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Agenda item

Covid-19 Situational Report

Minutes:

Matt Pearce provided an update on the Covid-19 situation in West Berkshire. He stated that all data presented was correct as of Wednesday 21 October 2020. He also noted that the slides being presented were now in line with the rest of Berkshire and would be published on the Berkshire Public Health website.

Situational awareness:

  • He noted that the positivity rates per 100,000 had risen across all Berkshire authorities compared to the previous week and now stood at 52.4 in West Berkshire and the positivity rate stood at 3.6% of tests.
  • He also outlined a number of criteria set out for authorities to consider when looking to move into tier 2. These included cases per 100,000 for those aged over 60, where West Berkshire stood at 32.3. 

Epidemiology of cases:

  • There had been a total of 6,727 confirmed cases in Berkshire with 44% of these cases being since the beginning of September. He also noted that Berkshire’s weekly rate has continued to increase in this time, although it had remained significantly lower than the national average.
  • In the period 6 to 19 October, there were 1,579 cases confirmed for Berkshire residents with 13% of cases confirmed through pillar 1 and 87% through pillar 2. He also noted that 53% were female, 47% male, 58% of these cases were from a white background, 25% from BAME community and 17% had no ethnicity information recorded. Lastly, he stated that 45% of cases in Berkshire were in the 18 to 34 age group.

West Berkshire

  • He noted that data on confirmed Covid-19 cases are available at a Middle Super Output Area (MSOA), which covers areas with populations between 5,000-15,000. He highlighted the need for caution with this data as it was based on small numbers. He stated that there was no sign of any hotspots.

Councillor Bridgman asked if there was any correlation between the figures and care homes.

Matt Pearce stated that there weren’t that many cases in care homes at the time of writing, but that it could certainly be a possibility, but would require further analysis.

Deaths

  • He noted that there had been 785 deaths related to Covid-19 in Berkshire across the whole pandemic with 135 of those in West Berkshire. Between 26 September to 9 October there had been 2 deaths in West Berkshire, the first Covid-19 related deaths since August.
  • Since March 2020, West Berkshire’s all-cause mortality rate was 24% higher than the five year average, leading to 170 additional deaths.

Hospital activity

  • He noted that hospital activity for Berkshire was not currently available for the public domain. Therefore, he provided an update on hospital activity for the south east.
  • On 19 October, 319 patients were in hospital with Covid-19 in the south east, 18 of which were on mechanical ventilation and the hospital admission rate was continuing to increase although at a slower rate compared with the national average.

Meradin Peachey stated that Royal Berkshire Hospital had reported an increase in Covid-19 admissions and those on ventilators, but that it was nowhere near capacity.

 

Summary

  • West Berkshire remains at the ‘medium’ alert level.
  • We continued to see a rise in outbreaks across schools, care homes, workplace and health settings.
  • The weekly rate was at 52.4 per 100,000, which was 9% higher than the week before.