On 4 January 2021 the government announced a national lockdown for England with instructions to stay home, protect the NHS and save lives. Which means that you must stay at home, apart from limited exceptions where necessary. You may leave home to:
To find out more about what you can and cannot do see the Goverment Guidance National Lockdown: Stay at Home, with easy read, large print and translated versions also available.
For further information and the latest updates from the Government go to www.gov.uk/coronavirus.
We are reviewing updates from government as they are published and working out what they mean for council services. Our top priority is the health and wellbeing of our residents, people who work in the Borough, and our staff. We're working hard to continue to provide our services while ensuring the safety of residents and our staff.
To help protect our residents, customers and staff and to reduce day to day contact, the Town Hall will remain closed until further notice. However, Council staff are continuing to work from home and the Town Hall (where necessary), to deliver our services to the community.
For more details please see: Accessing Council services, information and general advice.
NHS Test and Trace was introduced to enable the Government to trace the spread of the virus, isolate new infections and play a vital role in giving early warning if the virus is increasing, locally or nationally.
For residents
The NHS COVID-19 app is a vital part of the NHS Test and Trace service and is available to download for free. For more information about the app, including help on how to use it and finding out what different things it can do, and to download it please see the NHS website.
If you are contacted by NHS Test and Trace, contact tracers will:
For more information on this service please read the Government Guidance NHS Test and Trace: how it works.
For businesses
To support the NHS COVID-19 app there is a legal requirement for certain businesses and venues to display official NHS QR code posters in addition to providing a customer log at their premises. For more information on this please see the related content on our Advice for Gosport Businesses webpage.
A new COVID-19 Rapid Community Testing Centre is now open at the Gosport Community Association (Thorngate Halls), Bury Road, but still needs volunteers to help run it.
This site offers frontline workers who support the most vulnerable in our community additional opportunities to get tested regularly. This is essential to bring the infection rate down.
Volunteers are needed to offer reassurance and guidance to people coming for the lateral flow test for Covid 19 at every step of the process. The centre, operating on an appointment basis only, aims to test 480 people each day or 2,400 people each week.
The testing site is expected to operate for six weeks on weekdays only from 9 am to 5pm, but its operation could extend beyond this if required. Volunteers are needed to assist staff in a variety of straightforward roles during morning or afternoon shifts of approximately 4.5 hours.
Volunteers will receive a COVID-19 test before the start of each shift. Full training consisting of a short online course and site briefings are provided along with onsite supervision, full PPE with instructions, insurance cover and reimbursement of direct travel expenses.
For safety reasons and in line with government guidelines, volunteers must be between 18 and 70 years old, not on the Shielded Patient List, and have no underlying health conditions.
Volunteers are asked to commit to completing at least one full morning or afternoon shift. A regular commitment of shifts during operation of the site is especially appreciated to maximise operational capacity.
For residents
Anyone with coronavirus symptoms, however mild, can get a free swab test that takes less than a minute. Tests should be booked or ordered as soon as symptoms begin at www.nhs.uk/coronavirus or by calling 119 and you can expect your result within 48 hours.
Gosport has a walk through local testing site operating on an appointment-only basis at Walpole Park South Car Park. For more details please see COVID-19 local testing site in Gosport.
Anyone without symptoms who is also a critical worker, or cannot work from home, and not covered by a workplace scheme i.e. works for a business/organisation with less than 50 employees, can be regularly tested for free at Gosport's COVID-19 Rapid Community Testing Site. It is operated on an appointment only basis from Gosport Community Association's premises at Thorngate Halls on Bury Road. You will also need to bring a work ID badge, critical worker letter or a letter from your workplace to confirm your eligibility. For more details please see COVID-19 Rapid Community Testing site in Gosport.
If you are a critical worker, or cannot work form home but work for a business/organisation with more than 50 employees then your employer should be operating a workplace based scheme for regular free testing.
For businesses
Businesses with 50+ employees can join a Government scheme to test workers without symptoms who cannot work from home. Eligible businesses need to register online to get the forms needed to order coronavirus (COVID-19) rapid lateral flow tests for their employees. However this service is only for people without symptoms. Anyone with symptoms should order an individual test and stay at home.
Businesses with less than 50 employees that are critical workers and or cannot work from home can get their Gosport resident employees regularly tested for free via Gosport's COVID-19 Rapid Community Testing site. It is open weekdays from 9am to 5pm on an appointment basis only so businesses are encouraged to be flexible to allow employees to take tests during these hours.
For information about the other facilities elsewhere in Hampshire please see the Hampshire County Council website.
For more information about these rapid lateral flow tests please see the Government Guidance: Understanding lateral flow antigen testing for people without symptoms.
Gosport Borough Council and Gosport Voluntary Action are still working together to support local people in need during the pandemic. For more information about the support provided e.g. shopping, delivering prescriptions, telephone befriending, or help from the Gosport Food Partnership with essential supplies please see COVID-19 support for Gosport residents.
Updates:
The Council continues to administer the goverment funded Coronavirus related business support grants that are available during national lockdowns and periods of local restrictions.
We appreciate the difficult situation that many Gosport businesses face as a result of the pandemic and are working hard implementing the various schemes and making payments as quickly as we can. Please be patient, as we are processing a large number of applications and responding to a high volume of related enquiries.
For further information on those grants that are currently available in Gosport and the online claim/application forms please see our Business Rates webpage.
For wider information about other COVID-19 related grants available, plus links to government provided advice and guidance for businesses and the self-employed please see our Business Grants and Support webpage.
Gosport Borough Council has been made aware of a survey scam being used and promoted on social media.
The survey asks residents how they have coped with the COVID-19 pandemic and offered £25 for taking part. Participants are requested to provide their personal details. It was alleged the survey was sanctioned by a local authority but the council concerned had no knowledge of the survey.
Any online surveys by Local Authorities will never ask for your personal details, and definitely not your date of birth, national insurance number or bank details. Gosport Borough Council would like to remind all of our residents to take great care if asked to provide personal details to any third party.
