a) Environmental Health
b) Nottinghamshire Police
c) NHS
Minutes:
Paul Dales, Safer Business, Food and Health and Safety Manager Nottingham City Council, gave an update on work to look at compliance by supermarkets and min-markets. He highlighted the following information:
a) Visits are being carried out over 2-3 weeks to look at compliance and how compliance can be improved. This will include 27 supermarkets/ local versions of national supermarket chains and 35 independent outlets.
b) Customer behaviour impacts on the measures put in place and perceptions of safety.
c) For the national chain outlets, visits include looking at company standard procedures, an on-site inspection against those standards, an assessment of the local management attitude towards compliance, a review of front and back of house checks and a reality check on customer compliance to see how things are working in reality.
d) For local independent stores, visits include completion of an inspection check form (based on national regulations), a check for Covid-secure measures, provision of a free information sheet and provision of free posters for display to customers.
e) The main issues identified in relation to local independent stores are a lack of available hand sanitiser, not having a maximum capacity set, a lack of signage and a lack of floor markings to help with social distancing and one way systems.
f) The main issue identified with stores of national supermarket chains is the difficulties of challenging and enforcing customers for not wearing face coverings.
Steven Cooper, Nottinghamshire Police, gave an update on the work of the Police, highlighting the following information:
g) The Force has continued to follow the national approach, with a focus on engagement and then enforcement as a last resort.
h) Most incidents reported to 101 currently relate to social gatherings and supermarkets, particularly in relation to their enforcement of wearing face coverings. The Police also take a proactive approach if there is intelligence from social media, neighbourhood teams etc about a potential incident.
i) Since 1 October 2020 there have been over 6,000 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) issued, 80% to people aged under 30, and 62% to men. Most of these are single incident offenders but there are a number of repeat offenders, with one individual found to be breaching the rules 5 times. This has resulted in a significant fine for that individual. 68 FPNs have been issued to people from outside of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. 12 fines of £10,000 have been issued in the City. Data shows that the level of enforcement mirrors infection rates.
j) The Police are also supporting the vaccination programme, with staff and officers at vaccination centres to be able to respond if needed. Response Plans are in place for all centres.
k) Changes are coming into force soon, enabling those present at gatherings of over 15 people to be fined £800, which is a significant increase from the current fine of £200.
Amanda Sullivan, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Clinical Commissioning Group, gave an update on the position in the NHS. She highlighted the following information:
l) There were 510 hospital admissions related to Covid-19 in the seven days to 17 January 2020. This compares to 427 for the previous seven days.
m) There were 712 beds occupied by patients with Covid-19 as at 19 January, compared with 625 on 12 January. 8% of these patients required mechanical ventilation in intensive care.
n) There are 2.5 times as many people in hospital compared with the first wave of the pandemic in April.
o) Between 14-20 January there were 87 deaths, which was a rise from the previous week when there were 63 deaths.
p) Between 8 December and 17 January, 49,336 individuals were vaccinated. There are 3 hospital hubs vaccinating those aged over 80 years and 7 local vaccination sites offering vaccinations in the community, in additional to the national vaccination centre.
q) There have been more than 500 deaths in the City since the start of the pandemic. Covid-related deaths are those where a patient has tested positive for Covid-19 in the previous 28 days. People are dying from non-Covid related factors but the number of deaths is above what would normally be expected. The mortality rate is higher in older age groups but deaths are not confined to that age group.