Key item:
Confirmed cases of the virus globally have passed 4 million.
(There are over 1,300 confirmed cases in Gloucestershire, and over 190 in Stroud district)
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
- A reminder that “The drive-through mobile testing unit for coronavirus is running until Monday, and is based at Oxstalls Tennis Centre in Gloucester. “People with symptoms including key workers, people living with them or over-65s can attend the site. The full list of who is eligible to attend is here.” Read more at: http://orlo.uk/mobile_testing_5tP5u
- The Subscription Rooms has opened a survey, asking “How can Stroud, and The Subs, start to rebuild our community after the lockdown?”. They invite people to contribute whether they have been to the venue recently or not – all answers are anonymous – and there are just 22 questions, so completion should only take around 10 minutes.
- Jamie Robins and Senan Clifford have let us know of a new men’s circle they are starting up ‘Safe Harbour – Support in Turbulent Times – A Talking Circle for men’. There’s space for 6 guys in a 1hr 30 minute Zoom video call, where each person joining can share, uninterrupted on Wednesday 13th May, 6:00pm to 7.30pm GMT. There will be no charge but we require you to show up if you say you will. They say “As a man, being in the thick of these confusing, overwhelming times, it can feel even more difficult and vulnerable to share how we are truly feeling. We may be putting on a brave face right now because we feel we have to – to our friends, our family, not wanting to burden our loved ones, but underneath – we might well be struggling.” The event is designed as a one off at the moment but might expand to be regular.
- Charlie Mitchell is running a course for parents who have kids who experience the world differently. Designed to be done during lockdown with kids around. Pay what you can afford – limited places available. Do let her know if you’d like to know more
- Nell Benney let us know that Rosie and Nells farm stall is heaving with seedlings and salad bags.
- Sarah Dixon reminds us “As part of Maternal Mental Health Week, it is really important to remember that your maternity team is still here to care for you and your baby at this difficult time”, sharing the latest maternity advice from Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Remember that the Stroud Maternity Matters group on Facebook continually share relevant information around pregnancy.
- Annie Russell and her son Thomas are raising money for The Door. They are cycling and walking 100k in May. The Door is an organisation that does masses of work to support youth and their families with mental health issues. As we know, mental health is massively underfunded, and support is needed in lockdown more than ever. To donate any amount, small or large, click the link above.
- We now have 4,305 members and have had 1,236 posts in the last month. Please invite your friends to grow this community. And please do introduce yourself and let us know anything you’d like to see in the group related to coronavirus
- Please take a look at the Group Purpose and Guidelines if you haven’t read them recently.
Local updates:
- The latest figures for Saturday show that two more people with Covid-19 have sadly died in Gloucestershire, bringing the county’s total to 207. Of those who died, 178 were being treated at Gloucestershire Hospitals while 29 were being cared for through Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust which runs community hospitals and mental health settings.
- “There has also been a sharp rise in confirmed cases in the county, up 47 to 1,315 from 1,268 – it comes as a new test centre opened today in Oxstalls to allow key workers fast access to coronavirus testing.”(Gloucestershire Live)
- Data was released by the government yesterday for the six local authority districts in the county of Gloucestershire. In Stroud there have been 192 confirmed cases of Covid 19, which equates to 161.3 cases per 100,000 people. This is the second-lowest rate per 100,000 people in the county, after the Forest of Dean (123.6 cases per 100,000 people). Gloucester has the highest number of cases (379), and a rate per 100,000 people approaching over twice as high the Forest of Dean rate (293.2)
- Stroud MP Siobain Baillie told Stroud News and Journal she hopes we can dig into our pockets to protect local venues and activities as we need these places to survive and thrive. She says she has been “supporting the team at Dr Jenner’s House and Museum in Berkeley with its Crowdfunder drive because the attraction, expertly led by Owen Gower, faces an uncertain future unless it finds extra money to cope during lockdown. Luckily, I was able to organise some recent national news coverage on the BBC, ITV, the Daily Telegraph and others to help give a boost to funding.” She also mentions the Prince Albert pub campaign. Noting that the government has allocated nearly £1.2 million of extra funding to help the district council during the Coronavirus pandemic, she says “particularly pleased it’s coming because I have been lobbying ministers for extra financial support for Stroud.”
National news:
- As of 9am 9 May, there have been 1,728,443 tests, with 96,878 tests on 08 May. 1,270,408 people have been tested of which 215,260 tested positive. As of 5pm on 8 May, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 31,587 have sadly died.(Department of Health and Social Care pinned tweet)
- 346 people died in the last 24-hours period, and 3,896 new cases of coronavirus were recorded yesterday. (Weekends generally show much lower numbers than weekdays due to reporting administration)
- “The government will proceed with “extreme caution” exiting lockdown, the transport secretary said as he revealed plans to “get Britain moving again”. Grant Shapps said the move beyond Covid-19 would be a “gradual progress” and not a “single leap to freedom”. He pledged £250m for improvements to cycling and walking infrastructure but would not confirm a 14-day quarantine for passengers arriving in the UK.” (BBC News)
- The government declined to confirm reports about easing of measures and “said only that the PM will make an announcement at 7pm tomorrow.” (The Guardian)
- “Care home providers are still having to secure their own supplies of personal protective equipment because a promised delivery system cannot get the volumes they need to them, industry insiders have warned.” (The Guardian)
- “Hundreds of thousands of sickness and disability benefit claimants are facing delays in receiving support, as government staff are diverted from processing claims to respond to the coronavirus crisis.” (Independent)
- “Government misses test target for seventh day in a row… there’s a long way to go to meet the next target of 200,000 a day.” (Independent)
- “About 8,000 more people have died in their own homes since the start of the coronavirus pandemic than in normal times, a Guardian analysis yesterday has found, as concerns grow over the number avoiding going to hospital. Of that total, 80% died of conditions unrelated to Covid-19, according to their death certificates. Doctors’ leaders have warned that fears and deprioritisation of non-coronavirus patients are taking a deadly toll.” (The Guardian)
- The Financial Times reports there have been a total of over 42,000 excess deaths in the UK, from all causes, in 2020.
International developments:
- Confirmed cases of the virus have passed 4 million (4,004,224), and the number of confirmed deaths is over 277,000 (277,860).
- There are four countries with over 200,000 confirmed cases: the USA (1.29 million), Spain (222,857), Italy (218,268), UK (216,525), and a further six with between 100,000 and 200,000, eighteen between 20k and 100k
- The UK is now the country where the second highest number of people have died (31,662), higher than the current number in Italy (30,395), with the USA (77,489) being the place where the most people who have died (via Johns Hopkins University tracker)
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