Just to let you know we have now vaccinated 89.6% of the 2753 patients aged over 80. We have finished vaccinating residents of all 11 care homes.

An attempt to contact all the patients over 80 has been made, and there will be more calls made tomorrow. Where we cannot contact patients, we will try their next of kin if recorded in their records. We have not yet started vaccinating housebound patients but hope to do so after this week if we get a vaccine delivery. Any housebound patients who can be brought to the centre will be vaccinated this week (we can vaccinate 600 per day at eth vaccination centre, but only 20/day at home and the vaccine centre is better supported for potential reactions)

We have a larger delivery this week, and we are now able to start offering vaccine to the next cohort, 75-79 year olds. Again there are over 2000 people in this cohort, so they will not all be invited this week. Some patients who are aged 77-79 will receive an invitation to book. We have sufficient vaccine to start this process using the automated booking whilst we are also finishing the over 80 invitations by phone, and we are also offering vaccination to local frontline health and care staff who have contact with multiple older adults. I hope that the  simultaneous booking of 77-79 year old using a rapid process, whilst we also use a slower process to invite the remaining over 80s does not cause confusion, and any help you can give in allaying any concerns is much appreciated. We are making the best use of the vaccine that we receive – most is administered to patients within 48 hours of our receiving it, and we are using the extra doses in the vials whenever possible( all but one vial on Friday!)

Dr Hilary Fox

Clinical Director Rutland Health Primary Care Network

Rutland Covid Vaccination Programme

If you are registered with a surgery in Rutland, they will be sending booking details for the Covid Vaccination Programme to your mobile phone, if you have one, over the next few weeks and month. If you are aged over 70 and have not yet received an SMS message (text message) about the Covid Vaccination Programme then they may not have your mobile phone number. 

If you have a mobile phone please let your practice know the number by writing to your practice or emailing rutlandhealth.cvp@nhs.net. Please do not phone your practice. If you do not have a mobile phone then they will contact you by other means.

Message sent on behalf of Rutland Health Primary Care Network (rutlandhealth.co.uk)

Seeing some Christmas themed jigsaws in the phone box now 🙂

Does anyone have a picture of a completed jigsaw from the phone box?

As “Lockdown 2” progresses, and the nights get ever longer, there has been a suggestion for a Jigsaw swap in the village.

If you have a jigsaw that you have completed, or do not need any more, and you want to pass it on to other people in the village, please leave it in the old telephone box on Church Street. It can then be recycled around the other jigsaw fans in North Luffenham

Lest we forget.

Thinking of the men who died for our way of life from RAF North Luffenham and RAF Woolfox Lodge, local resident Gareth Jones is looking at how the heritage of these battlefields can be recognised.

Gareth has researched the background of the airmen buried in North Luffenham churchyard, and has recorded them on his website

You may be interested in his blog and some amazing stories documented there.

https://lnkd.in/dwvUDXX

The WW2 men resting in the North Luffenham churchyard are a minor sample from Bomber Command war, where 55,500 aircrew died and 8403 were wounded. Not known is how many RAF and WRAF lost their lives on the ground. There are also 11 war graves at North Luffenham from the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1952, 53 and 54 in the Cold War.

We will remember them. Please contact me if you are interested or have any stories to add. http://www.rafnorthluffenhamheritage.me.uk/?p

You may also recall the previous posts on the website recording the men from North Luffenham who died during World War 1

Adult Social Care winter plan
The Adult Social Care winter plan that was recently published by government had two
additional requirements attached to it regarding care homes. Firstly, a self-assessment
questionnaire to provide assurance with care market sustainability, which we are currently working on. The second relates to Care Quality Commission (CQC) designated COVID Care Homes.
The latter requirement is for each authority to have an identified care home that will care for COVID-positive patients in a secluded area within its establishment, with its own care and support staff who only working with COVID patients. This commissioning request has come to Adult Social Care (ASC) to facilitate and inform CQC of the identified home.
We have a very good relationship with all of our care homes and all have indicated
previously they would not take COVID-positive patients. ASC is therefore working closely
with County and City colleagues to identify homes where we may all be able to facilitate
COVID-positive hospital discharges.

Local Area Coordinators Scheme
Rutland County Council is required to have a Local Area Coordinators Scheme for Test,
Track and Trace. These are people who will knock on doors if people in Rutland have
received a positive COVID test but failed to respond to phone calls informing them they
are positive. All coordinators will be wearing the necessary PPE.
COVID Marshalls
The question of COVID Marshalls has been discussed in detail at RTCG. There is
agreement that COVID Marshals would be beneficial in our towns to remind people about the need to follow social distancing, wear masks and wash their hands regularly. This is in order to be as proactive and preventative as possible.
Contingency planning
RTCG is looking at ways to fund extra resources to enable contingencies, should we are
to enter the second tier in the new government tier system or even the highest third tier.
RTCG has also discussed the possible need to close less business critical areas of the
council if needed, to support business critical services if the second wave continues and
escalates further. Plans are being put in place so we can act quickly if required.
Self-isolation payments
People are now required by law to self-isolate, supported by payment of £500 for those on lower incomes who cannot work from home and have lost income as a result.
We have now set up a scheme which went live from 12th October to administer self-
isolation payments. We have had six claims to date.
Further details can be found on our website: www.rutland.gov.uk/testandtracepayments.

Finance updates
There have been various announcements this week including the suggestion that we will receive another non-ring fenced COVID-19 grant to support all aspects of work from a further £1bn fund. We await the details on this. A full round up of the COVID-19 funding position will be presented in the November Finance report to Cabinet.
Local lockdown grants
The Council previously received guidance in respect of a Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG). This would involve making payments of up to £3,000 (revised from £1,500) to businesses (not only those who pay rates) which have closed or have been impacted by a local lockdown.
Some initial work has been undertaken and the Council will be stepping up plans to put
arrangements in place so we can respond if the need arise.

1. COVID-19
   a. Latest situation
   As of 4.00pm on Thursday 15 October, 673,622 people have tested positive for
   coronavirus in the UK.
   As of 4.00pm on Thursday 15 October, of those tested positive for coronavirus in the UK, 43,293 people have died across all settings within 28 days of a positive test.
   These figures will also be published on the daily dashboard: coronavirus.data.gov.uk.
   Rutland recorded 44 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the latest week (7-13 October). This equates to 110 cases per 100,000 people. The average area in England had 95.
   A total of 24 coronavirus-related deaths have been registered in Rutland as of 2 October.
   b. New COVID alert system
   The government has implemented a new three-tier ranking system for local authority areas across England, indicating the COVID threat level for each area. The three Local COVID Alert Levels are Medium, High and Very High.
   Rutland is currently ranked as Medium-risk, meaning:
    People must not socialise in groups larger than 6, indoors or outdoors (other than
   where a legal exemption applies)
    Businesses and venues can continue to operate, in a COVID-secure manner, other
   than those that remain closed in law
    Certain businesses are required to ensure customers only consume food and drink while seated, and must close between 10pm and 5am
    Businesses and venues selling food for consumption off the premises can continue to do so after 10pm as long as this is through delivery service, click-and-collect or drive-through
    Schools remain open
    Places of worship remain open, subject to the rule of 6
    Weddings and funerals can go ahead with restrictions on numbers of attendees
    Exercise classes and organised sport can continue to take place outdoors, or
   indoors if the rule of 6 is followed
   This is all in addition to following public health guidance about hand washing, face
   coverings and social distancing.
   People living in England can find the Local COVID Alert Level for their area by using a
   postcode checker on the government’s website.

Tabletop Sale
Have you had a good clear out whilst in lockdown? Have items that are too good for the tip? Would like to help raise money for Macmillan Cancer research?
On Saturday July 25th in the South Luffenham Village Hall there will be a tabletop sale from 10am-4pm to raise donations for Macmillan Cancer research as we will not be able to hold the usual coffee morning to support them in September. It will be carried out within the recently published Covid19 guidelines for Village Halls with numbers in the hall at any one time being monitored, gloves available and facilities for hand sanitiser and hand washing in place.
If you would like to donate items, please contact Tracy Steward and arrangements will be made to bring your items to the hall at least 3 days before the event. Tracy 01780 729006 tracy.steward@outlook.com

Local company PennyGuides Ltd have VE Day party packs available to dress up your houses and family for social distancing parties at your home, garden or street.

They have also produced a free “D-Day to VE-day” app at http://gogo2.uk/ve telling the whole story for the 75th anniversary.

Please have a look, everything is in a pack for you to celebrate on one day what our previous generation did for us…follow the app; the surrender document in May is something else.

Order your pack online at www.pennyguides.co.uk and follow PennyGuides on Instagram, Facebook and their YouTube Channel. All at #pennyguides.

Please remember our war winning heroes as well as the NHS.

Have fun…as far as safely possible