Public health directors have spoken out about concerns that the Government’s plan to lift lockdown is ‘misjudged’ and coming too quickly.
In a blog post yesterday, the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) said it was critical to weigh up the balance of risks, but said its members were ‘increasingly concerned that the Government is misjudging this balancing act and lifting too many restrictions, too quickly’.
It added: ‘At a local level, Directors of Public Health (DPHs) consider that honest and open dialogue with their communities is integral to effectively containing COVID-19 and managing outbreaks. That focus must be echoed at the very top of Government.’
Over the weekend, the Government announced it was easing restrictions on ‘shielded’ people to allow them to leave the house. Today also marks the start of children returning to school and people being allowed to meet in groups of up to six in England.
The risk of a spike in cases and deaths – and of the social and economic impact if we have to return to stricter lockdown measures – cannot be overstated; this needs to be understood not only by the public but also by the Government.
Speaking on Radio Four’s Today programme this morning, ADPH president Jeanelle de Gruchy said: ‘We need the national testing programme to be absolutely robust and ready and we need the NHS Test and Trace to be robust and ready to give us that confidence.’
She told the programme she was not confident that the system could meet the potential challenges if the Government’s easing of lockdown turned out to be premature, and she described the current R rate – of between 0.7 and 0.9 – as giving ‘very limited room for manoeuvre’.
In its blog, the ADPH also said a second peak cannot be ruled out, and asked: ‘Do we really want the same number of deaths again? The scale to date represents an unimaginable tragedy and we must do everything possible to limit further loss of life.’
Contact tracers hired to run the test and trace programme have been raising concerns about its state of readiness. According to an investigation by The Times, almost 2,000 people a day are testing positive for coronavirus in the UK, but few of these people, or those they have been in contact with, appear to be filtering through the system used by contact tracers.
One nurse spoken to by the paper, said she had seen 'zero cases' on the system - known as CTAS - throughout three shifts for which she was paid £27 an hour. She added: 'It's very obviously not ready. Something is not working between CTAS and the test results that are coming in.'