North Yorkshire COVID response upgraded to 'Major Incident' Status

A rapid increase in COVID case in Scarborough and Whitby is part of the reason for the increased measures.

The Chief Executive of North Yorkshire County Council is calling on residents to help 'turn the tide' by following the COVID guidelines in an attempt to avoid enforced lockdowns.

In an update from the County Council Richard Flinton says..

This week unfortunately brings with it increasing concerns about the worrying rise in positive coronavirus tests in North Yorkshire.

In response to this situation, last night I chaired a meeting involving many very senior figures in a broad range of partner agencies to assess the latest data and direction and to discuss what action we should take – collectively.

I want to be clear that the actions we decide to take will have only one aim – to protect people, communities, schools and businesses from the impacts that we are seeing elsewhere in areas going back into lockdown to contain this virus.

I am telling you this to reassure you – that we are here and working hard together to manage the virus and to prevent it taking a hold of our lives once again.

So – we are stepping up our oversight and management once again and to do this we will reinstate what we call a ‘major incident’ status - we will be communicating some very important messages with you over the coming days and weeks. Your response to the ‘asks’ we put to you will be critical. Only your actions – the choices each and every one of you make in the days and weeks ahead – will turn the tide in the areas where we are seeing worry positive cases rise and help protect those where we are not. To be clear, we cannot do this without your support.

As I mentioned last week, the rise in positive tests in the Selby and Harrogate areas, as well as Scarborough, were being carefully monitored. We have watched these extremely carefully and examined the data daily and over the past week. I am sorry to say that positive tests in Harrogate remain a worry, but of particular concern is the rapid increase in Selby and Scarborough, specifically Whitby. Like you, we are extremely keen to avoid enforced lockdowns if that is possible. We desperately want our children to be able to attend school and other education settings so everything we ask, or action we take, will look to preserve their learning. It’s so important for their future prospects and for their mental health.

As a county – we also need to protect our economy and to do all we can to ensure our businesses are able to continue to stay open. Another lockdown, as the furlough scheme comes towards its end, could cost more jobs and will inevitably have a negative impact on businesses striving to recover from the body blow delivered by the first wave of Coronavirus.   

As things stand, the number of people being admitted to hospital is not escalating at the same rate as the positive tests. Largely this is due to the fact that it is a younger age group seeing cases grow. This age group may well be less vulnerable to the more serious symptoms, and therefore less likely to require hospital care. However, unfortunately we are also seeing a rise in the number of positive tests in our care settings – home to many of our most vulnerable residents. We are managing this, with the care sector, dynamically on a daily basis and a whole host of prevention and infection control measures are already in place. Our oversight of this issue across the sector will remain robust so that we can offer your parents and grandparents, friends and family, the best protection possible.

We are also heading towards winter months – this in itself bring its own pressures on the NHS, but we know that covid type viruses thrive in the colder temperatures.

When we put together the pieces of the jigsaw nationally, regionally and locally – it’s not hard to see the picture.

Sadly, we are indeed heading towards a second wave of coronavirus and we must take definitive and consistent action – every single one of us – to contain it here.  Of course there are rules and the police, councils and other relevant agencies will do our best to limit the spread by enforcing them where necessary – but wouldn’t it be altogether better if we just did our bit and stuck to them? Otherwise, we will all have to bear the consequences - and I don’t say that to finger wag. You have only to look elsewhere across Europe and the UK to see what can happen.

The county's Director of Public Health, Dr Lincoln Sargeant has also provided an update on the latest level of new COVID cases in North Yorkshire, he says..

There have been 3075 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in North Yorkshire to date. Over the last few days we have seen increases of around 30 new cases per day, particularly in younger and working age groups. Most spread continues to be between people who spend extended time together in household and social settings. However, this will inevitably include individuals who work in local businesses (including care homes) or attend local schools, and so we are seeing an increase in cases associated with these settings. It is important to note that in the majority of cases the transmission is occurring outside of the settings themselves – schools, care homes and businesses have worked very hard to make premises COVID-secure.

On Monday 14th September, the Government introduced new legislation to limit the number of people you can meet socially to no more than 6 individuals, both indoors and outdoors. More information on meeting others safely is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-meeting-with-others-safely-social-distancing/coronavirus-covid-19-meeting-with-others-safely-social-distancing.

I am sure that everyone is aware there are challenges with access to swab testing across the UK, including in North Yorkshire. The limiting factor is with the capacity in national labs, rather than our ability to take swabs locally. We have fought very hard to maintain our access to Mobile Testing Units across the county, which we have so far managed to achieve. However, we do not have any control over how many slots are available to book on the national portal at each of the sites that we put on. I appreciate that this is very frustrating for people who are doing their best to follow the guidance for symptomatic individuals to isolate and access testing. The latest information available nationally is that lab capacity will be increased from the start of October – in the meantime we continue to look for local solutions to support testing for key workers in particular.

There are a number of events planned across the county over the next few weeks and months. We are working with partners to produce guidance on holding events safely. However, we are also in a position where we are seeing rapidly increasing numbers of new cases in various parts of the county (particularly Harrogate, Scarborough and Selby districts). We will monitor the level of COVID-19 in areas closely, as decisions about events proceeding may need to change at short notice in light of local infection rates.