Agenda item

Report of the Director of Public Health, Durham County Council

The Committee received a report which provided Adults, Wellbeing and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (AWH OSC) with the progress of the Covid-19 Transition Plan and Health Protection governance arrangements stepping down from an enhanced public health response to business as usual, aligning the management of Covid-19 to the wider health protection arrangements (for copy see file of minutes).

Joy Evans, Strategic Manager Protecting Health, Public Health delivered the report and explained that the pandemic was one of the greatest public health challenges in living memory. It had affected every part of society throughout 2020, 2021 and 2022. Due to the response required for Covid-19 the Health Protection Assurance Board (HPAB) was set up in June 2020 as a dedicated board to oversee and co-ordinate the local Covid-19 response.

The HPAB was responsible for the development and delivery of the statutory Local Outbreak Control Plan 2020/21 (LOCP) and the Local Outbreak Management Plan 2021/22 (LOMP). These plans provided the framework for leading, controlling, co-ordinating and managing the transmission of Covid-19.

The Covid-19 Transition Plan was recently developed to enable the strategic level co-ordination of the transitional arrangements for Covid-19 to step down from an enhanced public health response to business as usual.

Resolved

The Committee agreed:

      i.         That the content of the report be noted;

     ii.         That the extensive work undertaken collaboratively by a range of partners within robust governance arrangements be noted;

   iii.         That a future report detailing the surge planning proposals be received.