Issue - meetings

The Board received and noted the report of the Director of Public Health providing a Covid-19 Situation Update.  It was noted that an infographic report was published by the Council on a weekly basis which summarised key information published by the Government, Public Health England and other agencies which could be used to monitor the pandemic both nationally and locally in Southampton.

The Board noted that latest information from regional test and trace meeting earlier in the day which looked at both national and regional data indicated that the spread of the virus was escalating nationally with 17m currently in a local lockdown situation.  London was close to being on a watch list, and it was noted that a watch list was where there was an incident rate of 20 per 1000 population in 7days. In relation to Southampton the incident rate remained relatively low, but it was noted that the periphery areas of London were seeing an increase which would mean a test scenario for Southampton which could see situations changing quickly.

Locally it was noted that there was a lot of intelligence data and a range of early warning indicators in place.  There had been an increase in both calls and on-line requests for the 111 helpline particularly relating to the younger population which was thought to be linked to schools, colleges and universities returning.

In terms of infections in the City there had been 1136 and the last 7 days had seen 36 which was the same as the previous 7 days.  Average cases per day was 5 but this was increasing gradually.  In relation to the under 65yrs age group more cases were being seen whilst the over 65yrs remained fairly flat however this was likely to increase over the winter months with more hospital admissions and poorer outcomes.

Rates of infection were also looked at against sizes of population, larger populations would see more infection, Southampton was at 12.62% as of the previous Friday which was similar to other comparator areas and way below others.  Positivity rates for Southampton were 1% which did fluctuate, however other areas were at 12.8% and 14%.  In the previous week there had been no admissions to hospital or cases diagnosed, the week before that there had been 10.  Mortality in the City was 168, 102 of which in hospital and the remainder in the community, primarily care homes.  It was noted the latest recorded death in the City was 14^th August.

The Board acknowledged and thanked the residents in the City who had been doing all they could to ensure the virus did not spread by following the rules and guidance.  The City now had 2 test and trace sites with a 3^rd being proposed which was increasing testing capacity across the City which was positive.