Published: 30 October 2020
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic is continuing to put a huge financial strain on some people. Employment situations are changing rapidly and for some their income now no longer covers what they need, or they have lost their jobs completely. Help is available. If you, or someone you know, is worrying about money and how to pay for basic household essentials, please apply for extra assistance through funding that we have made available via your district council’s hardship fund.
Published: 22 October 2020
Council Leaders from across the region have published a joint message this week; “Coronavirus doesn’t take a break – please respect and protect local communities.” It’s a message for anyone thinking of coming to or travelling in and around the south west this half-term. And it echoes the tone of a new social media campaign across the region that is specifically targeting people coming to the region.
Published: 16 October 2020
The pattern in Exeter has shown a successful reduction in student cases with no sign of significant spread thanks to the swift actions of the university and other partners in working together to contain the situation. But we must not be complacent. We are now seeing more community cases in Exeter and across Devon, in line with the rise in the rest of the country, particularly in the working age population, and we expect cases to increase over the next few weeks. These cases cannot be linked to university students and the coronavirus appears to be passing between people outside of COVID-secure settings, which suggests that community spread is now occurring. Obviously, we want to limit the impact on people in older age groups and those who are particularly vulnerable so the time to act is now.
Devon is at ‘medium’ alert level. What does that mean?
Published: 14 October 2020
The government’s new three-tiered system of local COVID alert levels comes into force today in England. Devon is at ‘medium’ alert level. We’ve put together some information to help you understand what that means.
Published: 9 October 2020
We are seeing cases in Devon rise generally as elsewhere in the country, but we are still lower than the national average for England though. In Exeter, the number of positive cases among the student population is going up significantly, but the number of cases among non-students are still fairly low, and is certainly below the England average. This gives us a high degree of confidence that we are not seeing significant spread from the student population to the non-student population in Exeter. If we think about a ‘ladder’ of interventions, and lockdown of Exeter being the top rung on the ladder, we are no where near the top yet. There are things that we can do in addition to the things that we are currently doing to help try to control that spread of the virus and hopefully avoid us getting towards the top rung of that ladder.
More testing, additional measures for students and an invitation to breathe easier this winter
Published: 2 October 2020
The latest figures show another rise in the number of COVID-19 tests provided in Devon. 10,900 tests (Pillar 2) were carried out during the week ending 25 September, a significant rise on the 7,600 test carried out during the previous week. Test resources had been diverted to other parts of the country where infection rates and demand for COVID-19 testing is higher. That had, for a time, left Devon residents struggling to book tests locally and quickly.
A rise in cases, new restrictions and a plea to ‘Do it for Devon’
Published: 25 September 2020
Devon’s infection rate is still comparatively low, but the number of positive coronavirus (COVID-19) tests has risen this week, in line with the national trend. We currently have 61 cases across the whole of Devon reported in the latest data, and a little over half of those have been new cases in Exeter. These are cases linked to the University of Exeter and a number of students who have recently arrived for the start of term already with the virus and inadvertently passed it on to their housemates. They, and their households, are all self-isolating and following public health advice, and there’s no evidence at this stage of the virus spreading into the community. We’re monitoring the data closely so that we can respond immediately to changes as they arise.
Published: 18 September 2020
Dr Virginia Pearson, the Director of Public Health Devon said this week that it’s clear that there are some real issues with public access to testing via the NHS Test and Trace system across Devon, and that it is a national issue. She was commenting following release of the latest data that actually shows a big rise in the number of tests completed in the last seven days, (around 8,500), compared to the previous week (around 6,500). The number of confirmed cases in Devon have also fallen in the last week, from 54 to 26.
Published: 11 September 2020
The number of confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) cases across England is rising. That’s true of case numbers in Devon too. The Director of Public Health Devon, Dr Virginia Pearson, has this week issued a fresh warning, urging all Devon residents – of all ages, but specifically to younger residents – to follow the public health advice at all times. The number of confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Devon is still very low comparatively, but it is rising. Not all new cases are now linked to the returning international travellers, which was the pattern we had seen previously. Our younger residents – those in their late teens and early twenties – are a tricky audience to reach with public messages, so here is a personal appeal to parents and families with dependents around that age to remind them how important it is to protect themselves and others.
More Devon libraries are open, plasma donor research underway, school and college travel reminders
Published: 4 September 2020
Those of you who follow the numbers will have seen a rise in cases of coronavirus in Devon in the last two to three weeks. The numbers though are still comparatively very low compared to elsewhere in the country, and the risk of spread within communities in Devon is also still very low. The story this week is largely the same as last. During August, groups of people travelled abroad on holiday, and a some of them returned with coronavirus. They were picked up immediately by NHS Test and Trace on their return and they and their contacts advised to self-isolate. The numbers currently stand at around 30 cases in Devon, about the same last week. As those earlier returns come out of self-isolation, we’ve got equal numbers going in. With August behind us, we expect the numbers will start to fall again.
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