Today’s update includes:
- Requests & Offers from the Stroud Coronavirus Community Response team & beyond
- Summary of key local, national and international news
Requests, Offers and Updates posted in the Stroud Coronavirus Community Response Facebook group
- We posted a new government tool to help you find out “what you can do if you’re struggling because of coronavirus” They say: “Use this service to find out what help you can get if you’re affected by coronavirus (COVID-19). You can use it for yourself or someone else.” Using the tool you can find information about:
- • what to do if you’re feeling unsafe where you live, or if you’re worried about someone else
- • going in to work
- • paying bills or being unemployed
- • getting food
- • having somewhere to live
- • mental health and wellbeing, including information for children
- If you need medical help, go to NHS 111 online: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/check-if-you-have-coronavirus-symptoms/. The tool does not provide direct support from the government or organisations, but points to quality information available on the internet. https://www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support https://www.facebook.com/groups/stroudcorona/permalink/277700383417723/
- Stroud Town Clerk asks us to nominate our heroes! Who is your Stroud Town lockdown hero? Please let us know so that we can celebrate our town’s heroes https://www.facebook.com/groups/stroudcorona/permalink/277684260086002/
- Sarah Dixon shared a Public Health agency post. Useful reminder to keep using health services when you need them! https://www.facebook.com/groups/stroudcorona/permalink/277849563402805/
- Amplify Stroud shared a post on the growing disconnect between what’s said by our local authorities and what’s being said by the government.https://www.facebook.com/groups/stroudcorona/permalink/277178060136622/
- Matt Sergot let us know that masks are available at www.protectionmasks.co.uk TYPE IIR SURGICAL FACE MASKS NOW AVAILABLE! Https://www.facebook.com/groups/stroudcorona/permalink/275339873653774/
- James Bee suggested help from Citizens Online saying ‘if you run a local business and would like to understand more about potential customers who are offline or have low digital skills – and how you can help them access online services you have – indeed may have developed recently for these distanced times, tomorrow’s free online session with local charity Citizens Online will provide a good introduction. Details and recordings of previous sessions available at: citizensonline.org.uk/events https://www.facebook.com/groups/stroudcorona/permalink/277714096749685/
- We now have 4,329 members. We welcomed 16 new members this week. 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.
STATISTICS UPDATE
The Office for National Statistics has published “Provisional counts of the number of deaths registered in England and Wales, including deaths involving the coronavirus (COVID-19), by age, sex and region, in the latest weeks for which data are available.”
Below we provide a summary. The data covers people who died where their deaths were registered up to the week ending 15 May 2020, and is available in full via:
KEY POINTS
- “Between Weeks 1 and 12, 138,916 deaths were registered, which was 4,822 less than the five-year average for these weeks. However, between Weeks 13 and 20, 135,575 deaths were registered, which was 53,960 more than the five-year average.”
- “Week 20 showed a continuation of the decreasing trend in excess deaths (both involving COVID-19 and involving other causes) seen in Weeks 16 to 19 (Figure 2). We are continuing to investigate the number of non-COVID-19 related deaths and will publish detailed analysis on this in the future.”
- “The number of deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending 15 May 2020 (Week 20) was 14,573; this was 3,380 lower than Week 18, 1,916 more than Week 19 and 4,385 more than the five-year average.”
- “The early May Bank Holiday contributed to both the decrease in the number of deaths registered in Week 19 and the increase in the number of deaths registered in Week 20, as deaths were unlikely to be registered on Friday 8 May. Next week’s report will allow a better assessment of recent trends in the number of all-cause deaths and deaths related to COVID.”
- “Of the deaths registered in Week 20, 3,810 mentioned “novel coronavirus (COVID-19)”, the lowest number of deaths involving COVID-19 in the last six weeks, accounting for 26.1% of all deaths and 120 deaths fewer than Week 19.”
- “People aged 90 years and over continued to have the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in Week 20.”
- “In Week 20, the proportion of deaths occurring in care homes decreased to 30.6% while deaths involving COVID-19 as a percentage of all deaths in care homes decreased to 37.2%. In Week 20, the number of deaths in care homes was 2,350 higher than the five-year average, while in hospitals there were 614 excess deaths; the total number of excess deaths involving COVID-19 continued to decrease.”The percentage of deaths involving COVID-19 continued to decrease across all English regions; the North West had the highest number of COVID-19 deaths (620) for the second week in a row. Of all deaths involving COVID-19 registered up to Week 20, 65.1% occurred in hospital with the remainder mainly occurring in care homes (28.3%), private homes (4.6%) and hospices (1.3%). The number of deaths registered in the UK in the week ending 15 May 2020 (Week 20) was 16,366 of which 4,210 deaths involved COVID-19.”
- We would like to add that these statistics – while important to help us understand the pandemic and its impacts – cannot convey the individuality of each person who has died, nor the impact on their loved ones.
Summary of key local, national and international news
We are now providing our summary of local, national and international statistical data on a weekly basis rather than daily
- Gloslive reports on a new mental health service in the county for young people aged 11-18. The Kooth service offers confidential free counselling via an online platform
- Gloslive also takes a look at how primary schools are preparing to reopen in June – https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/what-gloucestershire-primary-schools-look-4166489
- Nationally, a new Test & Trace system is coming into place. Anyone with symptoms should now ask for a test online, and if positive the NHS Test & Trace team will contact you to trace everyone you’ve been in contact with in previous days. It is estimated the method will prevent 5-15% of infections and may lead to ‘local lockdowns’ as outbreaks are identified.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52820592
Dr Penelope Toff of the British Medical Association has said ‘There is a very real concern that as funding has only now been made available at local level, and as much of the local contact tracing will need to be done in person, there is the potential for some of these systems to become overwhelmed with the sudden surge in demand. It is vital that adequate support is on hand, to enable all directors of public health and Public Health England consultants leading these local systems, to deliver this effectively.’
- Over 60 Conservative MPs are now defying the Prime Minister over the calls for the resignation of Dominic Cummings; earlier this week a minister resigned over the row about the actions of the Special Adviser who drove 260 miles to stay with his parents during lockdown. The Prime Minister this evening ruled out an inquiry into the behaviour of Cummings, and said it was time to ‘move on’.
- Internationally, only half of Americans in a poll say they would get a vaccine for Covid-19. There have been over 100,000 deaths from Covid in the USA https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/27/americans-covid-19-vaccine-poll
- The European Union has proposed a €750bn coronavirus recovery fund, as part of a €1.85tn budget to help member states whose economies have suffered as a result of the pandemic
- Greece prepares to police its borders with Turkey, which is home to more than 4 million Syrian refugees.
- Chile faces health system strain and unrest, and Ecuador, one of the worst affected countries, has seen protests over cuts.
- All international news updates are from the Guardian and BBC websites.
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 / COMMENTARY