Sharing these newsletters
To share this newsletter on social media sites such as Facebook, please visit our COVID-19 Community Champions website www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/covid-champions where you will find links to this update and previous ones at the bottom of the page. Just copy and paste the link.
Read the MK COVID-19 Champions code of conduct here.
COVID-19 snapshot
Click here to see and print the full COVID-19 snapshot as of 3rd February 2021 (data reported up to 31st January 2021).
Vaccine update
|
Cumulative Total Doses to 4 February
|
England
|
8,558,136
|
East of England (incl MK)
|
1,046,435
|
The full statistics are here.
The vaccination programme is now extended to Priority groups 3 and 4.
Priority groups:
1 all residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
2 all those aged 80 years or age and over and frontline health and social care workers
3 all those 75 years of age and over
4a all those aged 70 years of age and over
4b clinically extremely vulnerable adults
Target:
By 15 February.
Mixing vaccines
A UK trial has been launched to see if giving people different COVID-19 vaccines for their first and second doses works as well as the current approach of using the same type of vaccine twice.
The idea is to provide more flexibility with vaccine rollout and help deal with any potential disruption to supplies. Scientists say mixing vaccines could also possibly give even better protection. The vaccines minister said no changes would be made to the UK's current approach until at least the summer.
Reducing transmission
Results that show the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine reduces transmission of COVID-19 have been hailed as a significant weapon of the pandemic fight. A single dose of the jab may reduce transmission of coronavirus by 67%, according to a new study - which provides a major boost to the UK’s policy of delaying the second jab for up to 12 weeks.
Before these results, little was known about how effective the COVID-19 vaccines were at preventing transmission of the disease, the data is still pending peer review.
What does it mean?
There are two main types of immunity you can achieve with vaccines:
Effective immunity - which can prevent a virus from causing serious disease, but can't stop it from entering the body or making more copies of itself.
Sterilising immunity - which can stop infections entirely. This is the aspiration of all vaccine research, but rarely achieved.
For example someone who has had a mumps vaccine, but then has a mild dose of mumps, can pass on the disease to someone else.
How sterilising immunity works: In the case of COVID-19, neutralising antibodies that recognise the virus, bind to the spike protein on its surface, which it uses to enter cells. To achieve sterilising immunity, vaccines must stimulate enough of these antibodies to catch any virus particles entering the body and immediately disarm them.
MK Council extends key worker rapid testing to MK shop workers
Earlier this month, Milton Keynes Council began a COVID-19 rapid testing pilot for frontline key workers to help understand and drive down virus transmission rates.
Now it is extending that pilot to all MK essential shop workers who from Monday (7 February) are invited to have a rapid test at their convenience.
Around one in three people who are infected with Covid-19 have no symptoms and could be spreading the disease without knowing it. Through the pilot, the council aims to identify public facing key workers who have COVID-19 without showing symptoms - finding positive cases more quickly to help break chains of transmission and protect vulnerable people.
The pilot had initially been restricted to local workers from within the police, fire services and frontline council staff including those in social care and our waste partner Serco. It was opened last week to transport workers including tax drivers.
The facility, based at MK’s Central Library, can comfortably test several hundred people every day. More than 3000 tests have been taken to date, with a number of positive cases found. Those people told to isolate immediately. Careful protocols are followed at the site, with cleaning taking place between each test.
Shop workers do not need to make a booking in advance, just turn up during test centre opening hours (9.30am – 4.30pm, Monday to Friday). If demand is high, the council may ask people to return another time to avoid queues. Afternoons tend to be quieter.
As well as bringing ID that identifies them as a supermarket employee, people seeking a rapid test should bring a smartphone if they can, on which they’ll need to register and be sent their results. Help is on hand for those who might need it. The test itself is administered very quickly with results usually texted within 45 minutes.
People with any COVID-19 symptoms (a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, or a loss or change to sense of smell or taste) should not attend and instead should isolate and book a test at nhs.uk/coronavirus or by calling 119.
Get injected not infected
Black MPs from across the parties have joined together in a video encouraging people to get the coronavirus vaccine. Watch their video here.
Do you have Corona-Somnia?
Many of us are finding it difficult to have a good night’s sleep, internet searches for ‘insomnia’ are the highest ever recorded which is not surprising when we are living through a pandemic which is affecting all our lives.
Stress can make it hard to get to sleep and anxiety can also cause you to wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble getting back to sleep.
Here are some useful tips which may help:
Distract your brain from your worries. Repeat to yourself that everything will be okay. Count your outgoing breathes. This will slow down your breathing and help you to relax and drift off.
If you cannot sleep, try not to lie there worrying about it. Get up and do something you find relaxing until you feel sleepy again, then go back to bed.
Try to go to bed at the same time every night. This helps our circadian rhythm, which is a natural, internal process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and repeats on each rotation of the Earth roughly every 24 hours.
Make sure the bedroom is a relaxing environment. Blue light from televisions, computer screens, phones and tablets can suppress melatonin levels and delay sleepiness. Try to keep your bedroom cool, between 160 – 180 is the ideal temperature. Too hot you can become restless and too cold can stop you falling asleep.
Exercise can help. Studies by the Sleep Foundation have found that regular aerobic exercise for prolonged periods can improve sleep quality and reduce excessive daytime sleepiness for people with insomnia. Research also shows moderate-intensity aerobic activities can decrease the severity of sleep-disordered breathing conditions like obstructive sleep apnea. But avoid strenuous exercise at least one hour before bedtime.
Avoid caffeine at least 2 – 3 hours before bedtime.
See the NHS 10 Top Tips to a restful night NHS 10 tips to stop insomnia.
|
Staying safe and well
Supporting people with learning disabilities and autism
Understanding the causes of the pandemic and keeping up-to-date with changes to the lock-down guidance can be difficult, particularly for those with a learning disability or autism.
Mencap have lots of helpful guidance in an easy read format as well as an online chat facility which you can find here.
- To stay up-to-date about whether day services are open or not
- To find out what other services are available
- To refer yourself for a social care assessment or order equipment.
Use this link: https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/social-care-and-health/adult-social-care
|
Taking part in the 2021 Census
Why do we have an Census in the UK?
Every ten years the census gives us a complete picture of the nation. It allows us to compare different groups of people across the United Kingdom because the same questions are asked, and the information is recorded, in the same way throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The census provides information that government needs to develop policies, plan and run public services, and allocate funding.
Develop policies
Before central or local government can offer services, policies must be based on high quality evidence.
We all use public services such as schools, health services, roads and libraries. These services need to be planned, and in such a way that they keep pace with fast-changing patterns of modern life. We need accurate information on the numbers of people, including the balance of young and old, what jobs people do, where they live and in what type of housing.
How is the Census information used?
- For new jobs and training policies and investment decisions
- New housing policies
- Evaluating equal opportunities policies
- Health and social services
- Roads and public transport; the data also contributes to the understanding of pressures on transport systems.
Every Mind Matters
Public Health England launched their new Every Mind Matters campaign – ‘Make Inside Feel Better’ last week.
This 2021 phase of the adult campaign encourages people to make a free NHS-approved ‘Mind Plan’ which has now been tailored for the pandemic.
It just takes a few minutes to answer questions about how you are feeling and then provides a useful selection of short videos on a range of topics according to your personal needs including how to sleep better, dealing with negative thoughts, a 10 minute home workout, supporting your children and much more.
The Every Mind Matters campaign has been continuously updated during the outbreak with tips and support on how to deal with change, cope with money worries and job uncertainty and how to look after your mental wellbeing while staying at home.
Reporting concerns
One of the ways you can help is by reporting serious concerns about workplaces and other facilities where social distancing and other measures aren’t being followed. Intelligence like this can help us to track and control virus transmission.
Please tell us when the breach of restrictions took place, and a full address of the site if known. Your details will not be shared with the person or place you are telling us about.
You can write to us at COVIDconcern@milton-keynes.gov.uk.
We may not reply to all messages but we will read them all, and they’ll be used to gather intelligence so we can take action where needed.
Useful links
See the latest Government guidance here gov.uk/coronavirus.
Find COVID-19 Information from the NHS: www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
To print and share this, please click "view it as a web page" at the top of this bulletin. This will take you to a web page with the option to print this off at the top.
To share this newsletter on social media sites such as Facebook, please visit our COVID-19 Community Champions website www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/covid-champions where you will find links to this update and previous ones at the bottom of the page. Just copy and paste the link.
Your Feedback
Have you found this email useful?
Let us know how we can improve: COVIDChampions@Milton-Keynes.gov.uk
|