Hardly anyone in the UK had heard of Covid 19 when a new year dawned on January 1, 2020. But just the day before, on December 31, 2019, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission in Wuhan City, Hubei province, China, reported a cluster of pneumonia cases with a common reported link to Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, a wholesale fish and live animal market. By January 20, there were reports of confirmed cases from three countries outside China: Thailand, Japan and South Korea. These cases had all been exported from China. On January 23, Wuhan City was locked down – with all travel in and out of Wuhan prohibited – and movement inside the city was restricted.
SHOPPERS were urged to stop panic buying as supermarkets, including in the Falmouth and Helston area, are being left with empty shelves.The warning came, from among others, Andrew Wallis, who is a Cornwall councillor for Helston and Porthleven. He went to Helston Tesco to pick up some essentials, only to discover aisle upon aisle of empty shelves. He even met one couple who had travelled all the way from Truro to Helston in the search of toilet roll, as their local shops had run out.
FALMOUTH Spring Flower Show is cancelled due to Coronavirus, as is Helston Flora Day and Falmouth’s International Sea Festival. Spring Flower Show organiser Organiser Jean Carr said: “Many of the organising committee are over 70 in what is a truly community event, with ages ranging from four to over 80. “It is a great shame but we’ll now concentrate on making next year’s event bigger and better than ever.”
The latest Covid-19 case information for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly has been published. In the most recent update, as of 7.05pm today (Sunday, December 12), the local authority area is shown to have 48 new cases recorded in the preceding 24 hours. The government website states that the total number of cases in the local authority area now sits at 4,043. The website is currently still showing the same as yesterday s rolling seven-day cases figures of 104 cases. Data from the most recent five days is not shown due to being incomplete. This represents a weekly rate of 18.2 cases per 100,000 people. The UK has had 20,263 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 1,869,666 nationally since the start of the pandemic.
GP practices across England will begin giving out Covid vaccinations from this week as the roll out of the biggest vaccination programme in NHS history gains further momentum. Practices in more than 100 parts of the country are taking delivery of the vaccine today, with some kicking off their clinics this afternoon and the majority starting on Tuesday. The Packet has questioned NHS England over which practices in Cornwall will be receiving the vaccines first. In all situations patients are asked not to telephone their GP practice to find out when, or if, they are going to get a vaccine. Patients will be contacted individually when one is available to them, with the programme of vaccinations expected to last well into 2021.