The North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum met this morning to brief the media (16 December 2020)
Main points
- North Yorkshire is less than half the national average for infection rates/100,000.
- The group urges restraint in still adhering to the measures.
- Hospital are continuing to drop
- Cases within hospital ICU’s are “very small”
Question of moving North Yorkshire from tier-2 to tier-1
Not within the scope of this forum to decide.
Not clear if the tier allocation will be regional or by district. It was noted that Essex has been separated into smaller areas for tier allocation only today.
Acknowledged that the average infection rate for North Yorkshire was much lower than the England average, but it wasn’t clear how much time, to demonstrate a strong trend or a perceived detrimental impact of relaxing Christmas will factor into a decision.
For the tier allocation to be by district there would need to be a significant gap between districts (Scarborough is 174.8 and Hambleton 49.1 per 100,000 this week)
Care Homes
- 33 out of 235 care homes have 1 or more staff or residents with Covid-19.
- 3 care homes have outbreaks of 10 or more
7 day infection rate/ 100,000 (week to 16 December)
- England Average 202.9
- North Yorkshire 101.3
- Scarborough 174.7
- Craven 110.3
- Selby 121.4
- Harrogate 81.5
- Richmond 85.6
- Ryedale 54
- Hambleton 49.1
7 day infection rate/ 100,000 (week to 9 December)
- North Yorkshire 103
- Scarborough 164
- Craven 135
- Selby 99
- Harrogate 93
- Richmond 84
- Ryedale 65
- Hambleton 64
7 day infection rate/ 100,000 (week to 2 December)
- England’s average 153.0
- North Yorkshire 106.9
- Selby 106.9
- Scarborough 127.8
- Craven 127.8
- Ryedale 102.9
- Richmond 93.1
- Harrogate 92.0
- Hambleton 98.6
Hospitals
The report to the meeting said that although there are 17 admissions less than last week, they had 10 admissions yesterday and that indicates that there is movement up in the numbers.
We requested a breakdown of admission numbers between normal wards and ICU wards and the group declined to answer that saying that it would be misleading as it was very small.
Hospitals are under “acute pressure” as they are working to an overall reduction in bed numbers due to greater separation needed, both to separate covid and non-covid patients, plus needed to be further apart on a ward.
Patients in North Yorkshire Hospitals with Covid-19 (week to 16 December 2020)
- North Yorkshire – 184
- Harrogate – 22
- York – 37
- Scarborough – 43
- South Tees – 82
- Darlington – 42
- Airedale – 47
Patients in North Yorkshire Hospitals with Covid-19 (week to 9 December 2020)
- North Yorkshire – 209
- Harrogate – 20
- York – 43
- Scarborough – 52
- South Tees – 94
- Darlington – 56
- Airedale – 54
Vaccine Rollout
Rollout of the vaccine has now started via GP’s surgeries.
There are multiple sites, but they declined to name the sites, although it was acknowledged some GP’s have published on social media that they are a site.
Education
Attendance (week to 16 December 2020)
- 89% of children are at school
- 4 schools are closed, but they are small schools
- 19 schools have partial closures
Testing
Plenty of capacity across all sites, now with Skipton having a fixed testing site.
There was plenty of capacity as there is not the number of symptomatic cases presenting.
Lateral Flow (rapid) Testing is being sought for care home visitors and then patients.
There will be possible daily testing of some school staff, but that will need consent of a school and the pupils.
Additional budgets would be provided to schools for that testing.
No significant problem around travel between tier-3 and tier-2 areas.
If you travel from a tier-3 area, to a tier-2 area, the tier-3 rules travel with you.
From 2 December 47 penalty notices issued, 8 were to visitors from tier-3.
