The number of people in Wokingham borough who have caught coronavirus has increased again, on the day that the Government announced the biggest daily rise in the number of diagnosed cases.
Across the country, there are now 1,140 cases, an increase of 343 cases on yesterday.
Of those, six are listed by the Government has coming from Wokingham borough.
This is an increase of two – yesterday, there were four reported cases.
In neighbouring Windsor and Maidenhead there are five cases. There remains three reported cases in both Reading borough and Bracknell Forest borough.
The Government also said that the number of deaths related to coronavirus has gone up from 10 to 21.
Eight of these cases were men aged 80 or over and they were in being treated in hospitals in Buckinghamshire, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Leicester, London and Chester.
The spread of the virus seems to be increasing globally: Spain announced today that it has 1,500 new cases there.
And the consequence is that many countries are restricting access. Earlier today, New Zealand announced that it is to impose a 14-day quarantine on anyone entering the country, joining Malta which is taking a similar stance.
The Government is now changing the way it tests people for coronavirus: Public Health England said that it needs to prioritise testing for those most at risk of severe illness from the virus.
A statement said: “Our aim is to save lives, protect the most vulnerable, and relieve pressure on our NHS.”
As a result, tests will primarily be given to:
- all patients in critical care for pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) or flu like illness
- all other patients requiring admission to hospital for pneumonia, ARDS or flu like illness
- where an outbreak has occurred in a residential or care setting, for example long-term care facility, prisons.
All other individuals with a high temperature or new, continuous cough should stay at home for seven days. People do not need to call NHS111 to go into self-isolation. If your symptoms worsen during home isolation or are no better after 7 days contact NHS 111 online. If you have no internet access, you should call NHS 111. For a medical emergency dial 999.
The news comes on a day when many residents reported problems getting food and hygiene from supermarkets.
Stock levels are constantly being replenished by the supermarkets, but goods are flying off the shelves.
Rationing is being brought in in some stores.
The current run on products started with hand soap, sanitizers and toilet roll a couple of weeks ago, as well as pasta and rice.
But shoppers are also buying large quantities of tinned goods and other long-life products such as baked beans, tea, coffee and chocolate.
One store even ran out of crackers on Thursday.
People have been commenting on social media over some of the additional purchases being made, reporting on sightings shoppers pushing people out of the way to pick up “box after box” of soap and placing into trollies.
Others have said that they have been unable to buy toilet rolls, pasta or painkillers.
There are also concerns that people are selling the items they’ve bought on online auction sites such as eBay.
At the time of writing, there it a Reading-area seller offering a 50ml bottle of hand santiser for £92.99, plus £1.99 postage.
And there have been calls for rationing to be introduced to prevent items from running out.
Supermarkets are, at least, starting to introduce some restrictions, with notes have been placed around stores restricting some items.
Asada is restricting toilet roll purchases to two packets person. One shopper noted staff at the store had been taking toilet rolls out of customers trollies in a bid to stop people overbuying.
