Carry On Working From Home Urges East Riding Health Boss

Concerns are mounting that workplaces could become the new source of East Riding coronavirus outbreaks after a better than expected reopening of schools, the council’s public health lead has said.

East Riding Council’s Public Health Director Andy Kingdom said no local schools had shut after pupils returned to classrooms on Monday, March 8th.

But Mr Kingdom also said he was concerned about outbreaks emerging elsewhere, particularly in the factories, processing plants and other similar workplaces in East Yorkshire.

The director said:

“The first week of schools reopening has gone incredibly well.

“We’ve gone from hardly testing school age children to testing them regularly now, so if there had been a number of cases among young people, teachers and staff we’d have seen that in the results.

“The result of the first week is that as of Friday, no schools have closed.

“The concern was that we’d find a lot more cases and then we’d have to send pupils home again, that hasn’t happened.

“The ones who are off are off not because they have coronavirus but because they’ve come across someone whose infected.

“But that’s not to say there won’t be outbreaks, I expect there to be because more people are mixing again, but it takes about 10 days before we really know what’s happened from the numbers.

“If parents or anyone is concerned or confused about testing then talk to your child’s school, all of them have done really well in getting their systems of protection in place.”

Mr Kingdom added public health officials’ attention was now turning to infections and trends in wider communities as the return of pupils coincides with some parents going back to work.

The director said:

“The issue isn’t about schools, it’s about what happens in the rest of society and what the reopening of schools allows communities to do.

“We’re going to get more cases in workplaces because that’s where people have more social contact,

“We may start to see more outbreaks in them, and once coronavirus gets into workplaces it can get through people very quickly.

“That’s particularly true of the kinds of workplaces we have in Hull and the East Riding like factories and food processing plants, coronavirus can spread more easily because it’s colder, people are in closer quarters and they have to shout more.

“Also workers in those factories and plants can’t work from home, they have to go in.

“Then the worry is that someone catches coronavirus at work, they take it home, pass it onto their children then they take it into a school.

“The other issue is that where infections have spread to workplaces, it’s probably come more from people car sharing or mixing with people when they go out for a cigarette or have lunch.

“My advice would be carry on working from home if you can, but if not then you have the right to work in a coronavirus-secure environment.

“We’ve offered advice and support to businesses to help keep workplaces safe and most have been good at putting measures in place.

“But if you go to work and see anything that concerns you then please contact the council and we can investigate.”

Mr Kingdom said the test and trace system had “vastly improved”, adding talks with ministers were ongoing to set up one of the first locally led systems nationally.

The director also said pupils’ return to schools was “one small step forward”, adding it could see progressing in tackling the pandemic knocked back if people become complacent.

The public health lead said:

“What we’re seeing in schools is good so far, but the concern is that people look at that and think it’s going really good and let their guard down.

“We need to give the vaccination programme time to move down through the lower age groups and reach those in higher ones who haven’t had their jab yet.

“There’s about 2,300 people over 70 in the East Riding who haven’t had their vaccination yet and about 40,000 aged between 50 and 70 who haven’t.

“They’re extremely vulnerable and they could still end up getting ill and in hospital if they catch coronavirus.

“I know a lot of people who’ve already booked pub lunches outdoors for when they reopen, that won’t be happening if we don’t get the numbers down.”