Buckinghamshire Disability Service supporting locals through coronavirus

The group say the population can be split into low and high risk.

Author: Scarlett Bawden-GaulPublished 28th Sep 2020

Buckinghamshire residents are being urged to act in the interest of the most vulnerable.

Buckinghamshire Disability Service are providing advice and support for locals about how to help the community as coronavirus cases rise.

They say it is helpful to see the population as either high risk or low risk. This means how likely a person is to have serious complications, and even hospitalisation, if they catch the virus and those who are more likely to have minor issues.

BuDS have been posting advice about how people can stop the spread to their site, one post explains the importance of following Covid measures and regulations.

It explains why it is so important lower risk people follow the rules:

"If you are in the lower risk group, you can infect older and clinically susceptible people who can die or be seriously ill. So, your prime duty is to be responsible and help protect others.

"You do this in two ways.

"Firstly, you should try not to catch the virus by wearing a mask or face covering, washing your hands, observing social distancing, and most importantly keeping away from high risk places and people, such as crowded indoor places.

"Secondly, you should take every precaution to not infect older and susceptible people."

They recognise that this will be difficult for all involved as Andew from BuDS told us:

"I have a great deal of sympathy for people who are at lower risk, because life has changed and its not their fault life has changed. They have the restrictions and the change in life we are all experiencing, but it isn't for them it is to protect other people.

"They are restrictions on peoples freedoms and it is asking a lot of people... But if we are to survive of a society we need to pull together.

"We understand it is difficult not to see the people you love but there will be time to do that when there is a vaccine.

"At the moment you need to protect those people from being infected."

Of course, the other side of this is those at higher risk need to restrict visiting people who are more likely to have the virus and places with lots of people.

Their post explains:

"The higher-risk group is people who stand a good chance of being seriously ill, being permanently disabled, or dying, if they catch Covid-19. This group is about a third of the population and includes people with certain health conditions or disabilities, and all healthy adults over the age of 50.

"Remember, if you are over 50, even if you are in good health, you are still more likely to die or be seriously ill if you catch Covid-19 than a younger person with cancer or a severe immune disease."

They are also urging people to keep up to date with the regulations, so they can be sure they are doing their best to prevent the spread of this virus to people who are at high risk.