Agenda item

Current situation in Warwickshire

A presentation on the current situation in Warwickshire from Dr Shade Agboola, Director of Public Health and colleagues.

Minutes:

A presentation on the current situation in Warwickshire was introduced by Dr Shade Agboola, Director of Public Health. This covered the following areas:

 

·       Current situation and key areas of response to Covid-19 in Warwickshire.

The overall number of cases recorded in Warwickshire was 2837, with 79 cases in the last week and currently positive tests results of 13.67 per 100,000 people tested. Comparative data was provided for each district and borough area, the rest of the Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire (CSW) beacon area and the West Midlands region. Whilst Warwickshire’s data was favourable to other areas, case numbers were increasing. She referred to mobile testing, the increase in single Covid-19 cases and the excellent work of the response teams and schools.

·       Reflect on learning to date. Whilst it was unsurprising that cases of Covid-19 were rising with the reopening of schools and social activity, there was an emerging trend that people were not adhering to the guidance and a sense of messaging fatigue. There was concern about the activity of some younger people and firmer messaging was planned.

·       Considerations for planning the next phase of pandemic management. Reference was made to the flu season, plans for vaccinations and work with environmental health to increase the response team size. Enhanced backward contact tracing had commenced.

·       The Outbreak Control Plan. This was published in June, with eight priority areas. Dr Agboola spoke about the work undertaken on community engagement, the team established, funding available from the test and trace grant and bids submitted to increase engagement with priority audiences. Videos had been produced to provide messages on test and trace in languages other than English.

·       Governance arrangements - a diagram showing the arrangements for the beacon area and the local response arrangements.

·       Warwickshire response elements – key actions to date

o   ‘Let’s Do It for Warwickshire’ campaign

o   Using intelligence to drive localised action

o   Community and business engagement

o   Workstreams established to support different settings

o   Aggressive outbreak and case management

o   Additional testing capacity including the new site at Rugby

o   Building capacity in the team

·       The local outbreak management plan. Particular reference was made to local learning on communication and engagement, the need for accurate data and the challenges associated with tracing, given staffing capacity.

 

Questions were submitted:

·       Nationally and in Warwickshire, there were difficulties in getting testing slots and concerns about the travel distances involved for some people. This national issue had been recognised and was expected to continue for the next one to two weeks. People were being encouraged to only request a test if they were symptomatic.

·       Concerns about a communications lag with Public Health England (PHE). Reference to a small outbreak recently and the perceived lack of activity from PHE. Local responses were good, but resources were stretched. There were serious concerns that if this continued, case numbers would escalate beyond control. The points were acknowledged and receipt of notifications from PHE had been mixed. There were some challenges and PHE had the same capacity issues as councils. Most public health directors reported similar experiences and there was a need for larger devolved teams to provide capacity for test and trace activity. Dr Agboola also touched on the local resource appointed.

 

Duncan Vernon introduced the data dashboard. This was a public facing dashboard on the CSW website, providing a range of comparative and interactive information. He spoke about the improving data over recent months, active surveillance processes, contact tracing and analysing data on a geographical basis. There was now access to negative test results too.

The presentation slides gave data on cases in Warwickshire and comparative positive test results in Warwickshire districts and boroughs. In Rugby, there had been 25 new cases in the last week. This slide included the data for Coventry, Solihull and for other parts of the country with higher positive test results. Several examples were provided of the significant increases in positive test results over the last week. People were encouraged to make use of the dashboard.

 

Nadia Inglis spoke about the contain framework and planning ahead. This section of the presentation focussed on:

 

·       The contain framework, which had three levels from areas of concern, of enhanced support and intervention. An outline was given of the actions that should be taken and measures likely to be introduced under each scenario. 

·       A slide detailed the intelligence which would be considered when a wider council response and interventions may be required, also factors for the trigger levels.

·       Rising tide planning. This looked at preparedness for the following themes, linked to the next phase of pandemic management. Some of these areas would be the subject of presentations later in the meeting.

o   Community support, with detail provided on shielding, provision of advice to the most vulnerable, the local welfare scheme, capacity of community networks and the potential adverse impact from the end of the furlough scheme.

o   High risk settings, being care homes, education, business/workplaces, rough sleeper/homeless accommodation, events and the interplay between these aspects.

o   Personal protective equipment (PPE). A minimum of four weeks’ supply was held and there was confidence in supply. The main issues were price and the volume of fraudulent/fake products. Consideration of securing supply until the end of March 2021 was underway.

o   Powers.

o   Communications and Community Engagement.

 

Questions and comments were invited, with responses provided as indicated:

 

·       Healthwatch was receiving enquiries about whether the visiting restrictions at care homes were proportionate to the risks involved. Some visits were being restricted to twenty minutes and visits to care homes in Solihull were being suspended in response to an increase in infection rates. The mental health implications both for residents and relatives were raised. This was acknowledged, with reference made to the national guidance on visits and the measures imposed by individual care homes. Where feasible, visits outside the home were advocated, but this would not be practical for all, or during the winter months. Nominating a consistent visitor was one measure and the mental health aspects were also touched on.  Nadia Inglis offered to pursue this further with Chris Bain of Healthwatch outside the meeting.

·       Concerns about the end of the furlough scheme, the associated mental health issues related to financial difficulties and wider issues such as domestic violence.

·       Regarding education, reference was made to the large number of pupils asked not to attend school where Covid-19 cases were identified. It was asked whether this would be narrowed to affect less pupils. A lot of work was taking place with schools, an example being on seating plans to enable monitoring of contacts. In some schools, large numbers of pupils had been sent home. Their education was important, but risk assessments had been undertaken, requiring the action taken. The member offered to intervene in cases affecting her division. Reference also to the mental health impacts, including agoraphobia amongst some children.

 

Supporting documents: