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Thursday, October 29, 2020 8 NEWBURYNEWS RBH reporting ‘a small number of Covid cases’

Newbury Weekly News

No talk of Tier 2 move WEST Berkshire Council will be using Government Covid Marshal funding to support and enforce social distancing in the run-up to Christmas.  Policing of events in conjunc- tion with Thames Valley Police where appropriate

West Berkshire’ s executive member for public protection, Hilary Cole (Con, Chieveley and Cold Ash), said: “We are taking a highly targeted approach tomeet- ing the requirementsof the Covid Marshall scheme. “This will becomeincreasingly important as we enter the busy pre-Christmas period and will ensure that we have focused resources in place to educate, support and enforce where neces- sary in places of increased and maximum risk as shopper density increases and people move to indoor settings as the weather deteriorates.” Asked whether the use of the funding might change with Covid-19 cases and the seven-day rolling rate per 100,000 popula- tion rising, council leader Lynne Doherty said there was no justifi- cation at this stage. She said: “Other Berkshire councilsare far further ahead [in numbers of Covid cases] than us. “We have been watching this closely andwhen the justification comeswe will move to that, but at the moment there is no need. “The idea is we continue to support businessesand give them guidance and help, but if we saw the direction changing we would need to change that approach, but at the moment there’s no inten- tion that we need to do that.” Mrs Doherty said she was concerned about the impact on people’s mental health should Tier 2 restrictionsbe imposed. “It’s a careful balance of making sure that we look at both lives and livelihoods and that we follow the guidance,” she said. “We won’t hesitate to act but let’s do it in line with the alert system.”

The council has also said there have been no discussions about moving into the Tier 2 high alert level for coronavirus, as other Berkshire councilshave held. The CovidMarshalschemehas been used around the country, including the use of wardens in cities and large town centres. The council said that its versionwould be “less visible but highly targeted” to deliver effec- tive social distancing to reduce risk and infection rates in public and business settings. Members of the Public Protec- tion Partnership, public health and the council’s economicdevel- opment teamwill use the funding to provide the following support where necessary:  Working with businesses to increase and maintain compli- ance  Profile events to raise aware- ness and highlight the approach that West Berkshire is taking  Work with the Newbury Busi- ness Improvement District (BID), towns and parishes to raise awareness in local communities  Follow up concerns raised by the public, police, businessesand employees  Ensure residents are aware of their obligations in risk areas, such as shoppingand events, and withinbusiness settings  Enforcement against busi- nesses that fall short of compli- ance or who do not comply  Re-enforcement of messages regarding social distancing/rule of six and any other prevailing tier-based rule  Increase/adjust messag- ing/surveillance and enforce- ment should tier levels change

Riseinhospitarlespiratoyradmissionbs,utnowherneearsituationinNorth Reporbt y JOHNHERRING email john.herring@newbuyrnews.co.uk twitter johnh_nwn

THE Royal Berkshire Hospital is starting to report small numbers of coronavirus cases, but they are “nowhere near” levels being seen in the North of England. A West Berkshire Local Outbreak Management Board meeting also heard on Friday that although the district’s cases and rates were below average, there was no room for complacency. West Berkshire Council head of public health Matt Pearce said: “In terms of comparison to the other local authorities West Berk- shire remains lower, but clearly our cases are still increasing.” Mr Pearce said an indicator of when local authorities consider moving up a tier is the cases per 100,000 population among those aged 60 and over. West Berkshire’s figure was 32.3. The South East rate is 35.6 and England’s is 101.2. Although West Berkshire is below average, Mr Pearce said: “The other thing I want us to warn against is we can compare to the South East and the national averages, but in the context of the grand scheme of things, generally cases are going up. “We might always be lower than the South East and national average, but the cases might be going up and the rates might be going up.” Covid-19 was recorded on three deaths certificates in West Berk- shire in the last three weeks, the first since August. Mr Pearce said: “We are already starting to see, sadly, the impact in terms of the rise of the incidents is now starting to have an impact and translate into deaths, although not as high as we saw in the first wave.” The meeting heard that the number of hospital admissions in the South East was increasing, but no data for Berkshire hospi- tals was publicly available. Berkshire West deputy director public health Meradin Peachey said that the Royal Berkshire Hospital was “starting to report small numbers of Covid diag- noses coming through A&E.” She said: “They are starting to see more admissions in respira-

tory and they are starting to use the high dependency unit for Covid, but they are nowhere near capacity, so it’s very small rises at the moment. “It’s nowhere near the patterns that we are seeing in the North of England at the moment.” Data for the seven-day rolling average from October 10 to 16 showed that the number of people in West Berkshire tested per 100,000 population was 240.1. The district was the lowest in Berkshire, with the highest being the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead at 349.3. The positivity weekly rate, the proportion of people testing posi- tive for Covid-19, in West Berk- shire was 3.6 per cent. The highest in Berkshire was Slough at 6.4 per cent. The South East rate was 3.1 per cent and England’s rate was 7.2 per cent. When asked about the speed of infection and rate increase and whether the existing measures were having an impact, Mr Pearce said: “There are some indications that it might be slow- ing the speed. “Initially I think we thought that we were two to three weeks behind some of the higher areas across the country. “However, the feeling is we might be four, five or six weeks behind some of those areas up North. “It’s really hard to tell at this moment in time. “In terms of whether the exist- “ Intermsofcomparison totheotherlocal authoritiesWest Berkshireremains lowe,rbutclearlyour casesarestill increasing

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ing measures have been success- ful, that’s really hard to tell. “It’s quite a subjective view, but clearly our rates are lower and we are also a rural part of the coun- try, so that will probably play into our hands, but cases are increas- ing despite all the measures in place, so it might not necessarily be sufficient at this moment in time because they are increasing. “Clearly I think everyone is playing their part, that’s making a difference, and we encourage the public to continue to do that.” Commenting on the speed of infection, Ms Peachey said: “What we found was that a couple of weeks ago was that the South East started rising in cases at about 6.5 per cent and we modelled it for us and that meant all of us would have been well over the 100 per 100,000 within about two to three weeks, and certainly in the territory of Tier 3 by Christmas.

“But what’s happened in the last couple of weeks is it has slowed and is not as fast as origi- nally projected, which is why rates have not gone up as fast. “Even in West Berkshire we are still increasing, but at a slower rate than we expected.” The briefing was also shown information on cases in schools, care homes and work places based on exposures/incidents, clusters and outbreaks. An incident is an isolated case of Covid-19, a cluster is one or two cases with no epidemiological link and an outbreak is more than three cases. Between October 5 and 19 there had been four isolated Covid-19 incidents in schools, one cluster and two outbreaks. There had been five incidents in care homes and two incidents were recorded in workplaces, along with one cluster and one outbreak.

Third death in three weeks ONE person from West Berk - shirehas diedwith coronavirus registered on their death certificate in the last week. on the death certificate. The ONS data shows that 64 people fromWest Berkshire have died with coronavirus in care homes, 64 in hospitals, six at home, one death recorded as else- where and one in a hospice.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) data released on Tuesday said that the person died in a hospital in the week endingOcto- ber 16, with the death registered up to October 24. The death is the third in three weeks and takes the number of coronavirus deaths in the district to 136. The data records the number of deaths involving coronavirus, based on any mentionof Covid-19

In neighbouring Basingstoke and Deane, the number of people who have died with coronavirus recorded on their death certifi- cate has remained at 118. Of the 118 people who have died, 78 died in hospitals, 34 in care homes, three in hospices, two at home and one in ‘another communal establishment’.

Police step up fines for breach of restrictions MORE than 840 fines have been handed out across the Thames Valley as the police clamp down on illegal gatherings. Thirty-nine of those fines have been handed out in October, 35 of which were for breaching the rule of six on gatherings and four for failing to quaran- tine. The largest fine within Thames Valley for breaching coronavirus restrictions was £680, after the culprit breached legislation restricting move- ment multiple times. Thames Valley Police (TVP) has now urged the public to continue following restrictions to prevent the spread of coronavirus as cases rise both locally and nationally. Gold commander for TVP’s response to Covid-19 Chief Supt Rob France said: “It is clear that cases of coronavirus nationally are increasing and action needs to be taken by us all to stop this indis- criminate virus from spreading and leading to the deaths of many more people. “Our approach throughout has been to support the public in following the regulations by engag- ing, explaining and encouraging, and using discre- tion before enforcement. “We would ask people to report any breaches of coronavirus legislation online or through 101 if they do not have online access.”

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