347 people who were in Gloucestershire hospitals with Coronavirus have been discharged. Wishing them well in their continued recovery!
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
- We now have 4,268 members. Please invite your friends to grow this community.
- Cheltenham and Gloucester Hospitals Charity shared a video by Fluxx Films, featuring the voice of Mandy Price, a Specialist NHS Nurse, redeployed to Covid-19 Critical Care in March 2020 at Cheltenham General Hospital. Cheltenham Hospital is run by Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Well worth a watch!
- We shared an update about the number of people discharged from Gloucestershire’s acute hospitals – now 347.
- We shared Stroud Mayor Kevin Cranston’s latest video message
- Amy Muzza is looking for someone with “roof ladders, 20ft of coax sky cable, and the knowledge to either replace or patch in [a] new cable” to reconnect an elderly neighbour’s TV.
- A reminder that yesterday we shared detailed information about the numbers of people who have died locally (between 1st March and 17th April).
- A reminder that yesterday we shared an invitation to “The UK’s Covid-19 mental health research study, which provides weekly data direct to the UK government and NHS. “There are 75,000 UK adults in the study already, but the team need a lot more as the data are being used to understand the effects of the virus and social distancing measures on mental health and loneliness in the UK and to make decisions on government response to Covid-19. Mailing lists, Facebook groups, newsletters, social media. Every participant counts. Participation involves answering a 10-minute online survey” (see the University College London webpage for full details and consent information)
Local updates:
- No updated figures for today in Gloucestershire – yesterday: “Two more patients who had tested positive for coronavirus have died in Gloucestershire. The latest figures from Public Health England on Saturday show that there have been 187 deaths in hospitals. The total on Friday was put at 185. Of those who have died, 159 were being treated at either Gloucestershire Royal Hospital or Cheltenham General Hospital. While 28 were being cared for through Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, which runs community hospitals and mental health settings.” (Gloucestershire Live yesterday, Saturday 2nd May)
- “According to an analysis of care home statistics in Health Services Journal, Gloucestershire saw a spike in the number of care home deaths from all causes in the middle of April. The HSJ said data from the Office for National Statistics showed Gloucestershire had an excess of 94 deaths – 13 per 100,000 – which was the second highest rate outside London.” (Gloucestershire Live)
- “Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service issue plea for public not to set off fireworks during Clap for Carers” (Gloucestershire Live)
- “Gloucestershire Live launches a unique survey aimed at capturing British life under lockdown. We want to know your experiences of this period, so that we can paint a detailed picture of these extraordinary times for Cheltenham, Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Forest of Dean, the Cotswolds and Stroud.” (Gloucestershire Live)
- In the SNJ Council Leader’s column, Doina Cornell writes: “If we take one positive thing out of the situation we all find ourselves in, it’s the greater sense of our community that many people are reporting.” which mentions the `yellow letters’ from Stroud District Council, The Stroud District Council Facebook and Twitter pages, The Pulse, in Dursley, finding new ways to help residents stay fit and healthy during lockdown – offering free fitness programmes, with an invitation to make a donation to NHS Charities. It also mentions the Museum in the Park collecting rainbow pictures.
- Stroud News and journal wrote a lovely article about Nailsworth’s fabulous team of volunteers who are caring for vulnerable people in Nailsworth during the coronavirus lockdown through the Town Council’s community support helpline.The helpline was created just before the lockdown, and like many grassroots groups across the UK, it’s helping the most vulnerable people in the town to get their prescriptions and shopping.Within days of going live the helpline received over 100 calls. Residents needing help are linked with volunteers by Town Council staff working from their homes.
- Gloucestershire Live shared “NHS jobs you could do to help those on the front line”. Searching from a Gloucester postcode with a radius of 20 miles there are 50 roles available at the moment in the NHS
- “Gloucester Goes Retro” have cancelled one of the city’s ‘most popular and busiest events of the year’ (Gloucestershire Live)
National news:
- “As of 9am 3 May, there have been 1,206,405 tests, with 76,496 tests on 02 May. 882,343 people have been tested of which 186,599 tested positive. As of 5pm on 02 May, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 28,446 have sadly died.(Department of Health and Social Care pinned tweet)
- In the last 24 hour period 315 people died in hospitals or care homes, and there were 4,339 more confirmed cases. (Often Sunday’s figures are lower than weekday as delay reported)
- Today’s figures show testing has fallen to 76,496 tests, a drop of more than a third on the 122,000 tests reported on 30 April. The health secretary had previously announced that the UK had met its target of carrying out 100,000 tests-a-day by the end of April – though this including tests that had been sent out but not returned or completed. “Ministers face ongoing criticism over coronavirus testing, as the number of daily tests dropped below 80,000, care home staff reported difficulties in getting checked and home kits were delivered without return envelopes” (The Guardian)
- According to the Telegraph Boris Johnson is due to announce next Sunday that year six children, aged 10 and 11, will be the first cohort allowed back into schools since he announced their closure on 18 March, to be closely followed by years 10 and 12, in their final year of secondary school and sixth-form college.The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) is said to be focusing on allowing back older primary school children initially, with the year group deemed a priority because of their need to transition to secondary school in September.
- As it appears the UK has now passed the peak of hospital admissions, particularly in London, “NHS chief Stephen Powis said if people do no continue to stay at home there is a risk of a second deadly peak” (Daily Mail)
- “An NHS app aimed at limiting a second wave of coronavirus will be trialled on the Isle of Wight this week.” (BBC News)
International developments:
- Confirmed cases of the virus have passed 3.4 million (3,476021), and more than 245,000 people have died (245,531).
- There are eight countries, including the UK, with over 100,000 confirmed cases, a further fifteen with over 20,000 confirmed cases and a further fouteen with over 10,000 confirmed cases.
- The UK is still the country where the third highest number of people have died (28,520), after only Italy (28,884), and the USA (>66,700), above all via Johns Hopkins University tracker)
- “A city in South Korea has donated 1,000 sets of personal protective equipment for key workers in Gloucestershire fighting the coronavirus.” (Gloucestershire Live)
- “Austria allowed thousands of shops to reopen on Tuesday, becoming one of the first countries in Europe to loosen a lockdown imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.” (Reuters)
- “Russia‘s cases rise by 10,000 in one-day record”
- Germany: “Some German churches have reopened on Sunday after being shut for more than a month because of Covid-19. Worshippers will have to maintain social distancing and wear masks, according to the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.” (The Independent)
- Iran: “Mosques and schools to reopen in Iran’s low-risk areas” (Reuters)
- “Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead on Covid-19 for the World Health Organization, is asked about reports from some countries that people have tested positive a second time after recovering from the virus. She says what is actually happening in these cases is that, as people’s lungs heal, some dead cells are showing up in the tests, triggering a positive result where there has been no re-infection. But she says scientists are still “trying to understand” how strong a level of immunity people will have once they’ve had the virus.” (BBC News)
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