‘We must all pull together’: Public health director issues warning as coronavirus cases continue to rise

Hackney’s public health director says it is “more important than ever” that people make sacrifices for the good of community health as cases of the virus continue to spike in the borough.

City & Hackney has an incidence rate of 179 cases per 100,000 people according to the most recent figures – almost three times what it was at the beginning of the month.

While Hackney Mayor Philip Glanville recently played down the likelihood of local lockdowns for specific boroughs, the threshold at which London’s Covid-19 containment and escalation framework states they should be considered is 50 cases per 100,000 people.

Dr Sandra Husbands, public health director for Hackney and the City, said: “Coronavirus can kill or cause serious illness. We are still learning about the virus and there’s a lot we don’t yet know, but we do know that it is not weaker than before, it is still dangerous and is highly contagious.

“The virus can infect anyone, of any age, with or without any underlying conditions and reports of ‘long covid’ show us that even in young and healthy people the virus can cause debilitating fatigue and other symptoms for many months. Little is understood about its long-term effects.

“Reports this week suggest that people who were previously infected with coronavirus could be at risk of re-infection, as immunity seems to only last for a few months. We don’t know yet whether a second (or even third) bout of infection would be milder or more severe than the first, but it would be best not to find out the hard way.

“I know it is difficult, and after seven months people are feeling tired, but we must all pull together, as winter starts, to protect our community from harm. There are simple things you can do to reduce infection and this will help save lives.

“Hackney has already suffered too many tragic losses this year, and together we must act to prevent more.”

Husbands went on to speak of the importance of continuing to follow restrictions on meeting in large groups, such as not having people from other households visiting your home or making sure only 15 people attend a wedding, to reduce the risk of catching or spreading the virus.

The weekly trend of an increase in both cases and incidences continues, with no change in the R value, showing that regionally every 10 people infected with coronavirus will on average transmit the virus to between 11 and 13 other people.

Test rates continue to rise, with 2,670 tests carried out per 100,000 people according to the most recent figures, with positivity rates also going up – just under seven per cent of tests returned a positive result for the week ending 23 October.

London is currently under Tier 2 restrictions, under which residents are only to meet with their own household or support bubble indoors and up to 5 other people outdoors.

If you have symptoms of coronavirus such as a fever, a new continuous cough or change to your sense of smell or taste, self isolate immediately for 10 days and book a test by calling 119, using the NHS COVID-19 app, or going to nhs.uk/coronavirus.

You can view localised coronavirus data for the borough online and view the area’s coronavirus control plan and a list of the new ‘high’ tier level restrictions here.