Tag archives for Covid 19
The Positive Test that Nobody Wants
One of our contributors, 27 year old photographer, SAMARA MARTIN, tells us of her plight with Covid-19, despite being double vaccinated, and how she is still suffering a month later. …
Indys Are OPEN!
Food businesses are adapting quickly to drastically different circumstances and needs. Many now sell a wider range of goods and are doing deliveries – for the first time or on…
Invisible Enemies
Not long ago few of us had heard of the coronavirus, and yet this curious entity has rapidly altered life as we know it. The spiky bugs have been around…
Active Travel: The Covid Factor
A number of recent studies – undertaken by government as well as by cycling or pedestrian pressure groups – have shown that cycling and walking are not only good for…
Join Sir Quentin Blake as part of lockdown history
Arts on Prescription aims to link the appropriate Creative Service with NHS, Health Care and Community Services to provide creative reminiscence and confidence-building activities to enhance wellbeing and reduce social isolation.…
Local Care Homes Keep Residents Safe
We don’t yet know why rates of Covid-19 are so low in Hastings, but it’s interesting enough to be the subject of a study at the University of Sussex. The…
My Testing Experience
By Stephanie Gaunt Along with millions of others I subscribe to a Kings College Covid App which invites you to log your health status on a daily basis – they…
Southern Business Region Essential to Post-Covid Recovery
Businesses across the South of England have called on the government to support their growth economies as part of the UK’s drive to recover from Covid-19. Six of the country’s…
Class Divide
The majority of schools in East Sussex have stayed open throughout the coronavirus pandemic for the benefit of some vulnerable children and the families of key workers. Over 2,000 have…
COMMENT: Covid-19 and Me
By Oliver Speer As I write this, I am in lockdown in a shed at my sister’s garden in the countryside just outside Hastings. Two days ago, our Prime Minister…
Life’s A Beach!
But Hastings Councillors Are Not Amused Lockdown regulations were further relaxed from yesterday (Monday 1st June) throughout England, with up to six people from different households permitted to meet together…
Updates on the Job Retention and Self-Employed Scheme
Whilst some lockdown restrictions are now being lifted, the government business support schemes are still continuing. Two of these schemes have seen some major changes in recent government announcements. The…
Arts On Prescription Continues To Grow
Arts on Prescription (AoP) links up artists in the local community with GPs and Health and Social Services to promote the benefits that participation in the arts has on mental…
Covid Conundrum
Why hasn’t Hastings gone viral? As of last Wednesday 13th May, according to Public Health England (PHE), 45 people resident in the borough of Hastings had tested positive for coronavirus…
Find Your Fabulous Farm Shops
If you’re having trouble getting groceries, finding fresh produce or just want to avoid crowds and long queues, Fabulous Farm Shops online directory of farm shops could be just what…
We Need To Talk
The message of Dying Matters Week To mark last week’s Dying Matters Awareness Week, Hospice UK has released new research findings which may surprise you. Apparently 72% of bereaved adults…
COMMENT: Banging The Drum…
In common with most people I applaud the bravery and professionalism of all our NHS workers, and not just during the current crisis. As a child of the early 1950s…
Medical Distancing
Media reports have been concentrating, as they will, on the sharp end of the coronavirus pandemic: on hospitalisations, on death counts, on frontline staff supporting positive-test patients, on individual deaths.…
Escape from Goa
Bob and Linda Skinner live in Sedlescombe but spend the winter months regularly in Goa. Linda returned at the end of February as scheduled. Bob was due to fly back…
COMMENT: Lockdown Liberation
A chance to change the way we live and work? Lockdown, with its sudden imposition of more free time for many of us, has spawned much frenzied advice on how…
Autism: Exercise Rules Relaxed
People with autism and learning disabilities may now go out for exercise up to three times a day. The government has changed the outdoor exercise rules after being threatened with…
Covid Elopement
By Nadine Hayward We took off from Heathrow on 7th March, more relieved than concerned that we’d been allowed to fly to Los Angeles. There were mild concerns about Covid-19,…
Cupboard Creations
Cooking Online in the time of Corona By Pasha Milburn During the Covid-19 crisis, many of us have had to alter our shopping and eating habits, making use of cans…
Seeing Through The Fog
A passionate local GP talks about the impact of the Coronavirus on her and her surgery. I was asked to say a little bit about what it’s been like in…
Climate Emergency: Ambitious Target, ‘Paused’ Programme
The last cabinet meeting of Hastings Borough Council (HBC) took place just a few hours before PM Boris Johnson pronounced the full lockdown on 23rd March. No precise explanation of…
How Not To Lose It In Lockdown
By Terryalice Lewis, Tots Play These truly are strange times but they don’t have to drive you crazy. Here are a few ways to help from a parent or carer’s…
Hastings Museum Seeks Volunteers To Keep A Coronavirus Journal
The COVID-19 crisis has affected, and continues to affect, the lives of all of us. Many of the resultant changes to our lifestyles will hopefully only be temporary but others…
Bus Funds On Diversion
New subsidies, reduced timetables: are key workers being served? In February Boris Johnson announced in Parliament that his government was launching a new package of actions for public transport including…
Rough Sleeping In Rough Times
On Thursday 26th March, every council leader in England received a letter from Luke Hall MP, the Under Secretary of State for Local Government and ;It asked their councils to house all…
A Moving Meditation In A Messed-up World
As we all start to realise the coronavirus crisis is not going to be over any time soon, we are all looking for ways to maintain physical fitness but also,…
Arts Diary In The Time Of COVID-19
BFI Player and funding for the Screen Sector On 24th March BFI announced a new partnership with The Film and TV Charity to create a new COVID-19 Film and TV…
Covid-19 – The Known Unknowns
Kent Barker asks if UK’s East Sussex ‘patient-zero’ shifts the expected Coronavirus epidemic peak. And considers other confusing ; When should we expect the epidemic to peak? The government suggests…
COMMENT: Why Vaccination Matters
Former Hastings Councillor Paul Barlow explores the importance of vaccination. After the novelty of COVID-19 self-isolation wore off (about four days!) I started thinking about how we dealt with infections…
Hastings Literary Festival –2020 Statement
By Alison Steel Hastings Literary Festival 2020, due to take place at the end of August, has been cancelled following suspension of the Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants…
Coronavirus: The Lessons For Climate Change Policy
By Maya Evans In a week when the Coronavirus crisis sent millions into isolation in their homes, and the NHS was braced for an influx of patients, Planet Earth sent…
Sweden In The Time of Corona
Sweden has so far declined to impose a social lockdown. Schools, bars, cafes and shops remain open. Social distancing is recommended, but not enforced. Alex Peck, a Brit living in Sweden,…
Is This The World’s Dullest Dystopia?
By Safiya Young Never before have I had a stronger desire to take up outdoor sports. Even two weeks ago, I would have thought nothing of spending the afternoon, indeed…
Nextdoor – Help in Hastings and St Leonards
Among the online apps that have become important during the pandemic, Nexdoor is at the forefront. Unofficial spokesperson for the Nextdoor in Hastings and St Leonards is Dave Smith, who…
Work Dries Up
Three Hastings people talk about what lockdown means to their income. Small Business: wedding celebrant I’m currently applying for supermarket jobs as my work has disappeared completely (no gatherings of…
Thoughts From The Inside
Julia Van Coevorden writes from inside her house in St Leonards where she is in lockdown with her husband Cliff. There are so many words that really matter. All around…