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Friday 1st May

Friday 1st May 2020

Today’s update includes:

  • Requests & Offers from the Stroud Coronavirus Community Response team & beyond
  • Summary of local news
  • Key national & international news

Requests and Offers from the Stroud Coronavirus Community Response team and beyond

Local updates:

  • “Three new coronavirus deaths have been recorded at the Gloucestershire Hospitals Trust in the past 24 hours, the latest official figures show. NHS England figures show 156 people had died in hospital at the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as of 5pm on Tuesday… A week ago, there were 129 deaths… Of 21 trusts within the region, the Gloucestershire Hospitals trust has the highest death toll.” (Stroud News and Journal)
  • “Official figures also show that 13 more cases of coronavirus have been recorded in Gloucestershire. Public Health England figures show that 1,152 people had been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19 by 9am Wednesday morning in Gloucestershire, up from 1,139 the same time on Tuesday. A week before, there were 989 cases. It means cases have increased by 1 percent over the last 24 hours, lower than the rate of increase across the UK of 3 percent.” (from linked SNJ article above)
  • The Stroud News and Journal reported on criticism of The Beacon in Stroud for a dangerous and wrong coronavirus sign. The Stroud District Green Party has called for the removal of the sign. Green group leader on the Stroud District Council, Martin Whiteside said: “Having lost a family member to Covid-19 over the weekend, I am aware just how dangerous such mis-information is. At the current time we need to urgently set-up systems of contract tracing to test, track, isolate and support those infected and those who have been in contact with them.”

Local GP Dr Richard Dean, was quoted as saying “This is truly shocking, dangerous and completely wrong on all levels. This chloroquine nonsense is straight out of Trump’s deranged handbook and there is no evidence whatsoever of its efficacy. This is a dangerous message in these times and can definitely exacerbate an already troubling situation.” (SNJ article linked above). Stroud town mayor Kevin Cranston said:“Even Trump has moved beyond calling for the use of malaria drugs, I wonder if The Beacon will next be supporting the President’s suggestions to use ‘powerful’ lights and household cleaners in new and lethal ways.” (SNJ article linked above)

National news:

  • “As of 9am 1 May, there have been 1,023,824 tests, with 122,347 tests on 30 April. 762,279 people have been tested of which 177,454 tested positive. 

As of 5pm on 30 April, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 27,510 have sadly died..” 

(Department of Health and Social Care pinned tweet)

  • As we reach a total of over 1 million tests carried out in the UK, Government say that over 100,000 tests have been offered today. Of the 122,347 tests provided in the 24 hours up to Friday morning, the number of people tested was fewer – at just over 70,000 – as has been the case since the testing programme began. This is because some people need to be tested more than once to get a reliable result. The total testing figure includes 27,497 kits which were delivered to people’s homes and also 12,872 tests that were sent out to centres such as hospitals and NHS sites. However, these may not have been actually used or sent back to a lab. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52508836 
  • People living in more deprived areas of England and Wales are more likely to die with coronavirus than those in more affluent places, new ONS figures suggest https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52506979 There are now calls for health funding to be prioritised as the poor bear the brunt of Covid-19. The most deprived areas of England and Wales has 55.1 deaths per 100,000 people, compared with 25.3 in affluent areas https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/01/covid-19-deaths-twice-as-high-in-poorest-areas-in-england-and-wales?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

International developments:

  • Confirmed cases of the virus have passed 3.3 million (3,305,595), and more than 235,000 people have died (235,861).
  • There are eight countries, including the UK, with over 100,000 confirmed cases, a further fourteen with over 20,000 confirmed cases and a further fifteen with over 10,000 confirmed cases.
  • The UK is still the country where the third highest number of people have died (27583), after only Italy (28236), and the USA (>63457), above all via Johns Hopkins University tracker)
  • All from the Guardian (below) 
  • US military develops test that could identify carriers before they become infectious and spread the disease. Project coordinators hope the blood-based test will be able to detect the virus’s presence about four days before current tests can.
  • Israel to partially reopen schools on Sunday, with a full return for all students by 1 June. First, second and third graders as well as 11th and 12th graders can return to school from Sunday, the first day of the week in Israel. Childcare and kindergartens, for children aged up to six, will remain closed for at least another week, the government says.
  • 1000s of US activists plan the biggest rent strike in decades, calling for state leaders to cancel rent during the pandemic. Activists in New York, Pennsylvania and California are encouraging tenants to withhold rent, even if they are able to pay, to draw attention to the plight of those who do not have the money.
  • India extends its lockdown – the world’s broadest by population – for two more weeks, but with some easing of restrictions in areas with few cases. The home ministry says that in view of “significant gains in the Covid-19 situation”, there will be “considerable relaxations” in areas with few or no cases.
  • South Africa begins to ease lockdown, after five weeks of restrictions in Africa’s most industrialised nation, which was already struggling with low growth and high debts when the lockdown began on 27 March.
  • City mayors and leaders in Europe, USA and Africa aim to shape green recovery from coronavirus crisis https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/01/city-leaders-aim-to-shape-green-recovery-from-coronavirus-crisis 

Notes

Please remember we have a (growing) list of resources to support your emotional and mental health during this time on our website. The following numbers may be useful: Samaritans: 116 123, Domestic Violence Hotline: 0808 2000 247, Mind: 0300 123 3393, Age UK: 0800 169 6565, Childline: 0800 1111.

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