating, if you or a loved one is more at risk and needs a separate space, if you find yourself in transition, or you can offer accommodation, please connect here. (www.facebook.com/groups/706176176586783/)

Call out from the Team

We’ve been finalising documents that cover the ways we’ve been running – and working out how to – run a group like this.Once we have these guideline and protocol documents ready we will be appealing for more people to step forward and join our team of admins, moderators, coordinators, and web/graphic designers.We will be looking for people who can take ownership updating and moderating the existing Units and any new ones to come.Local updates:

International:

[Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this update through our post submission system. Apologies if we missed something you submitted and please do comment with items for tomorrow’s update]

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/plans-set-out-to-support-pupils-eligible-for-free-school-meals