Its over a week since Independent Councillor Mark Warters emailed the City’s Public Health Director asking what was being done to counter the risks of the Novel Coronavirus virus which had emerged in Wuhan in China.
He (rightly) pointed out that there were close links between our countries with many tourists and University students now visiting from China. At that time 2000 people had flown to the UK from Wuhan.
There had been no confirmed cases in the UK although the Chief Medical Officer had said that there was a “fair chance” that some would arise.
The Director of Public Health (Sharon Stolitz) replied on 22nd January. She said that the risk to residents in York is “extremely low”. “So on this occasion, my professional judgement is that it is not appropriate to do any public press or media briefings on coronavirus”
On Monday 27th January the Director agreed to liaise with local Universities.
On Tuesday 28th she wrote to Mark Warters saying “The risk to residents in York is low and the presence of Chinese students in the City does not change this. It would be wrong to suggest that it does”. “There is no further action required in York at this point of time”.
On Wednesday 29th January more concerns were expressed about lack of publicity.
One commentator suggested that, as a minimum, the Council should remind people about the need to sustain basic hygiene standards like hand washing. It was pointed out that, even in major Council buildings, there were no hand sanitisers deployed (pretty much standard on every cruise ship these days, albeit mainly as a response to Norovirus).
It emerged later that the University wrote to students giving advice on basic hygiene and the options available if they were feeling unwell.
Later on Wednesday, two suspected cases on Coronoviruis were identified at York ‘s Staycity aparthotel, which is located near the Barbican.
The media reported the case the next day. There was no public comment from the Council.
On Friday (31st) the media camped outside the Staycity aparthotel.
At 14:43 the Councils complaints department – challenged about a lack of communication on the issue – said “Please access the official information on the coronavirus outbreak on the link below. which is updated daily and is available to all. This information is being shared nationally with all media outlets. City of York Council is not currently providing any media comment in addition to this”. Q&A blog
A few minutes later media reports made it clear that a couple who had been staying in York were being treated at a specialist unit in Newcastle for Coronavirus symptoms.
At 5:25pm, the Council Leader issued a statement. The City’s MP (Rachel Maskell) issued a similar communication.
Both had apparently been briefed by Health Department officials. Some information was made available via a web link https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2020/01/23/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-what-you-need-to-know/.
The statements did have the ring of L/Cpl Jones about them.
The Staycity management also commented that the room that the ill couple had stayed at had been quarantined. It would be thoroughly cleaned and sanitised. The hotel remains open for business.
In the evening some Council members took to social media to offer advice. Some was good (regular hand washing, don’t go to your GP if you get the symptoms) but there remained some gaping holes in the information available.
As the virus can be transmitted person to person, just when had the couple concerned arrived in the Country?
What had been their movements?
Although death rates are still relatively low (2% fatalities) that is a big enough threat for some intensive work and communications to be necessary over the next few hours.
It was confirmed at lunchtime today (Saturday) that one of the ill people is a student at the University of York
