County’s control plans for Covid
LANCASHIRE is to develop its own testing regime as part of efforts to combat coronavirus.
The programme has been designed to “identify cases earlier and enable effective contact tracing” and also aims to “remove barriers” to testing for some highrisk groups.
If it gets final approval from health bosses at a national level, it is hoped the system will be in place by the end of the month.
The Advertiser obtained the full details after publication this week of Lancashire County Council’s outbreak control plan, a document which all local authorities were ordered to produce to demonstrate how they intend to keep Covid-19 under control.
Lancashire’s testing priorities will be integrated with existing national NHS plans, but the county will pay particular attention to targeted testing and getting results within 24 hours.
The county council’s director of public health, Dr Sakthi Karunanithi,
said discussions about the more focused local programme are ongoing – but he hoped his previous call for flexibility had been heard.
He said: “We want to develop our own arrangements for getting the tests to the people who need them most. That might include community testing, (which would) go way beyond the mobile testing and drivethrough units we currently have, where people with symptoms have to go online and book.
“It would put more capacity in our hands, so when we pick up any signals about high levels, we can focus on that place and do as much testing as we possibly can to pick up anybody who is positive in that area.”
He revealed that one of the county’s ambitions is to be able to declare every care home Covidfree and secure – then use more targeted testing of staff, rather than entire facilities, to detect early problems and help care homes retain that status.
The local scheme will also focus on vulnerable groups such as those living in deprived areas, people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (Bame) communities, the homeless and individuals dependent on drugs and alcohol.
According to the control plan, as well as being more likely to have the kind of underlying health conditions that put them in increased danger from contracting Covid, some members of these groups – particularly those from Bame and deprived backgrounds – also face risk factors as a result of their occupations and housing conditions.
“The people who have symptoms and can get to a testing centre tend to be from low-risk groups – not people in vulnerable categories, who don’t have access to cars or even mobile phones to get their results back,” Dr Karunanithi said.
“Our plan means we would be able to leave some swabs with, say, a housing estate manager or the warden of a hostel.”
Under Lancashire’s Covid outbreak plan, just two confirmed cases occurring in the same setting within a fortnight – or two suspected cases as a result of the display of relevant symptoms – will be deemed an outbreak.
Among a range of possible responses depending on an assessment of the risk, it could ultimately lead to the closure of a school or other setting.
Dr Karunanithi said: “The actions that would result from an outbreak may or may not include shutting a building. If all of the linked cases were in one section of the building, we would do a deep clean of that area.
“But if there is enough concern that warrants a whole building to be closed, we wouldn’t hesitate to do that – especially if, by doing so, we can prevent a wider closedown.”