“Act as if you have it” – Latest council coronavirus bulletin with localised information for the county borough issued
A fourth detailed briefing on the pandemic situation locally has been published by the local authority.
The below update was published yesterday part of the new twice weekly update system, and echos recent updates with community transmission in households thought to be the driver of the high local covid figures.
The update has also come with a set of social media graphics that you may see popping up on accounts around the area – if you want to join in they are at the bottom of this page, so apologies for the slow loading time.
The full update from yesterday afternoon is copied below, and as usual all bolding and underlining of points is copied from Wrexham Council’s data:
Dear Councillors, Community Councillors and the media,
COMMUNICATIONS
Wrexham Councillors have a vital role to play in sharing key information and messages directly with your communities. To help you with this, I attach user-friendly graphics and animations (GIFs) prepared by the Council’s Comms Team, that you can readily share on social media. Today’s Council public briefing note, which you can also share on social media, is below:
https://news.wrexham.gov.uk/covid-19-briefing-note-its-still-grim-but-there-is-hope/
The key message remains: everyone should act as if they, and everyone they meet, has Covid-19… but that the vaccine is on its way.
DATA ON THE VIRUS
Please find attached:
Table 1 – the summary of the weekly data for Wrexham as a whole compared to other councils in North Wales
Table 2 – the summary of daily data for the 18 ‘MSOA’ statistical sub-areas of Wrexham used by Public Health Wales
The County Borough as a Whole (Table 1) (NB – the data for week ending 10th January are tentative and will not be finalised until next week).
Wrexham remains worst in Wales for the rate per 100,000 population (867.9 today) and positivity (28.8% today), but this is similar to that reported on Friday (851.7 and 29.3%) and slightly better than a few days ago. We can only hope that the virus has peaked, be redouble our efforts to ensure that it does not rise again. There have never been more tests undertaken in North Wales than in the week ending 10th January.
The key driver for the spread of the virus is the ‘UK’ variant, which now accounts for 75-80% of new cases in North Wales, and, most likely, will soon account for 100%. The rate of infection is currently doubling every 5.4 days.
There are not, as yet, any known cases of the ‘South Africa’ variant in Wales or the new, much more worrying, ‘Brazil’ variant in the UK, though the BBC is reported a possible case of the latter. The risks from these will diminish with international travel restrictions in place (including from Portugal, given its close connections with Brazil). Welsh Government has, today, announced mandatory Covid-19 testing for international travellers arriving in Wales from Monday.
Hospital admissions for Covid-19 in North Wales (147 week ending 10th January), have now exceeded the weekly peak of last year (91 in May), placing even greater strain on an over-stretched NHS in general and local hospitals in particular.
Sadly, deaths are rising too.
The Sub-Areas (Table 2)
Most of the 18 ‘MSOA’ sub-areas of Wrexham (used by PHW in their reports) have improved a little since my last report to you 4 days ago (11th January), but some have got worse, a few much worse and the figures remain very high.
- 1 has recorded its worst figures since 20th October (shown in bold on the table), compared to 3 on the 11th
- 16 have greater than 550/100k, compared to 15 on the 11th.
- 10 have greater than 800/100k, compared to 18 on the 11th.
- 14 are in the worst decile (10%) in Wales, compared to 14 on the 11th, but this threshold is much lower (602/100k) than on Monday (648/100k) and last Friday (750/100k), reflecting the fact that cases have fallen more quickly in South Wales.
- The 12 with more than 700/100k (compared to 12 on Monday, but two are different) are set out below:
o Hermitage & Whitegate has 1337/100k – up from 1268 on the 11th
o Gwersyllt West & Summerhill has 1249 – down from 1924 on the 11th
o Town North, University & Rhos-ddu has 1137 – up from 799 on the 11th
o Rhos and Johnstown South has 1110 – up from 626 on the 11th – this is almost double in 4 days
o Caia Park has 1087 – up from 896 on the 11th
o New Broughton & Bryn Cefn has 1044 – down from 1134 on the11th
o Llay South & Gwersyllt East has 947 – down from 1022 on the 11th
o Wrexham West has 912 – down from 948 on the 11th
o Coedpoeth & Brymbo has 855 – down from 1008 on the 11th
o Pen-y-cae & Minera has 820 – up from 861 on the 11th
o Acton & Maes-y-dre has 791 – up from 732 on the 11th
o Gresford, Marfoed & Rossett has 749 – up from 602 on 11th
- 0 have less than 300/100k, compared to 0 on 11th December. The lowest is 497/100k, compared to 466 on the 11th
Settings
The virus is very widespread with the principal locations remaining households followed, some way below, by outbreaks in care/nursing homes (including, sadly, a number of hospitalisations and deaths), the Maelor Hospital and the prison. There are several work-place outbreaks including the one associated with the Arriva Wales bus depot.
MANAGING THE VIRUS
General
The Level 4 Alert lockdown, which came into force on 20th December has been extended until the end of January and should soon begin to have an effect, as the October ‘firebreak’ did, although the predominance of the ‘UK’ variant has clearly acted against this for the last few weeks. International travel restrictions and testing on entry to Wales should help, but household transmission remains the key driver of the infection.
Schools
Schools continue to provide education to pupils via remote learning. On-site provision continues for those children who are vulnerable and for the children of key workers. Unless there is a significant reduction in cases of Covid-19 before 29 January these arrangements will continue until the February half term (week beginning 15th February), which seems likely.
Other Council Services
The Council is continuing to provide critical services as publicised on our website.
Vaccination Programme
Overall
The vaccination programme is fast-moving and subject to daily change.
Last week, Welsh Government published a national vaccination plan aiming to vaccinate:
- all care home residents and staff, health and social care workers, people over 70 and people with underlying health conditions (Priorities 1 to 4) by mid-February
- all other people over 50 by the spring
- all other adults by the autumn
In North Wales, partner organisations are working closely together to implement the programme and are on target to vaccinate the Priority 1 to 4 most vulnerable groups by mid-February, in accordance with the national plan.
Care Homes
Staff and residents at care homes in Wrexham continue to be vaccinated.
Social Care Staff
The Council has provided the names of front-line social care staff so they can be vaccinated as soon as possible.
Community
In the coming days, every household in Wrexham will receive a letter from the health board – many will have already received it by email. It explains more about the vaccine rollout, including how people will be contacted about an appointment. Most vaccinations are currently being given at a number of Mass Vaccination Centres (MVCs) in North Wales, but there are advanced plans in place to mobilise Local Vaccination Centres (LVCs) in Wrexham when needed and to use local GP practices, pharmacies, etc.
More information can be obtained via the following link: https://phw.nhs.wales/topics/immunisation-and-vaccines/covid-19-vaccination-information/about-the-vaccine
Regards
Chief Officer Planning and Regulatory
The social media graphics created and released are below:
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