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
Team updates:
- We now have a Facebook Page “Stroud Coronavirus Updates” that you can “like” – this means you’ll just get our daily updates and other announcements from the Page, without needing to come into the Group to read them.
- Kardien Gerbrands of Stroud Farmers Market posted that the usual market is now temporarily closed, and is anticipated to remain closed throughout April and into May. Instead, a food hub will be opened in the Cornhill Square area of the market where customers may buy food via a pre-order system from some market stallholders.
- We approved a share of a post by Stroud District Council announcing the temporary suspension of car parking charges in council-owned car parks (see below).
- We approved a post sharing the news that the government is extending the expiry date of MOTs by 6 months (see below).
- Eastcombe publicised their NextDoor community for keeping in touch with neighbours
- We approved a post publicising Access Bike Skills Hub – an online version of Stroud’s Access Bike community workshop project.
- We continued to add to our collections of resources on local food offers (Unit 12), education and children (Unit 13), and health and fitness tips. We aim to build up the collection of health, exercise and fitness tips for self-isolation in the coming days.
- We now have 19 Units! The latest Unit collects together resources on getting online and using online services, or helping others to do so.
Call out from the Team
We have a small crew of administrators and moderators and would love some more enthusiastic and meticulous moderators and researchers. We need help with checking submitted posts, updating units, checking comments fit within the guidelines and signposting people to parts of the website/group they may not have seen.
Local updates:
- The Stroud News and Journal reported that 49 people have now tested positive for the coronavirus in Gloucestershire. Public Health England has confirmed 17 new cases of the virus in the county in the last 24 hours – the biggest daily increase in cases so far.
- 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.
- Stroud District Council (SDC) announced the temporary suspension of car parking charges in council-owned car parks. The Council say this is to help drivers needing to make essential trips, and to free up parking enforcement staff to other duties.
- As well as announcing the suspension of car parking charges, SDC has announced that the council offices at Ebley Mill are now closed to members of the public
- Refuse, waste and recycling collections will run as normal for as long as possible.
- The Council have also issued a plea to be a considerate neighbour, including avoiding burning garden waste – which may have adverse effects on people’s breathing – or playing loud music from your home.
National/International:
- We don’t yet have confirmed accurate and updated numbers for the number of people in the UK who have died having tested positive for the coronavirus. We will update this number tomorrow if we can.
- **Globally, **the WHO confirmed via its daily situation report, that there were 40,712 confirmed new cases, and 2,202 deaths due to Covid-19, in the last day. This compares to 39,827 cases and 1,722 deaths the previous day.
- There are now 414,179 confirmed cases globally, and 18,440 people have died.
- (above points from the World Health Organisation daily Situation Report)
- More than 500,000 people have signed up as NHS volunteers. The overwhelming response has prompted the NHS to extend its target to recruit 750,000 volunteers in total.
- The government is extending the expiry date of MOTs by 6 months for vehicles whose MOT is due after the 30th of March. Cars with MOTs that expire before that date still require their MOT to be passed: the government is allowing garages to remain open. However it is still the driver’s responsibility to ensure their car is safe to drive.
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