Agenda item

Covid-19 Update

The Director of Public Health will give a presentation on the

current situation in relation to Covid-19 including recovery plans.

This item will be in presentation format to ensure that the most up

to date information can be presented to the Health and Wellbeing

Board.

Minutes:

The Director of Public Health gave a presentation on the

current situation in relation to Covid-19 including recovery plans.

This item was in presentation format to ensure that the most up

to date information could be presented to the Health and Wellbeing

Board.

 

Key points raised during the presentation included:

·        That York was currently in the fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

·        That cases had been increasing recently, but the rate of that increase was slowing. York had the third lowest 7 day rate per 100,000 people in Yorkshire and Humber regions local authorities.

·        That there were Covid-19 cases amongst all age groups, however the low incidence of cases amongst older sections of the population was evidence of the success of the vaccination programme. Younger sections of the population had a higher rate of Covid-19 infections, which could be attributed to the fact that they had only recently become eligible for the vaccine.

·        That the most recent figures for hospital admissions due to Covid-19 in York were 17 in hospital and 1 in the Intensive Treatment Unit. Current levels were much lower than previous waves, but were beginning to rise.

·        That there had been no recent deaths from Covid-19 in York, and that the total excess deaths since the beginning of 2020 were 106.

·        That there were 8 care homes in York currently with a staff member or resident who had tested positive for Covid-19. The last outbreak of 2 or more cases was on 2 July, with control measures in York being largely effective.

·        That in the 7 day period up until 19 July, there were 177 school-age children who had tested positive in York across 39 schools.

·        That younger age groups were catching up in vaccination rate since eligibility had been expanded, but remained lower. Disparity in vaccination rates between wards in York could largely be explained by the percentage of the ward that was of a younger age and was therefore not long eligible for vaccination.

·        That the Delta variant was the dominant variant of concern.

·        That York was in Stage 4, and all legal restrictions had been lifted. The importance of the continued encouragement of, hand-washing, social distancing and the wearing of facemasks was emphasised.

 

In response to questions from Board Members, it was noted:

·        That contact tracing was going well, and that it was encouraged that people in York get themselves regularly tested. However, concern was expressed at recent government changes to local authorities’ involvement in contact tracing, who now received notification of a positive case 4 hours later and could no longer follow up on contacts of positive cases. The Director of Public Health stated that she was in communications with the City of York Council Outbreak Management Advisory Board to see if they were supportive of a letter being drafted and sent to the Secretary of State for Health asking for the reinstatement of the previous policy.

·        That on the 16 August, the government was to change legal advice around self-isolation to those ‘pinged’ by the NHS app. The government had recognised the issues ‘pinging’ had been causing, especially in areas such as primary care. It was reported that the City of York Council was working with North Yorkshire County Council to create a joint template to be issued to primary care services to assist with the implementation of these changes, and that the City of York Council was also working with care homes along similar lines.

 

The Chair thanked the Director of Public Health for presenting the report and Board Members for their questions.

Supporting documents:

 

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