Borough is an area of Covid-19 concern, says public health chief

‘THERE IS FOCUS ON THE CITY, BUT WE NEED TO WORK WITH OADBY AND WIGSTON’

PROGRESS is being made in bringing down Leicester’s coronavirus infection rates – but some areas are causing health chiefs concern.

The borough of Oadby and Wigston - which is not within the city limits, but has been included by the government in the lockdown zone - has been highlighted as an area of concern.

Updating members of the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland health scrutiny commission, Mike Sandys, director of public health at Leicestershire County Council, said: “There is focus on the city, but we need to work with Oadby and Wigston to make sure we’re aware of any issues with things like observing social distancing and working with particular communities that have found these things difficult or not heard those messages.

“Not to overly worry anyone in Oadby and Wigston, there are less cases there than in the city, but it is an area of concern, it is in the lockdown and it makes sense for us to work with the city but also follow a twin-track to make certain that we are supporting and working with district colleagues.”

On the county as a whole, Mr Sandys said: “We do have a lower rate than the city, but it’s still higher than I would want it to be and there is no room for complacency here.

“There are signs that things are beginning to improve and we recognise that this is an imposition on people at this time but we need to drive this virus out.”

Councillors and health bosses discussed the local lockdown when they met on Friday.

Mr Sandys said: “Things are moving at great pace.

“In terms of response, clearly the city was leading a management team. There is now an incident management team focussing on testing, support for those self-isolating, issues with community engagement and communication and specific settings like care homes and education.

“This is centred a lot around the city and the epidemic area, we’re working with the team providing resources, an immense amount of resources have gone into the city.

“We’re looking at our areas in terms of the data and impact, there is now data for all upper tier local authorities and in the last week within the city, the numbers have stabilised and from a county point of view we are having conversations around why we’re included.”

While city cases have stabilised and many county areas are seeing a much lower rate of infection, Mr Sandys warned: “There is tinder, shall we say, in some of the county areas surrounding the city and I don’t want it to catch fire.”