Agenda item

7.1  The Chair stated that he had asked Public Health to provide a further update on the Covid-19 situation in the borough. The Commission had been receiving these at each meeting during the course of the pandemic.  He welcomed to the meeting: Chris Lovitt (CL) Deputy Director of Public Health for City & Hackney.

7.2  Members gave consideration to a TABLED briefing report Covid-19 update to HiH 9 February 2022

7.3  CL took Members through the presentation in detail with slides detailing the following points: Key messages; Weekly Covid-19 incidence rates have decreased by 75% since Dec but remaining higher than this time last year; School-aged populations are currently recording some of the highest Covid-19 incidence rates; Testing rates have declined considerably over the past month in line with national testing shortages and changes in behaviour; Tracing efforts and interventions have since shifted to high risk areas and settings; Hackney and City are continuing to record some of the lowest vaccination rates in England; Vaccination rates are beginning to plateau for major cohorts; Vaccination rates vary by up to 41 % points between geographical areas; the total number of beds occupied by Covid-19 patients at Homerton has decreased each week for the last month.

7.4  He also described that day’s government  announcement on the loosening of restrictions.  He described the plateauing of covid cases but noted that the incidence remained high among children.  He noted the small reduction in hospitalisations and that Hackney still had some of the lowest rates of vaccination in the country.  He concluded with advice that even if you’ve had the Omicron variant, after 28 days,  you must restart your vaccination programme.

7.5  Members asked questions and the following was noted in the responses:

(a) A Member asked why Hackney’s vaccination rate was still one lowest in England for first doses. CL described the continuing struggle in addressing hesitancy and highlighted the success of pop-up vaccinations programmes in communities.

(b) A Member asked about the call-recall system and the value of personal contact by GPs and if we were  recording what GPs were finding in talking to the vaccine hesitant. CL replied that on the importance of call-recall with the booster programme. He also hoped that the vaccination programme might now be rolled out to GPs and community pharmacies as with flu.

(c) A Member asked what could be read into declining testing rates. CL replied that there has been difficulties in accessing Lateral Flow Test kits now that people don’t need confirmatory PCRs and so not everyone was reporting their LFT results. Another issue was that the list of covid symptoms was now much broader.  He cautioned that the R rate in London was hovering at 0.9-1.0.

(d) The Chair asked about the contrast of health data demonstrating that Hackney has high levels of health inequality yet the funding coming down from central govt has Hackney being allocated reduced funding under the new calculations. CL agreed re the structural deprivation issues.  On Long Covid a Needs Assessments will have to be done as Covid will be an ongoing burden. If we do move to a more locally planned system, which would be welcome,  it will make it easier for people to access the vaccine in a more low threshold way.

7.6  The Chair thanked the Deputy Director for his report and attendance.

RESOLVED:

That the report and discussion be noted.