Agenda item

To agree the public minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 20 November 2020.

The public minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 20 November 2020 were approved.

Matters arising

Covid Update

The Board received an oral update from Officers relating to issues and matters concerning the Covid-19 pandemic.

Members were informed that the overall incidence of new Covid cases had decreased in London by 29% and the rate of people aged over 60 years had decreased by 32%. And there was an overall decrease in positivity across all London Boroughs.

The current incidence rate for the City of London (and lowest weekly case rate across London) was 51 cases per 100k people, a decrease of nearly 70% from the previous week. There were no new registered Covid deaths in the City. The number of people coming forward for testing has decreased as has the positivity of those being tested by 60% from the previous week.

The comprehensive NHS national vaccination programme initially rolled out to cohorts 1 to 4 was expanded last week to include cohort 5 and would begin moving into cohort 6. City and Hackney residents were being offered their vaccines accordingly.

In response to a question from a Member asking what classified as an underlying health condition, Officers confirmed the Green Book defined this as follows: chronic respiratory disease, chronic heart disease and vascular disease, chronic kidney disease, chronic neurological disease, diabetes mellitus, immunosuppression, asplenia or dysfunction of the spleen, morbid obesity, severe mental illness, adult carers, and younger adults in long-stay nursing and residential care settings.

Members stated that confusion was being caused by people receiving multiple vaccination invitations from different places (GPs, hospitals and nation programme) and people generally wanted to receive this close to home. Healthwatch confirmed they were offering advice on this and it was highlighted that Healthwatch had great public information on their social media.  

Officers agreed that multiple invites were confusing, and a local steering group was working to develop a single booking system to streamline vaccinations for North East London.

Officers stated that the primary aim was to encourage all people to take up the vaccine when offered it. Great work was taking place to target all groups and communities and good information was available on the City Corporation’s website including short videos by the Director of Public Health. It was noted that the new QCovid algorithm was also identifying more people at risk and was a welcome piece of work.