by County Councillor Mary Evans
I am very pleased to report that under the DfE Covid-19 Technology scheme, Suffolk County Council has now allocated 700 laptops, 50 tablets and opened up 100 4G hotspots to children with social workers as well as care leavers who do not have adequate access to technology. These devices are empowering disadvantaged children to continue their learning and stay connected with services, friends and family in this difficult time where being in touch has never been more important. One child upon receiving a laptop said, “Thank you so much for this, I can’t wait to use it to catch up with my classes, study for my exams, and make my mum proud!”
Mobile Testing Units: visit www.suffolk.gov.uk/testing for newly published dates for mobile testing units across Suffolk. These dates are for this week and next and are subject to change, so please check back regularly. 99.9% of households in Suffolk are located within 30 minutes drive (89% within 20 minutes) of one of our local drive-through testing sites. It is important that anyone with coronavirus symptoms starts isolating and gets tested. Tests can be booked at www.nhs.uk/coronavirus or by calling 119. If you need to get tested, but do not have a booking, our local drive-through testing sites will still aim to offer you a test if capacity is available on the day.
Healthwatch Suffolk survey on digital health and care: Healthwatch Suffolk have teamed up with Healthwatch Essex and the Suffolk and North East Essex NHS and social care system to understand how the sudden increase in use of digital services has impacted on peoples access to care and support. NHS and social care services have been working very differently to make sure that people can access care throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Many of the ways people receive treatment or advice, have changed and may have been replaced by digital or remote services. This has happened quickly, and there has been little time to check whether these new digital services are working for everyone who needs to use them. Healthwatch Suffolk are asking people who have used digital NHS or social care services to take part in a short anonymous survey. For more information click here
Suffolk’s Coved response: Councillor James Reeder has written this week’s column on the handling of Coronavirus in Suffolk. In this piece he gives an update of how Suffolk is planning to manage any local outbreak of COVID-19 – what is being done, and plans to handle a spike in numbers. Click here to read the article.
Overall Suffolk has been a shining example in complying with the coronavirus instructions issued since March in an effort to keep everyone in our communities safe and protect the NHS. However, there were worrying reports last weekend of people queuing up outside at least one popular nightspot in Suffolk last weekend with no social distancing or apparent concern for the welfare of themselves or their friends.
The Suffolk Resilience Forum has issued a plea to people to be aware: Now, more than ever, there is no room for complacency through thinking the virus is beaten or individuals are not at risk of contracting it.
Stuart Keeble, Director of Public Health for Suffolk, stressed today, “Coronavirus is still a real and deadly threat. We have seen other areas go into local lockdown, and If we are to stay on top of this virus in Suffolk we must all stick with it and keep on doing what is being asked of us. It is vital we maintain social distancing when visiting pubs or queueing outside of them. Social distancing is also very important in public spaces and inside premises.
Across Suffolk the work continues to support the end of lockdown and the return to more normal life while continuing to monitor Covid19 cases and ensure we all stay safe. For example, last week the Suffolk Resilience Forum, which draws its membership from organisations such the police, local councils, hospitals and NHS took part in a virtual desktop exercise ‘Exercise Rapid Response’ to test arrangements for handling a local outbreak in Suffolk. The aims of the exercise were to work through our response to a localised outbreak within the county, to validate the systems in the plan and to identify any improvements. The exercise considered three potential scenarios to ensure that we can respond effectively to a range of incidents. I must stress that there is nothing to suggest that there will be a local outbreak in our county but it is important to put plans in place just in case – and to test them.
Looking after yourself in the heatwave: It looks like we are set for a few days of very hot weather in Suffolk. It is important to look after yourself & others during this hot weather. Suffolk’s GP colleagues have some advice you can read here. You can still be infected by coronavirus in the heat. If you go out & it’s busy, try somewhere quieter. The busier somewhere is, the greater the risk of the virus spreading.