HELP US GET OFF THE WATCHLIST

Health chiefs say city is an area of concern as coronavirus cases remain high:

Peterborough has been placed on the government’s coronavirus watchlist and the city’s director of public health has called for increased vigilance from residents.

The weekly report from Public Health England which the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock uses to advise the government, has Peterborough listed as an ‘amber’ area of concern.

Overall the total weekly case rate for Peterborough was 19.4 which was a fall on the previous week.

Peterborough and neighbouring Northampton have been flagged as areas of concern, although both currently have falling infection levels.

The report also shows Peterborough has a high level of testing with the average number of individuals tested per day per 100,000 of population is 133.2.

The report said: “The Watchlist is produced by first considering the lower tier local authorities with the highest weekly incidence rate and its trend, combined with a range of other indicators including the test positivity rate, an assessment of the local response and plans, and the trend of other metrics such as

healthcare activity and mortality. The classification decision is therefore a blended assessment drawing on professional judgement.”

Dr Liz Robin, director of public health for Peterborough City Council has stressed the need to people to redouble efforts on social distancing, hand washing and testing.

She said: “Data released (Friday July 31) by Public Health England shows Peterborough remains out of the top ten in the country for its weekly rate of COVID-19 – but still in the top 20, with an incidence rate of 19.4 positive cases per 100,000 population, compared to the overall rate for England which is 7.8.

“This is based on cases recorded between 20 and 26 July, which for Peterborough was 40 cases, similar to last week’s 41 positive cases.

“Our city remains an ‘area of concern’ and on the government watch list and as a result, our targeted communications and engagement work with communities continues.

“We continue to step up testing - making it more easily available in areas where we see clusters of cases, and we are now testing people in higher risk groups who don’t show any symptoms - so we are expecting that our rates of confirmed cases will increase

“Our mobile testing sites have been available on different days in Gladstone Park

Community Centre and Dogsthorpe Community Centre, which we have been publicising to the community and you can find the dates and times posted weekly on our website and social media accounts. People can turn up to have a test between 10am and 3pm – there is no need to book an appointment.

“Increasing our testing offer is beneficial, as early identification of cases is essential – and to support this even more we hope to shortly be part of a government led scheme to undertake some of our own local contact tracing and will be able to tell you more about that shortly.

“This means we can identify pockets of infection even earlier, provide support and advice to help people isolate and break the chain of onward infection.

“In the meantime we continue to take action to raise awareness of what residents can do to reduce rates of community transmission.

“Please support us in this, by sharing information with your family and friends.

“The council posts information on its social media channels daily and there is a wealth of information that can be shared at www.peterborough.gov.uk

“Most of all we need people to keep caring for Peterborough and to understand that COVID-19 hasn’t gone away.’’

Testing will be carried out at Dogsthorpe Community Centre on Saturday, August 8, as well as at Gladstone Park Community Centre ond Sunday, August 9. Slots will be available between 10am and 3pm. You can just turn up for a test, or book online on the NHS website or by phone on 119.