Agenda item

Matt Pearce provided an update on the Covid-19 situation in West Berkshire. He stated that all data presented was correct as of the 13 January 2021. 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.

Restrictions:

·       The whole of Berkshire remained in a national lockdown

·       Further information could be found via:

https://www.berkshirepublichealth.co.uk/covid-19-dashboard

Situational awareness (data correct for the week 13 January 2021):

• He noted that the positivity rates per 100,000 had decreased across all Berkshire authorities compared to the previous week and now stood at 313 per 100,000 in West Berkshire, which was the lowest rate in Berkshire. Slough continued to see rates in excess of 1000 per 100,000.

·       The positivity rate was 10.2% in West Berkshire

·       Cases per 100,000 for the 60+ age group stood at 226.2

• West Berkshire had now had 4,716 cases of Covid-19
• The number of new confirmed cases in West Berkshire over the previous 7 days was 496
• He noted that the new variant of Covid-19 was playing a big part in the continual high level of cases

Epidemiology of cases:

• There had been 38,880 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Berkshire. 62% of these had occurred since the beginning of December.

Deaths

• There had been 169 COVID-19 related deaths in West Berkshire during the pandemic. 
• 10 deaths were recorded for the last week (26^th December to 1 January).
• Since March 2020, West Berkshire’s all-cause mortality rate has been 20% higher than the previous 5 year average, which equates to 198 additional deaths.

Hospital activity

• The information on this page shows the latest data for the Royal Berkshire Foundation Trust
• On 5 January 2021, 194 patients were in hospital with COVID-19 in the Royal Berkshire Hospital. 20 of these were on mechanical ventilation. The hospital admission rate was increasing.

Outbreaks:

• An outbreak is defined by PHE as two or more cases with highly probable or confirmed epidemiological links. For care home settings one case counts as an outbreak.
• Over the previous 14 days, PHE had informed of 19 new incidents in Berkshire
• Number of new outbreaks in West Berkshire by setting (11 to 18 January):

Measures to prevent Covid-19

• The most effective method of stopping transmission of Covid-19 is to wash your hands regularly for 20 seconds, to use a face mask in shops and enclosed public spaces and to keep 2 metres apart from others.

Councillor Doherty stated that it appeared that the current restrictions were doing their job, however she was aware that the situation could change rapidly. She asked if Matt Pearce had any key messages he wanted to re-iterate to residents.

Matt Pearce noted that it was vital to continue with social distancing and sticking to the guidelines despite the vaccination programme getting under-way. He said the best thing would be to act as if you had the virus and that new variants across the world meant this was now more vital than ever. He thanked the public for all the sacrifices they had made.

Councillor Vickers noted she had received concerns about younger people congregating. She asked if youth services could be utilised to engage with young people to continue to get the messages across. She also asked about the likelihood of passing on the virus even if an individual had been vaccinated.

Matt Pearce noted that he had been in contact with Thames Valley police recently and had not received any significant concerns over non-compliance. In terms of vaccine transmission, he noted that we simply did not have evidence to date as of yet. He stated that it is best to carry on with the measures imposed.

Councillor Masters asked if there had been an increase in mortuary capacity in Berkshire.

Meradin Peachey noted that there had not been as it was not needed, given that excess deaths compared to other years was not vastly different. In relation to Councillor Vickers’ point about transmissibility after receiving a vaccine, she noted that individuals could still pass the virus on as the vaccine only helped to fight the virus, it did not stop individuals actually catching it.