Thanks Adrian, I too got through on this number after a long hold, but I had been teri g the original number since Monday. They have added ne to the list and I should supposedly get an email with further details.
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Sorry you to hear that you might have a recurrence of skin cancer Erica - that sounds hard. Take care and keep us posted Jx
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Thanks, Jo, I hope you are keeping safe and looking after yourself, you are very special. Erica xxx
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How did they identify you Erica? 8 am tomorrow you should be able to put an order in! Had you registered on the government site?
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He didn’t say, but I wonder if it was from the info on my nectar card account, which I updated and linked last night as I believe you recommended. 8 am tomorrow and I will be there, I am used to this time as that was the time I booked on for gym classes before I started isolating!!.
Sounds like adding a Nectar card with a birthdate that makes you older than 70 may still do this automatically then. I had no idea you were of such an age, you sound much younger!
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An encouraging piece of news. This patient in China who had quite advanced non Hopkins lymphoma and CLL caught COVID19 and subsequently improved and was well enough to be discharged from the ward where he was treated. This is a clear example that whilst we are indeed at higher risk, some patients with blood cancer can recover from the novel Coronavirus.
https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2352-3026(20)30074-0
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I had a whizz bang 70th birthday at the beginning of Jan and spent the month celebrating with different friends. I got just what I wanted, writing a handy list might have helped, including an globe because my geography is terrible, a dvd player for our bedroom, which is proving very useful for playing my pilates dvd, as I need to keep active whilst isolating, and a new Walkman, that I downloaded a lot of music onto and was absolutely wonderful for back when I was going on isolated walks. I was a very lucky girl. Stay safe.
I have looked into the priority slots from Sainsburys some more (see earlier message). Please note this statement on Sainsburys site:
“This week we will receive the government database that tells us which people in England the government considers to be most vulnerable, to offer those registered with us a delivery slot. You can register as vulnerable to coronavirus on GOV.UK to get added to our list in the coming days.”
So please do ensure you register here: and I would advise ticking that you do NOT have someone that can shop for you since clearly you do not want anyone living with you to put you at risk by shopping (whether they are shielding or not) and you cannot 100% rely on anyone else. The box it there to be ticked.
I am sure that other retailers will also get this list but so far only Sainsburys have created a vulnerable persons system on their delivery service it seems. At the moment it also possibly remains the case that if you register for an account with Sainsburys (they are still taking registrations last time I checked) and also a Nectar card, then add the Nectar card number to your online account, if you are over 70 you will be given a slot within 24 hours whether you got a letter or not. Slots for vulnerable people seem to be released somewhere around 8am each morning. At some point during the day they are released to those not yet on the list.
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Just to say, if you do not need supplies urgently (in which case, follow the advice from Adrian to get yourself registerd to Sainsbury’s), I noticed Asda now has more delivery slots available, In fact last week it was impossible to get any. But as of last night they had some available at my supermarket from April 6th. Of course it will depend upon where you live, but worth a check. So I managed to replace my click and collect with a delivery. Long term, it looks like Sainsbury’s is the only supermarket making special provision for vulnerable, which I find a little disappoining but please post any updates if this changes. For now, your best bet does look like Sainsbury’s for urgent ones.
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David, I would be amazed if the others do not follow. I would imagine that it is not trivial to create the system from scratch. Sainsburys had the advantage of nectar card data which allowed them to make a first stab by labelling everyone they knew was over 70 as vulnerable. The vulnerable persons government database ( https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus-extremely-vulnerable ) will be I am sure shared with all retailers and they will all get to doing a list. In the meantime it is just about registering with them all (if they still take customers!) and logging on at different times of the day to see if slots arrive. I also encourage people to connect with local volunteer groups via Facebook churches or local food banks
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This is from an email Sainsburys sent out to some of their customers today:
Elderly and vulnerable customers
Many of you have written to me to tell me you are elderly or vulnerable and are struggling to book online delivery slots. We are doing our absolute best to offer online delivery slots to elderly, disabled and vulnerable customers. These customers have priority over all slots. Our customer Careline has been inundated with requests from elderly and vulnerable customers – we have had one year’s worth of contacts in two weeks.
We have proactively contacted 270,000 customers who had already given us information that meant we could identify them as being in these groups. Our customer Careline is working at full capacity to help other customers within these groups and we are able to give an additional 8,000 customers a day access to delivery slots over the phone. We have already booked in slots for 115,000 elderly, disabled and vulnerable customers this week and this number is growing every day.
We will receive the government database this week which tells us which people in England the government considers to be most vulnerable. Where these people are already registered with us, we will start to write to them next week to offer them a delivery slot. We are also working hard to secure details for vulnerable people living in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
I apologise to our regular online customers, who I know are feeling very frustrated at not being able to book slots. Please bear with us and I hope you can understand why we feel the need to prioritise elderly and vulnerable customers at the moment.
Communities working together
And this brings me onto my final request. We really are doing our best to manage a very difficult situation. Demand for online grocery delivery is higher now than it has ever been. We are working hard to increase our online capacity and we are adding more slots in every day. But it is not possible for us to create enough slots to meet the current level of demand.
We are seeing communities come together to work on this issue. We know that many people who are able to come into a store to shop are also shopping for others who can’t access food online or get to a shop. We want to encourage and support this. If everyone who shops in store also shops for a person who is less able, it will go a long way towards getting food to everyone who needs it.
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Hi Adrian, yes, that makes a lot of sense. Tesco also have Club card so maybe they will soon be in a postion to follow suit. I am sure they are all doing their best in challenging times so suppose we have to be patient. Other options for people might be smaller retailers, some of whom do online deliveries. However these also have drawbacks as a) they are usually more expensive b) they will usually only stock a limited range. But they might fill a gap if all else has failed. A friend of mine suggested a local one which does baskets of fruit and veg with next day delivery.
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If anyone is still struggling to Find ways to get delivery slots. Please don’t go out. Contact your local volunteer group: https://covidmutualaid.org/local-groups/
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Hi all,
A lot of myths and fake and tenuous information out there, I came across this on the WHO site which debunks some of the “popular” myths.
I got annoyed when I saw the statement
High dosage Vitamin C has been proven to work in China and New York City for coronavirus sufferers.
*High dosage = over 60 times RDA via IV
It seemed a bit much for me, what do you think / feel when you see such advice. Yes, there have been some studies, but evidence is anecdotal, far from proven I’d say.
I did see similar (and I’m sure others have) in relation to cancer treatments too.
I probably should have left it. Is there a consensus here on such advice?
However, I am now finding a reasonable amount of information on Vitamin C & Cancer treatment e.g. Sodium ascorbate white blood cells at DuckDuckGo
however, my gripe here was the link with Covid.
Cheers,
David
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Thanks so much David, there are a lot of myths out that. Stay safe.
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Hi David,
Thanks for posting this page from the WHO website, which I think some will find useful to read, especially during this uncertain time where a lot of different information is being circulated. It’s so important that people know where to find correct information.
As you know, Coronavirus is a new disease, and not enough is known about it yet. There’s a great deal of research going on around the virus to learn more about it. As you can see on their website, the World Health Organisation is gathering the latest scientific findings and knowledge on coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and compiling it in a database - https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/global-research-on-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov
How are you doing this week?
Alice
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Put your Phone on speaker mode and you can leave it aside and only have to pick it up when there’s someone there 
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Hi Annie and a timely welcome to our community forum, thanks for the great advice, so obvious when I read it. I realise I am feeling more anxious and stressed during this isolation period, how are you coping?