Coronavirus COVID-19

Coronavirus and our monthly meetings
As your committee we have a duty of care towards you all - our Edenbridge U3A members. Our membership is made up of people ranging from 60 plus up to 90 and this puts us all in the higher risk group. Underlying health issues add to the risk. Our committee had a special meeting on Friday (13th) and we have made the decision that we will suspend our monthly meetings until further notice. In the light of the government and health department advice it is unlikely that these meetings will reconvene before the summer. Many of you may be anxious about the spread of the coronavirus and we feel that, with our duty of care to you all, we had to make this decision to cancel our monthly meetings and review group activities.
I would like to assure you that we will continue to meet as a committee each month to review the ongoing situation and return our events back to normal as soon as the situation allows.

What about our interest groups? Brian, our groups organiser on the committee, is writing to all group leaders with some recommendations. If you are a member of a group your leader will be in touch with you soon. There is a balance to be struck between you, the members, taking some responsibility for deciding whether you should attend a meeting while at the same time us recognising our duty of care to our membership.
So, look after yourself. Remember to wash your hands many times each day and follow the guidelines released about social distancing.

 

Advice received from U3A Central Office on 3 March

•  If a member has returned from one of the areas identified by the government and has any of the symptoms identified on the government website they should not hold interest groups in their own homes, or attend interest groups or attend monthly meetings until they have followed the NHS advice provided after calling 111.
• If a U3A finds that a member has contacted coronavirus, please let the Trust know immediately.
• The members of interest groups that any member with coronavirus has attended should all call 111 to ask for advice.
• The monthly meeting (of the affected group) should be cancelled for that month (and possibly longer) until the spread of the virus has been assessed.

In general, a U3A may consider other precautions such as using hand sanitiser gel in interest groups and monthly meetings and reducing physical contact, such as shaking hands, until further information becomes available.

Additional advice from the Edenbridge U3A Committee

• If you or any member of your household shows any sign of a cold, you should not attend any Edenbridge U3A event until the symptoms have passed.
• If you or anyone you have been in contact with is diagnosed with the virus you should immediately advise the Committee.
• We have decided to adopt the recommendation that handshakes and kissing should be avoided at all meetings.
• As you are aware ‘panic buying’ has made obtaining hand gel very difficult. However, members are advised that, whenever possible, they should apply hand gel before attending any meeting.

At this stage, and subject to the statements set out above, all meetings are continuing as normal. However, this is a developing situation and we will try and keep you posted on anything that will affect your membership.