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
- Do you need some food? Hanne Arts is a ‘food waste hero’ for Tesco leftover food items. She picks up food every Tuesday night and lists the items on the Olio app. Do contact her directly if interested.
- Stroud District Council are offering all residents a free personal exercise programme from their Dursley leisure centre, The Pulse.
- Further to the request for “hug pack” contributions that we shared yesterday, Katie Conlon of the Glos NHS Supported Accommodation Team posted her thanks for people’s response.
- Anne Townsend shared a video from The Door about keeping mentally well in lockdown.
- Kareem Gh let us know about The Heart Movement, which offers free online wellbeing and mindfulness sessions, community listening spaces and other resources.
- We now have over 4215 members in 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 2288 posts in the past few weeks, and it makes moderating much easier if people use this system.
- And finally you’re invited to the Good on Paper “80s” lockdown fundraising party! This Saturday at 8pm, raising money for Stroud District Foodbank.
Local updates:
- 281 patients have now been discharged from Gloucestershire hospitals after treatment for the coronavirus.
- There have been 5 more confirmed deaths of patients who had tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total in the county to 152. The total number of cases in Gloucestershire is now 1,021 – an increase of 49 from yesterday.
- A postcode neighbouring Cheltenham Racecourse had the highest number of coronavirus hospital admissions in Gloucestershire earlier this month, according to leaked official data.
- 300,000 items of personal protective equipment (PPE) will be distributed to staff working in care homes, as well as in people’s homes, thanks to a donation by Cheltenham-based clothing company Superdry.
- Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundations Trust has “changed the way they provide outpatient services. Wherever possible, outpatient appointments will be offered virtually by telephone or by video to minimise face-to-face contact and reduce the need for patients to travel to hospitals.” They have also emphasised that if you or anyone in your household has any COVID 19 symptoms, you should not come to the hospital. To find out more, just click the link.
National news:
- The DHSC’s daily report includes the deaths of 638 more people, bringing their reported national total to 18,738. This is lower than the daily change of 759 reported yesterday. As of 9am today, there had been 583,496 concluded coronavirus tests in the UK, with 138,078 people having tested positive: an additional 4,583 people in 24 hours.
- UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that testing will be simpler and faster for essential workers and their families, with appointments available to be booked online from Friday.
International developments:
- The Johns Hopkins University tracker reports that globally at least 187,330 people have died of Coronavirus, and at least 2,682,225 people have been confirmed to have been infected. Due to testing and tracking programmes being in the early stages in most countries, the actual totals of infections and deths due to the virus are undoubtedly much higher.
- EU leaders are expected to approve a new £470bn emergency fund “to protect European workers and businesses” and to support the economies of the worst-hit countries – but the details are yet to be worked out.
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 as appropriate.