Local lockdowns are a ‘last resort’
Anti-Covid measure ‘very difficult’ in Valleys, warning:
LOCAL lockdowns in Rhondda Cynon Taf would be very difficult and should be a last resort, a council officer has said.
At an overview and scrutiny committee meeting last month, councillors discussed the council’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic
And Paul Mee, director of public health, protection and community services at RCT Council, said local lockdowns would depend on the specific circumstances of an incident, but said that in the authority’s valleys it would be difficult, with local lockdowns having to be a last resort.
The Welsh Government has published its plans for coronavirus local lockdowns with details of the powers it could use if there is a spike in cases in certain areas.
However, there are concerns about how effective local lockdowns have been in England, where a variety of different tactics have been used.
Cllr Mark Adams the chair of the committee asked: “How on Earth are you going to lock down Rhondda when every community is interrelated and is connected?
“There’s no segregation line between Tylorstown, Pontygwaith, Ynyshir, Wattstown. How do you do a local lockdown on that basis? I can’t see how we can do it.”
Mr Mee said: “I think it would be practically very difficult in the communities that we have in the Valleys and it would be something that we’d have to consider as an absolute last resort.”
Cllr Adams then asked what lessons have been learned from the pandemic and where officers think they will go as a local authority if they have selective or local lockdowns in future or a second wave.
“You do see in the news all over the world about a second wave. Will schools open in September and close in October? I don’t know. These are the kind of questions the public are asking.”
Mr Mee said that chief medical officers in the Welsh Government have told them along with partners in the health board and other local authorities to start preparing a local plan in case there is a second wave of infection.
He said the situation they are in now is different to the one they were in at the start of lockdown in March because they have now put in place the Test, Trace, Protect system which will help with controlling the spread of infection and said there is an effective response when there are incidents or outbreaks like the ones in Merthyr and North Wales.
He said they also have more robust surveillance information which allows them to keep a much closer eye on the rate of infection and be more responsive to particular issues particularly in close settings like schools.
He said: “We are in a stronger position to deal with any incidents should they arise in the coming weeks and months as the lockdown eases.
“And I suspect what we’ll see more of is those local interventions around particular incidents and outbreaks in particular communities and hopefully it won’t come to lockdown situations as they’ve had in some other parts of the UK but that might be a necessary part of it.”
He said they’re doing scenario planning with local resilience forums to plan what they would need to do if there was a lockdown on a particular premises.
He added: “I think we’ll be in a strong position and the response that has been made from the council has been tremendous across council services and I think we’ve learned a great deal from that.”
Councillor Elyn Stephens asked if there was a need for a local lockdown, at what level could that be done.
“Is it for the whole of Rhondda Cynon Taf? Or can it be a single ward or even a single street?
“How small an area are you able to lockdown if it was needed?”
Mr Mee said he doesn’t really know the answer to that, but he thinks it will relate to the specific circumstances.
“What we’ve found in Wales so far has been primarily around individual premises where you’ve had evidence of an unusually high rate of positive infections. And those are premises where you’ve had a workforce or working conditions where there’s a greater risk of the spread of infection in that location.
“As a consequence, the local authorities working with Public Health Wales have been able to intervene in those specific circumstances and control it.
“So it could be based around an individual premises. It could however be more around controlling certain activities within a wider community setting, even a town or a number of streets.
“I think it would depend very much on the individual circumstances and understanding what was the cause of the infection in the first place.”
He said they currently contact trace on a confirmed case by contacting people who’ve been in contact with the confirmed case within 48 hours of the symptoms starting. They’re now going to be looking back further to do “backward tracing” to try to find out where the infection has come from.
Cllr Adams also asked what the arrangements are for schools to make sure the virus isn’t being passed on.
Mr Mee said if there are two or more continued cases in two weeks they’d be concerned there’s an incident or spread there.
He said they could look at it as an individual incident and put an incident management team in place or they could take steps to self-isolate that group or class of children or even the entire school if necessary.
He said there is comprehensive guidance in place and said schools should maintain outstanding levels of hygiene and maintain social distancing and make sure anyone who has symptoms does not attend.