To receive a verbal update on COVID-19 in Telford and Wrekin from Liz Noakes, Director for Public Health, Telford & Wrekin Council.
Minutes:
The Committee received a presentation introduced by The Director: Public Health, Telford & Wrekin which including information in relation to an update on the COVID-19 pandemic previously provided to the Telford & Wrekin Health and Wellbeing Board.
The first part of the presentation reflected on the COVID-19 journey so far including facts and figures on case rates, number of deaths, number of tests and number of hospitalisations since the beginning of the pandemic. The Committee were informed that a total of 10,803 cases have been confirmed during the pandemic and during the first wave, community testing had not been taking place therefore the number of cases were much higher at this point in the pandemic. The Borough is the 5th lowest infection rate overall within the West Midlands but unfortunately to date have recorded 256 deaths. The overall mortality rate for COVID-19 has been less than the national average within the Borough and hospital admissions were at a peak of 165 patients which has now decreased to less than 10 patients. Cases were recorded at their highest with a peak of 181 cases over the course of one day in January 2021 with over 1,000 cases across a period of 7 days within the Borough. The Committee were provided with an update on the actions undertaken by the Council to support residents during the pandemic including test and trace isolation support payments and the role of the Health Protection Hub in supporting contact tracing and outbreak management within the Borough.
The presentation continued to provide a further update on the current number of COVID-19 cases as of 23 March 2021 with the current infection rate at 36 per 100,000. Current case numbers have displayed a decline with 64 cases recorded over the last 7 day period and the Borough is currently in the bottom three alongside Shropshire and Herefordshire with the national average displaying 55 per 100,000. Local Outbreak Management Plan has been refreshed and recently reviewed by the Health & Wellbeing Board. Nationally, the Department of Health and Social Care had requested for the Local Outbreak Management Plan to be updated to reflect the next phase in the pandemic with a focus on dealing with enduring transmission and outbreaks and ensuring the local vaccination programme uptake is as high as possible across all age groups. New elements to the plan include preparation for variants of concern and how to deal with multiple virulent variants including the introduction of a Council wide operational plan to undertake surge testing if required deployed using a Public Health Risk assessed approach, tackling and enduring transmission by looking at areas where transmission continues to take place in different communities and workplaces thus tackling inequalities the pandemic has widened and finally focusing on the vaccination programme to reduce inequalities in vaccination uptake across the community and the need for ongoing boosters during the autumn months.
The presentation came to a close with a final update on the vaccination roll-out up until 25 March 2021 which informed the Committee that nearly 86,000 adults have been immunised with their first dose. The 50 – 54 year olds are currently being monitored however the data displays a sense that the uptake for vaccination in Telford and Wrekin is good and inequalities are being assessed to try and address some of the hesitancy that some communities feel in terms of vaccination.
The Chair expressed his thanks on behalf of the Committee to the Director: Public Health and officers for their work during the pandemic and applauded the current position of the Council which has seen an increase in the uptake of inoculations within the Borough.
Members asked questions and received responses as follows:
Is the national test and trace still working and will it be rectified before the end of the pandemic?
The Director: Public Health advised that the Council has been working within the national system in terms of testing and tracing and were able to deliver set-up of local testing sites quickly across the Borough in a variety of settings. The Director: Public Health further advised that that tracing system continues and the Council have followed through and completed additional contact tracing alongside the national tracing. This was not able to be done at the height of the pandemic but now cases are much lower the Council has been able to contact trace each case as they are recorded. The Council has recently signed up to a national pilot where they will conduct contact tracing first and feedback into the national system to enable the Council to be the first point of call for the system. As the system is a current pilot it will continue to be evaluated, however if there was another surge in cases, there would be a need to rely on the national system to pick up contact tracing. The Director: Public Health reiterated that the Council have tried to make the system work as best as possible and have been very proactive in communicating with different settings such as education, care homes and businesses due to an increase in workplace outbreaks. An online notification system has recently been introduced as part of the pilot whereby the Council receives notification of a case in these settings to enable quick identification of patterns and outbreaks and begin contact tracing.
Cllr A Burford, Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care reflected on the comments made by the Director: Public Health that the Council and many other local authorities have been successful in organising the programme of testing and tracing, however there is a need for additional resources and support nationally to deal with surges in cases.
Has local knowledge provided any information of how and why these outbreaks happened and is it concentrated in certain areas or is it widespread across the Borough?
What are the reasons behind these outbreaks when they come in a cluster?
The Director: Public Health responded to the Committee to advise following outbreaks in workplaces in January and February 2021, an instant Management Team meeting had been arranged with businesses to gain an understanding of how the cases have developed, the connection between them, the controls currently in place in each business and how these controls can be strengthened with advice provided on self-isolation and testing. In these types of scenarios it can enable the Council to better understand the different themes as part of managing outbreaks and be able to communicate back to a wider range of businesses what indicators they need to be aware of. Public Health Nurses have been undertaking weekly calls over the last 12 months with care homes to provide support and to help understand the implications of outbreaks and provide advice on how to control them.
As we are approaching the start of easing of restrictions, will there be any special arrangements in place from the Council to ensure residents continue to follow guidelines on social distancing and wearing of face coverings?
The Director: Public Health advised the Committee that it is important for residents to continue to follow hands, face and space as restrictions ease. The Council will also be recommending residents take a lateral flow test twice a week, these tests can be collected from the Council run testing sites and the symptomatic testing sites to promote residents to take appropriate preventative action and will be available for all residents.
The Committee thanked the Director: Public Health for their attendance and answering Members’ questions.