Key Item:
The Covid-19 Mutual Aid – UK group (“volunteers supporting local community groups organising mutual aid throughout the Covid-19 outbreak in the UK” – see https://covidmutualaid.org/) has released a short statement in response to the recent new government advice. In summary:
“We’re encouraging all groups to carry on your mutual aid activities with the same precautions and continue to observe lockdown and social distancing measures.”
The full statement is available via our Facebook post.
Today’s update includes:
- Requests & Offers from the Stroud Coronavirus Community Response team & beyond
- Summary of key local, national and international news
- New weekly summary of local, national and international statistics
Requests, Offers and Updates posted in the Stroud Coronavirus Community Response Facebook group
- Kate Buckingham of Stroud Maternity Matters wrote to acknowledge that there has been a lot of change due to Covid-19 at Stroud Maternity: “People seeing different midwives at times and having appointments without partners/family and an increased level of worry for some… We are slowly trying to move back to more normal functioning but this will be slow and will be with the recommended social distancing still in place, to ensure our women are safe and at minimal risk.”
- Sarah Grainger of Stroud Employment Law posted a response to the latest government advice, in regard to employment law and safety. (See also the article by Caroline Molloy that we included in yesterday’s update). Sarah says, “Many employers are now asking staff to return to work, and employees may feel anxious regarding their safety in the workplace. Your employer has a duty of care to you and a legal obligation to provide a safe working environment.” Please see her post for more, and note that while Sarah can only offer generic advice, she is happy to be contacted to discuss particular circumstances in more detail. Contact details are on the post and in the Legal Services section of our website.
- Stroud District Council posted to inform us of their free online exercise classes as part of the Healthy Lifestyles scheme. The classes include: Better Balance classes which aim to help prevent falls, Cancer Rehab classes for people who are living with, or recovering from cancer, and Mummy & Me classes for new mothers to exercise with their children.
- Sarah Dixon shared BBC Gloucestershire‘s short video about households of a street in Stroud who have created a communal colour-based challenge – you’ll have to watch the video to find out more!
- We now have 4,313 members. 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 and how we can work together to get through the pandemic and its impacts.
- Please take a look at the Group Purpose and Guidelines if you haven’t read them recently.
Summary of key national and international news
- A coronavirus antibody test kit has reportedly been approved by Public Health England (PHE). The Daily Telegraph [subscription required to access full article] says “the accuracy of the test was given approval by experts at PHE’s Porton Down facility last week.”
- “Authorities in Turkey allowed those aged 14 and under to leave their homes for the first time in 40 days, The country’s children were allowed to venture out for four hours between 11am and 3pm.”
- Every country in Africa is now affected by the virus: “Lesotho, the last country in Africa left unaffected by the pandemic, has just announced its first case.”
- “Chile is to implement a general quarantine across Santiago, the national capital, and a nationwide quarantine for all people over 75, after a surge in coronavirus infections… The measures were announced after 2,660 new cases of the virus were recorded in the country overnight, up 60% from the previous day.”
- “Nightly curfew hours in Tunisia are to be relaxed after the country recorded three consecutive days without detecting any new coronavirus infections. The president, Kais Saied, has cut the curfew hours to 11pm to 5am, instead of 8pm to 6am, 10 days after the start of a gradual reopening of the bureaucracy and economy.”
- (international updates above all from the Guardian daily news feed and summary)
A reminder that we will now be providing our summary of local, national and international statistical data on a weekly basis (on Tuesdays) rather than daily. You can read this week’s summary of statistical data in Tuesday’s update.
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