Rutland and Melton MP, Alicia Kearns, is urging residents to pay close attention to the Government’s guidance on coronavirus to ensure those most at risk are protected.
On March 23rd, the Prime Minister announced a three-week lockdown to push down on the curve of transmission and save lives.
From now, you may only leave home to:
- Shop for food, which should be done as infrequently as possible with a strong preference for online ordering. All other non-essential shops will be closed (e.g. electronics stores).
- One form of exercise a day which should be done alone or with your household, but note play parks will be closed.
- Medical reasons.
- Help vulnerable people.
- Travel to and from work if it is necessary and you cannot work from home.
You may not gather publicly in groups of more than two except for households. This means you should not be meeting friends and family members anywhere.
Ms Kearns is upping her campaign to raise awareness of these measures after she reported to the House of Commons how she witnessed hotels in her constituency advertising self-isolation holidays.
Rutland and Melton MP, Alicia Kearns, said:
“It’s not acceptable for people to be travelling to our area when they are meant to be self-isolating or social distancing.
“We are the most beautiful county in the country, but people flooding our area is frankly dangerous as it could bring the virus to our area even quicker and our large number of elderly residents deserve our protection. This is a pandemic, not an early holiday opportunity. The government guidance is clear - stay in your homes.”
As of this Monday, the Government is asking the UK’s most vulnerable 1.5 million people who face the highest risk of being hospitalised to not leave their house for the next 12 week, otherwise known as self-shielding. According to the Government, the people who need to self-shield are:
- Solid organ transplant recipients
- People with specific cancers
- People with cancer who are undergoing active chemotherapy or radical radiotherapy for lung cancer
- People with cancers of the blood or bone marrow such as leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma who are at any stage of treatment
- People having immunotherapy or other continuing antibody treatments for cancer
- People having other targeted cancer treatments which can affect the immune system, such as protein kinase inhibitors or PARP inhibitors.
- People who have had bone marrow or stem cell transplants in the last 6 months, or who are still taking immunosuppression drugs.
- People with severe respiratory conditions including all cystic fibrosis, severe asthma and severe COPD
- People with rare diseases and inborn errors of metabolism that significantly increase the risk of infections (such as SCID, homozygous sickle cell disease)
- People on immunosuppression therapies sufficient to significantly increase risk of infection
- Women who are pregnant and who also have significant heart disease, congenital or acquired.
Alicia Kearns continues to advocate for Rutland and Melton to get the support it deserves and information it needs in light of coronavirus.
