East Riding Council says vaccinated people still need to take care
They're being urged to stick to social distancing rules.
East Riding Council’s public health lead has said those vaccinated for coronavirus should still follow social distancing rules, amid concerns they could still infect others.
East Riding Council’s Public Health Director Andy Kingdom said officials were awaiting the results of studies into how far vaccines reduced transmissions.
He added the reduction could range from 70 per cent to as low as 20 per cent, meaning that while those jabbed were protected, coronavirus in their system could still infect others.
The concerns come as Mr Kingdom said the East Riding vaccination roll out continued to progress successfully, but added officials were wary of moving too far ahead of other areas.
The public health lead said while he welcomed news that infection rates appeared to be levelling off nationally, numbers in the East Riding had seen little change.
Mr Kingdom said:
“At the moment the situation is like a tug of war with the virus pulling at one side and all our measures like lockdown and social distancing pulling on the other.
“Our infection numbers are coming down but slowly, so it’s like the part of the tug of war where both sides are inching back and forth, it’s balanced between them.
“We’re in an usual position with our numbers because although we’re still among the bottom 10 local authorities they aren’t falling as quickly as in the south where they started from a higher place.
“The new variant added strength to coronavirus’ side in the tug of war, but the hope is that the vaccine is like the big bruiser that comes in pulls to rope towards us.
“But equally if anyone from our side steps away then we all lose and we’ll be dealing with this for a long time to come so people need to stick with it.
“I think people are complying very well in the East Riding, the only issue remains some people isolating for just two or three days if they test positive rather than the full 10.
“The virus just incubates in the body for a couple of days so that’s not effective, I’d encourage anyone who needs help or support isolating to contact the council.
“Everyone needs to chose a side on this, you can’t be neutral.”
Mr Kingdom said infection rates would remain unchanged until more people are vaccinated, adding the focus should continue to be on those over 80 and the clinically vulnerable.
He said:
“If you look at our local mortality rates, two out of three people who’ve died from coronavirus were over 80 and that age group accounted for 40 to 45 per cent of hospitalisations.
“The over 70s make up 90 per cent of all deaths, so those are the groups we need to concentrate on.
“Here in the East Riding we’ve vaccinated most of the care homes now, there’s a few to mop up but the NHS has moved down to the 75 to 80 age bracket.
“It’s about breaking those links in the chain because all the virus is evolved to do is to find bodies and replicate itself, every person vaccinated is one less the virus can infect.”
The public health lead said he was concerned those jabbed may become lax on following coronavirus guidelines, in light of unknowns around transmissions from those vaccinated.
Mr Kingdom said:
“Vaccines won’t reduce transmissions by 100 per cent or zero per cent, it’s somewhere in between.
“We’re still waiting for the results from studies but from what we know about other vaccinations it could reduce transmissions by around 50 per cent, but that’s a guesstimate.
“People who’ve had vaccinations could still pass it on, although they themselves won’t get seriously ill or end up in hospital anymore if coronavirus is still in their throat or nasal passages it could still be spread.
“The studies going on at the moment are looking at how many people vaccinated were then found to be contacts in community outbreaks.”
Mr Kingdom said the mid-March date floated for school reopenings seemed “about right” but added it would depend on how infection rates and trends change in the meantime.
He added:
“With schools we’ve had to balance the risk of infections with the harm caused by children missing out on their education and the effect that has on families.
“Schools here haven’t been the source of outbreaks, they’ve tended to come from households and where outbreaks have happened schools are good at getting on top of it.
“We need to see a significant drop in community infection rates before we reopen schools.
“If things remain on track then we should see mortality rates start to drop from February and hospitalisations fall in March.
“If that happens then we’d look at opening primary schools first because they’re the lowest risk, the further children get into puberty the more likely they are to catch and spread coronavirus.”