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Coronavirus: Bristol tower block social-distancing 'impossible'

BBC Spraying door handleBBC
Parents have been teaching their children the importance of spraying door handles and not touching any surfaces.

Tower block residents with access to just two lifts and one small communal laundrette say it is impossible to practice social-distancing.

Numeri Hussain, who lives with his wife and three children on the 15th floor of the Bristol block, is fearful they will catch the virus.

They are running out of clean clothes but do not want to use the laundry, which has just five machines in it.

It is "just the smallest space", Mr Hussain says.

Numeri Hussain
Numeri Hussain said he had left his flat for the first time in two weeks to put the rubbish out

"That's why I'm not coming in at this time," he added.

Samuel and his boys also live on the 15th floor
Samuel says with a two and a six year old, "the stairs are out of the question"

Samuel and his boys, aged two and six, also live on the 15th floor and he has been teaching them the importance of spraying door handles and not touching any surfaces.

But he says "the stairs are out of the question".

"So you can imagine what it's like in the lift when you can't even swing a cat?," he said.

"I was coming down this morning and there were seven in there."

Julie
Julie says she just sits at the window and looks out all day

Another resident, Julie, has asthma, diabetes and uses a wheelchair.

She says she knows she cannot come out but feels like she is in prison.

"I just sit at the window and look out the window all day. And that's really annoying me because I want to go out," she said.

"I'm not used to being indoors."

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