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News from the Geopark

Coronavirus Information

The English Riviera Geopark is a responsible area and tourism destination. The coronavirus outbreak is a rapidly changing and evolving situation with the UK government issuing updated guidelines of a daily basis. 

We would like to ask all English Riviera Geopark residents to take responsibility and to consider the advice we are being given. 

The single most important action we can all take, is to stay at home in order to protect the NHS and save lives. 

When we reduce our day-to-day contact with other people, we will reduce the spread of the infection. That is why the government on 23 March 2020 introduced three new measures. 

1. STAYING AT HOME

You should only leave the house for one of four reasons.

• Shopping for basic necessities, for example food and medicine, which must be as infrequent as possible
• One form of exercise a day, for example a run, walk or cycle - alone or with members of your household
• Any medical need, to provide care or to help a vulnerable person
• Travelling to and from work, but only where this absolutely cannot be done from home

Even when doing these activities, you should minimse time spent outside of the home and ensuring you are 2 meteres apart from anyone outside of your household. 

2. CLOSING NON-ESSENTIAL SHOPS AND PUBLIC SPACES

Last week, the Government ordered certain businesses - including pubs, cinemas and theatres to close. This has now been extended to;

• all non-essential retail stores - clothing, electronic, hair, beauty and nail salons; outdoor and indoor markets, excluding food markets
• libraries, community centres, and youth centres
• indoor and outdoor leisure facilities, such as bowling alleys, arcades and soft play facilities
• communal places within parks, such as playgrounds, sports courts and outdoor gyms
• places of worship, except for funerals attended by immediate families
• hotels, hostels, bed and breakfasts, campsites, caravan parks and boarding houses for commercial / leisure use (excluding permanent residents and key workers

3. STOPPING PUBLIC GATHERINGS

To make sure people are staying a home and apart from each other, the Government is also stopping all public gatherings of more than two people. There are only two exceptions to this rule:

• where the gathering is a group of people who live together - this means that a parent can, for example take their children to the shops if there is no option to leave them at home
• where the gathering is essential for work purposes - but workers should be trying to minimise all meetings and other gatherings in the workplace

In addition, the Government is stopping events, including weddings, baptisms and other religious ceremonies. 

Every citizen is instructed to comply with these new measures. They will initially last for three weeks from 23 March, at which point the Government will look at them again and relax them if the evidence shows this is possible.