Your questions answered
Testing Update
New Case Definition for Covid-19
The four UK Chief Medical Officers have announced that anosmia – the loss or a change in your normal sense of smell or taste – has been added as a symptom of Covid-19.
This means that individuals need to self-isolate immediately – and will be eligible for a test – if they have a new continuous cough, or they have a high temperature, or they feel a loss or changed sense of normal smell or taste. All members of their household must also self-isolate according to current guidelines, unless the symptomatic individual receives a negative test result.
National Testing Expanded
From today, everyone who is showing coronavirus symptoms is eligible to book a swab test to find out if they have the virus.
People can register for a test at www.nhs.uk/coronavirus, after checking their symptoms. Arrangements for essential workers are set out below.
Those in England and Wales who do not have any access to the internet, or who have difficulty with the digital portals, will be able to ring a new 119 service to book their test.
Access to Testing for Essential Workers
Essential workers are prioritised for testing, while allowing as many tests as possible for the wider population:
- Essential workers and members of their household who have symptoms should continue to register for a test through the Self-Referral and Employer Portals.
- Care homes in England can continue to register for delivery of tests for all their staff and residents, whether or not they have symptoms. There are 30,000 daily capacity for this channel. We are continuing to support care homes that have been identified as a priority to receive tests as early as possible; we have supplemented this locally with an accelerated care homes testing team using some of the spare capacity from the Pillar 1 site at Brockworth.
Mobile Unit
The Mobile Testing Unit will be in Gloucestershire until Tuesday 26 May (excluding Saturday 23 May and Sunday 24 May).
We have had early conversations with a representative from the Department of Health and Social Care about the possibility of having a mobile unit allocated specifically to Gloucestershire, but this is yet to be confirmed. Once we have a clear indication of the offer, we will work with local stakeholders and communities to establish a site (or sites) that are appropriate and acceptable for a longer term solution, and ensure we make the public aware of this.
Are ice cream vans allowed to be operational at the moment?
According to government guidance, food delivery and takeaway can remain operational. Although it doesn’t specify ice cream vans, the guidance states:
‘Food delivery and takeaway can remain operational. This covers the provision of hot or cold food that has been prepared for consumers for collection or delivery to be consumed, reheated or cooked by consumers off the premises’.
This is the advice from Gloucester City Council; other council’s may have a slightly different policy but are likely to be roughly the same.
"Ice cream vans are now allowed to operate (considering they have a street trading licence from the council); however they are expected to take measures to ensure social distancing is maintained. This may include a barrier between the vendor and the customer to maintain 2 metres between them, contactless payment, and queue management to maintain 2 metres between queuing customers."
If people are concerned that ice cream vans are not taking appropriate social distancing measures, they can contact the relevant district council via their contact centre.
*The above data reflects nationally published data available here.
**This section contains information on deaths of patients who have died in hospitals in Gloucestershire and had tested positive for Covid-19 at time of death or where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate. All deaths are recorded against the date of death rather than the date the deaths were announced. It is based on national NHS data published here.
The data in this briefing is updated at 9am each day based on the figures released at 2pm the previous day.
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