Weekly email bulletin from Newham Council 17 September 2020

Newham Council is issuing regular e-bulletins to residents about what’s happening at the Council and in the borough, including the latest information about how we are responding to Covid-19.

Hello Everyone,

It’s been another concerning week as cases of Covid-19 continue to increase, with the total number of confirmed cases in the UK today totalling 3,991, and people still can’t access testing. The surge in coronavirus cases, coupled with the push to get people back at work and the return of schools has led to increased testing demand including from front line workers such as brilliant NHS workers.

In parliament this week the Health Secretary admitted that there remain ‘operational challenges’ with the national NHS test and trace system which will take weeks to resolve. He’s also announced new guidance for testing, which means that only people with acute clinical need, those in social care settings, NHS staff and teachers will be prioritised.

It also means there is a real risk that community transmission will continue to rise unless all of us take personal precautions like washing hands frequently, keeping a distance when we are out and about as well as wearing our masks and using the NHS app you can easily download. We really have to stay vigilant. For all the information on the level of Coronavirus in the Newham you can access our dashboard at Covid-19 Dashboard.

As you can see in Newham there were 105 new positive cases recorded this week – and our infection rate is running at 28.8 per 100,000 of population. However the results may be underestimating the situation due to the crisis is the national testing programme, which means many may be unable to access a test.

The Government urged our children to return to schools and people to go back to work while reassuring us that we would have access to a ‘world-beating’ testing system. The reality is that although our schools have reopened the Government’s testing system is in chaos with a backlog of over 200,000 tests. Many people are being told there are no testing centres available while others are told of centres hundreds of miles away from where they live.

From the start of the Covid-19 pandemic we have been actively raising concerns about the access our residents have to effective, swift and accurate testing. We have called on the Government to provide additional testing sites in Newham and ensure the system is robust, freely available, quick and accurate.

This is just not acceptable and the Government needs to come clean about the real situation. If they want parents to send their children back to school, for people to return to work and for society to start operating normally, a fully functioning testing system that can cope with demand must be up and running.

We now face a situation where pupils in Newham are going back to school and students to university but the system is not able to cope with the demand. In the absence of sufficient tests, we have been forced to advise residents who have symptoms, but cannot get tested, to self-isolate for 14 days. However, this is creating local anxiety and taking key workers like doctors, nurses and teachers, out of their places of work while they isolate and wait for a test.

We are urging government to take action to resolve this issue as a matter of priority and we are taking action locally to encourage residents to comply with the new rules and work together to be vigilant in the face of this national crisis.

Today we also learnt that rising infection rates have led to a huge swathe of the North East of England being subject to further lockdown measures including new restrictions on social contact between households, a 10pm curfew on pubs and restaurants, and a ban on care home visits for all but “essential visitors”.

These measures have been introduced at the request of local council leaders, and will cover a population of approximately 1.5 million people.

I welcome the government’s decision to listen to local authority leaders, and urge them to continue to do so, not least to listen to our demand for proper funding to cover the extra costs incurred as a result of supporting residents throughout the Covid-19 crisis. Those costs are continuing to mount – and a second wave of infection risks the need for even more expenditure.

We are doing all we can to avert such a second spike in infection rates, and the need for more damaging restrictions, but without a function testing programme, we are fighting with one hand tied behind our back.

That’s why, for the sake of all of us here in Newham, please follow the rules - including the ‘rule of six’ – avoiding gatherings of more than six people. Continue to maintain social distancing, wear face coverings where necessary and wash your hands. There is a great deal we can all do to keep ourselves, our families and our communities safe.

If we all work together we can help to stop a second wave of Covid-19 and reduce infections and deaths. And be assured, I will continue to put pressure on the government to demand that they support us here in Newham. 

Stay safe and stay protected. 

Best wishes,

Rokhsana Fiaz OBE
Mayor of Newham

Read more Covid-19 updates from Mayor Fiaz or follow her on Twitter @rokhsanafiaz

 

Published: 17 Sep 2020