Today’s update includes:
- Requests and Offers from the Stroud Coronavirus Community Response team and beyond
- Summary of local news
- Key national and international news
Requests and Offers from the Stroud Coronavirus Community Response team and beyond
- We shared an important update about the measurement and publication of coronavirus casualty figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports Covid-19 related deaths in England and Wales at a number 41% higher than the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). A Financial Times analysis of the ONS data says that coronavirus “has already caused as many as 41,000 deaths in the UK.” The figures released by the DHSC each day only include those who have died in hospitals after testing positive for the virus, whereas the FT extrapolation includes deaths that occurred outside hospitals, and is updated to reflect recent mortality trends. Please see our post and the relevant links for more detailed information and caveats.
- Pammy Michell shared a video about Gloucestershire Sewing for the NHS, who are needing people who can sew to help make scrubs, hair bands and bags for NHS and care workers.
- Anne Townsend shared The Door Project’s post about 10 top tips for family life, and a reminder that we can request a free call with their professional family support team too.
- Katie Conlon and the Supported Accommodation Team at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are putting together “hug packs” (goody bags for grown-ups!) for social care staff, and care residents with mental health problems. If you can help with donating something yummy or cheering please email Katie.Conlon@ghc.nhs.uk or call 01452 894422.
- We now have 4207 members of our Facebook group.
- We posted a reminder to please use our OFFER/REQUEST/IMPORTANT UPDATE/QUESTION system when submitting posts to our Facebook Group. We’ve dealt with around 2300 posts in the past month, and it makes moderating much easier if people use this system.
Local updates:
- The Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust announced that 259 coronavirus patients have been discharged after receiving treatment in Gloucestershire’s hospitals.
- However, four more people have sadly died in the county; 147 in all. There have now been 972 confirmed cases in Gloucestershire.
- Stroud District Council is encouraging businesses entitled to grants to get in touch. The council has paid out £16.1m, which is more than half of the total of £26m+ that is payable. “We are actively trying to find more businesses that are eligible,” said SDC Revenue and Benefits Manager Simon Killen.
- Nailsworth Town Council’s helpline has received over 325 calls from vulnerable residents in and around Nailsworth since it was launched. Over 140 volunteers have registered to help the service. The majority of the calls are from residents who are self-isolating/shielding, but the helpline is also being used by people elsewhere with family members in Nailsworth.
- Public health experts have called for an enquiry into the Cheltenham Festival (horse racing) after an increase in deaths at Gloucestershire hospitals.
National news:
- More on the ONS data analysis report: Registered deaths in England and Wales were 75 per cent above normal levels in the week ending April 10 – the highest figure for over 20 years.
- The DHSC’s daily report says the deaths of 759 people have been added to the total, which they now report as 18,100. As of 9am today, there have been 559,935 concluded coronavirus tests in the UK in total. 22,814 tests took place yesterday, 21 April. 411,192 people have been tested, of whom 133,495 have tested positive.
- The government’s chief medical adviser Chris Whitty says we are not seeing a steep descent in new infections, and he expects there to be a high number of deaths in care homes. There is an “incredibly small” chance of having effective vaccine or drugs in next calendar year, he says, and there will continue to be social measures in place to slow the spread of the virus for the rest of the year at least.
International developments:
- At least 182,000 people are known to have died since the outbreak began and at least 2.6 million have been infected, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The USA has now more than four times as many recorded cases as Spain, the next worst-hit country.
- Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) warned against “complacency” in the fight against the coronavirus and said “there is a long way to go“. He warned that “lifting lockdowns could cause infections to ‘reignite'”. He also defended the way the WHO has handled the pandemic.
- All of Germany’s states have announced plans to make face masks compulsory to combat the spread of coronavirus.
- Spain is planning to slowly ease its nationwide lockdown in the second half of May, the BBC reports. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez asked the national parliament in Madrid for a further extension to the state of emergency until 9 May. The government has also announced looser restrictions on children, allowing them to leave the house.
Notes
Please remember we have a (growing) list of resources to support your emotional and mental health during this time on our website.
Thanks to everyone who helped create this update through our Facebook group. 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 follow the information. Please continue to submit posts to admins for this purpose with a flag REQUEST / OFFER / UPDATE / QUESTION