Agenda item

Report to follow.

Councillor Shah MOVED and Councillor Chauhan SECONDED a report which provided an update on how the Council and its partners continued to monitor and manage the impact of COVID-19 in Oldham.

In moving the report, Councillor Shah thanked local health and Council staff and the voluntary sector who would be doing their utmost to meet the government’s vaccine promises at the time they most needed a break. There would be over 400,000 NHS workers and the Council’s Social Care workers who would be working through Christmas, and the work of the community and voluntary sectors had to be acknowledged, all of whom would not be spending Christmas the way they would have expected.

Members noted that COVID-19 was still circulating across the UK and there continued to be new cases in Oldham every day. The report summarised activity, demonstrating how the spread of COVID-19 across communities would be collectively managed and prevented.

In the winter months, there were multiple risks ahead associated with COVID-19, its direct and indirect impact on people and services, as well as the impacts of other winter pressures. Whilst many aspects of life had begun to see a return to pre-pandemic times, the transmission and impact of COVID-19 still required careful management, and if rates continued to rise, further measures to mitigate the impact on individuals, society and economy might be required.

On 26th November 2021 the World Health Organisation designated the Covid variant B.1.1.529 a variant of concern, named Omicron. First identified in South Africa, Omicron had been identified in several other countries, including the UK. Work was ongoing to understand the virulence of the new variant, its transmissibility and how effective the vaccines were at combatting it.

The Government has reintroduced various measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 in England. These measures included:

·         Compulsory face coverings on public transport and in shops

·         Pupils strongly advised to wear face coverings in communal areas in secondary schools

·         Contacts of suspected Omicron cases to self-isolate for 10 days, regardless of age or vaccination status

·         Travelers to the UK to take PCR or lateral flow tests prior to departure, and to take a PCR test within 48 hours of arrival in the UK, isolating until they had a negative result.

Members were informed that there was still considerable uncertainty about the future course of the pandemic, funding and government policy. In this context the local response needed to remain agile. Given Oldham’s experience of COVID-19 to date the response was well established and wide in scope and as such was well placed to be able to adapt as needed.

As of 27th November 2021, there had been 44,813 cases of COVID-19 identified in Oldham; the weekly infection rates were currently running at around 308 cases per 100,000 people. This remained the lowest in Greater Manchester and lower than the England rate of 434 per 100,000.

Increasing vaccination uptake remained the primary focus of the local response. Over 162,000 Oldham residents had received their first doses (74.7% of Oldham’s eligible population) and over 148,000 had received second doses (72.9% of Oldham’s eligible population), with an additional 52,000 booster shots or third doses delivered.

As the vaccination programme had evolved in Oldham, the number and range of settings where vaccination clinics were provided had widened substantially, informed by feedback from residents. Current clinics included GP surgeries, pharmacies, the hospital and community venues. In addition, vaccinations for 12-17 year olds had been offered in education settings.

The borough had a wide-ranging testing offer, including lateral flow testing for people who did not have symptoms, and PCR tests for people with symptoms and those who had been close contacts of a confirmed case.

A multi-channel communications and engagement plan was in place to support the COVID-19 response, including social and digital media, print and out of home advertising, video and direct mail/newsletters to specific groups.

The current focus of communications activity was on increasing vaccination uptake and reminding residents that “Covid is still here”, meaning that standard infection, prevention and control measures were still important.

Councillors asked the following questions:

Councillor Sykes asked:

I fully support the Governments vaccination programme and in particular its booster vaccination programme.

However, I am really concerned by the recently announced acceleration of that booster programme will have a devastating impact on other NHS preventive services and treatments.  When even the Prime Mister says these will be cancelled, delayed or need to be rescheduled we all need to be very worried.

As we all know Oldham’s population is not a healthy one – delays in such services will impact on the live expectancy of many of our citizens and have massive impacts on tens of thousands of others.  What steps can we take, with our health partners, to reduce this risk for our residents?

Councillor Chauhan, Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care responded that choices had to be made between addressing Covid and routine care. Health inequalities would not be corrected in the coming weeks and months, however the next two to three weeks would be crucial to get people vaccinated and it was necessary to use resources to ensure this. Routine care would be affected but there needed to be a balance to preserve lives.

Councillor Williamson asked:

Given the unprecedented level of remote learning over the last 18 months due to COVID 19, it is clear that as we approach exams season in the new year that pupils will be at a disadvantage to their former peers in relation to learning and in particular relevant subject knowledge. Is the cabinet member aware of any steps that have been taken to ensure that these pupils are not disadvantaged for life in relation to ensuring they are exam ready?

Councillor Chauhan, Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care responded that the Council needed to ensure that pupils education and prospects were not damaged, which was why vaccination was so important. He would send Members the detailed response and sincerely hoped all the provisions in place collectively would help pupils to catch up and that all the steps taken with regard to prevention would help them return to school normally after Christmas.

Councillor Hamblett asked:

Given the unprecedented level of remote calls and very few face to face appointments, can the cabinet member now reassure residents of Oldham that more face to face appointments with their GP is now being offered to residents especially to those who struggle to communicate through telephony or online systems as this would be crucial to help ease the pressure from our hospital colleagues during the winter period?

Councillor Chauhan, Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care replied GP’s were regulated by national policies, not by Oldham Council, but he could confirm face to face appointments in Greater Manchester were up to 60% of pre pandemic levels and still rising. They may go down in the next few weeks because of the new variant. It was best to negotiate with the patient as to what suited them as most people would say face to face was not needed and they were happy with a different appointment. The issue was whether this was a shared decision with the patient and the clinician as the best way forward.

Councillor Byrne asked:

If you looked at the wards and percentages that had received their first Covid injection, some wards were much higher than other wards. Perhaps the lower wards were where people did not have cars and could not easily get to centres. What could the Council do about that? There had been pop-up vaccination centres but the figures showed the lowest areas were where people may want to be vaccinated but were not able to the vaccination centre.

Councillor Chauhan, Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care replied that he would get a detailed response on that. He had been someone who had spoken on vaccine accessibility and there had been much work nationally. Locally, people had gone door to door and street to street and opened local centres and pop-up clinics to try to reach areas based on high infection rates. Comparing where Oldham was two years ago and where it was now, with one of the lowest infection rates in England, this must have been the right thing to do. Pharmacies and community centres were still delivery vaccinations and, whilst this was not perfect, this was why the Council was a community leader, to have essential intelligence on the issue and be able to deliver accessibly.

Councillor H Gloster asked:

Can the relevant Cabinet member assure the people of Oldham that much needed access to dentistry and orthodontics appointments will not be limited even if further restrictions apply?

Councillor Chauhan, Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care responded that he shared her concerns this was a directly commissioned responsibility of NHS England. He had been lobbying for the last twelve months to Greater Manchester to ask how we could increase that access to dentistry for residents and he would continue to do this to make sure all residents got the right care. 

Councillor Sheldon asked:

I still note the number of people, especially in shops who do not wear a face mask. Not everyone can do, but there were still a lot of people who simply did not want to. The Prime minister and Labour Leader had both encouraged vaccination. What more could be done to convince those that could do to be vaccinated and recognise we were all in this situation together?

Councillor Chauhan, Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care responded that there were a number of things that could be done as a Council such as increasing Covid marshals and the use of the voluntary and community sectors. People could not be forced to comply, it was a case of addressing concerns and that was where social media had a place. Councillors collectively spoke to residents and provided leaflets which spread the educational element. They had put real physical effort into collectively spreading the message.  

Councillor Hobin asked:

He was aware Councillor Chauhan had worked very hard over the last two years battling this and it was great that the Council had a medical expert to help the Council. He appreciated having received a clear message rather than the confused statements that came from elsewhere.

Councillor Chauhan, Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care responded that he was grateful for the appreciation.

RESOLVED that the content of the report be noted.