City council draws up coronavirus ‘outbreak management’ plan for Peterborough

Members of the Cabinet of Peterborough City Council have been told by government to produce a Local Outbreak Management Control Plan (LOMCP).
This is part of the national ‘Test & Trace’ program designed to test to see if people have the Covid-19 symptoms and if they do have them, to trace their contacts which is being dealt with at a national level.
At a local level, the city council has been charged with creating their LOMCP which must be submitted to government by June 30.
Chief Executive Gillian Beasley, told Cabinet members at their online meeting on Monday (June 22): “We are well on the way to producing this plan and submitting it on time.
“On Friday last, we submitted a draft of the plan to the regional team at Public Health England and we are still waiting for feedback on that.
“More work will be carried out on the plan and by Friday (June 26) it will be ready to be put to the Health and Wellbeing Committee Board who will be holding a special meeting chaired by leader of the council Cllr John Holdich on Monday (June 29).
“The plan will then be looked at in the public domain at that time, comments made and the final plan submitted on June 30.”
The plan deals with a number of issues at a local level which includes a large section specifically dealing with preventing outbreaks.
Where there are outbreaks – and these could be in care homes, schools and other areas of the community, the plan looks to manage those outbreaks using well-established control methods which are part of the public health response.
The LOMCP Test and Trace plan will ensure:

- Where someone is instructed to isolate and is vulnerable, plans will be put in place to support that person through the existing community hub in the City and in Cambridgeshire through the District Councils’ hubs;
- Where the following up of contacts is more complex and cannot be achieved by the national call handlers, the contact arrangements will be handled by trained staff who will be deployed in Peterborough – Public Health England Health - Protection Team and Local Authority Public Health and Environmental Health;
- That COVID-19 outbreaks in care homes, schools and in the community are prevented by clear measures identified in the Outbreak Control plan, including supporting workplaces, communities and locations at higher risk to avoid COVID-19 outbreaks;
- Where outbreaks do occur in care homes, schools and in the community those outbreaks are effectively managed and controlled calling upon already established infection control measures for the outbreaks of infectious diseases;
- That there is sufficient local testing with results coming back in a timely manner so it is quick and easy for people to get tested for COVID-19 when they need to;
- That all data from national, local and NHS sources are brought together to inform clear and decisive decision making to prevent, identify and control outbreaks;
- That there are sufficient staff and volunteers trained and able to take on the responsibilities within the Local Outbreak Control Plan including the setting up of a community rapid response teams to take immediate action to prevent and deal with local outbreaks.
Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald updated members on the very latest statistics for Peterborough, and said: “Between March 27 and June 20, 2020, there were 463 NHS/PHE lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in Peterborough, a rate of 231.3 per 100,000 population which is statistically significantly lower than the national rate, but similar to the regional rate.
“During that period 85 deaths occurred related to Covid-19 of Peterborough residents, with 62 (73%) of the total occurring within hospitals and 19 (22%) occurring within care homes.
There was an apparent increase in cases in Peterborough in the week starting June 8 and Peterborough City Hospital, Public Health England and NHS England are investigating the issue.”