ONE additional York Hospital Trust death announced today.
NINETEEN (19) additional positive test results announced today. Brings total to 5659
Infection rate falls to 83.57 /100K pop. That is the lowest figures seen since 27th September.
The weekly case rate number (25.1) has finally fallen below the first wave peak (29.1).
The second wave peak was 133.7. It occurred on 16th October.
All neighbourhoods are now below the 200 case threshold.
Five neighbourhoods have below 3 cases
Haxby
New Earswick
Dunnington
Bishopthorpe/Copmanthorpe
Heworth North
Tier 2 from today
Interactive map of infection rates by tier
Click for interactive map. Thanks to https://electionmaps.uk/covid19-tier-map Some way tio go to emulate Cornwall figures
Universities
There is a lot of interest in the results of the mass testing of students at local Universities which started on Monday. They are using the lateral process which produces results within half and hour.
When they last updated their web site https://www.yorksj.ac.uk/coronavirus-advice/ on Monday, St Johns reported that 7 students and members of staff were self isolating following a positive result.
York University reports (https://coronavirus.york.ac.uk/) , “As of the morning of Tuesday 1 December, we are aware of 41 individuals within our University community who are currently self-isolating because they have had a positive Covid-19 test. Since yesterday we have been notified of 0 new cases.“
If any asymptomatic cases are revealed then it could affect the City’s overall infection rate.
4 (FOUR) more deaths at York Hospital Trust announced today. That is the largest single day announcement of fatalities since the second wave of COVID hit the City. Two fatalities occurred on 8th and two on the 9th November. For source details click here
There were 35 (THIRTY FIVE) additional positive test results announced today. That brings the total to 4228
Overall infection rates are now the lowest they have been for 6 weeks.
Only one neighbourhood (Wigginton) is marginally above the national average.
During the last week, during which time infection rates in the City have reduced, they have increased at the North Yorkshire, Yorkshire and national levels.
York now has one of the lowest infection rates in North Yorkshire. It is also much lower than other urban areas in Yorkshire. Hull now has the highest number of cases.
Centre for City’s view of York economy
The Centre for City’s group have updated their economic modelling work to reflect the latest impact of the lockdown. The figures suggest that York is faring about average when compared to other parts of the country.
Click image to access data
Hospital pressures
More than 450 NHS workers in North Yorkshire are off sick or self-isolating because of coronavirus.
Amanda Bloor, accountable officer for North Yorkshire NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, told a briefing that the staff shortages are having a “significant impact” on hospitals already under pressure from a surge in virus patients.
The absences come as the region’s main hospitals in Harrogate, Scarborough, York and South Tees are treating almost as many coronavirus patients as the first wave after a 33% jump in admissions in the last week.
On Tuesday, 252 patients were receiving emergency treatment, compared with 302 in spring.
Mrs Bloor told a briefing of the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum: “We are seeing an increase in staff absences – there are 450 staff across the main North Yorkshire hospitals absent either with Covid or in self-isolation.
“Marrying that with the seasonal illnesses and absences that we would normally expect, it is having a significant impact on staffing levels.
“All of our trusts have got surge plans that allow them to respond to normal winter pressures but particularly where we are now with the increase in numbers of patients presenting with Covid symptoms.
“We have mutual aid agreements in place between hospitals so that they can support each and we can take a regional view.
“If the numbers do rise significantly that will mean that hospitals can not protect planned care capacity which they are working really hard to do.”
Harrogate Hospital currently has 28 coronavirus patients – an increase of 13 from last week.
York has 56 patients – after 15 were admitted in the last seven days.
South Tees – which is located in Middlesbrough but serves North Yorkshire residents – has the highest figure of 119 – an increase of 15.
It comes as NHS staff are reportedly to get twice-weekly home coronavirus tests as early as next week.
Professor Stephen Powis told the Health Service Journal that all patient-facing staff will receive asymptomatic testing, with tests to be rolled out across 34 hospital trusts and cover “over 250,000 staff”.
Universities
The media are reporting that students at York and St John Universities will be encouraged to return home in December. Travel dates will be staggered.
It is unclear whether those wishing to travel on public transport will be required to take one of the new “lateral flow” tests which have been used in a Liverpool pilot, with a turnaround time of under an hour and available for people without symptoms.
It is unlikely that the many foreign students currently studying at the University would be able to return home.
It remains unclear whether the Universities will reopen in January or whether “on line” study will become the new norm.
Back to Tier 1 says MP
Local MP Julian Sturdy has said that York should return to Tier 1 status on 3rd December when the current lockdown period is due to end.
There would be some serious issues to be addressed if the City were to encourage people from high infection areas to visit the City. The spike in September and October can be traced to contacts with people newly arrived in the City.
Now, with infection rates already back to those last seen in September, a strategy aimed at encouraging “locals” to use York shops maybe the safest way forward.
York currently has not yet taken up the offer from the government of “mass testing”.
There has been a further COVID related death at the York Hospital Trust. It occurred on Monday
Unfortunately today sees a record high number of new cases announced. There were 142 (ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTY TWO) additional positive test results today.
That means that there have been a total of 3016 cases in the City.
The 2000 case milestone was passed as recently as the 8th October.
The rate per 7 days peaked at 91.86 on Sunday. The trend is still upwards but is not as steep as seen earlier in the month.
The infection rate per 100k population has peaked at 305.30 (Sunday). This is higher than the regional and national averages.
The university area still has the highest rate of York neighbourhoods.
Universities
The University of York said that as of yesterday (Tuesday), it was aware of 304 individuals within the university community who were currently self-isolating because they had had a positive Covid-19 test.
It said the university had about 4,500 members of staff and a student body of around 18,000.
York St John University said, as of yesterday, 57 members of its community were currently self-isolating because they had had a positive Covid-19 test, adding: “Close contacts have been identified and advised to self-isolate.”
York launches local contact tracing system
City of York Council is launching a new local test and trace system to help people who have recently tested positive and aid in the city’s ongoing efforts to stop the spread of the Coronavirus.
Following extensive lobbying efforts, the Council has been working with the national test and trace system to establish the service, which from tomorrow (Thursday 22 October) will see the local public health team contact those the centralised system has been unable to.
People contacted will be advised to isolate, talked through the local support available when isolating, and asked about details of their close contacts so these can then be followed up by the national team.
The service will run Monday to Friday initially, increasing over the coming weeks to a seven day service, with residents being contacted using a local (01904) phone number. Text messages will also be sent to people with mobile phones telling them to expect a call. If this is still unsuccessful, then a home visit will be made, and if no-one is at home, a letter with details of how to contact the team will be delivered to those advised to isolate, following Covid-19 guidelines.
Councillor Keith Aspden, Leader of City of York Council and Chair of the York Outbreak Management Advisory Board said:
“Together with partners across the city we have been lobbying the Government to provide capacity to establish a localised tracing program to support the national system, which unfortunately continues to fall short of expectations.
“Where contact tracing has been localised in other parts of the country it has been hugely successful in reaching more of those who have contracted coronavirus quickly, helping to slow the spread of the virus. Our trained contact tracers will contact those the national system have been unable to, and this work will be invaluable in helping to keep our city safe and open.
“I want to thank everyone who has engaged with the test and trace system so far and followed advice to self-isolate. We all appreciate how challenging this year has been, and we must work together to support our businesses, schools and key workers, and ensure that our collective effort and the sacrifices made by so many do not go to waste.
“Our public health teams are doing an excellent job, but it’s also the personal responsibility of each and every one of us to keep our city and people safe and the places we love open by ensuring that we follow the public health advice.”
Sharon Stoltz, Director for Public Health at City of York Council said:
“Test and Trace is one of the key methods to support the lowering of transmission rates and keeping York residents safe. Our local contact tracers will work with the national Test and Trace to find those who have tested positive but have not responded to the National Test and Trace calls. The more people we contact, the lower we can bring the rate of transmission. This also helps us gather local intelligence, which enables us to provide a more effective response to the spread of the virus.
“We all have a role to play in keeping the people we love safe and the places we love open. Self-isolating when you have symptoms or are told to by test and trace and Hands Face Space are some of the key things we can all do for each other.
“Support is available for those who are self-isolating by contacting our helpline on 01904 551550 or emailing COVID-19help@york.gov.uk and I want to thank everyone who has, is and will self-isolate when asked to do so, it really does make a difference.”
