Stay at home, if you can
Hello and welcome to episode 28 of Cranleigh Community Radio. It’s Friday the 8th of January 2021, Happy New Year!
We’re starting this New Year in slightly challenging circumstances, with news earlier this week of a third national lockdown in England. Yes, once again, we’re being told to stay at home.
Straight from the gov.uk website: You must stay at home. The single most important action we can all take is to stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives. You should follow this guidance immediately. This is the law.
You must not leave, or be outside of your home except where necessary. You may leave the home to:
shop for basic necessities, for you or a vulnerable person
go to work, or provide voluntary or charitable services, if you cannot reasonably do so from home
exercise with your household (or support bubble) or one other person, this should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area.
meet your support bubble or childcare bubble where necessary, but only if you are legally permitted to form one
seek medical assistance or avoid injury, illness or risk of harm (including domestic abuse)
attend education or childcare – for those eligible
If you do leave home for a permitted reason, you should always stay local – unless it is necessary to go further, for example to go to work. Stay local means stay in the village, town, or part of the city where you live.
From me and everyone here at Cranleigh Community Radio, please do follow this government guidance, and stick to the law. Please stay at home.
I’ve had several conversations this week with people in different parts of the NHS and the situation is absolutely dire. It’s predicted to get a lot, lot worse in hospitals over the next few weeks. By staying at home, we can all help to reduce the pressure on the NHS, not just by slowing the spread of coronavirus, but by keeping off the roads, reducing the risk of traffic accidents, for example.
Cranleigh Village Hall is due to open as a vaccination centre next week on Tuesday, and the NHS needs volunteer vaccination marshals to help them out. They will be open 8am to 8pm seven days a week and need volunteers to act as marshals.
There will be a lot of people arriving for appointments at 5 minute intervals throughout the day so the marshals are needed to make everything run smoothly. There are 168 volunteer shifts a week so that’s a lot of people needed.
Useful links: