Kentish Express Ashford & District
‘DON’T PANIC!’
MP seeks to quell fears as data reveals Ashford has third-highest coronavirus infection rate across England Damian Green says government figures reflect ‘early weeks of crisis and not current situation in district’
Ashford’s MP is urging residents not to panic after statistics showed the district has the third-highest infection rate for coronavirus in England.
Damian Green says the figures – which have been released by the government – reflect the “early weeks of the crisis and not the current situation”.
Ashford’s rate is almost double that of Kent as a whole, which currently stands at 285.3 cases per 100,000 people.
As of Monday, at least 678 people in the district have been hit with the virus at a rate of 524.4 per 100,000; in comparison, Kent’s lowest is in Tunbridge Wells at 145.7.
Nationally, Ashford is behind only Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria – that has a rate of 826.7 cases per 100,000 – and Lancaster with 542.1.
Responding to the data, Mr Green says residents should remain vigilant as the pandemic continues.
“People shouldn’t panic but they should be careful and cautious,” he said.
“In the early days of the crisis we did have big problems in care homes in Ashford, and coupled with that we have a large hospital where many cases were recorded.
“Obviously it’s a disappointing figure, but one that reflects the early weeks of the crisis and not the current situation.
“We know as of now the pandemic is largely confined to hospitals and care homes.
“The amount of infection in the community is very small and we need to keep it low in scale.”
Mr Green alluded to greater testing playing a major part in the response to coronavirus over the coming months, including a contact tracing app.
He said if plans to administer regional lockdowns in high infection areas like Ashford were ever considered, they could only work with mass testing.
“I’m dubious about regional lockdowns, particularly around London and the surrounding area, because people could simply cross the borders,” he added.
“I think that would put a huge strain on the police.
“The concept of specific lockdowns would be better if, for example, there’s a flare-up in one particular town, but to do that we need high levels of testing and tracking.
“The other thing coming is the full roll-out of the contact tracing as well as testing.
“Part of it will be an app which we’ve trialled on the Isle of Wight, but the other will be 18,000 people they are recruiting to interview people with symptoms, and asking them who they’ve contacted and getting in touch with those people.”
Ashford Borough Council’s deputy leader Cllr Paul Bartlett (Con) echoed Mr Green’s thoughts.
He said: “The first point to make is this is confirmed cases, not deaths.
“The William Harvey Hospital started testing its staff very early on in the process and a lot of those workers live in Ashford and the surrounding areas. So I think that’s going to cause an abnormality in the numbers.
“We also had a mobile testing centre in Ashford twice in the last couple of weeks in North Park.
“These two factors cause Ashford to be an unusual case, and I genuinely think people should not worry about it because I don’t think it’s symptomatic of the disease being more widespread here.”
Speaking to the importance of testing to combat the ongoing crisis, Cllr Bartlett said: “Ashford has been at the forefront of testing for Covid19, something that the government is keen to encourage, and testing remains a vital weapon in our battle against the pandemic.”
He said he did not believe lockdown flouters to be the cause of the high number of infections in Ashford.
“I can definitely say I’ve not had reports of people ignoring social distancing in Ashford, in Victoria Park and other areas,” he said.
“I’m pretty sure had there been lots of instances, people would have been onto their local councillors.”
‘The pandemic is largely confined to hospitals and care homes. The amount of infection in the community is very small’