Agenda item

Fiona Phillips, Assistant Director of Public Health, City of York Council, presented an overview of the local available data. The positivity rate of York had increased to 18% which was significantly higher than the national rates.  This was an indicator that was closely monitored daily.  A high positivity rate showed that community transmission was high and usually called for more testing to be considered by the local authority. As stipulated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) at the start of the pandemic, a healthy positivity rate was below 5%.

The areas that had been the most affected with the highest rates were Fulford, Heslington and the University of York.  The paper also outlined the age profile from both before and after the restrictions were relaxed in July.  In the first two weeks of the lockdown the spread of positive cases had been mostly within the 20-60 age group, making up three quarters of all cases, with the rest being in the 10-19 cohort.  Now however the 10-19 age group made up 40% of all positive cases in York.  Data gathered from the National Track and Trace service showed that 70% of positive cases had been successfully contacted by the system, which was good.  This would hopefully increase with the recent implementation of the localised contact tracing system.

Councillor Aspden asked whether there had been any learning shared with other local authorities who had moved into Tier 3, in case it happened in York.  Sharon Stoltz, Director of Public Health for the City of York, assured the Board that she met with the Chief Medical Officer and Directors of Public Health from other areas across England regularly and they had found that a whole host of different measures could have an impact. If we managed to keep the positivity rate in older people stable and address the community transmission rate to protect the NHS and care homes, she would expect that York would stay in Tier 2.

As seen in the presented data, the majority of cases were aged under 30.  Alison Semmence, Chief Executive of York CVS, asked how long the time lag was before the older cohort became infected.  Sharon Stoltz assured the Board that this wasn’t inevitable and that trends were monitored over a 7/14 day period.

Julia Mulligan, North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, asked whether there had been any insights learnt from the behaviours of different age groups.  She stated that the 60+ age group were well aware of the risks and therefore were being cautious.  Sharon reported that people of all ages had been found to break the guidance.

Marc Bichtemann, Managing Director of First York, asked whether people weren’t following the rules because they didn’t understand them, rather than actively not following them.  Siân Balsom, Manager at Healthwatch York, thought it could be attributed to people suffering from quarantine fatigue; especially since people had been following the rules and cases had still continued to rise. The Board discussed how some positive messaging could be developed to ensure people followed the guidance.

The Board noted the update.