Mass test plan to bring us out of Tier 3
DERBYSHIRE’S leaders are hoping to come out of Tier 3 Covid-19 restrictions in the next two weeks.
They are hoping mass-testing across the whole county, including Derby, will help achieve this.
Cllr Barry Lewis, leader of Derbyshire County Council, hopes to see mass-testing implemented with the help of thousands of soldiers within the next week or so, with talks with central government pushing on yesterday. This, he suggests, is an aim that could see the county and city brought down to Tier 2 at the first review on December 16, a move that would take place from December 19.
If successful, pubs and bars serving substantial meals, along with cafes, restaurants, hotels, cinemas and bowling alleys would reopen.
Cllr Lewis said that mass vaccination plans for Derbyshire have been drawn up, including a shortlist of centres across the county and Derby where these will be rolled out.
Dr Avi Bhatia, chair of Derby and Derbyshire Clinical Commissioning Group warned: “It is important to say that the vaccines are a tremendous step forward and offer us light at the end of the tunnel but the virus is still out there and the risk it represents is undiminished. We must be aware that most people will not be vaccinated before the seasonal period and therefore not protected and we must continue to be vigilant, particularly if visiting elderly relatives or others most at risk during the seasonal festivities.”
Now Cllr Lewis has said in a virtual full county council meeting: “We went into the second lockdown at Tier 2 with rising case numbers in parts of our county, notably in Bolsover, North East Derbyshire and Amber Valley and of course we were surrounded by concentrations of Covid-19 in other areas such as Nottingham, Nottinghamshire and Manchester and so on.
“We have been fighting a tough fight, I believe, from the start in terms of trying to keep those numbers down. We were doing largely reasonably well and, of course, the Derbyshire Dales has one of the lowest counts in the county, so it is rather unfortunate that we come out in Tier 3 just before we saw the numbers diving for Derbyshire and I think we have made a reasonable cogent case for coming out in Tier 2.
“We did write to the Prime Minister to look carefully at our numbers so that we could come out in Tier 2, alas it was not to be. Nonetheless, we work hard and we will continue to work hard to ensure that we emerge into Tier 2 in the future.
“By remaining in Tier 3, whilst people can go about and to retail and they can go and get their hair cut and get their nails done and go to the gym, they cannot go and have a meal at a pub or restaurant or go stay
at a hotel. That is unfortunate for our industry here in Derbyshire, tourism is a big deal for us, as is hospitality and those industries have been hit particularly hard and even retail will see an impact because once you are in a Tier 3 area it affects confidence and shopper confidence in terms of people going out on the high street.”
Mass Covid testing has been trialled in Liverpool with 2,000 troops deployed to provide rapid 30-minute tests to the whole population, regardless of symptoms, testing 200,000 people in a number of weeks.
Cllr Lewis said Derbyshire was on the verge of getting the same rapid tests - called lateral flow tests.
He said: “Testing is very much on the agenda at the moment, lateral flow testing, and we are looking to get that rolled out as quickly as possible. We are talking to government and the Department for Health and we are hopefully going to be one of those pilot areas where we will get additional support and help us to get out of Tier 3 as quickly as possible
“I know the director of public health, Dean Wallace, has had a conversation this morning with the minister and so we look forward to seeing a little more detail over the next couple of days. There are some issues to work out but nothing that is insurmountable.
“We are talking about mass testing across Derbyshire. We had a discussion with the Department for Health. At this moment in time, we look to be getting some additional military planners in place to help us with the roll-out of that. Then we will see what resources we have got. This is a resource-intensive process.
“Liverpool was quite one thing and we had 2,000 troops on the ground, delivering the mass testing in Liverpool. To do it on a footprint the size of Derbyshire, I imagine, would require, significantly more resources.
“There is some willingness to talk about additional resources but we don’t yet know what the scale of those resources are going to be.