Peterborough coronavirus track and trace team ‘hugely successful’ as communities thanked for keeping city Covid rates down

Speaking during a “Summit for Peterborough” where local leaders and volunteers discussed ways to keep the spread of Covid-19 down, Adrian Chapman, service director for communities and partnerships at the city council, said there was currently a 92 per cent success rate in tracking the contacts of people who have tested positive for the virus in cases where the national team has been unsuccessful.

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Emmeline Watkins, deputy director of public health for Peterborough, explained: “Because of local data we’ve had access to we’ve been able to take a really localised approach knowing the geographies where we’ve had higher incidents, the higher risk groups, the higher risk settings.

“This enabled us to carry out testing in the right places to ensure communities got appropriate access.”

She said that the current rate of Covid-19 infections in Peterborough is 26 per 100,000 of population, which has reduced since mid-July when Peterborough became an “area of concern”.

She continued: “Currently Peterborough isn’t seeing the same rise of Covid -9 cases as in some of the other areas in England.

“What we’re really seeing is relatively stable incidence rates of Covid-19 for the last few months. This has been a real change. In May and June, Peterborough was a local authority with one of the highest weekly incidents rates and its ranking has dropped considerably since about mid-July, with our incidents rates remaining relatively stable and other areas changing.

“Peterborough is geographically close to some of those areas with higher incident rates so it’s really important we keep this pressure up, that we keep the preventative messages in Peterborough.”

She said there has been a “strong, targeted, localised and adaptive approach,” adding: “There’s been a huge amount of work with the community leaders and that has really paid off.”

Enhanced contact tracing began in early August and there has been targeted testing, as well as “days of action” in areas seeing spikes of cases.

Mr Chapman also paid tribute to city faith leaders, stating: “I’m very sure that we would be in a far worse position had it not been for the way that our community leaders have stepped up and come alongside us and really helped to drive messages across our really diverse communities.

“We are probably one of, if not the first, area in the country to produce translated materials. We were way ahead of government on that front and many other councils have now followed.

“These were complex public health messages that even people who speak English as a first language have struggled with.

“Our community leaders have stepped in and translated them into more than 20 different languages, and that material is now being used widely across the UK.”

He added: “I also want to pay tribute to faith partners, all of whom have also been with us in this journey and have delivered some very strong and robust messages to their congregations without exception.”

Mr Chapman also highlighted the “amazing work” carried out by mosques to “reach some of the more vulnerable residents who are more susceptible to harm,” as well as community organisations such as PARCA (Peterborough Asylum & Refugee Community Association) and Gladca to spread messages to Eastern European agency workers and Asian women.

The council set up a rapid response team at the start of pandemic which was joined by police, health and public health colleagues.

Mr Chapman said “within a few hours” of a local spike the team has set up “reactive arrangements”.

In a response to a question from Labour city councillor for Park ward Aasiyah Joseph about a lack of available testing affecting results, Peterborough and Cambridgeshire’s director of public health Dr Liz Robin said: “One of the things that we found was when the pressure on the national system went up, it did become harder to get a test.

“One of the reasons for that is where we wad had walk-ins into mobile units in central Peterborough that many people were able use to use, there was a national decision those walk-ins would need to stop.

“Part of the reason for that was because of the difficulty of getting tests, walk-ins were getting lots of external people coming in to try and get a test there. That could become difficult for communities.

“We did see after that we had a very sudden fall in some of our positive case rates. We thought that was because people who were accessing testing were finding it more difficult.”

She added: “The good news is we applied to open a local testing centre which is there all the time. We believe we have got agreement to that from the national and regional systems. We’re looking to have a re-opening for walk-ins for Peterborough in the middle of October which should help a great deal.”

Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire Jaspal Singh called for a focus on the spread of the virus in 18-30 year olds and in households, while MP for North West Cambridgeshire Shailesh Vara wanted to give a “massive thank you to all of you who have been involved in trying to deal with this pandemic locally”.

MP for Peterborough Paul Bristow thanked the efforts made by local leaders and the communities in tackling the pandemic.

He said there had been a “phenomenal effort in Peterborough” to get rates down while other places with a similar demographic had gone into lockdown.

Describing this as a “remarkable achievement,” he asked whether Peterborough was sharing best practice with other areas.

In response, council chief executive Gillian Beasley said there had been a “lot of generosity” among different places, and that the Cabinet Office had praised Peterborough for having “best practice” in some areas.

She said Peterborough had learnt from Bedford and other cities.

Cllr Julie Howell, Green Party representative for Orton Waterville, made a plea for visible patrols to be present in communities where coronavirus has not yet spiked.

She said: “In Orton in particular we may have done a good job in keeping infections under control, but there is an undercurrent of fear and lack of information about the virus and about how to follow rules.

“I just know if we see more police and more council officers on patrol in the streets it will give people reassurance and might just prevent a spike in the future.”

Cllr Howell also said council leaflets being put through doors would be “money and time well spent”.

Keith Markham, speaking on behalf of Polish community, highlighted the impact of Poland this week being added to the Government’s quarantine list.

He said “no doubt” there were potentially thousands of people from the local area who would have already booked to go the country during October half-term as it will be a national holiday, with people going to clean graves.

He added: “My instinct is the vast majority will still go,” which would lead to an issue with receiving money while having to quarantine, and the number of pupils who will have to miss school.

Abdul Choudhuri, chairman of the Faizan E Madina Mosque in Gladstone Street, said: “One of the things we constantly hear is in the central area there’s a high percentage of people who are infected.

“But when you look at the facts and figures that is not the case.

“The reality is if you go on Lincoln Road or various other areas you can see how people are behaving in the shops, in the takeaways and various other places. That is something the council and police need to take strict action on to stop these people gathering around. That is a concern.”

Ranji Reddy from Bharat Hindu Samaj, Peterborough, said there has been a rise in homeless people near supermarkets which needs “urgent attention”.

Tim Alban Jones, vice dean at Peterborough Cathedral, and speaking on behalf of the Diocese of Peterborough, praised the local leadership and appealed to keep places of worship open if there are tighter restrictions because “they are very good for the wellbeing, not just for those who attend them but also for our whole community”.