The MVS and the coronavirus

All

Well we have now had a very clear instruction from the government: “Stay at home!”. There are of course necessary exceptions.
The most recently announced of these will no doubt be of interest to quite a few MVS members.

I am sure that many of our younger members will have already volunteered to be NHS Volunteer Responders.
This scheme supports those up to 1.5 million people who have been asked to shield themselves from coronavirus because of underlying health conditions.
Call centres run by the Royal Voluntary Service (RVS) will match people who need help with volunteers who live near to them.

I know many of you have been very keen to play an active role during this crisis and this is one way of doing so.
Of course, it is entirely up everybody individually to decide whether to volunteer for this scheme or not.

Do bear in mind, as the official announcement states: “NHS Volunteer Responders is not intended to replace local groups helping their vulnerable neighbours but is an additional service provided by the NHS.”
So please do carry on with arrangements Units are putting in place to support our own members and any other people we know who need help, such as with shopping.
For information, of our current 324 A and B List members, 78 are over 70 years old.
A further 46 are over 65.
Thanks go to our office manager Chris Todd for crunching the numbers.

Please do remember that just by staying at home and slowing the spread of the virus we are ‘doing our bit’.

In the next few days there will be more information about how we will carry on during this emergency, including about subscriptions and also insurance.

David Hughes
Chair of Council