Agenda and minutes

Councillor Eunice Campbell-Clark

Katherine Kerswell

Catherine Underwood

None

To confirm the minutes of the public section of the meeting held on 28 July 2020

The Board approved the minutes of the public section of the meeting held on 28 July 2020 as an accurate record.

As part of an update on Nottingham’s Outbreak Control Plan, Alison Challenger, Director of Public Health, gave a presentation about the development of incident management plans.  She highlighted the following information:

(a)  For each of the following settings a specific incident management plan is being developed:

·  Care homes and similar settings

·  Schools and similar settings

·  Universities (higher education)

·  Public realm and transport

·  Secure estate

·  Secondary care/ hospitals

·  Leisure

·  High-risk workplaces

·  Places of worship

·  Children’s residential (including secure)

·  Rough sleeping, temporarily housed and socially vulnerable

·  Houses of Multiple Occupation

(b)  Work to develop the plans is nearly complete and draft plans are currently going through a check and challenge process.

(c)  Key stakeholders have been involved in developing the plans and it will be important to continue their engagement beyond the check and challenge process. 

(d)  Each plan includes a crisis communication section for both internal and external stakeholders.

As part of an update on Nottingham’s Outbreak Control Plan, Alison Challenger, Director of Public Health, gave a presentation on the work of the Outbreak Control Cell.  She highlighted the following information:

(a)  The Outbreak Control Cell meets daily to keep a close watch on what is happening across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. 

(b)  The Cell has a good membership that enables it to benefit from intelligence from a range of sources and partners. 

(c)  The Cell considers the latest data and intelligence to identify and investigate any hotspots and determine action to be taken accordingly.

(d)  There has been an increase in the number of cases of Covid-19 nationally and locally and it is important that citizens are reminded of the key messages to socially distance, wash hands regularly and wear face coverings in order to prevent and protect local communities.

(e)  Some areas are starting to see higher numbers of cases, for example the media has recently reported a number of cases in Newark and Sherwood associated with a food factory.

During subsequent discussion the following points were raised:

(f)  It is concerning that in some areas there appears to be a delay between identification of a case and public communications asking people who may have been at increased risk to come forward for testing.  However, it is recognised that it is likely that unseen work to identify individuals through, for example, track and trace is taking place in these cases. 

(g)  Learning from outbreaks is taking place all the time to identify ways that things could be done better. 

(h)  Businesses are expected to follow the guidelines but it can be difficult to enforce and ideally businesses should be self-policing.  However, anecdotally it appears that some businesses are being more stringent in following guidelines than others and challenges are presented by the Eat Out to Help Out scheme which, in some cases, has resulted in large groups of people queuing outside venues.  There could be scope to discuss these issues with representatives of the hospitality industry and the communications strategy is important in getting out messages to businesses and members of the public.

(i)  There is no central point for members of the public to report concerns or incidences of businesses not following guidelines and it would be helpful if there was a mechanism for people to easily do this to feed into local intelligence gathering.  One of the challenges of encouraging increased reporting is the capacity to take action in response and many of the issues are common concerns that could be addressed with the relevant sector, which then takes responsibility for communicating with its own organisations.

Alison Challenger, Director of Public Health, gave an update on the national situation between 27 July and 2 August, which is the most recent period that data is available for.  She highlighted the following information:

(a)  Nationally Covid-19 activity has been relatively stable but there have been some slight increases and there is regional variation. 

(b)  Blackburn with Darwen currently has the highest level of activity and is top of the list of Local Authority Watchlist areas, but recently numbers have been decreasing.   Cases in Leicester are also decreasing. 

(c)  Data is starting to show cases distributed more evenly across all age categories, with a greater proportion of cases amongst the working age population than at the start of the outbreak. 

(d)  Currently the number of related deaths is not placing particular pressure on the NHS and overall there are fewer deaths compared to the five year average.

(e)  Looking at the cumulative rate of cases since the start of the outbreak shows regional variation with higher numbers of cases more widespread in the north-west of the country, although there are pockets in other areas. 

Published surveillance reports can be accessed from: https://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/coronavirus-covid-19/covid-19-surveillance-reports/

Alison Challenger, Director of Public Health, gave an update on the current situation in Nottingham, highlighting the following information:

(a)  Nottingham has had fewer cases of Covid-19 than many other areas, but recent data shows that the number of cases is starting to go up although it then tends to stabilise rather than increase further.

(b)  There is currently a weekly rate of 7.6 cases per 100,000 population. 

(c)  There have been no Covid-19 related deaths in the City in the last four weeks.

(d)  Most cases are arising from Pillar 2 testing in the community rather than from individuals displaying symptoms and being identified through Pillar 1 testing. 

(e)  There is no complacency and the latest position is being constantly reviewed.

(f)  Individuals displaying symptoms tend to be in the older age categories, while individuals identified as positive for Covid-19 through general testing in the community tend to be of working age or young populations with generally lower risks of complications and hospitalisation.

(g)  Looking at confirmed cases by Middle Super Output Area shows that there has been a slight increase in Clifton and some western parts of the City.

(h)  Recent cases in the City and County have largely related to households mixing and have also been associated with people sharing cars without taking appropriate precautions.  Therefore communication messages around car sharing have been developed.

The Board agreed to move into the confidential section of the meeting.

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To confirm the minutes of the confidential section of the meeting held on 28 July 2020

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