WEEKLY UPDATE 2 OCTOBER 2020 – 每周疫情快讯 2020年10月2日 – Chinese Community Centre

Covid-19 Weekly Update 2/10/2020

The ‘R’ number (rate of transmission) currently stands between 1.3 and 1.6.The alert level is 4.

Local Restrictions

There were no new local restrictions for Birmingham citizens this week. With exceptions explained previously, you are not allowed to have visitors in your house or garden, and you are not allowed to enter other people’s houses or gardens wherever they live. This will be reviewed every 3 weeks, with first review due 2nd October.

NHS Test & Trace App

We understand that the app can be downloaded in Simplified Chinese but is not currently available in Traditional Chinese. According to the BBC, it does not work on some Huawei phones.

Download the app https://covid19.nhs.uk/index.html

The app can tell you about risk and alert you to when you have been in close contact with people who later test positive, but the most important point is that people reduce transmission by

maintaining social distance 1m+ mitigations or 2m
frequent thorough handwashing
covering their faces in indoor public spaces

and

following the national ‘Rule of 6’ for social gathering
complying with the local restriction on visits inside private homes until this is lifted

Test & Trace Support Payment for people on low incomes

If the NHS has instructed you to self-isolate, you may be able to claim a payment of £500 for the self-isolation period. Read more

Key points are:

You must be working or self-employed
Unable to work from home
You would lose income by not being able to go to work
You must be in receipt of a qualifying benefit

The support payment is available from 28/9/2020 with no backdating. Claims are made to the Council via its website.

Remember that you can be fined for failing to self-isolate after receiving an NHS instruction, with fines starting at £1k.

Drop & Collect Volunteers

Birmingham City Council is seeking volunteers to drop and collect Covid-19 test kits and provide information to households in designated areas around the city. These are areas that have had spikes which may include households with older and clinically vulnerable Chinese people. It would be good to have some Cantonese, Hakka and Mandarin-speaking Chinese volunteers helping in this effort. PPE and training is provided.

For a link to the volunteer application form and to read more

Covid-19 Community Champions

The Council is also seeking volunteers for its recently launched Covid Community Champions network

Annual Flu Vaccination

The annual flu vaccination will be available to a wider group of people this year including:

Year 7 pupils
All health and social care workers
Household contacts of people on the NHS shielding list

More information is here

Children’s flu vaccination here

As we are approaching winter and more people catch colds and flu, it may be difficult to know what you’ve got. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has produced a quick guide:

Cancer patients

Birmingham’s University Hospitals NHS Trust is extremely worried that an increasing number of cancer patients are refusing to go to hospital for scheduled treatment out of fear of catching the virus. (It is possible this also applies to people with other illnesses and conditions)

The Trust’s senior management has explained that measures have been put in place to make the hospitals covid-secure. He urges people to follow their treatment plans as they are putting their lives at risk by not keeping appointments. Read more here