At Connect Hackney our priority is the health and wellbeing of our partners, participants, residents and staff. Following the latest announcement from the government, the Hackney CVS office is closed to the public from Tuesday 17 March.  We will be working from home and will be in touch with more information as soon as we can.

We are committed to supporting the more vulnerable – people with underlying health conditions and the elderly. The following information is provided so that you know about the symptoms of the virus and provides details of some common sense measures you can take.

Symptoms
The symptoms of coronavirus are:
    •    A cough
    •    A high temperature
    •    Shortness of breath

These symptoms do not necessarily mean you have the illness, and are similar to other illnesses that are much more common, such as cold and flu. The virus can cause more severe symptoms in people with weakened immune systems, older people, and those with long-term conditions like diabetes, cancer and chronic lung disease. The good news is that viruses like Coronavirus cannot live outside the body for long.

What you should do
    •    cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when you cough or sneeze
    •    put used tissues in the bin immediately
    •    wash your hands carefully with soap and water, often
    •    watch this hand washing video from the NHS
    •    try to avoid close contact with people who are unwell
    •    do not touch your eyes, nose or mouth if your hands are not clean
    •    clean your telephone handset after use if you share a phone with anyone else
    •    stay away from work if you have any of the symptoms – this is common sense with any illness, and many of us can work remotely, so please take this precaution as necessary.

Read more on the NHS website – click here

Advice from the UK government is updated daily – click here to go to the government website.

You may find the Age UK website a useful source for practical advice: https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/health-wellbeing/conditions-illnesses/coronavirus/

If you think you have symptoms or have travelled to one of the high-risk areas, use the 111 online coronavirus service to find out what to do next. Do not go to a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital. This advice is updated daily, so please see here if you have any specific questions.

Doctor of the World
Doctors of the World have published advice in 20 languages – produced in partnership with the Red Cross, Migrant Help and Clear Voice.

Advice sheets are available now in English, Albanian, Dari, French, Pashto, Portuguese. Coming VERY soon: Mandarin, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Arabic, Spanish, Turkish, Vietnamese,  Farsi.

Hackney CVS/Connect Hackney
Currently Hackney CVS is open for business as usual and all events are taking place as scheduled. However, we will follow government advice and if we need to postpone any events we will be in touch again.

We are sure many of you are devising your own strategies. Should any decisions result in you deciding to scale down, postpone, or cancel activities, then please keep us updated by emailing the info@connecthackney.org.uk inbox. Please be assured that provided we are kept informed any of changes to delivery plans, your grant payments will not be affected. Likewise, we appreciate that any reduction in activity will impact your ability to meet your CMF targets, and we are fully understanding of this, and again you will not be penalised in any way, so long as we are kept up-to-date.

If you are scaling down activities, then please consider other methods for keeping in touch with participants who will understandably be anxious, and now also at an increased risk of isolation and loneliness. Other Ageing Better areas are considering things such as chatting on the phone, sharing favourite books and films remotely, sending one another videos,  virtual social clubs, where people can take part in activities at home, as well as circulating letters and poems and art from our volunteer pool. You will need to work out what works for you and your participants, but do share with each other what you’re doing, to help inspire ideas.

If anyone has any further questions, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Tony Wong, Programme Director: tony@connecthackney.org.uk or Onye, Performance and Programme Manager: onye@connecthackney.org.uk