"Connecting Communities for COVID19 News" 16th Apr 2020
Isolation Tips
7 new mothers share the practical hacks they swear by for navigating like with a newborn in isolation
If you've recently welcomed a baby or are struggling to recalibrate following maternity leave, we've enlisted the advice of 7 incredibly positive and practical new mothers - many of whom are balancing running their own businesses with motherhood, to share their clever hacks for navigating this strange old time.
How can we cope with isolation during coronavirus? Formerly incarcerated women give advice. | Perspective
The People’s Paper Co-op (PPC) recently asked eight people in their program to give advice on how to cope. They share tips for getting through, including how to deal with loneliness, what to do when you lack control over your daily schedule, and the importance of eating well even without regular grocery access. Their stories of resilience and hope show the strength of the human spirit, when tested by extreme circumstances.
Why Adopting A Dog During Coronavirus Pandemic Could Be Good For You
Keeping mental health intact is a challenge with financial uncertainties and health risks rising. An easy cure is pet adoption or being more pet friendly in general, specifically towards dogs, whose presence can bring down stress, depression and anxiety. Simultaneously, this might improve immunity as stress is the driving force behind many diseases. While recent reports highlighted people abandoning pets in fear, they might be doing more harm than good to themselves, since spending time with dogs is said to reduce heart rate and improve blood pressure.
Scottish solo adventurer offers top tips for tackling coronavirus isolation
To help those less used to being alone for an extended period of time, Ms Tough opened up on some of the tips that helped her cope with loneliness during the difficult times. Among the tips are making sure to sleep properly and to be creative with the food you are eating. She said: “On an endurance challenge, avoiding boredom and keeping concentration is crucial and I’ve always found it helps to have a plan.
Rise in number of people seeking counselling in Derbyshire during coronavirus crisis
Based from eight venues across Derbyshire, Derwent Rural Counselling Service (DRCS) normally works face-to-face with individuals suffering from common mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, stress and long-term conditions. But with the restrictions based around face-to-face contact and social distancing due to Covid-19, the charity has had to move quickly to adopt other ways to change how it’s talking to people.
Lockdown life: Top tips from Royal Navy's isolation experts
“During my six hours on I’m busy doing jobs such as keeping lookout on optronics (the modern-day periscope) or, for my department, it could mean managing defects or just general rounds of all the kit such as weapons, explosives, sensors or computer systems. “During the six hours off is when you get a chance to wash, exercise, catch up on any admin, relax and sleep – or study, if you’re not yet qualified. “You tend to lose track of the days quickly as you end up going to bed and waking twice a day.
Hygiene Helpers
Hospital's thanks after Doncaster teacher makes dozens of coronavirus face shields for NHS
A Doncaster school teacher has put his time on lockdown to good use – by making dozens of protective coronavirus face shields for staff at Doncaster Royal Infirmary.
The fascinating art of 'stripping' your clothes and other COVID cleaning tips
Cue Sarah McAllister, the director of Go Clean Co, who has assumed the role of general in her own cleaning army. Since pausing the residential cleaning company in mid-March due to COVID-19, the Calgary-based business ramped up its online presence and quickly amassed around 100,000 Instagram followers. McAllister calls cleaning "a lost art" and she shares her simple deep-cleaning tips to help people feel in control during the pandemic.
University starts to manufacture full-face shields for front-line workers
Coventry University is manufacturing full-face protection equipment to donate to local NHS and public health teams to help frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Academic and technical staff in the university’s Faculty of Engineering, Environment and Computing are using 3D printing machines and laser cutting equipment to produce much-needed face shield headband frames and clear face visors.
Coronavirus: should everyone be wearing face masks?
No robust evidence ordinary masks stop wearers getting infected but some experts say they could make a big difference
Coronavirus fightback: East Lancashire NHS Trust gives thanks to healthcare firms for hand sanitiser donation
Companies from across East Lancashire have done their bit to help fightback against Coronavirus by coming together to donate to local hospitals. One of the most generous donations has been a gift of 5000 bottles of hand sanitiser to East Lancashire NHS Trust by pharmaceutical company MDS Healthcare Limited. Working alongside the company has been Imran Amir, a manager at City Fibre and a committee member at the Masjid E Sajedeen in Little Harwood. He said: “I am very fortunate to play a key role in helping our NHS hospitals through these crucial times.
Community Activities
Teens start free no-contact delivery service for the elderly during the pandemic
It started with two Maryland teenagers volunteering to help get groceries for elderly neighbors. Now their free delivery service, called "Teens Helping Seniors," is rapidly scaling up to match an increasing number of requests with their growing network of teenage volunteers.
Coronavirus: Camden community tech scheme donating laptops to isolated | Hampstead, Highgate, Camden, Haringey and Barnet News
SocialBox.Biz, based in Kings Cross and launched in Camden Town, gives laptops to people on the fringes of society - who have been isolated even further during coronavirus lockdown - helping them access employment, social and community services. The tech scheme recently entered a partnership with Camden Council, whose deputy leader Pat Callaghan said would ensure old laptops fulfil “amazing second lives” and help connect disadvantaged families. Cllr Callaghan said: “The current pandemic situation, where we self-isolate has shown more than ever the importance of being able to access a computer and the internet, especially to keep in contact with our relatives and friends, and to access online services.”
'Hot clinics' to be set up in communities to treat coronavirus patients as they recover at home
Community ‘hot clinics’ are to be set up to help support patients as they fight coronavirus as well as free up NHS staff to work in hospitals.
Coronavirus: Rwandan radio stars spread hygiene message
A group of young people in Rwanda have been writing and producing a series of radio dramas to teach listeners about the vital role hand-washing and sanitation play in preventing the spread of diseases such as Covid-19.
DIY Beauty Care Tips During Coronavirus Isolation
CBS4's Lisa Petrillo shares how big-name celebs to your average Joe are revealing some hair-raising experiences on social media since the stay at home orders took place.
Captain Tom Moore, 99, reaches £10m milestone in NHS fundraising bid
A 99-year-old veteran who is walking 100 lengths of his garden to raise cash for the NHS has been hailed as an “inspiration” as donations topped £10 million. Captain Tom Moore, who lives with his family in Bedfordshire, is due to complete the last of the 25-metre laps on Thursday. His achievements – which started at a modest target of £1,000 last week, ahead of his 100th birthday on April 30 – were singled out by Matt Hancock during the Wednesday evening press conference at Downing Street.
Google Doodle honors coronavirus heroes and helpers
On Thursday, Google saluted food service workers, who under the specter of coronavirus have to factor in more safety measures to prevent contracting or transmitting the disease. The restaurant industry has been hit hard by the outbreak, with millions of cooks, servers and bartenders losing their jobs. The National Restaurant Association estimates the outbreak will cost the industry $225 billion.
Ed Sheeran 'donates over £1 million to local charities'
Ed Sheeran has given away over £1 million of his own wealth to benefit charities fighting the coronavirus crisis, according to reports. The 29-year-old is said to have donated money to a string of good causes in Suffolk, his hometown where he still lives. Organisations who have received cash from the Thinking Out Loud singer include a children’s ward in a hospital in Ipswich. A source explained: “It is a horrible time and Ed wants to do what he can to help.
Take an amazing tour of a lost Pictish village without leaving your house
David Strachan, director of Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust, said that people all over the world could now get an insight of this remarkable site. He added: “The digital reconstruction in Virtual Reality of the sites excavated in Glen Shee really brings to life what otherwise are fairly technical plans and maps of the findings.
The Liverpool coronavirus heroes that are a beacon of light in hard times
As we go into the second week of lockdown to help prevent the spread of coronavirus many people will start to find the situation overwhelming. This is a good time to follow the famous phrase 'look for the helpers' - those people who are doing their best to make a difference in challenging times. The NHS workers, the social carers, the children sticking hand-drawn rainbows in their bedroom windows, the neighbour who always takes the time to wave from a socially-separated safe distance, the teachers sending messages to their pupils from afar. Whenever there are hard times you will find them - and never more than in Merseyside, where people have a reputation for looking out for each other.
Working Remotely
How coronavirus could change your office space and remote work from home
If and when you return to your office after the novel coronavirus pandemic, you’ll probably notice some differences. Upon entering your building, the doors may open automatically so you don’t have to touch the handles. Before you board your elevator, you might tell the elevator where you’d like to go, rather than pressing the many buttons within the elevator. When you reach your floor, you could walk into a room full of dividers and well-spaced desks instead of the crowded open floor plan you’re used to. In common areas like meeting rooms and kitchens, expect to see fewer chairs and posted documentation of the last time they were cleaned.
How coronavirus exposed Japan’s low-tech blind spot
Japan, for various reasons, took its time reaching this conclusion but, even in the twilight weeks before emergency was officially declared and telework became a necessity, it was clear that the country’s low-tech leanings were about to be harshly exposed.
Almost half of the workforce to work remotely after coronavirus
New research suggests the coronavirus will have a lasting impact on the way we work, with almost half of the workforce expected to work remotely after the virus is contained. Large swathes of the global workforce are working from home for the first time after social distancing measures forced many businesses to temporarily shut down offices. And new data from global research and advisory firm Gartner suggests the move could be a permanent one.
Virtual Classrooms
South Korea Restarts School With Concerns About Online Learning
South Korean students will begin taking online classes Thursday after weeks of no school amid the COVID-19 novel coronavirus outbreak. The unexpected closure ends with first and second-year students in middle and high schools starting the new semester online. Elementary school students between the fourth and sixth grades also begin virtual learning Thursday. Public school upperclassmen began logging onto virtual classrooms April 9.
Victorian school students go online
Victorian school students will log into virtual classrooms for term two amid the state’s coronavirus restrictions. Students will mostly be at home from Wednesday after the state government said those who can study at home, must do so. Those students whose parents are on the frontline in the fight against COVID-19 or have to go to work, will go to school.
Covid-19 forces institutions to explore virtual teaching
n the future, online content will be integrated into the regular course curriculum as the education sector transforms with the introduction of new age pedagogy like flipped classrooms.
Coronavirus: 2,500 tablets for Jammu Kashmir students to help in home study
The JK government has also decided to provide 2,500 low-budget educational tablets to the students of classes 10 and 12 for enhancing their virtual learning experience. The tablets would be loaded with textbooks, problem-solving techniques and other related material.
It was just another virtual kindergarten class in quarantine. Then Jon Bon Jovi dropped in.
The rock icon wowed Bonick’s Marsh Pointe Elementary students Monday by dropping into their online classroom to incorporate their homework assignment into his new crowd-sourced song, “Do What You Can.” “Mr. B got you guys writing and I was very excited to hear that,” the Bon Jovi frontman told the students, “because if you get to put your feelings down on paper sometimes they’ll turn into songs, sometimes they’ll turn into stories and you never know where it might lead you.”
Public Policies
Germany set to ease some coronavirus lockdown measures
Germany plans to let small shops reopen as early as next week after a month-long coronavirus shutdown. But Europe’s biggest economy is keeping strict social distancing rules in place to curb the spread of Covid-19. After much-anticipated talks with Germany’s 16 state governors, Chancellor Angela Merkel set out a plan for the first steps of a slow restart of public life.
Everyone in New York must wear a mask in public, executive order states
New Yorkers must now wear a mask, or cloth covering, when out in public in a situation where social distancing measures cannot be put into effect, Governor Andrew Cuomo has said. During his daily press briefing on Wednesday, the governor announced the new executive order to further protect residents from the coronavirus when leaving their homes. “Any situation in public where you cannot maintain social distancing” would apply during the executive order, Mr Cuomo said. The order will go into effect in three days to give people time to comply.
French hospital staff treating coronavirus patients to get €1,500
French hospital staff are to receive bonuses of up to €1,500 (£1,300) as part of the government’s “urgent economic plan” in response to the coronavirus crisis. Frontline doctors, nurses and auxiliary staff battling to treat patients during the pandemic will be awarded tax-free sums of between €500 and €1,500. The higher sum will be given to hospital workers dealing directly with Covid-19 patients. Those in less affected areas will receive the lower bonus.
Maintaining Services
How to thank coronavirus helpers amid the pandemic
While many people work from home and await the end of stay-at-home guidelines, some workers continue to brave the coronavirus pandemic to go to work to keep essential parts of society running.
The month primary care went through a dramatic digital transformation
n the space of a few short weeks primary care services in the UK have switched wholesale from 1.2m face-to-face consultations a day to the vast majority of consultations carried out remotely. According to a 12 April BBC report, GPs are now seeing just seven in every 100 patients face-to-face, following a “remarkable” shift to online and telephone appointments across England in response to the coronavirus crisis. This is a truly remarkable reconfiguration of the NHS front door that has so far attracted relatively little attention in the national coverage of coronavirus, and may be one of the mist radical long-term changes to the way health services are delivered in the UK.
Coronavirus ventilator wins UK approval in run-up to NHS rollout
Penlon’s ESO2 device becomes first model to get green light from UK’s healthcare regulator. Formal approval comes amid mounting concern that tens of thousands of ventilators ordered by the government are still awaiting regulatory clearance. The length of the process has stoked fears about the readiness of the NHS for a surge in patients requiring ventilation. The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has said the government wants to increase ventilator stocks from 10,000 to 18,000 to be sure of having enough.
Coronavirus: Student nurses 'scared but excited' as they enter workforce early
Thousands of student nurses have volunteered to fast-track their studies so they can help the NHS deal with the coronavirus.
Healthcare Innovations
Italy aims to turn suffering to advantage with experimental Covid-19 treatment
People who recover from an infection, or who tested positive but never experienced symptoms, develop antibodies in their blood plasma. Those antibodies can be transfused into another victim, where they might help to neutralize the virus in the recipient's body. For decades, doctors have used plasma or even whole blood from recovered patients to treat the newly infected. Baldanti is a virologist at the University of Pavia San Matteo Hospital in Italy's northern Lombardy region, which has seen the most cases and deaths in the country. He hopes "this plasma treatment can be crucial for controlling the infection in patients admitted to intensive care units."
Healthcare workers can carry coronavirus particles on their shoes, new CDC research shows
The coronavirus typically spreads via airborne droplets from an infected person's coughs or sneezes. But viral particles can survive for a time on surfaces — between three hours and seven days, depending on the material. New research suggests the coronavirus can even stick to the soles of healthcare workers' shoes in a hospital setting. The same study found that the virus could travel up to 13 feet (4 meters) in the air in a Chinese hospital.
Testing Reveals 'Stunning' Asymptomatic Coronavirus Spread Among Boston's Homeless
Clinicians realized that a cluster of the people who had come up positive were staying at Boston's Pine Street Inn. So the state made testing kits available, and just over a week ago, Health Care for the Homeless tested everyone coming into that shelter. The results? Out of 397 people tested, 146 (36%) came up positive. But even more surprising, they weren't showing any signs of sickness. Dr. Jim O'Connell, president of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, is urging public health officials here and nationwide to take notice and act on this.
Report From Wuhan: Hard-Won Insights From China
In a special series of articles published online in Anesthesiology, Chinese physician anesthesiologists shared first-hand accounts from the front lines of the coronavirus battle in Wuhan. These articles discuss a broad range of the COVID-19 experience, including the response of Chinese anesthesiologists to the outbreak, perioperative management of infected patients, and best practices for intubation and ventilation.
