Covid-19

We have stepped outside of our normal hearing subject to bring you everything we think you should know about coronavirus. Like many other businesses, we have decided to temporarily suspend our services until we are advised by the government that life can go back to normal. Whenever we get some new information as to our re-opening date, we will update you as and when we can.

What is coronavirus?

A coronavirus is a type of virus. As a group, coronaviruses are common across the world. Often, coronavirus can cause more severe symptoms in people with weakened immune systems, older people and those with long term conditions such as diabetes and cancer.

The most common symptoms of this new coronavirus (recognised as COVID-19) are a new continuous cough and / or a high temperature. Some people may also experience muscle aches, tiredness and shortness of breath.

How does covid-19 spread?

The main route of transmission is from cough and sneeze droplets which have fallen onto people in the vicinity. These can be directly inhaled or picked up on the hands and transferred when someone touches their face. Under most circumstances, the amount of infectious virus on any contaminated surfaces is likely to have decreased significantly by 24 hours, and even more so by 48 hours. The virus’ survival on a surface is dependent on:

• The type of surface
• Exposure to sunlight
• Difference in temperature and humidity
• Exposure to cleaning products

Staying home

The single most important action we can all take in fighting covid-19 is to stay home in order to protect ourselves, other people and the NHS. This will save lives. The government have introduced 3 new measures that every citizen should abide by:

1. Requiring people to stay at home, except for very limited purposes
2. Closing non-essential shops and community spaces
3. Stopping all gatherings of more than two people in public

You should only leave your house for one of four reasons:

1. Shopping for basic necessities
2. One form of exercise a day – alone or with members of your household only
3. Any medical need, or to provide care or help to a vulnerable person
4. Travelling to and from work, but only where this absolutely cannot be done from home

These four reasons are the only exceptions and even when doing these activities you should be minimising time spent outside of the home and ensuring you practice social distancing. This means you should be 2 metres apart form anyone outside of your household.

Preventative measures

In addition to reducing your contact with other people, there are things you can do to help stop germs like coronavirus spreading:

• Wear a face covering
• Always carry tissues with you and use them to catch your cough / sneeze. Then put the tissue in the bin and wash / sanitise your hands.
• Wash your hands more often than usual for 20 seconds each time with soap and water or hand sanitiser. This is especially important to do when you get to work / home, blow your nose, sneeze or cough, eat or handle food.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.
• Avoid close contact with people wo are unwell.

Please do all you can to stop the spread of COVID-19 and most of all, stay safe. We’ll be here for you on the other side and you can leave us a message for when we re-open if you need to!

NB: All of our information has been taken from the GOV UK website

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