COVID-19 Selby District Council Update 17th Sept 2020
Update from Selby District Council - Thursday 17th September 2020:
To update you on the situation with Covid-19 in Selby district, as our area continues to record higher numbers of cases compared to other parts of North Yorkshire.
The Local Resilience Forum has declared a major incident, given the rise in case numbers. Of particular concern in North Yorkshire are the Selby and Scarborough districts.
In our district, there are particular concerns about community transmission in the Sherburn-in-Elmet area. We are also seeing increases amongst care home residents and staff.
This is happening against a backdrop of national problems with laboratory capacity, which means fewer Covid 19 tests are available and results are taking longer.
Working together with LRF partners, we’ve put the following in place:
- Moved into major incident response mode;
- Directed local testing facilities towards areas of greatest need;
- Stepped up support to care homes and other care services;
- Started to prepare for re-introducing restrictions to visits to care homes in the Selby district
- Paused the re-opening of social care day services;
- Worked with Safety Advisory Groups (SAGs) to develop guidance to ensure events are Covid-19 compliant and to advise the cancellation of events in areas with high levels of infection to protect lives and livelihoods;
- Worked proactively with workplace and hospitality sectors to promote Covid-19 safety measures;
- Supported schools and businesses with positive cases to manage incidents and prevent or limit the size of outbreaks.
These actions are being taken to try to avoid a further full lockdown if possible. Work continues now to prevent, contain and reduce the spread of the virus.
In addition, in the whole of the Selby district, people are asked to:
- Exercise extra vigilance in maintaining hand hygiene and social distancing
- Use face coverings when leaving home while circulating infection levels are increasing
- Avoid large groupings of over 30 people
- Events organisers to re-think any indoor or outdoor events that involve more than 30 people;
- Take extra care when leaving home if you have an underlying health condition or have been advised to shield
Thank you for your continued help as we work together to control the virus.