Homeless people are preparing to live in the woods in an attempt to self-isolate as "no advice" has been given to help protect rough sleepers against coronavirus.

Terry Gore, centre manager at Canterbury homelessness charity Catching Lives, says he has been desperately trying to contact the government for 10 days, for help on how to aid the city's rough sleepers.

The coronavirus pandemic has left the nation wondering what the next weeks and months will hold.

But for those living on the streets - without the ability to practice social distancing, regularly wash hands, or buy and store long-life food - it is arguably a time of even greater uncertainty.

"Many rough sleepers have underlying conditions which would make them more vulnerable to the virus, which is why we've already made some major changes regarding hygiene and hand-washing in the centre," said Mr Gore.

But Mr Gore says no advice has been given on how to protect clients, forcing him to hold a crisis talk yesterday afternoon with the city council, police, local churches, and charities, in a bid to formulate a plan of action.

"At the moment we've got clients preparing to go into the woods and self-isolate," he said.

"A man in his 50s has been getting a couple of tins of beans and things every day, so he can go live in the woods if he needs to.

"And there's not any guidance I can tell him at the moment. How do you self-isolate if you're homeless?

"We've been trying to contact Public Health England for the last 10 days. We need to implement some kind of protocol, and work out what to do for clients."

The pandemic is also impacting vulnerable people living in food poverty.

Canterbury Food Bank, a vital charity that handed out more than 33,400 meals in the last year alone, has decided to temporarily close its "distribution cafes" over virus fears.

Services such as Age UK and Citizens Advice hand out food vouchers to those in need, directing them to the charity's four weekly "cafes" in Canterbury, Herne Bay, and Whitstable.

There, service users can pick up bags of essential food items, like tinned vegetables, pasta and juice, containing enough for about nine nutritionally balanced meals.

But chair of trustees, Martin Ward, says the tough decision to close the distribution points has been made in an attempt to ensure the food bank can continue to operate as the Covid-19 crisis develops.

He said: "The trustees believe that by taking these prudent steps now, they have a robust solution to maintain the viability of the service.

“We would rather not be in this position, but we have a duty of care to our clients, volunteers and staff and we have no wish to place any of them in harm’s way unnecessarily.

"Each of our four distribution cafés requires a minimum number of volunteers to ensure they operate safely and even with a large volunteer force; we are currently unable to guarantee this.

"As soon as it is deemed safe to do so, normal service will be resumed at the four, weekly, distribution cafes."

While the cafes are closed, emergency food parcels will be available from other agencies such as Age UK and local churches, that usually issue food bank vouchers.

Mr Ward urges people to donate jars and tins of food, where possible, to food bank collection bins in supermarkets.

He said the food bank is also in urgent need of donations of hand sanitiser.

If you haven’t received a parcel from the food bank previously and wish to self-refer, email signposting@canterburyfoodbank.org.

Visit Canterbury Food Bank website here.

For more information about Catching Lives, visit the charity's website.

For the latest coronavirus news and advice, click here.

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