East Riding Unvaccinated Urged To Come Forward

East Riding Council’s public health lead has urged the unvaccinated to come forward for coronavirus jabs as Omicron continues to spread locally.

East Riding Council’s Public Health Director Andy Kingdom said Omicron’s ability to spread quickly was the main concern, leaving large numbers of people off work at once, including in hospitals.

He added coronavirus had already left 39 per cent of hospital staff off at a time when more people are expected to be admitted with the illness.

It comes as 1,845 new coronavirus cases were recorded in the East Riding from Monday, December 13 to Sunday, December 19, up from 1,661 cases the previous week.

The rolling infection rate rose from 484 to 538 cases per 100,000 people in the East Riding during the same period.

The equivalent rate for Yorkshire and Humber was 541 while for England it was 948 which Mr Kingdom said came largely from spikes in London.

It also comes as 147 cases linked to the Omicron variant have been confirmed in the East Riding, with 460 probable ones still being tested.

Mr Kingdom said the strain would likely surpass Delta as the dominant variant by the first week of January.

He added at least a third and as many as half of all new coronavirus cases currently could be Omicron ones as it can double its numbers every 48 hours.

Mr Kingdom also said that despite recent studies indicating Omicron could be milder than Delta, the speed of it spreading would still mean more people going into hospital with coronavirus.

The director said:

“The 147 confirmed Omicron cases are just the ones we’ve found.

“Across Yorkshire and Humber what we’ve seen is that its spread first among 20 to 39 year olds and those of working age, then it will be passed onto older people.

“In South Africa where Omicron emerged, their cases shot up very quickly but they’ve also come down quickly.

“But South Africa has a younger population and its low vaccination rate means most people will have some immunity through having been infected already, so its not comparing like for like when looking at the UK.

“What’s concerning here is the combination of spikes in coronavirus cases at the same time hospital staff are going off.

“And it’s not just hospital staff having to isolate, but people working in transport and other services which the health system relies on to keep running.

“We’re not yet seeing Omicron cases translate into hospitalisations because of the time lag between catching coronavirus and becoming seriously ill.

“But looking at somewhere like London we’ve seen coronavirus patients in their hospitals double and we can see that Omicron is spreading rapidly in neighbouring areas.

“We’re at the bottom of the curve that other places are on at the moment, but we will see increases here.

“We’ve bought ourselves a few days to get more boosters in and the rollout has been ramped up.

“And people in the East Riding are following the new behavioural measures well, a lot of families have downsized their Christmas plans and wearing masks which will also be helping to slow the spread down here.

“That’s important because Omicron is like the Formula One car of coronavirus variants, we don’t have weeks or months to spread a surge out over, it can double its numbers every 48 hours.

“So the number one thing people can do right now to help is to get the booster.

“And those who haven’t been vaccinated at all are at much greater risk from Omicron, even though it might be milder that’s only the case for those who’ve been vaccinated or already have immunity.

“If you haven’t been vaccinated and you catch it you’ve got an extreme risk of becoming seriously ill.

“We’ve still got around 33,500 people in the East Riding who haven’t been vaccinated, they have no protection.

“I’d really encourage them to get vaccinated, they will get it with no questions asked or no judgement, that’s not how the NHS works.

“We’re still seeing a lot of pregnant women who haven’t had the vaccine going into intensive care with coronavirus, it’s a tragedy, the vaccine’s safe but coronavirus isn’t for them or their baby.

“I’d also encourage people to test as regularly as they can, if people could test after Christmas Day and Boxing Day then isolate and take themselves out of circulation if they need to that will help.”