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Coronavirus update from Somerset County Council – 10/08

Posted on 12th August, 2020 in News

All our help and information for 10/08/2020 is now available in a single place on the SCC website https://www.somerset.gov.uk/coronavirus/covid-19-latest-advice/

This page is refreshed through the day so please check in regularly to keep across developments and news.

Top stories today:

SCC backs initiative to support ‘heroic’ care workers

Somerset County Council has become the first council in the South West to sign up to UNISON’s ‘Stop the Spread’ pledge, a key initiative by the UK’s biggest trade union to support care workers in the fight against coronavirus.

The pledge introduces a series of measures designed to protect care workers and reduce the spread of the virus in care homes.

The commitments in the pledge include key safety measures, such as priority testing for social care workers and providing lifesaving personal protective equipment. The pledge will also provide key workers in the frontline fight against coronavirus with important employment protections. These include the provision of full pay during self-isolation and leave on full pay for workers caring for a dependent with COVID-19.

The pledge was developed to recognise that social care workers have been at the forefront of the fight against coronavirus, often placing their lives at risk by simply going to work.

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics reveal that care workers are twice as likely to die from coronavirus than NHS workers.

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Exam results – what happens next?

A-level and GCSE exam results are out very soon – this Thursday (13 August) for A-levels, and Thursday 20 August for GCSEs.

The exams and assessments were cancelled this year due to coronavirus (COVID-19) but most students will still receive grades in time to progress to further study or employment.

Somerset media outlets were contacted in July with suggestions about how to manage coverage with COVID-19 restrictions in place.

The number of pupils able to attend school at any one time to collect their results will be limited and staggered across the day. Having collected their results pupils will be asked to leave the school site as quickly as possible.

The following link describes how the results will be calculated, plus information about options available if students don’t get the grades they wanted.

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I’m a storyteller get me outside of here

A popular Library storytelling session is set to move to a park in Taunton now that lockdown measures are further easing.

James Denslow – AKA ‘Library Man’ – has created quite a buzz on social media in recent months with his quirky Facebook story-times. Now lockdown is further easing – and the summer holidays are here – Library staff are running weekly storytelling sessions in Lyngford Park throughout August.

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Travel corridors list

The list of countries and territories with coronavirus-related restrictions on travel has been updated.

People arriving in England from Andorra, Belgium and The Bahamas from 8 August 2020 will need to self-isolate for 2 weeks as the countries are removed from the travel exemptions list.

Brunei and Malaysia have been added to the government’s travel corridor list following a decrease in confirmed cases of coronavirus. You can check the latest travel corridors list below.

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The Distance Aware initiative

The Distance Aware initiative has been recently endorsed by the Department of Health and Social Care. This was set up to enable individuals and organisations to politely prompt ongoing distancing and respect of individual social space. Badge/poster templates are available to download from the site.

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