The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Worries over return of students in new year
Tayside health officials have raised fears the return of students after Christmas could cause a repeat spike in cases.
At an NHS Tayside board meeting yesterday, nonexecutive member Hugh Robertson said the area could “struggle to cope” when thousands return from family homes across the UK and the world in January.
Dundee, which has one of the largest numbers of students per population of any area in the UK, saw significant outbreaks at halls of residences just weeks after the new term began in September.
Mr Robertson said: “There is no doubt the return of students has been a factor, if not a major factor, in the spread of the virus in this area.
“Whilst it’s going to be a major concern when students return home for
Christmas, my fear is that if students are likely to return after the Christmas break, that is going to exacerbate the problem and the spread of the virus.
“This would put an immense strain on our services and staff. We might reach a situation where we are really struggling to cope.”
Students were asked to return to the city ahead of the new term this autumn despite most teaching being done online.
More than 70 positive cases at Dundee’s Parker House forced 500 students there into self- isolation with contact tracers working hard to locate others in the surrounding weeks.
And 24 positive cases at Meadowside Halls also saw a significant number told to quarantine.
Dr Emma F l e t c h e r, interim director of public health in Tayside, said a decision on students returning will be made at a national level in the coming weeks.
She said: “There are challenges whenever people move across the country. We’ve seen it again about recommendations on travel to Blackpool in recent times.
“I have a huge amount of sympathy for students who find themselves in vastly different circumstances this year.
“In terms of the impact of the infection in the acute time phase, there is less impact on young people.
“But we don’t know the long-term effects, particularly for people who experience long Covid, and there is that impact into the wider population.
“It’s about supporting and understanding all of us within our community and reducing the spread.”
Meanwhile, it has been revealed capacity across
NHS Tayside could be stretched as winter flu season and coronavirus clash, a doctor has warned.
Dr Elaine Henry, who is a member of the health b o a r d ’s shielding coordination team, was speaking at the Angus Health and Social Care Integration Joint Board meeting about winter planning in the county.
Staff were praised for rolling out flu jabs in care homes across Angus, a programme expected to be completed this week, but Dr Henry did not shy away from the challenges which lie ahead.
She said: “The winter plan this year has been incredibly challenging as we’ve had to write the winter plan and the Covid plan in tandem.
“I think it is almost difficult to finish the winter plan because it’s evolving. It’s impossible to finish a draft.
“I think it will be an incredibly challenging winter. What we are seeing though is teams pulling together.
“There will be times that we will have great challenges in capacity and in different areas but it’s how we work to meet that. I think it will need constant initiative and agility.
“Yo u can see staff, everybody is getting their flu jab, everybody is trying to keep going but I think it’s going to be a winter like no other.”
Dr Henry noted reasons to be optimistic, saying the health board is progressing well in many areas.
She added: “Things like near-patient testing, flu testing, vaccine rates, I really think we’re going to see Tayside be at the cutting edge of a lot of these things with a team wo r k i n g really hard to do it but it’s going to be a constant challenge.”