Today’s update includes:
- Information about changes we’ve made to our group and website
- A call out for help
- Summary of local news
- Key national/international points
Before that – the big news is obviously last night’s statement by the Prime Minister which we shared after yesterday’s update.“People will only be allowed to leave their home for the following very limited purposes:
- shopping for basic necessities, as infrequently as possible
- one form of exercise a day – for example a run, walk, or cycle – alone or with members of your household;
- any medical need, to provide care or to help a vulnerable person; and
- travelling to and from work, but only where this is absolutely necessary and cannot be done from home.”
Until we hear otherwise, we assume that “to provide care or to help a vulnerable person” covers the work we are helping to coordinate, with neighbour networks and a Facebook group where people can request and arrange help with deliveries or phone calls etc. Get in touch with your local group via our website.
Team updates:
- We added a new unit and several posts on “Getting online and using online services – or helping others to do so”
- David Ion added a new post detailing local businesses that are still delivering (with an emphasis on Stroud town – we are hoping to cover the district in this way, please let us know about other businesses by commenting on the post)
- We approved a post from Silas Millar – Marketing Manager for WSP Solicitors – on child arrangements for separated parents given government “stay at home” guidance
- We approved a post on Emergency measures “agreed by the government and energy suppliers to protect domestic energy supply during the disruption caused by COVID-19”, including guidance for people using pre-payment meters or in financial distress.
Call out from the Team – ideas for how you can help:
- If you haven’t already – make a local group of nearby households (read our suggestions on how to)
- Make sure you’re logged into existing local WhatsApp groups
- Check on the more vulnerable folk near to you. Make time to talk over the phone, over fences and through windows – but at least 2m away
- See what you can find and deliver locally – if you’re doing your 1x week shop
- Offer listening time to folk through a special Facebook group (you can do a swap, or just listen, or just talk)
- Become an admin on this group! We welcome experienced moderators who will commit to working with our guidelines.
Local updates:
- Stroud Festival of Nature has been cancelled, but the Facebook page is sharing nature-themed things for children to do.
- An email scam is targeting parents of The Shrubberies school (Stroud News and Journal). Age UK has some good advice on spotting and avoiding scams.
- “Different crematoria and churches have been applying different rules about the numbers of mourners that are considered family groups under Government Coronavirus guidance” (Gloucestershire Live)
- Local community celebrant Christina Snell writes “A saving grace to this agonising situation is that most crematoria, and certainly all the ones in Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire, have facilities to live stream and/or record ceremonies. The usual additional costs for this are being waived. This means that whilst far from ideal, families can at least feel there is a connection between themselves and the ceremony, albeit at a distance.”
- According to the government’s tracker, there are 49 cases in Gloucestershire.
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.
National/International:
- 87 people died – the largest day-on-day increase in the number of deaths since the outbreak began. In total 422 patients who tested positive for coronavirus in the UK have died
- A total of 90,436 have been tested: 8,077 positive (cases up 2,390 since yesterday), 82,359 negative (above via this Department of Health and Social Care tweet)
- Globally, there are now 372,757 confirmed cases (39,827 more than yesterday) and 16,231 people have died (1,722 people died yesterday).
- The World Health Organisation Director General stated: “It took 67 days from the first reported case to reach the first 100,000 cases, 11 days for the second 100,000 cases and just 4 days for the third 100,000 cases. You can see how the virus is accelerating.”
- The WHO WhatsApp Health Alert (access via this link) has now attracted 10 million users since launching on Friday, and the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund has raised more than US$70 million, in just 10 days
- “WHO and the World Food Programme(WFP) are exploring ways to work with the Pandemic Supply Chain Network (PSCN) and Logistical Emergency Teams (L.E.T.) to ensure that logistical assets are in place to support the increasing global demand for COVID-19 supplies. This is to ensure that supplies are allocated effectively and equitably inthe places where they are needed the most” (above points from the World Health Organisation daily Situation Report)
Please remember we have a (growing) list of 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