I’ve been taking part in a research project since the outbreak of Covid19 using a symptom tracking app that is using techniques that I used to track the SARS virus nearly 20 years ago when I was in the virus “industry”.

It runs on your smartphone and it takes 1 minute of your time a day to anonymously report how you feel and what new symptoms you have. It has successfully been responsible for identifying a change of taste and smell as a symptom of Covid19.

With the government moving ( at last ) to “track and trace” this app will give independent data to check the progress of the disease. It is being used by the Welsh Government, NHS Wales, the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland – but not Health England who are using their own system. It is also being used in other countries by a total of over 3 million people.

You can download the app at https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/covid-symptom-tracker/id1503529611 for Apple devices and https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joinzoe.covid_zoe for Android phones.

It is run by Professor Tim Spector 😦 https://covid.joinzoe.com/about ) of King’s College London. He says

Logging your health daily is more important than ever and due to the conflicting and unverifiable data from the government system this app might be of interest to others. With lockdown measures easing, there are plenty of new opportunities for ‘R’ to increase. As the weather improves and children and teachers head back to school, more people will come into contact with one another.

The risk of new COVID hotspots emerging is also likely to increase without adequate monitoring. Our app is a crucial early detection tool to understand if there is a risk of a second wave of the virus. It’s is more important than ever that you keep logging daily using our app to help us to detect new COVID hotspots earlier.

Protect your community as lockdown lifts by reporting for yourself and behalf of your children to stop the spread of new infections quicker. We would also like to encourage you to share the app with schools, parent’s associations, and other organisations within your community. The more of us there are using the app daily, the more accurately and quickly we will be able to identify potential hotspots.

How might I keep my kids safe as they return to school?

As children return to school, we know that parents may be wondering how they can protect their children from COVID. We’ve made sure to cover this topic in one of our latest blog posts. Read our six tips for keeping your children safe as they go back to school.

We encourage all parents to take just 1 minute each day to keep using our app to log on behalf of their children. This data will help us better understand how the virus might affect kids and identify potential COVID hotspots as schools reopen.

New incidence data: are the numbers falling?

Last week we published insights into the number of daily new COVID cases are occurring in England. We have now added daily case estimates for Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, which you can find on our website.

Stay well, Professor Tim Spector

We have now had two people who have been directed to “xx
Morcott Road” with the correct postcode to collect their French Bulldog puppy on which they have already paid a deposit.

The supposed owner is somebody who calls herself Donna Rose – who does not then answer her mobile and clearly has no puppies.

It is clearly a scam! This is being reported to the Pets4Home website
and we have contacted the police. We are waiting to see how many more visitors we get!

As many of you know Wing has, as many villages have, a 100 Club. People can buy shares in this club and once a month there are 3 members who are “picked out of a hat” to win prizes. This is normally done at the Thursday morning coffee morning but in view of Corvid-19 the village hall is closed until further notice. But the draw has been taking place! The winners have been notified but here are the results for the rest of us.

April	Crissie Roberts	46
	Lynn Kitson	36
	Jane Gilmore	04
May	Jeffy Wood	147
	Anna Tyler	27
	Jesse Heyden	29

Due to the current Covid-19 restrictions, we are now offering some virtual sessions as trial. Via telephone or online with Zoom or Skype (using a suitable mobile phone, tablet, laptop or computer), each lasting up to 40 minutes

Please let us know if you would like to take part, so far, we are offering: –

• Virtual Coffee morning via phone or Zoom

• Virtual Afternoon tea via phone or Zoom

• Virtual Group meeting via phone or Zoom

• IT support via phone or Skype

• Cooking groups online only

• Seated Exercise online only

• Music and coffee online only

• Quiz or Bingo Via phone or Zoom

If you would like to try any of the above or have another suggestion for us to try, please telephone

Yvonne 01572 770324

Penny 01572 822171

If you need help getting Zoom installed on your mobile phone, tablet, laptop or computer we have Digital Champions who can help you over the phone or via Skype

Just a reminder that the next RAS talk is tomorrow evening (Monday 18^th May) at 7pm

“Growing your 5 a day”! UK vegetable production – current successes and challenges. An illustrated talk.

You can join the talk from 6:45pm using the following link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87550083814?pwd=dUZlYlg0d3Eyd29JS2JLNGFlTXlGZz09

Feel free to distribute this link to any family/friends who may be interested in attending the talk.

We have the capacity for 100 people to attend this session so entry is on a first come, first served basis.

Robert Miles will be our host and will be joined by Robin Buck, a Rutland resident who has an extensive vegetable farm and pack house operation just East of Spalding. Robert will be in conversation with Robin on the farm scale production of a wide variety of crops from the conventional, including peas and potatoes to the more exotic, such as artichoke, chicory, mooli and celeriac.

If you have missed any of the previous RAS Zoom talks, you can access them via the following Society webpage:

https://www.rutlandshowground.com/courses-and-education/

From David Wood:

 Very many thanks to the many people who have given so generously to
the Food Bank boxes in the Church Porch.

There is great demand on the Rutland Food Bank, so please keep on giving.

Very many thanks.

From Paul Brewer:

Today, to celebrate the 75 year anniversary of the end of the War in Europe, Wing Village had intended to celebrate in style with street parties etc. Unfortunately, we are all “Locked Down”.
Instead, we are going to ring these home made bells on a Cue from the Church clock at 15:00, or whenever it feels like it’s 15:00.  Followed by a toast and eating of celebration cake.

Aujourd’hui, pour célébrer le 75e anniversaire de la fin de la guerre en Europe, Wing Village avait l’intention de célébrer avec style avec des fêtes de rue, etc. Malheureusement, nous sommes tous “enfermés”.
Au lieu de cela, nous allons faire sonner ces cloches faites maison sur un signal de l’horloge de l’église à 15h00, ou chaque fois qu’il aura l’impression qu’il est 15h00. Suivi d’un toast et d’un gâteau de fête.

Heute, um das 75-jährige Jubiläum des Kriegsendes in Europa zu feiern, hatte Wing Village vorgehabt, mit Straßenfesten usw. stilvoll zu feiern. Leider sind wir alle “gesperrt”.
Stattdessen läuten wir diese hausgemachten Glocken auf einem Stichwort von der Kirchenuhr um 15:00 Uhr oder wann immer es sich anfühlt, als wäre es 15:00 Uhr. Gefolgt von einem Toast und Essen von Festkuchen.

And here are “The Bells” Finished just on time last night.

Et voici “The Bells” Terminé juste à temps hier soir.

Und hier sind “The Bells”, die letzte Nacht pünktlich fertiggestellt wurden.

Paul.

We are to celebrate the anniversary of V.E.Day this coming Friday. I will certainly do that, though in 1945 my day was not one of celebration. I was at that time doing my R.A.F. initial training at Torquay, following on from a University Air Squadron 6 months course and prior to going on to pilot training at Brough in Yorkshire. We were stationed at the converted Grand Hotel, which I believe had 7 floors. Following pre breakfast P.E. on the lawns of the nearby Belgrade Hotel and then breakfast we lined up for our quota of inoculations from the medics. Then the “fun” started. Our instructor, F/Sgt Brown, told us to get into full kit including gas masks and to assemble by the bottom of the lift shaft.

Obeying orders we did just that and he told us we needed exercise to get the inoculations firmly into our systems. “I am going to the top of the lift” he said “and when I get there I will blow this ere whistle and you will double up the stairs to me. Then I will go down again and blow it from the bottom and you will double down. We’ll repeat this until I think you’ve had enough. The day is then yours to celebrate.” Enough was a good hour later and most of us lay down on our bunks to recover. I awoke some time later and went down to Torquay centre just in time to get the last celebratory sandwiches and buns from the Salvation Army canteen.

It was certainly a day to remember.