Our Covid-19 support centre provides details about the support available to you, latest news and guidance.
In this section you can find out more about covid-19, the symptoms, how to order a test and when to isolate.
What is covid-19 (coronavirus)?
Covid-19 is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus illness that can affect your lungs and airways. It’s caused by a virus called coronavirus.
Coronavirus (COVID‑19) is spreading fast. 1 in 3 people who have the virus have no symptoms, so you could be spreading it without knowing it.
It is still possible to catch and spread COVID-19, even if you are fully vaccinated.
Read the latest government guidance on how to stay safe and help prevent the spread.
What are the symptoms?
Covid-19 can cause a wide range of symptoms; however, these are the three main symptoms recognised by the NHS:
Approximately 1 in 3 people who have coronavirus have no symptoms and could be spreading it without realising it.
Additional symptoms that people may experience are:
Get help at:
Call 111 if you cannot get help online.
When to self-isolate?
Self-isolation is when you do not leave your home because you have or might have coronavirus (COVID-19). This helps stop the virus spreading to other people.
While it's no longer a legal requirement to self-isolate, it is recommended to isolate if:
Guidance on isolation may change over time, including what to do when arriving into the UK, or travelling abroad. We'd advise you to check the foreign office guidance for travel to get the most up to date information.
The current guidance is to try to remain home and avoid contact with other people for 5 days, and meeting those at the highest risk for 10 days. This starts from the day you test positive (or the day you started to feel unwell).
You should be able to return to work and normal activities after 5 days, but you should remain home if you feel unwell or unfit to return to work, have a high temperature or have other symptoms like a persistent cough or sneezing which may indicate you are still infectious. We would recommend taking Covid-19 lateral flow tests which can be obtain from your workplace.
You can find more information on the NHS guidance page.
News
Health & safety
Keeping you healthy and safe at work is a top priority and never more important as we navigate our way through the COVID-19 pandemic.
We carry out joint health & safety inspections and have supported special covid-19 risk assessments too.
We've created an online learning suite for our reps to help them in undertaking these assessments.
If there are aspects of your workplace environment that concern you, or if you are worried for your safety, please call our helpline on 0118 934 1808. We have a team of officers ready, willing, and able to advise and support you. We continue to have regular meetings with employers to ensure safety remains top priority.
Visit our health & safety rep trainingSupport
We keep members up to date through our regular communications, but if you have an urgent issue, please call our helpline on 0118 934 1808. We have a team of officers ready, willing, and able to advise you.
We've also produced some guidance on homeworking.
Lloyds Banking Group has published a Covid19 response playbook for branches which includes guidance on testing and self-isolation.
Read the statement published by the Financial Conduct Authority on support for frontline bank workers (published 28/01/2021)
Read our covid-19 updates Review our guidance
Long Covid & absences
For some people, coronavirus (COVID-19) can cause symptoms that last weeks or months after the infection has gone. This is sometimes called post-COVID-19 syndrome or "long COVID".
Long Covid is an issue of concern for the union movement as ONS data has revealed that 1 in 5 people who’ve tested positively for Covid-19 have had symptoms that have lasted for 5 weeks or longer and that 1 in 10 have had symptoms for 12 weeks or longer.
Long Covid, or post-Covid-19 syndrome is the lasting symptoms that people feel or have after the infection has gone. The lasting symptoms can include:
You can find more information on the long-term impacts of Covid-19 on the NHS website. We've also got more specific guidance on long covid in our help centre.
Find out about long covid supportIf your workplace isn't listed, please enter the first letters of your workplace postcode below to find the details of your local Accord officer.
Enter the first letters of your workplace postcode below to find the details of your local Accord officer.