Today’s daily summary includes:
- A call out for help
- Information about updates we’ve made to our website and group
- Summary of local news
- Key national/international points
Call out from the Team:
Earlier today we issued a call out for people who can distribute flyers. You can download posters via our website. Please make sure to read our hygiene guidelines before flyering.
Team updates:
- When you come to the group now on facebook you will find that the first view you have is the Units. We hope this makes the carefully collected information and resources in the Units easier for everyone to find.
- We now have a map of all the Stroud district groups we currently know about, thanks to Nick Turner and others. The map accompanies our list of groups on our website. Please let us know if you have a local or neighbourhood group that can be added to the list.
- There is a new Hardwicke hub for community support.
- The facebook group now contains a list of local shops and restaurants that are offering food deliveries – this includes vegetables, bread, drinks, pet supplies and ready meals. See the document posted in the Discussion section.
Local updates:
- If you see this before 9pm, please wave a torch out your window for the Stroud Virus-Safe Torchlight “Procession”- Light Up The Valleys! 9pm TONIGHT (Saturday).”Either from a bedroom window or your own garden how about shining a torch & waving it around. Just for about 10 minutes… let’s see how many torch wavers we can reach! It doesn’t matter if you don’t live on a hill, just do it anyway!”
- Stroud District Council issued a new statement on their response. This includes details of how to contact them or find answers to questions about their services: “You will find the answer to most of your questions on our website.. www.stroud.gov.uk/health-wellbeing/coronavirus. If you need to contact us, please email us at customer.services@stroud.gov.uk and if you can’t, please call our Customer Services number, 01453 766321… Please don’t come to Ebley Mill unless it is essential…” (see the Stroud District Council website for full details including phone operating times).
- The district council has also issued a statement on waste and recycling collections – including extra precautions if you think anyone in your house may have the virus
- Gloucestershire County Council’s website also contains updated news and advice relating to Covid-19 – most relevant may be information about services such as travel and schools: www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/council-services-affected-by-covid-19/
- The organisers of Cheltenham Festival have released a statement after the news that staff and racegoers have started to develop symptoms of Covid-19.
Confirmed case updates – local and national:
- A man in his eighties with underlying health conditions became the first patient with coronavirus to die in Gloucestershire on Thursday, which was reported in Gloucestershire Live last night. Gloucestershire Live also reported the current total confirmed cases in the county as 22: “15 patients were announced as being diagnosed with the virus on Friday… There have been three cases in the Cotswolds, one in Gloucester, one in Stroud, two in Tewkesbury district and three in Cheltenham, and remaining 10 currently in unknown locations”
- The coronavirus death toll in the UK has reached 233 after NHS England said a further 53 people had died in England after testing positive. If it is useful to you you can track national and regional cases via this government website.
It is important to say that these are confirmed cases only, and that since testing has been suspended for all cases but those needing hospitalisation, we do not have an accurate number for the actual number of cases in the community. As stated in our hygiene guidelines – when providing support it is necessary to work on the assumption that anyone could have the virus.National/International:
- The Government has refreshed its Coronavirus home page with links to its information and guidance: www.gov.uk/coronavirus
- The NHS have launched a page where you can access the service to get an isolation note – this may be useful to people who need to self-isolate (see their restrictions) 111.nhs.uk/isolation-note/
- “The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in Italy rose by 793 to 4,825 on Saturday… It is the largest daily rise in absolute terms since the contagion emerged a month ago… The total number of cases in Italy rose to 53,578 from a previous 47,021, an increase of 13.9%… Of those originally infected nationwide, 6,072 had fully recovered” (from this Guardian summary of news from Italy)
- It may be worth saying that the UK is on a similar track to Italy (link to chart showing growth rate of cases), and the way that the virus spreads means that without strong measures it could reach a similar point in a matter of a couple of weeks. This is why we have been working hard to get information out and support networks set up.
Daily Updates:
- We aim to post our daily updates summary every evening. Find previous updates on the Neighbour Networks website.
- A reminder of the main headlines from yesterday’s (Friday’s) news:
- The Government is to pay 80% of wages for employees unable to work due the coronavirus pandemic, up to £2,500 a month.” There would be no limit on the funding available to pay people’s wages. The payments will be backdated to the start of March, will be up and running within weeks, open initially for at least three months, and could be extended if necessary”.
- Unfortunately, the same level of provision has not been made for the self employed.
- “Should they [the self employed] fall ill, they will be able to claim employment and support allowance (ESA) and/or Universal Credit. The weekly payment for ESA is typically £73.10 or £57.90 for people under the age of 25. However Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said that he is raising the payments for Universal Credit so that the self-employed receive the same amount as someone on statutory sick pay (£94.25 a week).”
- Claer Barrett, Personal Finance Editor at the Financial Times made the critique “Around 15% of the UK workforce is self employed. No sick pay, benefits or paid holiday – and now no right to support from the government’s “job retention scheme”. PAYE workers could get 80% of wages, but self-employed get just £94 per week?”
- “Cafes, pubs and restaurants must close from Friday night, except for take-away food, to tackle coronavirus…All the UK’s nightclubs, theatres, cinemas, gyms and leisure centres have also been told to close “as soon as they reasonably can”.
- Are you a “key worker”? The Guardian has a list of employee types who can still send their children to school. **Key areas:
- Education and childcare
- Key public services,
- Local and national government
- Food and other necessary goods
- Public safety and national security
- Transport, Utilities, communication and financial services
Please remember we have resources to support your emotional and mental health during this time on our website.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.Apologies if we missed anything-please submit again or post in the comments below