Agenda item

13:35

Reports:

·         the Cumulative COVID-19 Impact in Oxfordshire 2020 & 2021

·         the Oxfordshire COVID-19 Vaccination Programme

The Committee received a presentation on the cumulative impact of Covid-19 through 2020 and 2021 and an update on the vaccination programme.

Ansaf Azhar, Director of Public Health, summarised the current position which was that we were now moving into the recovery phase in which we needed to learn to live with Covid.  There was still a need to move cautiously and consider how to protect the vulnerable against current and future threats.

The presentation looked at the direct impact and, at future meetings, the Committee would be welcome to consider the indirect impacts on health and care services and then the wider impacts on employment, education and mental wellbeing, once further work had been completed to more fully understand these.  David Munday, Consultant on Public Health, gave the presentation.

The Chair asked officers to address the concerns raised in emails from members of the public who were vulnerable and not feeling safe since the main Covid restrictions had been lifted.

Ansaf Azhar emphasised that the priority was still to protect the vulnerable and he had reiterated this in statements.  Since the vaccine roll-out there has been no evidence that Covid is any worse than other respiratory illnesses.  In January there had been no excess deaths despite the surge in Covid infections.

However, he urged everyone to continue the good practices developed during the pandemic – wearing face masks in crowded settings, keeping distance etc.  A lot had been learnt about dealing with infectious disease that needed to be embedded in the culture in order to protect the vulnerable.  New national policies were coming to address this.

Ansaf Azhar assured the committee that acute services and care services were still observing all the Covid precautions such as face masks.

Councillor Imade Edosomwan asked if vaccine certificates were required for health staff as he had heard reports of staff being asked to produce them.

Ansaf Azhar responded that it was not mandatory for health and care staff to be vaccinated.   The position was that they were all strongly encouraged to get vaccinated.

Karen Fuller, Interim Corporate Director for Adult Services, confirmed that vaccination had been a condition of employment for social care staff and they had worked with staff to achieve near 100% compliance.  The government had changed policy on that so it was no longer mandatory.

Councillor Damian Haywood asked about staff who had been removed from post due to this requirement and if they had been re-employed since the requirement had been dropped.

Karen Fuller responded that this was down to the individual employer.  At the County Council the small number of staff involved had been re-deployed to other posts that did not require vaccination.

Barbara Shaw asked if there was information on the impact of long-Covid on health services.  David Munday responded that research was still in progress on diagnosing long-Covid and the needs of patients as a result.  The NHS was providing support and perhaps they could be asked to present at a future meeting on this.

Councillor Damian Haywood referred to reports that had concluded that the national response to the pandemic had been poor.  He asked if we were well placed to handle any future pandemic.

Ansaf Azhar agreed that there were a lot of lessons to be learned from how the first wave was handled although the health service itself should certainly be thanked for how it responded and minimised deaths.  He believed that the subsequent waves were dealt with well.

The surveillance group was still meeting once a week and while measures were being wound down there was a clear checklist available of what needed to be done to ramp up quickly again if needed.

Actions:

Karen Fuller to meet with the Chair, Councillor Barrow, Barbara Shaw and Dr Alan Cohen on infection control in care homes.

The Covid-Recovery Plan to be on the agenda for the May HOSC meeting.