Coronavirus – preventing local outbreaks Preventing a local outbreak of Coronavirus is in each of our hands and like all local authorities Bath & North East Somerset has produced its Local Outbreak Management Plan to respond to the pandemic. In this message the council’s Director for Public Health, Dr Bruce Laurence sets out what this means for residents…
The one thing most experts do agree on is that as we now are easing restrictions quite significantly, we are treading a fairly fine line between maintaining control of the outbreak and letting it rip again, with limited room for manoeuvre and none at all for complacency.
You may have seen news recently about the relatively low levels of coronavirus cases in the South West region compared to the rest of the country. Of course, we would dearly like to keep number of new cases as low as possible, while opening up our schools, businesses and social lives again.
• Reduce the risk of outbreaks occurring in the first place
Sadly, Bath and North East Somerset has certainly been affected by Covid-19, and 90 of our residents have lost their lives to the illness in this pandemic.
• Work with the NHS Test and Trace Service, local NHS and other partners to achieve this.
While it is not yet fully understood why this region has had relatively few cases and deaths, it is likely to be due to a range of factors. Some of the more likely ones include our rurality and smaller numbers of big and crowded urban centres, a greater number of people with the sort of jobs that they can do from home, good general health indicators around levels of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular and respiratory disease and smoking, and fewer residents from black and minority ethnic groups with their greater vulnerability.
18 - The Westfield Warbler
In common with all other upper tier authorities Bath and North East Somerset has produced a local outbreak management plan to
• Identify and suppressing possible outbreaks before they gain momentum • Work with local communities
Individual and collective behaviour matters so much, and it is the work of the council and its partners to encourage people to take preventive measures seriously, including social distancing and good basic hygiene, even as we all begin to emerge from lockdown. We must remember that the virus doesn’t change its behaviour just because we change the rules. The single most important message I can give is that while our local figures are currently reassuring this virus has not gone away and no one should behave as if it has.
