Friday 5 February 2021 Somerset’s Covid-19 Weekly Update
This
update is provided by the Somerset Covid-19 Engagement Board and is designed to
provide a weekly update on the current Covid-19 situation in Somerset.
A ‘major
milestone’ has been met this week as the number of first doses of the Covid-19
vaccine offered to people in the South West went past one million. The regional
milestone was celebrated here in Somerset at the vaccination centre at the
Taunton Racecourse. It really is a
fantastic achievement and worthy of celebration.
However,
we still need to reinforce the important message that while the vaccine is
designed to prevent serious illness and death from Covid-19, anyone who has
received the vaccine could still catch coronavirus and might still be able to
pass it on to others. It takes between two and three weeks to build protection
once you have had the vaccine, it isn’t instant protection. Therefore, we urge
you to please keep adhering to the ‘Hands-Face-Space’ guidance in order to
protect yourselves and others.
Sadly, we
have also reached another milestone this week, where we have recorded the
highest number of deaths in Somerset in one seven-day period. Sadly, a further 63 of our fellow residents
have lost their lives, and our deepest sympathies are with their loved
ones.
Testing
is an important part of our fight against the spread of coronavirus, especially
as one third of the people that catch it have no symptoms at all. This means
that they can spread the virus without knowing, including to people who could become seriously ill.
One type of test available is Lateral Flow Tests or LFTs. Locally, this testing is currently only
available to specific groups that cannot work from home and are in contact with
our most vulnerable residents most at risk of becoming seriously ill from
Covid-19. The national programme is supporting other settings with this offer
such as schools, certain business and care homes. This type of test is very good at identifying
people who have lots of the virus, and are infectious on the day, but isn't as
good at finding the virus in people who aren’t infectious yet (i.e. early in
the infection)
therefore it is
very important to note that it is possible to receive a negative test, but
actually be carrying the virus.
For this
reason, anyone using LFT tests should ideally be tested twice a week and should
also
keep adhering to the ‘Hands-Face-Space’ guidance and remember to ventilate households or
workplaces.
‘Remember, everyone can catch it, anyone can
spread it’.
Along
with the rest of the UK, locally we are seeing rates coming down, however
figures are still high, and Covid-19 is still very much circulating in our
communities.
Somerset’s
seven-day infection rate has decreased considerably from last week’s rate of 255.2
and now stands at 174.1 new cases per 100,000.
COVID
vaccination data to end of 31st January has now been released and
shows over 100k 1st vaccinations have been given, this is coverage
of 94% of both 75-79 and 80 and over groups.
Between
25 and 31 January, approximately 51,633 tests were carried out across the
county and there have been 979 new confirmed cases. The number of tests
has increased due to the ramp up of testing (in particular, the rapid testing
programme) but importantly, the number of positive cases has reduced since last
week’s update.
The
link below shows the Somerset Dashboard which tracks our local epidemic from
the start in March, to the current time:
https://www.somerset.gov.uk/covid-19-dashboard/
Workplaces: Larger
employers in Somerset can now order coronavirus tests for their workforce if
they cannot work from home. The direct route for ordering rapid Lateral Flow Tests
has been set up for employers with 50 or more staff in England. Follow this
link for more information: https://www.gov.uk/get-workplace-coronavirus-tests
Lateral
flow tests are good at identifying people who don't have symptoms and who may
have infection when they may not otherwise have been picked up. However, they
do not pick up all infections. This is why following a negative result, it is
important that people continue to follow all national guidelines regarding
social distancing, wearing face coverings and washing their hands regularly.
The
benefit of these tests is that they will identify some asymptomatic or
pre-symptomatic positive cases, helping to break transmission chains. The
downsides include the relatively high false negative rate, and the significant
resources required to test the workforce repeatedly.
Care Sector: In the seven days
between 24 and 30 January, there were 156 new cases at 40 care home
settings. The positive cases identified were staff and residents; we
continue to support these settings with support and guidance on prevention
measures. We are extremely
pleased that the majority of care home residents have now received their first
vaccination, helping to prevent serious illness from Covid-19 within this
group.
Schools and Early Years settings: The
national lockdown restrictions mean that only vulnerable children and those of
key workers are receiving face to face learning, with other groups receiving
learning at home and online.
Somerset schools are working hard to
implement the Department for Education mass testing programme. Staff at
secondary schools, colleges and special schools are now taking part in a twice
weekly testing programme. Staff at primary schools and maintained nurseries now
have access to home testing kits.
We are seeing some sporadic cases in
educational settings and continue to work with schools to undertake risk
assessments and provide public health advice.
Communications:
Stay
at home restrictions
We
remain under a period of national lockdown, and as before, encourage you to
share the following poster with your networks to help explain the restrictions:
England Lockdown: Stay At Home posters - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
This week, we are continuing to
reinforce the importance of ventilation in combating Covid-19. Covid-19 spreads from person to person through small
droplets, clouds of tiny airborne particles known as aerosols and through
direct contact.
In addition to social distancing and other measures, you can
also reduce the risk of spreading Covid-19 by:
·
Letting plenty of fresh air into your home or room without
getting uncomfortably cold if you have people working in or visiting you (only
where permitted). You should do this during their visit and after they leave
·
Avoid coming into contact with people in spaces with limited
flow of fresh air such as rooms with windows that are never opened
To increase the
flow of air you can:
· open windows as much as possible
· open doors
· make sure that any vents (for example at the top of a window)
are open and airflow is not blocked
· leave extractor fans (for example in bathrooms) running for
longer than usual with the door closed after someone has used the room
Join
our growing number of Covid community champions
Do you want to help people to stay safe during
the Covid-19 pandemic? We don't want much of your time...
Spark
Somerset is working in partnership with SASP (Somerset Activity and Sports
Partnership) to set up the Covid Community Champions Network. The network
will give local people a role in helping their community to get up to date
information and make the right choices to stay healthy.
After
attending a short online training course, Covid Community Champions will be
able to help their family, friends and the wider community to understand the
latest guidance around Covid-19, and signpost to other health and wellbeing
support. This can be done informally as the Champions go about their day
to day lives; whether they talk to work colleagues, challenge something they
see online, or simply speak to people when out and about (when current national
restrictions come to an end). They will play a vital part in helping keep local
people informed; helping them to stay healthy, happy and safe.
Champions
will have the opportunity to attend regular online meetings, where they’ll get
to know the other Champions, keep up to date, and feedback about how things are
going where they live and work. We’re particularly keen to involve people
living or working with communities that might find it hard to get the right
information about how to stay healthy and happy at the moment, and areas where
Covid infections rates are highest in Somerset.
If
you, or someone you know might be interested in a becoming a Covid Champion,
you can find more information and sign up here.
Advisory
Network
Do you work with hard to reach or vulnerable
groups across Somerset? If you do, please help us by signing up to our Health
and Wellbeing Advisory Network.
Feedback from you will help us to
deepen our understanding of the Covid-19 related communication and engagement
needs of our communities across Somerset, especially our more vulnerable
groups.
There are people experiencing real
issues and not being reached, we want to get key information out to as many of
our residents as possible and a collective effort will help us to do this.
By joining, you can expect to
receive regular up to date information on Covid-19 and health impacts across
Somerset, opportunities to feedback to us via surveys as well as exclusive
access to webinars and communications materials to address specific issues and
barriers locally. We currently have a live survey that we would really
appreciate you responding to; it should only take a few minutes of your time.
To sign up simply click here: https://www.somerset.gov.uk/advisory-network-updates/
For more information on the NHS
vaccination in Somerset please visit: https://www.somersetccg.nhs.uk/health/local-services/health-services-during-coronavirus/covid-19-vaccinations-in-somerset/
For more information on the
COVID-19 vaccine please visit: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/coronavirus-vaccine/
As
always, please do keep an eye our Healthy Somerset website, which has a huge
amount of information and resources to help keep everyone healthy happy and
safe at this time: https://www.healthysomerset.co.uk/covid-19/
Finally,
please like us on Facebook,
follow us on Twitter and
share our posts with your networks to help us in communicating these important
messages. Follow our Director of Public
Health account too here.
Resources and further information: For the latest local information as well as digital resources,
posters and flyers please visit: https://www.somerset.gov.uk/coronavirus/
The
Somerset Local Outbreak Management Plan outlines how we, the council, will work
with the NHS Test and Trace Service, PHE, the NHS and other partners to ensure
a whole system approach to preventing and managing local outbreaks. This can be found here.