Dear Residents, this is an update from Staffordshire County Council with regards to Lockdown
Coronavirus COVID-19 Briefing
This briefing summarises the key points around Staffordshire County Council’s response and now recovery to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.
This bulletin will be issued on weekly basis every Friday – unless there are major announcements or changes to the current situation.
Saturday 31 October 2020
Boris Johnson announces new national lockdown to control Autumn surge
The current situation nationally
- At 7pm today (Saturday 31 October), Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a four-week national lockdown in England, which will begin on Thursday 5 November and run until 2 December.
- At the press conference, Professor Chris Witty and Sir Patrick Vallance presented some sobering statistics, the R-rate is consistently above one, cases are increasing across the country, hospitalisation and deaths are also rising.
- If no further action is taken, the number of deaths is likely to exceed those seen at the peak of the first wave by early December and our NHS will be overwhelmed.
The current situation in Staffordshire
- Staffordshire has also seen cases rising sharply in recent weeks and moved to High Alert today to try to stop the spread of the virus.
- Our case rate is now above both the West Midlands and national seven-day rate.
- England is 225 per 100,000 population,
- West Midlands is 233 and
- Staffordshire is 288.
- The Staffordshire Resilience Forum (SRF) has declared a Major Incident for the second time.
Outline of the lockdown
- Whilst the main message ‘Stay at Home > Protect the NHS > Save Lives’ is familiar, the proposed lockdown is different to the first, with education being unaffected and no formal ‘shielding’ in place – although those who are clinically extremely vulnerable are being asked to be extra careful to minimise contact with others and if they can’t work from home, they should not attend a place of work.
- Measures outlined include:
- People in England should not leave their homes without good reason.
- The reasons for which one may leave one’s home include:
- for education
- for work, if you cannot work from home
- for exercise and recreation outdoors
- for medical reasons
- to shop for food and essentials
- to care for others
- No mixing of people inside homes, except for childcare bubbles and other forms of support
- All pubs and restaurants to close, though takeaways and deliveries will be permitted.
- Supermarkets and essential services will remain open. All non-essential retail and other services will close
- Schools, colleges and universities will remain open.
- Manufacturing and construction are encouraged to keep going.
- Outdoor exercise and recreation are encouraged with other members of the household or one other person outside the household
- People in England should not leave their homes without good reason.
- The PM also confirmed that the furlough scheme (which was due to end today) will be extended throughout November and will pay 80% of employees’ wages.
- After 2 December, the exit strategy is that different parts of the country will revert to having their local economies and behaviour governed by the local alert level (medium, high or very high) depending on how serious the virus is in respective places.
- The measures proposed will be presented to Parliament on Monday 2 November and subject to Parliamentary approval on Wednesday 4 November.
- If approved, they will come into force at 00:01hrs on Thursday 5 November 2020.