Tag: essential workers

Action to focus Test and Protect on those at highest risk

Priority given to essential workers and those most at risk

Essential workers, those at highest risk and anyone eligible for new COVID treatments will be prioritised for a PCR test site slot. This measure is being taken to ensure timely access to PCR testing, as rising rates of COVID-19 infections are resulting in increasing demand.

It is vital that essential workers get the test results they need to qualify for a prompt exemption from self-isolation. However testing remains available for anyone who needs it.

Test & Protect will also focus resources on those most at risk of harm. This means most people will be contacted by text message or email – with contact tracers prioritising telephone calls to those linked to higher risk settings such as hospitals and care homes.  

People should respond to the text or email message, and complete the online form provided, so close contacts can receive the advice they need as quickly as possible.

Updating Parliament yesterday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: ““The current surge in cases means testing capacity – sampling and processing – is under pressure. So we are now prioritising some slots for essential workers – such as NHS and transport staff – as well as for those who are clinically vulnerable or eligible for new Covid treatments. This ensures that essential workers will get the test results they need to qualify for an exemption promptly.

“This is a sensible step to take at this stage. However, notwithstanding this priority for essential workers, let me stress that testing remains available for anyone who needs it.

“If you try to book a test, and can’t find a slot in a location you can get to, do try again later. Additional PCR slots are released throughout the day.

“Test & Protect is also, for now, focusing its telephone tracing on high risk settings, such as care homes. The majority of us, if we test positive, will be contacted by text or e-mail, rather than by phone. If you are contacted by Test & Protect – either as a positive case or a close contact – please respond and complete the online form, and make sure you follow all advice given.”

Self-isolation exemption scheme guidance is available for essential workers.

An investment of £33.1 million was announced last month to safeguard the future of Scotland’s contact tracing workforce of more than 500. The change to PCR prioritisation for test site booking slots will not affect booking a PCR home test.

Information about the new COVID-19 treatments and the eligibility criteria is available at nhsinform.scot

People on the highest risk list, and those who are eligible for new COVID treatments should tick that they are an essential worker to ensure prioritised access to booking a PCR test.  

Key workers recognised in new pack

A brand new edition of Top Trumps, honouring Covid 19 key and essential workers, hits shops tomorrow (Monday 4th May).

The game lauds and applauds those key and essential workers who have saved Britain during the Pandemic: from doctors and nurses to less high-profile professions such as pest controllers, midwives and sea merchants.

Politicians, who are depicted on the Top Trumps card by Boris Johnson (controversial! – Ed.)  and journalists are included too.

One of the four scoring sections in the new game is ‘Unsung Heroes’ … and in that category it is the partners of key workers who come out top. They get a maximum 10 out of 10.

Binmen and binwomen scored a point lower at nine out of ten. Less unsung heroes like doctors (8), nurses (8) and police (7) fare lower.

In its card citation Top Trumps point out that being a partner of a key worker is “stressful and worrying”.

Claire Simon, from Top Trumps, says: “Every single front-line key worker is, of course, a heroine and hero and would each score 10 (or even 11) out of 10 by any reckoning if we had devised a Hero category.

“By creating an Unsung Heroes category we have ensured varying marks, in keeping with the game’s core classic and its unique and much-loved branding.

“From our research, which has been intensively conducted over the six weeks, partners of key workers came out top in this section. There are an estimated one and a half million partners of key workers in Britain so that’s a lot of Unsung Heroes and Heroines.

“Many of the public we spoke to pointed out that partners too are putting their lives on the line, albeit less directly. As well as being there physically they are providing emotional support. For that reason we listed partners as key workers.”

Other features of the pack include: 

  • Binmen and binwomen being named as the most stylish of all the key and essential workers.  That’s because of their fluorescent and neon clothing, which is all the fashion rage at the moment. They score 10 /10 on ‘Street Style and as they are also runners-up in the ‘Unsung Heroes’ section then they are very much the card not to bin during the game!  In its card citation Top Trumps point out that refuse collectors first began their profession during the 14th Century Black Death that swept across Europe and add: “In terms of facing a pandemic, refuse collectors can rightly joke that ‘we’ve bin here before’ ”.
  • Stuffy politicians score just 1/10 in the style section – with teachers not doing much better and obviously in need of extra fashion homework. They get just 2/10.  Journalists only manage 5/10.
  • Religious and spiritual workers are listed by Top Trumps as the very oldest profession of all the workers in the pack in an ‘Originated’ section. They are named as first appearing in 50,000 BC, which easily wins this category.
  • Gadgets and gizmos winner is the journalist, which isn’t surprising bearing in mind the lightening media advances with Zoom and the like – since the start of the Pandemic. The profession with the least formal gadgets and gizmos includes mental health workers.
  • One of the very best cards to hold in Top Trumps terms is the courier. That’s because it features very well in the Originated section: at 2400 BC. It also scores very highly in the Unsung Heroes category – notching up a nine out of ten. And in terms of gadgets and gizmos it is only shaded by journalists.

Claire Simon, who is Global Marketing Manager at Top Trumps, added: “We are sure that this new edition of Top Trumps can lift spirits in this very challenging and unprecedented period of time, as well as raising money for the NHS, with all net proceeds going direct to the NHS.”

In this version of the celebrated card game 30 different professions are listed, each marked in typical Top Trumps style across four separate scoring categories:

  1. Unsung Heroes: In the pack Top Trumps explains: “All our key workers are heroes, but some jobs are often less praised. We want to make sure key workers are given the praise they deserve”.
  1. Street Style:  Top Trumps explains: “Neon is in! This section assesses the gear and garb a key and essential worker wears”.
  1. Gadgets & Gizmos:  “What equipment the worker uses and carries to do their job.”
  1. Originated:  “The year in which profession was established (or in the case of religious and spiritual workers the estimated year: 50,000 BC!).

Top Trumps Britain at its Best: Key Workers is available priced £5 from Monday (4th May 2020) exclusively at: winningmoves.co.uk and comes in a twin deck (the other pack being Britain at its Best: Hospitals* see further below for some details on this pack).

And the dual Britain at its Best deck really IS Britain at its very best, literally. The whole product – from concept to completion – is 100% British, with the cards being manufactured by The St Austell Printing Company in St. Austell, Cornwall.

The £5 price for both packs includes postage and packaging and the Top Trumps makers say £1.50 from each dual deck sold go to the NHS.

TOP facts about Top Trumps Britain at its Best: Hospitals pack

  • The pack features UK Hospitals from Britain’s oldest (Barts – 1123) to one of its very newest (Nightingale, London – 2020).
  • It’s full of fascinating facts and the 30 different cards feature leading UK hospitals inc. Guy’s, Addenbrooke’s, St Thomas’, John Radcliffe and Manchester Royal Infirmary.
  • The four scoring categories are: ‘Year Opened’ ; ‘No. of beds’ ; ‘Fame’ and ‘Rainbow Rating’.
  • St. Thomas’ Hospital, where PM Boris Johnson was successfully treated during his recent Covid 19 confinement, features as one of the 30 cards.
  • Highest in the ‘Rainbow Rating’ section is Great Ormond Street Hospital, which has a rainbow theme throughout.
  • But arguably Britain’s most crucial hospital is a moving one, not a permanent structure or even semi-permanent as in the case of the Nightingale. And that is ‘The Ambulance’ (which features on its very own card)..
  • .. ‘The Ambulance’ has just the one bed so in terms of Top Trumps that’s a low rating. However it comes high in the OLDEST category, dating back to 1487.

    

TOP facts about Top Trumps generally:

  • Top Trumps first hit shelves 40 years ago – very rapidly becoming a playground sensation.
  • Early packs tended to focus on younger themes such as ‘Awesome Animals’ and ‘Pop Stars’ but by the 1990’s – with the initial fan base now in their twenties – all themes became universal.
  • More than 1,000 different topics have had the Top Trumps treatment .. from ‘007 James Bond’ to ‘Great British Bakes’ to ‘Harry Potter’.
  • The biggest selling deck ever is ‘Dinosaurs’  – and overall more than 50M packs of Top Trumps have been produced since inception.
  • The game is enjoyed and played all over the world and in 16 different languages, including Icelandic and Japanese.
  • Top Trumps is owned and produced by Winning Moves UK, which makes a host of other classic Brands too, including: Official versions of MONOPOLY, Waddington’s Number One playing cards and very many more.