An update from Dr Rupert Suckling

We're now almost two weeks into step 1A of the release of national restrictions and as we would have expected with the return to schools, we have seen a small increase in the number of cases in Doncaster.

Our rate for the 7th to the 13th of March is 113.8 per 100,000. Although this was expected, due to schools reopening, it does really emphasise why we need to tread carefully as we walk a fine line of keeping our figures as low as possible while enabling more mixing as we travel through the roadmap.

Although children are now mixing in schools, it is important that they continue to follow the guidelines while they are out of school and on the way to school and avoid the temptation of over-socialising with friends, this may seem unnecessary when they are mixing in school but every single contact is an added risk and for now we need to limit the risk as much as we can to keep our children in school and our rates down.

Although we have seen an increase in the rates for the 13-19 year age group, a closer look at the data leads us to believe that this increase is not just due to schools, in fact it appears that a lot of the cases are in 18 and 19 year olds and may be due to their working environments. 

The biggest increase in cases is currently in the 20-29 year old age group which again leads us to believe the majority of transmission is happening in the workplace or on the way to work. If you can’t work from home then I would urge you to make sure you are making use of one of the many community testing programmes – either through your employer or via one of our community testing sites in Hexthorpe, Stainforth and Conisbrough.  

This week officially marked the one year anniversary of the first confirmed case in Doncaster. A lot has happened in that year and to think we are now in a position where 12 months after the first case we have vaccinated almost 120,000 people is truly remarkable.

I know there has been lots of media stories about the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine over the past week but the evidence clearly shows that this vaccine is not only safe but also extremely effective, so please when it is your turn and you are called for your vaccination I urge you to come forward and get it.

Next week marks another significant milestone in managing our local response to the pandemic, as we begin to manage the test and trace programme completely at a local level. What this means is that we will be able to start contacting people and identifying their contacts within an hour of a confirmed positive test. This is exciting as it will give us the tools to really get a tighter grip of where the virus is being transmitted at a hyper local level and hopefully allow us to interrupt that transmission at the earliest opportunity.

As always I would like to thank you all for the continued sacrifices you are making to support us to get Doncaster’s rates as low as possible and stop the transmission of the virus. Every single thing you are doing does make a difference so please do keep it up.

Let’s Do it for Doncaster.