To receive a report from the Director of Public Health.

The Director of Public Health gave a brief overview of the Outbreak Management Plan. At the beginning of June the Council had to produce outbreak management plans for each area which were completed and available online from the beginning of July. The Outbreak Management Plan was a working document that covered how Trafford were responding to COVID 19. The plan was split into two sections which were preventative and reactive measures. The preventative section focused upon infection control and covered equipment, rules, and public engagement. There was a section on testing in Trafford which covered the five testing options available in the area.   A large part of the plan concerned how to make people aware of testing options available and when they needed to get a test.

The plan also covered contact tracing when someone tested positive including how a person’s contacts were traced, how they were contacted, and what those people had to do once they had been contacted. Within the contact tracing Trafford were trying to identify high risk settings within the area. High risk areas were those where there was likely to be outbreaks, for example workplaces or schools, or those where if an outbreak occurred it would have a large impact, for example care homes.  The other section of the plan looked at the response that was taken when there was an outbreak within the area.

Following the overview the Board were given the opportunity to ask questions. Councillor Brophy asked what had been learnt from the outbreaks that had been seen in the area. The Director of Public Health responded that the outbreaks in Trafford had taken them by surprise as it did not match the outbreaks seen elsewhere in the country. The lessons learned were that there was still community level transmission in Trafford and that the level of infections increased as people interacted more. The original outbreak seemed to be a group of young people where one had tested positive and then informed their friends who all went and had tests. By the time the pattern had been recognised they had stopped going for tests. Some spread had been seen to their parents but not at a high level so far.

Councillor Brophy asked whether the situation with the young people was now under control or if this was still an area of increased transmission. The Director of Public Health responded that there had been a change in the demographic of cases with infection levels no longer highest among young people. While there had been a reduction in the overall level of cases the Board were informed that there had been a spike in cases on Monday the 10^th August and Trafford still had the 22^nd highest rate of infection in the Country. The Director of Public Health then gave a breakdown of the demographics of the spread across the area.  The Board were informed that there had not yet been any spread into care homes and were assured that was something that the Council were working extremely hard to prevent.

The Executive Member for Adult Social Care spoke about the importance of getting the right messages out to the public and ensuring that those messages did not demonise parts of the population such as young people. The Executive Member for Adults Social Care noted that exam results were due to be given out in the next few weeks and asked whether any specific messaging had been aimed at those young people as to how they could celebrate safely. The Executive Member also asked about the data being captured and whether it was accurate, as it did not capture someone’s work place and other information that could aid in contact tracing. The Director of Public Health responded that the messages that Trafford were sending out to young people was when celebrating it was best to do so outside. The other key message was that if they had been out in an environment with lots of people then do not go and visit grandparents for at least a week. The public health team were working with Trafford College and schools around messaging including creating videos with children and young people providing advice. The Executive Member for Health, Wellbeing, and Equalities responded to the question regarding data captured through track and trace. They informed the Board that they had met with the COVID 19 task Force during the week and had fed back to them that employment information was a key element that should be captured within Track and Trace. The Director of Public Health added that ethnicity was self-recorded. The Accountable Officer for Trafford CCG added the Government could aid in the reporting of employment if they provided a more robust offer to support those who tested positive.

Councillor Blackburn asked how many people had been hospitalised and discharged. The Director of Public Health stated that there had not been a rise in the number of hospitalisations but that this could be due to the age of those being affected or due to the delay between infection and the more severe symptoms of COVID 19. The Corporate Director of Adult Services added that since the 19^th of March Trafford had supported 960 discharges from hospital which was double the number that would normally be done in the same period. 

Councillor Blackburn followed up her question asking whether more vulnerable people were keeping themselves safe by isolating themselves. The Director of Public Health responded that they did not have sufficient information to answer the Councillors question but it was likely that there were mixed levels of caution across the population with some being extremely cautious and others far less so. 

RESOLVED: That the plan be noted by the Board.