Covid’s ground zero
How this corner of Scotland has Britain’s highest death rate – ravaged by corona because its streets of fear sit at the eye of a perfect pandemic storm
HIS WAS one of the earliest deaths as the rising tide of Covid-19 cases swept Scotland. But little did they know in the community where he taught that 58-year-old Gerry McHugh’s passing was only the start. Nestled on the southern bank of the Clyde, Inverclyde is an area too used to lamentable labels – ‘Drugs capital of Scotland’ and ‘Most deprived area of Scotland’ – being hung round its neck.
Last week, another was added: ‘Coronavirus death capital of Scotland.’
This ignominy for communities including Greenock and Port Glasgow came as the numbers dying from the virus hit nearly three times the national average.
For Inverclyde’s Provost, Martin Brennan, 73, a retired history teacher, the alarming death toll has been a devastating blow.
Not only was Gerry McHugh a friend and someone he had once taught, but it is here in the community the Provost loves and serves that his people are facing a Covid-19 ‘perfect storm’.
Poverty, deprivation, drugs, an above-average elderly population and large sections of the community with long-term health problems have all conspired to bring death and indescribable loss to their doorsteps.
‘I really don’t know what has happened here,’ said Mr Brennan.
‘Everyone is at a bit of a loss. Glasgow, West Dunbartonshire and Dundee, which are the three places we consider on a par with us, all have deprived areas, too.
‘Is it because we have a higherthan-average elderly population?
‘Is it to do with wider health issues and comorbidity rates? Is it to do with deprivation or addiction rates? It mystifies me.’
The tragic tally noted by National Records of Scotland last week shows coronavirus deaths in Inverclyde stand at 11.9 for every 10,000 people, while the overall national figure is 4.2 per 10,000.
Public health and council officials admit to being startled by the statistics, particularly because, in many respects, the area stands shoulder to shoulder in terms of deprivation with its larger neighbours – Glasgow, where the death rate is 5.87, and West Dunbartonshire, which has the second highest total in the country at 7.85.
Based on population size, the death rates in Inverclyde and West Dunbartonshire are the highest in the UK, with London standing at 6.2 people per 10,000 and the North West of England at 4.9.
Mr Brennan said: ‘Gerry was one of the first to die early on from this awful disease and his death really drove it home to me on a personal level what we were dealing with.
‘He was a good friend and I’d known him since he was 15, when I taught him at Notre Dame High School in Greenock. He’d gone on to become principal teacher of maths at the same school and was a brilliant teacher, as well as being a special person.
‘I think it just might be we are facing the perfect storm. But when faced with a perfect storm, meteorologists are able to use prevailing conditions to predict it and take action. There’s no way we could have predicted this one.’
The high death rate could not have come at a worse time for Inverclyde, which has been fighting back in recent years from the decline and fall of all but one of its shipyards, the loss of its sugar refinery, and the withdrawal of computer giant IBM, which in turn led to many of the social and economic problems that are now
I’ve never seen anything like this – the randomness is shocking
blighting the area. Streets that previously bustled with vibrant life are stalked by a silent killer that seems to be doing its worst.
Public health experts and the area’s Integrated Joint Board, which has representatives from the NHS, the local authority and third-sector bodies, are now examining the factors which could have led to such a high Covid-19 mortality rate in the community.
Ominously, one expert health expert fears the answer may lie in timing. Inverclyde may have been hit earlier than other areas, but its losses may be replicated elsewhere all too soon.
Scots-born Denis Kinane, professor of immunology at the University of Geneva, in Switzerland, said: ‘In deprivation hotspots like Inverclyde, you’ve got lots of factors playing in. It must be very difficult in tenement flats to socially distance and a lot of people are very unwell anyway, with diseases such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, so all the morbidities are very high.
‘You’ve also got other issues coming into play, such as smoking and drugs, that can make it more difficult. A higher than average elderly population adds to the issues.
‘All these are there before you even take into account the risk of catching the disease and the risk of dying when you’ve caught the disease. It’s an intractable problem and a hot potato. The closer you get to it, the more you get burnt.
‘Unless we raise all the boats in the UK we’re never going to get these deprived areas out of the poverty that is having a detrimental effect on their health.’
Professor Kinane added: ‘Public health will be looking at a number of scenarios, including timing and the area’s proximity to Glasgow Airport and international travel, but when I see numbers that are totally out like Inverclyde’s, I always think there could be a good reason for it and, in this case, it might simply be a reporting issue. Perhaps Inverclyde has just been better at reporting everything.’
Inverclyde’s latest misfortune comes only months after parts of Greenock were ranked the highest for deprivation in Scotland.
The findings involve ranking 6,976 ‘data zones’, or small postcode areas, based on income, employment, health, education, housing, access to services, and crime.
The unwanted upsurge in Covid-19 deaths has seen Alistair Thomas, of Green Oaks Funeral Services, in Greenock, dealing with three times his normal levels of funerals.
He said: ‘I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s the randomness that’s shocking. We’ve been organising funerals for people who have died in their early 50s up to their 80s.
‘I can’t say I’m surprised it’s so bad, though. It’s a West of Scotland attitude, I think, where a minority like to think they know better than the Government and will carry on regardless, ignoring lockdown and social-distancing measures.’
For him, the ‘biggest scandal’ has been the lack of support for the area’s 15 nursing and residential care homes.
He said: ‘It’s our most vulnerable age group and, six weeks ago, I was going into care homes and the staff didn’t even have gloves.’
With the area’s over-75 age group having increased over the past ten years by 24 per cent, and a rise in the 45-64 and 65-74 age brackets of 13.8 per cent, while other age groups decreased, it’s easy to understand why Inverclyde might be hit so badly, when 74 per cent of all coronavirus-related deaths in Scotland have been people aged over 75. Mr Thomas said the thought of relaxing lockdown soon holds no appeal, adding: ‘The other funeral directors and I are terrified. This will spark up again straight away once lockdown is lifted.’
Inverclyde’s longest-serving councillor Luciano Rebecchi, a Liberal Democrat, is in no doubt where the problem lies – a lack of lockdown discipline, saying: ‘An awful lot of people are going about not giving a damn and not taking this seriously enough.’
In Greenock’s West Blackhall Street, it’s easy to see what he means as several people unashamedly press too close inside one of only two shops still open under lockdown. One is a newsagent; the other is Celebrations gift emporium, managed by Javed Iqbal.
Its hardware section has been open for five months but it is only now that it is doing a roaring trade – in fence paint and home-baking tins. There is an impressive array of face-masks for sale, ranging from blue and clinical white to fashionable black, white or pink.
‘It’s kept us busier than normal,’ said Mr Iqbal. ‘The town centre around here is dying and everywhere you look, shops have closed down. How can you get a job if businesses are closing down? Of course, it impacts on health. It’s no wonder the virus is so bad here.’
But, there is a stoicism in Inverclyde rooted in decades of hard knocks and struggle which is still embedded in its people.
Widow Eileen McClure, 84, agreed. Out for her daily exercise, holding onto a walking frame for support as she made her way through the town centre from her sheltered housing complex, she said Inverclyde’s death toll left her ‘shocked, but not surprised’, adding: ‘A few of my neighbours have it and are isolating in their homes, but I’ve been tested and I’m clear.
‘Some of us have lived through the war and you just have to keep going, don’t you? I have my hand sanitiser in my bag and I’m washing my hands regularly. You can’t just give in to this, and if the worst comes to the worst and I do get it, well, I’ve not had a bad life.’
If worst comes to worst and I do get it, well, I’ve not had a bad life