National Lockdown Guidance


The basic guidance is for people who are fit and well. There is additional advice for people who are clinically extremely vulnerable to coronavirus [CEV] and households with a possible or confirmed coronavirus infection . Those who are CEV should not attend work, school, college or university, and limit the time they spend outside the home. They should only go out for medical appointments, exercise or if it is essential. If you are in this category and need help, please contact ‘Helping Girton’ through the ‘Helping’ page of this website.
When can you leave home?
You must not leave or be outside of your home except where you have a ‘reasonable excuse’. This will be put in law. The police can take action against you if you leave home without a ‘reasonable excuse’, and issue you with a fine [Fixed Penalty Notice – £200 for the first offence, doubling for further offences up to a maximum of £6,400].
A ‘reasonable excuse’ includes:
Work – you can only leave home for work purposes where it is unreasonable for you to do your job from home. This includes but is not limited to those working within critical national infrastructure, construction or manufacturing that require in-person attendance
Volunteering – you can also leave home to provide voluntary or charitable services.
Essential activities – you can leave home to buy things at shops or obtain services for yourself or on behalf of a disabled or vulnerable person or someone who is self-isolating.
Education and childcare – you can only leave home for education, registered childcare and supervised activities for children where they are eligible to attend. Access to education and children’s activities for school-aged pupils is restricted. There is further information on education and childcare. People can continue with existing arrangements for contact between parents and children where they live apart. This includes childcare bubbles .
Meeting others and care – you can leave home to visit people in your support bubble [if you are legally permitted to form one], to provide informal childcare for children under 14 as part of a childcare bubble [to enable parents to work, but not to enable social contact between adults], to provide care for disabled or vulnerable people, to provide emergency assistance, to attend a support group [of up to 15 people], or for respite care where that care is either being provided to a vulnerable person/person with a disability, or is a short break relating to a looked-after child.
Exercise – you can continue to exercise alone, with one other person or with your household or support bubble . This should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area. You should maintain social distancing.
Medical reasons – you can leave home for a medical reason, including to get a COVID-19 test, medical appointments and emergencies.
Harm and compassionate visits – you can leave home to be with someone who is giving birth, to avoid injury or illness or to escape risk of harm [such as domestic abuse]. You can also leave home to visit someone who is dying or someone in a care home [if permitted under care home guidance], hospice, or hospital, or to accompany them to a medical appointment.
Animal welfare reasons – you can leave home for animal welfare reasons such as to attend veterinary services for advice or treatment.
Communal worship and life events – you can leave home to attend or visit a place of worship for communal worship, a funeral or event related to a death, a burial ground or a remembrance garden, or to attend a wedding ceremony. You should follow the guidance on the safe use of places of worship and must not mingle with anyone outside of your household or support bubble when attending a place of worship.Weddings, funerals and religious, belief-based or commemorative events linked to someone’s death are all subject to limits on the numbers that can attend, and weddings and civil ceremonies may only take place in exceptional circumstances.
Other – further reasonable excuses include leaving home to fulfil legal obligations or to carry out activities related to buying, selling, letting or renting a residential property, or where it is reasonably necessary for voting in an election or referendum.
Exercising and meeting other people
You should minimise time spent outside your home.
It is against the law to meet socially with family or friends unless they are part of your household or support bubble. You can only leave your home to exercise, and not for the purpose of recreation or leisure (e.g. a picnic or a social meeting). This should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area. You can exercise in a public outdoor place by yourself, with the people you live with, with your support bubble [if you are legally permitted to form one], in a childcare bubble when providing childcare or, when on your own, with one person from another household.
Public outdoor places include: parks, beaches, countryside accessible to the public, forests, public gardens [whether or not you pay to enter them], grounds of heritage sits, playgrounds.
Outdoor sports venues, including tennis courts, golf courses and swimming pools, must close.
Remember: when around other people, stay two metres apart from anyone not in your household or your support bubble . Where this is not possible, stay one metre apart with extra precautions

. By law, you must wear a face covering in many indoor settings, such as shops or places of worship where these remain open, and on public transport, unless you are
exempt.
The majority of public services will continue and you will be able to leave home to visit them. These include:
The NHS and medical services like GPs and dentists. The County Council is supporting the NHS to carry out urgent and non-urgent services safely, and it is vital anyone who thinks they need any kind of medical care comes forward and seeks help.
Jobcentre Plus sites, courts and probation services, civil registrations offices, passport and visas services, victim support services, waste recycling centres, MOT services for those needing to drive when legally leaving home.


There are now two different vaccines approved for use.
Locally the vaccination programme is underway and the following is the published prioritisation list:

  1. Residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
  2. All those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers
  3. All those 75 years of age and over
  4. All those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals[footnote 1]
  5. All those 65 years of age and over
  6. All individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at
    higher risk of serious disease and mortality
  7. All those 60 years of age and over
  8. All those 55 years of age and over
  9. All those 50 years of age and over
    From the Government web page: It is estimated that taken together [1-9] these groups represent around 99% of preventable mortality from COVID-19.
    Please wait to be contacted about an appointment for vaccination.