Wiltshire Council holding public Covid update tonight
It's the second virtual meeting that they have organised
Last updated 8th Dec 2020
Wiltshire residents have the chance to find out the latest information around Coronavirus in the county tonight (Tuesday 8th December).
The local authority are holding a virtual Covid update with Council Leader Phillip Whitehead, Chief Executive Terence Herbert and Public Health Wiltshire Director Kate Blackburn.
They will update people on the latest numbers of positive cases, the arrangements in place to mitigate the spread of the virus and what support is available for residents and businesses.
Questions have been submitted by members of the public, some of which will answered on stream by the hosts.
Cllr Philip Whitehead, Leader of Wiltshire Council, said:
"The response to our last broadcast was really positive, and we were pleased to provide clarity on all the information out there and make it as accessible as possible.
Since then, we have been through national restrictions and are coming out the other side, so there will be plenty to update on - so we urge people to send us their questions and we’ll get through as many as we can."
The broadcast takes place at 5pm via Microsoft Teams, and you can join by clicking here.
If you are unable to watch, the meeting will be recorded and put onto the Council's Youtube channel after it has ended.
SURVEILLANCE TRACING SCHEME
Public Health Wiltshire Director, Kate Blackburn, has said that the county will be a part of a pilot scheme surveying Covid-19 outbreaks across venues.
The surveillance tracing will be piloted in partnership with Public Health England, the Field Epidemiology Service and Swindon Borough Council, and uses information from the national test and trace system to identify where clusters of cases are forming.
They will then use this to help the businesses or groups affected.
Kate Blackburn said:
“I think it’s a mechanism of testing out whether we were aware of those venues anyway – which in a majority of cases we are and already dealing with them.
It just gives an enhanced level of contact tracing. So really trying to do preventative, proactive work.
It’s about trying to identify places where you see more people testing positive or more cases associated with a setting or venue so we can send in environmental health officers or our public health team just to make sure there isn’t something that has been missed.”
The finer details of the scheme are still being ironed out, with information set to be released in the coming weeks.
LATEST CASES
The latest Covid-19 figures show that in the seven days to December 2nd, there were 385 positive cases in Wiltshire, down by 16 from the week before.
That means the rolling case rate per 100,000 population is at 77.0, the national figure is 148.7.
Meanwhile, there are 48 education settings with a positive case across Wiltshire, which means there are 2,564 pupils self-isolating and 165 teachers doing the same.