Agenda item

Prior to presenting the report, Amanda Healy, Director of Public Health provided a brief update on the wider COVID-19 work which had taken place  since the October meeting of the Committee.  Members noted that during October, County Durham was subject to local restrictions and weekly dialogue with government officers had taken place, whilst the rates of infection were increasing.  There had been a large student outbreak with the return of students to the city, however, close work with the University and students had resulted in the situation now being under control. 

Weekly meetings were being held with the Chief and Deputy Chief Medical Officers and the rates of infection in the neighbouring LA7 areas were starting to plateau. On 5 November, national restrictions were imposed in England, which, although very challenging, are hoped to reduce the rate of infection.  Work is ongoing with colleagues in the LA7 to agree key areas of focus, reflected in the local outbreak plan.  These include the aim to localise test and trace, to move towards plans for a COVID-19 vaccination programme, and, a major programme of community engagement to maintain the momentum at a community level and combat any ‘pandemic-fatigue’.  Current rates were reported as 322 per 100,000 with a seven-day average of 1,666 cases in County Durham as reported on the data dashboard.  Over the past month, there had been a small number of cases within schools which had been well managed, as well as some in workplaces, however, it is hoped the national restrictions will reduce incidents in workplaces.  There had been a slight increase in the number of cases in the 35-64 age group and the 65 plus age group continues to be the group seeing the most admissions to hospital.  Every opportunity is being taken to ensure the county is in a good position when the national restrictions end on 2 December.  Members noted a detailed update will be provided at the next meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board, and, the dates of the Member Development sessions on the data dashboard will be confirmed in members’ diaries as soon as possible.  

Councillor Brown expressed concern that there was some confusion regarding whether clinically extremely vulnerable members of the public were required to shield from midnight on 4 November.  The Director of Public Health responded that letters are being sent out to all clinically extremely vulnerable people to provide information with regard to the new national restrictions which stop short of the requirement to shield.  

Introducing the Health Impact Assessment, the Director of Public Health spoke of the importance of this work which investigates the impact of health inequalities during COVID-19.  The Committee then welcomed Jane Sunter, Public Health Strategic Manager who delivered a report and presentation on the findings and recommendations of the Health Impact Assessment (HIA) (for copy of report and presentation see file of minutes). 

The Strategic Manager explained that evidence suggests it is likely that the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions have increased inequalities in the most deprived communities.  In response, the County Durham and Darlington Health, Welfare and Recoveries Group initiated a rapid Health Impact Assessment to examine the impact of COVID-19 on lockdown on inequalities with the findings being used to inform the recovery response to COVID-19.

In delivering the presentation, the Strategic Manager provided information on the local impact of COVID-19 and the key, and other, priorities identified from the rapid Health Impact Assessment. 

She explained that part of the process looked at highlighting datasets for each Area Action Partnership to enable them to focus on their key priority areas to inform a community response.  Recommendations include that the findings are shared with regional partners to work to reduce health inequalities across the north east, and the next steps include monitoring of the partnership implementation of the four key priority areas identified.

The Chair thanked the Strategic Manager for the detailed report and presentation and, with reference to the dissemination of data packs to Area Action Partnerships, he asked if this had taken place.  The Strategic Manager responded that the data packs had been sent to Area Action Partnerships     and training sessions had been carried out with co-ordinators.  In addition, the data packs are available on Durham Insight.  In response to a request from the Chair and Councillor Bell, the Strategic Manager agreed to send the data packs to members.

Councillor Bell commented on the health benefits of exercise and to reports on how well organised leisure centres had been during the re-opening, prior to the new national restrictions.   He asked what measures are being put in place to ensure they may re-open as soon as possible, when the current restrictions are lifted.  Acknowledging the health benefits of exercise, the Director of Public Health responded the plan is to open leisure centres as soon as possible when national restrictions are lifted on 2^nd December.  She added that the leisure and community sectors have been exemplars during the pandemic with colleagues in Culture, Sport and Tourism providing a range of well-received outreach work during the first wave of the pandemic. 

Resolved:

a)   to endorse the actions identified in the HIA to mitigate negative impacts and enhance positive impacts of the COVID-19 recovery response using a system wide approach;

b)   to promote the key priorities identified in the HIA with all partners to enable their integration into all strategies and polices as a contribution to reducing inequalities;

c)    to prioritise and promote the recommendations made in the HIA;

d)   to monitor data in priority areas to measure impact of future actions undertaken at a local level;

e)   to work with partners to build on learning and support preparations for any second wave or local outbreak situations.