Agenda item

[To scrutinise the Wolverhampton Covid-19 Outbreak Control Plan – 2021 refresh]. 

The Director of Public Health introduced a report on the Wolverhampton Covid-19 Outbreak Control Plan – 2021 refresh.  The Covid landscape had changed dramatically right the way through the pandemic to date. This had consequently led to the plan being refreshed. 

 

The Director for Public Health presented a slide on the subject of, “What we’ve learned so far.”  He cited six important themes,

 

·       Shared Ownership

·       Shared Cultures

·       Shared Information

·       Shared Trust

·       Shared Goals

·       Shared Capacity

 

He showed a slide on the governance local arrangements, which highlighted the complexity of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.  The refreshed plan had seven key themes, which he listed as follows :-

 

·       Theme 1 – Care homes and educational settings

·       Theme 2 – Higher risk settings, communities and locations (including compliance and enforcement)

·       Theme 3 – Community Testing

·       Theme 4 – Contract Tracing

·       Theme 5 – Data integration and information sharing

·       Theme 6 – Vulnerable communities (including support to self-isolation)

·       Theme 7 – Governance and local boards

 

The Director of Public Health with regards to Care Homes commented it was important to provide as much support as possible, including specialist advice to limit the impact of the virus.  It was important to continue to support care settings to increase vaccine uptake within staff.  Looking ahead to the winter it was important measures were in place to reduce the risk of infection. 

 

The Director of Public Health with reference to Care Homes remarked that they had to ensure every possible support had been offered to these settings to contain and manage possible outbreaks. It was also important that education could continue at University in a safe manner. 

 

The Director of Public Health commented that they continued to support businesses at scale to access routine lateral flow testing.  They were also being proactive and reactive to enforcement activities working with West Midlands Police and Environmental Health.  They would proactively support businesses to re-open safely as lockdown eased and continue to collaborate with partner agencies, supporting workplaces to comply with legislation and guidance.  He praised the response from the faith groups within the City, in terms of leading the response within their communities.

 

The Director of Public Health presented a slide on community testing.  The City had been one of the first in the country to have a drive through testing site in partnership with NHS colleagues.  It was also one of the first to have community mobile testing programme and one of the first in the region to have mass testing.  This has been particularly valuable at Christmas time, when there had been a peek of the UK variant.  He was also pleased with the work of the local contact tracing team.  Data integration and sharing had been invaluable.  Lessons from this could be taken forward into the future, including as part of the Relighting Our City Strategy. 

 

The Director of Public Health highlighted the importance of getting as many people in the City to have their vaccine and as quickly as possible.  With time vaccine hesitancy in people could be overcome, particularly when conversations were had on an individual basis.  A good example of this was staff in the care sector where uptake was now at around 85% from initially being just over 50%.  161,000 doses of the vaccine had now been delivered to residents of Wolverhampton.  The Covid-19 weekly cases in the City were currently above 250 per 100,000. 

 

The Director of Public Health spoke on the importance of good governance and communicating the plan.

 

The Chair thanked the Director of Public Health for his presentation.  She also thanked him and his team for the fantastic work they had completed over the last 18 months.                 

 

The Chief Executive of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust paid tribute to the Director of Public Health and his team.  Without the support of the Public Health Team they would have not been able to have dealt with the crisis in the way they did.  Working relationships had changed forever for the betterment of the residents they served.  He estimated around 60% of the people coming into the Accident and Emergency Department had not been vaccinated.  They were therefore setting up a system where vaccinations could be offered alongside their visit to the department.  He pleaded for people who had not yet received a vaccination to have one.  The people that were being admitted to hospital in Wolverhampton were predominately those that had not been vaccinated fully or not even one dose.

 

A Panel Member passed on her compliments on the Covid-19 Outbreak Control Plan and acknowledged the efforts and contributions from members of the Public Health Team.  She felt the report highlighted the importance of partnership working.  In response to the question put to Councillors in the covering report, that being, “Is there anything Councillors could do to support the ongoing work to increase the uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine across the whole City and within all communities to help us to continue to protect the most vulnerable and get the City back on its feet,” she promoted the fact that the Vaccine Bus was currently in her own Ward of St Peter’s at the Molineux stadium and would remain there over the weekend.  She herself would be visiting the vaccine bus and promoting its location on social media.  She raised the point of adding wrap around services to the vaccine bus service, especially for the vulnerable people who did not fall into the normal categories.  She asked whether the vaccine bus would be visiting the Romany Gypsy traveling community either at permeant sites or unauthorised encampments.  She also questioned whether the travelling community had access to GP services.  She gave particular praise to the “Stay Safe, Be Kind” helpline.  She raised the point of people who did not necessarily fit into a vulnerable group category but still may have appreciated assistance with things like shopping and phone calls.  She referred to the needs based accommodation offer.  She felt strongly about having good standards in housing.

 

The Director of Public Health commented that the vaccine bus on average administered approximately 200 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine per day.  There were however 2,100 vaccine doses available per day through the different sites in the City.  They were working with the CCG, pharmacists and faith groups to reach those traditionally classed as hard to reach.  Flexible offers were available to reach particular groups.  Community Ambassadors and their support volunteers were knocking on doors on a daily basis, averaging around 300 houses a day.  This exercise was revealing more about people living in the City and how they could have a better life.  With reference to GPs, it was important to look at what could be done to free them up more from having to give vaccines so they could focus on their routine work.

 

The Managing Director of the Wolverhampton area in the CCG stated that they had worked with the lead of the Local Authority and the site Manager of the traveller site.  A questions and answer session was held and a dedicated open access clinic was run at Showell Park Surgery.  This was the surgery where many of the travelling community were registered. 

 

A Panel Member asked about access to the vaccine in Wolverhampton for people who were not legally in the United Kingdom.  He had heard that they were able to obtain the vaccine by going to a GP surgery.  The Director of Public Health confirmed that they were able to obtain the vaccine at sites where it was being offered and it did not necessarily have to be at a GP surgery.  The Panel Member asked for some communication work to be done so they knew they did not need to be fearful of obtaining the vaccine. 

 

A Member of the Panel asked whether the Prime Minister’s intention to relax restrictions on the 19July was a good one, or if the Director of Public Health  advised to carry on with the current precautions.  The Director of Public Health spoke on the need for individual responsibility.  He would be wearing a mask still and advised everyone else to do the same.  Individual actions resulted in collective actions, which made a difference to the City.

 

The Chief Executive of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust spoke about the previous winter having been the lowest he had known in his career for flu and norovirus.  Face coverings and hand hygiene he believed to be two of the most important factors in the decline of these viruses.   It was important to consider the benefits of these actions not just for Covid but for other viruses.  He was concerned about childhood illnesses in the winter.  The Southern Hemisphere winter was always a good indication of what was to come in the British winter. 

 

The Chair asked Panel Member, Cllr Milkinderpal Jaspal to speak of his personal experience of contracting and suffering with Covid-19.  He paid tribute to the Director of Public Health and the Public Health Team for their work since the pandemic had commenced.  He also paid tribute to the staff of the New Cross Hospital.  He stated that without the care of staff from New Cross Hospital he would not be alive.  Many people did not realise the seriousness of the Covid-19 virus.  His view was that people needed to continue to be sensible and take all the precautions such as washing hands, general cleanliness, social distancing and mask wearing.  Everyone needed to take personal responsibility.  He was not in favour of the plans to relax restrictions later in the month.  He had taken all the precautions he could earlier in the year but had sadly caught the virus off his son who had visited the home.  His son had caught the virus from a patient he was vaccinating.

 

The Chair asked about the plans for potential third booster Covid-19 vaccines and the flu vaccine.  The Managing Director of the Wolverhampton area of the CCG responded that there would be a flu programme for the upcoming Winter.  He knew there would also be a Covid-19 booster vaccine programme.  There were however considerable unknowns as to what the booster Covid-19 vaccine programme would entail.  He cited as an example of this uncertainty, being the type of vaccine that would be used and whether it would be combined with the flu vaccine.  They were currently awaiting the national strategy to give them the detail of the programme. 

 

The Chair asked about the uptake of people using lateral flow tests in Wolverhampton and what steps were being taken to increase their use amongst the Wolverhampton population.  The Director for Public Health responded that each week in the City, 25,000 – 26,000 tests were undertaken by the community in Wolverhampton.  He classed this as a phenomenal response.  Making tests available as much as possible and encouraging personal responsibility were key. 

 

The Chair raised the point of being able to order lateral flow tests online and for people to have them delivered to their home address.  She thought that not all Wolverhampton residents were aware of this service.  She asked if this could be promoted more and the link advertised on the Council’s website.  The Director of Public Health agreed to do some more on this area and stressed the multiple ways of obtaining a lateral flow test. 

 

The Vice-Chair commented that the Outbreak Control Plan highlighted the importance of wearing masks but it was silent on the issue of the different types and quality of masks.  It was clear that FFP2 and FFP3 masks readily available on Amazon were much better at protecting individuals from the risk of catching Covid-19.  He asked if Public Health were able to consider communicating information on the different masks available and using a higher quality one in higher risk settings, such as a crowded bus or train carriage.  In addition, he stated that the plan contained the phrase, “hands, face, space.”  The British government had added the term fresh air to the phrase.  It was clear that good ventilation, such as by opening windows, could help reduce the spread of infection, as could better air conditioning systems and meeting people outside rather than inside.  He asked if this could be taken into account of any information advice issued by Public Health. 

 

The Director responded there were variable qualities of mask available.  Locally as a Council they had purchased and distributed 23,000 cloth masks, which were washable and reusable and of a very decent quality.  He encouraged people to use a face mask and take individual responsibility.  Some masks were only for single use and so should be used as such.  He wanted to promote the use of masks and for people to update their mask when required.  He agreed that the mask people used needed to be of suitable quality that was available in the public domain.  With regard to ventilation it was clear that this did reduce the risk of infection.  If the weather was cold though opening windows could have a detrimental impact on wellbeing, a balance needed to be struck.  As it was currently Summer, he did recommend as much ventilation as possible and even meeting outside where appropriate. 

 

The Chair stated that the plan outlined that there would be robust support for people required to isolate, she asked if the national financial support scheme was still available, as the report referred to it continuing until the 30 June 2021.  The Director of Public Health responded that the national scheme supporting people to stay at home was still available.  They needed to make people more aware of the scheme and the local support available such as shopping etc.  He urged people to obtain the vaccine and then isolating would be less of an issue moving forward. 

 

The Vice-Chair asked about how the rollout of the vaccine was going for the young people that were eligible.  The Director of Public Health responded that the window of opportunity for young people to have the vaccine had only been open a relatively small amount of time.  He was confident that uptake would increase in time.  Working in partnership to promote the vaccine for young people was an important aspect.

 

The Chair asked how the helpline for schools to report positive Covid-19 cases was coping.  The Director of Public Health responded that four weeks earlier the City had 6 outbreaks overall.  On the present day there were 60, most of these were driven in school age and in particular the age group 11-16.  Managing the outbreaks was key, it was not possible to contain them.  People on the helpline were very much now advising schools how to get to the summer term break.  It had been very busy, with the containment approach switching to one of management.