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In a week when the official statistics on the number of Covid-19 cases is approaching 100,000 with a death toll of over 10,000, nationally the country’s unpreparedness for this pandemic is evident.
Government Briefings
The Government’s afternoon briefings have continued daily through the week.
What’s troubling is the air of unreality as the minister du jour and his support crew try to respond to the very real concerns being put to them by journalists on our behalf.
This got worse when the Secretary of State for Health, Matt Hancock, led the team answering the question as to how many frontline NHS workers had died from Covid-19?
Getting a team member to dodge answering, he showed himself as disrespectful of those who’d lost their lives while working selflessly to save others.
Fiddling the numbers
It’s also clear that the official numbers aren’t the full ticket either, as the deaths of the frail and elderly in care home aftercare home up and down the country are simply being ignored.
This week’s reason – that we have to wait for the coroner’s reports – completely side-steps the advice given by the Chief Coroner that “… no physical hearing should take place unless it is urgent”.
On Friday, a Reuters report confirmed that France announced there had been more than 2,400 deaths in its care homes – over a quarter of the overall total of 8,911 at the time.
We all understand the situation is serious, but if the Secretary of State is to continue to deserve being addressed as “the right honourable”, then he needs to stop dodging key issues such as care homes and NHS casualties.
Credit to our Borough
Locally, things are in rather better shape and on the streets, Wokingham Borough Council’s services have continued to be very visible – bin collections, grass cutting and street cleaning have all been maintained.
Online, WBC’s social media channel has continued to publish information and has included guides on how to give help and where to get it.
There’s also been appeals for donations especially for personal protective equipment, particularly face masks, for front line staff. If you can help, please drop an email to ppe.appeal@wokingham.gov.uk.
Likewise an appeal for donations (particularly washing powder and bars of soap this week) to go to the Community Response Hub at St Crispin’s Leisure Centre, 9am-3pm, Monday to Saturday.
Local Covid-19 support groups
Meanwhile, at a Parish and Town level, what’s really taken a giant leap forwards over the last 10 days or so has been a sense of community spirit that very, very few of us have ever seen before.
Chatting with organisers of three separate Covid-19 groups (Woodley, Wargrave and Whitegates), they’ve all been bowled over by the level of support they’re being offered.
The groups have formed separate teams to combine their knowledge, skills and contacts in order to find individuals who were willing to help, then to make sure that every street in their chosen area had at least one helper associated with it.
Next was to get ‘Hello Cards’ printed and collected by helpers, so that they in turn could write on them and deliver them to every street in their chosen area.
With helpers putting their name and phone number on each card, sometimes their address, those who got a card and responded commented uniformly how welcome it was to know that they weren’t alone and that there was someone who they could call in case of need.
The cards identified the local Facebook group which locals can easily join to get information and help. For those who aren’t online, a phone call to the helper has proven to be a good alternative because even when the helper can’t give a direct answer, they can contact the wider group on an individual’s behalf thus avoiding discrimination by reason of someone’s digital abilities.
Once working, the social media groups have become a lifeline for basics such as prescriptions, shopping and human contact.
Everyone commented that for shopping it’s important to build trust and not take money or other means of payment in advance. It’s still early days and groups are working out how to make transactions work fairly, honestly and reliably – for the helpers as well as the helped. In the main, this is being done at a personal level using the shop receipt to show the value of the goods purchased. Payments are sometimes cash, though telephone or online banking are preferred where possible.
With every day seeing a growing number of helpers, many streets now have more than one helper each. In addition, when helpers can share records of who they’ve helped, the group is able to provide continuity if the original helper becomes unavailable later.
Current concerns are varied but include whether someone who needs help isn’t getting it yet. So if you know of a naturally reclusive neighbour (often elderly), please tell your local Covid-19 group about them and discuss how best to make contact.
And if you’re thinking of setting up a Covid-19 group, or you want to find out more about what the other groups are doing, please get in touch.
Clap for Carers
Over in Woodley, one of the Community First Responders has taken what used to be his support of the local food bank and (with the help of friends and neighbours) has transformed it into supplying more than 5,000 items for the Covid-19 support group – well done Ronnie!
What the Neighbours said
Staying at home is rapidly growing old and for one lady, 10 days of social isolation was evident from the self-made video clip that showed her climbing the stairs then lying flat and sliding back down – bumping her head on every step.
Meanwhile, disaster has struck my cat-loving neighbours. Apparently the parrot’s last cry of “walkies” was heard by a local Great Dane.
Running in, the exuberant dog knocked the cage over letting the parrot out. Their cat was seen later – chewing on one of the tail feathers.
Excepting ‘was die nachbarn gesagt’, that was week four of the lockdown – that was.
