Coronavirus York updates; 20th May 2020

Virtually an Archbishop

Bishop Stephen Geoffrey Cottrell, will be confirmed as the new Archbishop of York, the second most senior clerical position in the Church of England, on July 9, in a service broadcast entirely via video conference due to the Coronavirus restrictions. York Minster is currently closed, although virtual services are broadcast on most days.

Acomb hairdresser plans re-opening

Ali Barbers on Front Street is hoping to re-open on 4th July. They will sue an appointments only system.Staff expect to be working flat out with social distancing in place once it reopens its doors.

Test avaiable to determine whether you have had COVID 19

Public Health England had announced its backing for the test last week, and it was now available to order online at www.yorktest.com. The test uses a process developed by a York company and costs £89.

Deaths

TWO more patients with coronavirus have died at hospitals run by York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. The fatalities take the total number of Covid-19 related deaths so far at York Hospital and Scarborough Hospital to 195. The trust said one of the patients died at York, taking the total number of deaths there to 117, and the other died at Scarborough Hospital, raising the total there to 78.

Coronavirus York updates; 19th May 2020

Poppleton CV testing results are still secret

The York Council’s Director of Public Health has said tonight that neither the Local Authority or the local NHS are being told what the results of the CV tests taking place at Poppleton have been. They do not know how many tests have proved to be positive. She blames the government for not sharing the information which is being gathered under contract by Deloitte

Deaths

3 more patients with coronavirus have died at York Hospital. The fatalities takes the total number of Covid-19 related deaths reported at the hospital to 116 so far. Another 77 such patients are reported to have died at Scarborough Hospital, taking the overall total of deaths at the York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to 193.

Coronavirus York updates; 18th May 2020

Smell or taste symptoms added

From today, the UK’s list of coronavirus symptoms has been updated. Self-isolate if you develop any of the following:

  • a new continuous cough
  • fever
  • loss/change in your normal sense of smell or taste

Deaths

ONE more patient with coronavirus has died at a York NHS trust hospital, taking the total number of deaths to 190. Two more deaths were reported yesterday, but there were no reported deaths on Saturday and just one on both Thursday and Friday last week. The trust said this afternoon that of the 190 deaths within the trust, 113 had happened at York Hospital.

The current death rate has seen a recent decline although the NHS are cautious about drawing too many conclusions from the dip.

Coronavirus York updates; 16th May 2020

“Don’t socialise in York City centre this weekend” – York Council

Residents encouraged to keep safe this weekend

With good weather once again forecast for York, City of York Council is encouraging residents to stay safe and follow national guidance to continue to reduce the spread of the virus and save lives.

As indicated by the Prime Minister on Sunday 10 May, the Government have revised national guidance on current lockdown restrictions, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus.

With the new guidance in place, the Council is asking residents to prioritise their health and safety this coming weekend by only making essential journeys. 

The city centre will be open for essential shopping, but we would urge residents to refrain from using it as an open space to meet people.

Crematorium Chapel to reopen in June

Mourners attending services at York Crematorium are to be allowed inside the chapel, for the first time since the Covid 19 lockdown.

The City Council has announced that from next month it’s lifting its ban on mourners inside the building during services, imposed to reduce the risk of spreading the Coronavirus and protect staff and visitors.

The restrictions meant bereaved families had to gather in a marquee in the crematorium grounds.

In a statement, City of York Council says:

“As part of these changes and taking into account strict social distancing measures required by Government, and the ever-present risks relating to the spread of Coronavirus, the Crematorium will return to permitting attendance in pre-closure numbers. This allows up to ten close family members in the main crematorium chapel, and five in the small chapel.”

The Council says it’s taken the decision after three tests were passed:

  • The availability of key worker testing
  • The provision of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE)
  • A decrease in the number of Coronavirus infections and deaths

“It is anticipated that by 1 June, the transmission (R) rates will fall, along with a reduction in death rates, although the number of funerals sadly currently remain high.  If this proves not to be the case and the three tests are not met, the Council may have to consider adjusting the number of bookings that are taken, or reintroducing some restrictions, in order to reduce the risk to bereaved families, funeral directors and crematorium staff.”

Business recovery meeting

City leaders are urging York’s business community to support the city’s economic recovery by joining sector-focused recovery groups.

The council is developing plans to support the city’s economic recovery, incorporating the priorities outlined in the recent Council Plan, including making York a greener and more inclusive city.

To kick-start this process, a strategic business leaders meeting will be held, chaired by Councillor Keith Aspden, the Leader of the Council, to begin discussions on our local recovery plans. This will follow a similar meeting held with city partners, such as local Universities, discussing how to work in partnership earlier in the week

Businesses who are interested in participating in the roundtable events can contact the Make It York Business team on business@makeityork.com.  

Coronavirus York updates; 15th May 2020

Police fines

926 fines were issued by North Yorkshire Police between March 27 and May 11 for alleged breaches of the coronavirus lockdown laws. 179 of these were in York.

Virus transmission rates highest in Yorkshire

YORKSHIRE has the highest coronavirus transmission rate in England. Both the North East and Yorkshire have a transmission rate of 0.8 – the highest in England. It means that for every 10 people who are infected, they are likely to pass it on to eight other people. London’s average rate, meanwhile, has fallen to 0.4.

Deaths

ONE more patient with coronavirus has died at a hospital within the York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. The one further death takes the total number of Covid-19 related fatalities within the trust to 187.The trust includes York Hospital and Scarborough

The lost test results

An opportunity on Tuesday to quiz York’s Director of Public Health about the missing results from the test centre at Poppleton.

It appears that results from a across the country have disappeared (see press cutting below) .

There has been a surprising lack of comment on the issue from local MPs and Councillors.

Residents are invited to watch and interact with the council’s next live #AskTheLeaders coronavirus question and answer session on City of York Council’s Facebook page on Tuesday 19 May, 5-6pm.

Residents can interact with the Q & A session on Tuesday by either submitting questions in advance by emailing them to YourQuestions@york.gov.uk or commenting on the live video on Facebook 

Coronavirus York updates; 14th May 2020

Grants to Micro businesses

The Council has said that it has now processed 766 grants totalling £738,539 for micro businesses. There is a budget ceiling of £1 million on this scheme.

It also says that it is still awaiting further guidance from the government over the discretionary grants – aimed at local businesses, small charities, B&Bs and market traders – and “we will open up applications as soon as possible”.

York’s self-employed residents could get up to £7,500 by May 25 – or within 6 days of making a claim – as applications for the Self Employed Income Support Service opened on Wednesday 13 May. Check you are eligible and make your claim on the government website here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/self-employed-invited-to-get-ready-to-make-their-claims-for-coronavirus-covid-19-support

Lowfield & Lincoln Court building work

The Council has issued a statement saying that building work is recommencing at Lowfield and at the Lincoln Court/Disabled centre on Ascot Way.

in reality work never actually stopped!

Deaths & paitient numbers

ONE more patient with coronavirus has died at York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, taking the total number of Covid-19 related fatalities to 186.

SEVEN further cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the City of York Council area, taking the total number to 427.

More hubs promised in York

The Council has issued a media release today saying that it will extend the network of hubs set up to counter the Coronavirus emergency. The 10 hubs formed part of the governments contingency -plan to get essential supplies to those who were being shielded from the virus.

The Council also asked for volunteer helpers and claimed that over 3000 had stepped forward. It turned out that most of the volunteers were little used while the governments arrangements, for supermarkets to deliver food parcels, meant that fewer than 1000 deliveries of food were organised from the hubs.

The council now says

“Since the helpline and hubs opened on 23 March, over 1,300 calls for help have been answered. These were for a range of support, and includes delivering 850 food parcels, information about food suppliers, prescription collection, financial assistance, information about cleaning and dog walking, and much more.

Staff and volunteers at the hubs have made nearly 5,500 telephone calls to residents to check on their needs and wellbeing, and over 200 residents have been connected to volunteers for ongoing wellbeing calls”.

The Council now says it will be working with communities to “create more drop-in hubs”. (The present hubs are not open to the public)

Hubs are very expensive to run. There is no indication from the Council on how much the existing network is costing, much less who has authorised an expansion. The issue doesn’t seem to have been discussed by any of the Councils decision making bodies.

A “hub” operated at the Foxwood Community Centre before the health crisis forced its closure.

The have, of course, been several neighbourhood hubs operating in the City for over 2 years. These pre-dated the coronavirus scare. Several have been reasonably successful and they do provide a meeting point for the disadvantaged.

However, they have often struggled to attract volunteers and mainly rely on paid staff. Hence they are an expensive option.

The Council says that it wants to mobilise its 3000 strong army of volunteers.

So it should.

First it needs to find out what motivated them to offer to help and whether they will still be volunteers after the health scare has receded.

Many will, of course, be returning to full time jobs over the next few months.

So, there are a lot of questions to be answered before the Council embarks on a programme which, in the stark new financial reality, it may not be able to sustain.

Hospital planning application published

As forecast yesterday, a “remote” planning meeting will determine an application next week which could see the York Hospital extended.

The background papers can be found by clicking here. The application is recommended for approval

The applications says,

Planning permission is sought for an extension to the southern elevation of the hospital to provide a vascular imaging unit (VIU). The proposed development would be 14.2 metres in height and would be sited on land currently used as a car park (resulting in the loss of 40 staff parking spaces) the building would be three storeys internally. The access to the building would be internal and externally from the east elevation. Vehicle access would still be provided between the proposed building and the footpath to the south. The proposed materials will be brick to the south and east elevations and grey cladding to the north and west elevations.

The catchment for the proposed unit would be York District, Selby District.
Hambleton, Ryedale and east Yorkshire, Bridlington and Scarborough). The unit would be used by a variety of departments and would be run and staffed by Radiology and its core activity is undertaken by the vascular and cardiac specialists.
The type of procedures include: diagnosing problems with blood flow (aneurysms etc), insertion of balloons, stents, pace makers etc. The extension will provide a Hybrid Theatre on the first floor (with associated Post Anaesthesia Care Unit) and Vascular Labs (and ancillary accommodation) on the ground floor to provide solutions for a number of clinical services across Radiology, Cardiology and Vascular Surgery. The existing VIU unit consists of two labs with a shared control room, prep/recovery space, nurse station/reception and ancillary spaces.

The applications will be the first to be held using the Councils “Remote Meeting” protocol. Under this reaction to “lockdown”, only half the planning committee have been invited to attend and vote on the plans. A virtual – on line – meeting will hear any public representations made using a, pre arranged internet based, link.

The Council has been asked to find a more representative, and accessible, arrangement for dealing with future – more controversial – planning applications.

Coronavirus York updates; 13th May 2020

More Council Q & A on line

The Council has issued a media release saying, “Residents are invited to watch and interact with the council’s next live #AskTheLeaders coronavirus question and answer session on City of York Council’s Facebook page on Tuesday 19 May, 5-6pm.

In this, the council’s second live coronavirus question and answer session, special guest Carolyn Frank from the Federation for Small Business will be taking questions regarding support for businesses in the region amidst lockdown restrictions and looking ahead to restarting York’s economy after the crisis”.

Residents can interact with the session by either submitting questions in advance by emailing them to YourQuestions@york.gov.uk or commenting on the live video on Facebook where leaders will read out questions and respond.* Questions may be answered by theme rather than individually so that the conversation covers as many topics as possible.

New regulations prompt lifestyle reboot?

The revised lock-down restrictions introduced from today do seem to have had an impact.

The rural roads in west York are noticeably busier.

The Pike Hills golf course car was full at lunchtime although most players seemed to be moving around as singles

Pike Hills golf course

Deaths

FIVE more people with coronavirus have died at hospitals within the York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. The further five deaths takes the total within the trust to 185.

Care home deaths from the virus were 62 per cent of all deaths from the virus in York in the week ending May 1. In total, 31 people died from the virus up to May 1 in York care homes.

Coronavirus York updates: 12th May 2020

Deaths

11 more fatalities have been reported by York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Six of the deaths were at York Hospital, taking the total number of fatalities there to 109, and the remaining five were at Scarborough.

The number of York people who died up to May 1 and whose death certificates include Covid-19 is 94.

There are a total of 408 cases in the city, according to stats from Public Health England.

No details of the infection rates found at the Poppleton testing site have been published.

Bus companies get York Council backing

The Council has said to the government that all local bus companies should receive grant support. To do so they had to either run at least 40% of the services that they did pre lockdown or alternatively get a certificate for the local authority saying that the new frequencies were meeting demand