Report to follow (The final version of the local outbreak plan will be produced by the 30th June).
Minutes:
Geoff Little, Chief Executive and Accountable Officer delivered a presentation on Bury’s Health and Care Recovery plan.
The latest infection figures and cases in the local population were detailed along with the total numbers of deaths.
The risk of a second wave and infections increasing if restrictions were not followed was detailed.
Information was provided on how lifting the lockdown safely would be conducted which included the hospitality sector from the 4th July.
The presentation provided a summary on:
· National NHS Position and Challenges
· Resuming activity
· Black Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities
· Recap on Recovery Phasing
· Recovery Principles
· Work so far
· Recovery Themes and Priority Programmes
A Councillor had been to shop in Bury and commented that some parts of the town centre were not social distancing.
It was advised that a one way system was in place with a number of stewards to help and advise people on their behaviours to social distance although there were no enforcement powers.
A Member stated that with pubs reopening could the health service cope with the extra demands and can PPE be cleaned so it could be used more than once.
Accident and Emergency departments had concerns for the upcoming weekend and executives at Bury North Care Alliance had planned provision similar to a bank holiday weekend.
PPE guidance would continue to be monitored with changes made in the past from 20 minutes to a single session. Simon Featherstone added that there was no risk of running out of PPE supplies.
The Chair had seen a news report of an outbreak at a food processing plant and asked if certain industries were at a higher risk of infection.
Lesley Jones, Director of Public Health stated it could be a case that these factories were more at risk with overcrowding of employees and lower temperatures in the workplace. There were none of these in Bury although businesses would be identified that may be at a higher risk and work would be conducted with environmental health colleagues.
A Member commented that if come winter time would the risk of infection be twice as high in the refrigeration industry.
A question was posed on how you define local boundaries when neighbouring districts had higher figures.
The Director of Public Health then provided a presentation to Members on the Local Outbreak Plan.
Background information was communicated that all upper tier authorities were required to publish COVID-19 Local Outbreak Plans by 30th June.
These plans were to be led by a Covid-19 Health Protection Board chaired by the Director of Public Health and overseen by a member led board. In Bury, this would be the Council Cabinet.
The Covid-19 Outbreak Plan was circulated to Members for information and had been developed in accordance with national guidance and outlines our local approach to preventing and managing outbreaks in the borough as part of the National Test, Trace, Contain and Enable Programme.
The plan was approved on the 29th June under Emergency Powers rules.
Members of the committee asked how many staff would be working in the trace and testing department and it was reported that there were 3 at present with planned recruitment to make a total of 8 staff.
It was agreed:
That the report, presentations and Bury Covid-19 outbreak control plan be noted.