Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Friday morning.
Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Friday morning. We’ll have another update for you this evening.
Personal accounts of the pressure on the social care system are emerging as a report from England’s watchdog – the Care Quality Commission – says the sector faces “a tsunami of unmet need”, with the workforce “exhausted and depleted” by the pandemic. The director of one care home group tells us staff are leaving to get better pay in supermarkets. Meanwhile, Dorothy Cook says the care package to support her husband, Melvin, was ended after five weeks, as his condition was too complex for hard-pressed care providers to manage.
The number of rape and sexual assault victims waiting more than a year for their trial to go through courts has soared during the pandemic, from 246 to 1,316 between March 2020 and June this year. The National Audit Office says the Ministry of Justice and its courts agency have not been working together properly to solve the problems, which had their roots in pre-pandemic cuts. The government says the backlog in England and Wales is stabilising.
Image source, PA Media
The prices of second-hand cars are soaring, thanks to a combination of pent up demand being “unleashed” after the first lockdown and a dearth of new cars caused by the global computer-chip shortage. Motoring group the AA suggests the prices of the UK’s most popular “nearly new” cars have risen by up to 57% since 2019, with three to five-year-old Ford Fiestas – the most popular models on its AA Cars website – valued at £9,770, up from £7,448.
The number of people being home-schooled has shot up in the last two years, with some parents saying the pandemic made their decision easier. On the back of a 60% rise in the number of home-educated children to 4,002, BBC Wales hears how parents manage things.
Loneliness, loss, anxiety, broken sleep… most of us have suffered some side-effect of the pandemic. And author William Sieghart has found a novel way of prescribing something to ease people’s troubles – in the form of a “poetry pharmacy”.
You can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.
With cases rising the UK government has faced some criticism for not reintroducing rules requiring face coverings in certain places in England. We look at whether people are donning masks less often.
Image source, BBC
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