A NEW city council support service for the coronavirus crisis helped 342 residents last week to cope with emergency needs including food parcels, health problems and prescription deliveries.

The council’s contact centre took 342 calls and online requests asking for support.

The top three reasons for calls were urgent supplies needed, help needed picking up shopping and people feeling at risk.

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The contact centre was able to help by referring people to the locality response hubs the council has set up for urgent problems such as getting food and other supplies.

They also put people in touch with volunteers who can collect shopping and prescriptions, and referred callers to voluntary groups who arrange daily contact calls to tackle loneliness.

The locality response hubs have been providing food supplies to those most in need, with 190 requests for emergency supplies for people self-isolating or unable to leave their homes.

Azul Corcoran Strong, from the East Oxford locality response hub, said: “One of our residents with a new born baby contacted us at the East Hub - due to self-isolating herself she was unable to pick up a prescription for her and her baby.

“We were able to receive it into the hub.”

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Marie Tidball, cabinet member for supporting local communities, said: “This is the first week that our new services to support residents have been fully operating and it’s great to see help getting to people in need.”

To get in touch people can call the council on 01865 249811 or visit the city council’s website oxford.gov.uk/communityassistance.