Agenda item

The committee were presented a generic overview of the current situation and the Track Trace and Protect (TTP) system which has been operating for a month. Officers advised that the collaboration with health and Torfaen County Borough Council has been working well so far. Approximately 300 tests were being done daily and so far, only 1% of tests were positive. It was explained that because the number of cases are fewer than England, the system is quite different to the system operating in England, with the council’s Environmental Health Officers playing a vital role in contact tracing.  Members heard that existing staff are taking the lead on contact tracing, but that over the longer term, roles are likely to need to be recruited. The committee heard that this entirely new way of working has required a significant amount of work to be undertaken over a very short time to establish a functioning system. 

Officers advised that one of the key advantages to the local authority leading on TTP is knowing and understanding the locality very well, so that unlike the national system in England, the team can respond rapidly.   The team works proactively with health to understand what the issues might be and for example, had been in contact with some of the meat processing plants to make sure they are familiar with what they can do in terms of preventative action. Members heard that a second testing centre opened yesterday in Blaenau Gwent (additional to Rodney Parade) and that this is likely to increase the number of positive covid results.

Questions:

·         There are concerns relating to farmers visiting slaughterhouses and meat processing sites. Are protocols in place to ensure masks are worn, regardless of whether the person has symptoms?  

Farming and Slaughterhouses and meat processing plants are Food Standard Agency regulated and also are governed through the Health and Safety Executive, so they should be following guidelines, but officers will raise concerns around social distancing with them.

·         Is antibody testing still taking place, which would allow people to return to work with some immunity?

At the moment, there are concerns about the reliability of the antibody test, so it is being piloted in schools as a first phase.

·         Please can you explain the resourcing around the TTP system and the pairing up with Torfaen. What happens when EHO’s return to their day job?

Resourcing this is a matter for Welsh Government (WG) to determine. We are expecting a response from them this week to see what they will support. There is an expectation from WG and health colleagues that we absorb the costs for now, given that EHO’s are not performing their usual duties due to the closure of many food and retail premises, but when officers return to their usual roles, we will need to specifically recruit people.  When testing increases, we will need to ramp up our TTP staff capacity, but we are awaiting clarity. The rationale for partnering with Torfaen Council was to reduce duplication of effort and to mutually benefit from shared learning. It was a symbiotic move for both councils to begin in this way and it enabled us to operate at a very local level. We have been flexible and have helped with some incidences in the Royal Gwent Hospital and also incidences in North Wales, through which we have learnt greatly.

·         Please can you explain how data is collected and how useful the data is in enabling us to react at a local level? 

All the test results are sent through to St Cadoc’s Hospital, so we don’t have the same issue that England has with data. We have close links with health colleagues which provides us with local data so that we can react rapidly.  Whilst we don’t have some of the same issues Leicester, we know that close proximity and confined spaces such as those in factory settings, particularly breakout spaces such as tearooms and smoking areas are areas whether the infection can spread easily. We have a Gwent wide out of hours’ system to coordinate any wider action such as local lockdowns, if this were necessary.  So far, we have traced 68 people in Gwent and approximately 36% of those traced were traced by Monmouthshire staff, so we are feeling more confident as a council in our understanding of this.

·         How quickly do you contact someone who has been in contact with someone who has tested positive?  Does the TTP process also apply to care home workers?

People are contacted within 48 hours, which is fairly rapid The media has covered stories around non-responders, but we haven’t found this to pose a problem with people being generally very cooperative.  To confirm, the TTP process does apply to care home workers. 

·         You have covered concerns on capacity, resource and information sharing, but can I ask whether data security and data governance has been fully considered?

We are very clear who we are sharing the data with and in terms of our governance process, the data security issues have been fully resolved.

·         Are you able to offer the R rate for Monmouthshire?  Where are the testing centres?

No, there are many complexities around calculating the R. The 68 positive tests are a Gwent Wide figure.  What is interesting is the number of asymptomatic cases, because we are only testing symptomatic people at the moment. The centres in Gwent are Rodney Parade, Newport and the new centre in Blaenau Gwent that opened yesterday. Home tests are available, but there are a high number of failures due to tests not being completed properly.  

·         Do we have enough information out there to encourage people to get tested even if they only have minor symptoms?  How are we reaching out to BAME communities? 

We have a highly skilled officer in our Communities and Partnerships Team whose role involves liaising directly with the BAME communities in Monmouthshire and he is sharing information with communities through established networks, to ensure everybody receives the guidance.

Chair’s Conclusion:  

The report has provided a very useful overview of the new TTP system and has provided the committee with much greater confidence that the process is working well and that we are suitable prepared in case we have a second wave of the virus.