A council has created a plan which will help prevent and react to coronavirus outbreaks across the region.
Somerset County Council assembled the first virtual meeting of its local outbreak engagement board on July 31, where members considered and backed the approach to engage people, businesses, visitors and communities to keep virus cases down, and further reduce its spread if outbreaks occur.
Members at the meeting, chaired by council leader David Fothergill, heard coronavirus cases across the county continue to remain low, compared to other parts of the country.
However, central Government has tasked local authorities to produce outbreak management plans, as the focus moves away from a national lockdown to a regional response.
Cllr Fothergill said: “Our plan sets out how the county council and partners will work to prevent local outbreaks and, if any do occur, how we will manage those clusters of infection.
“We need to prevent the spread of coronavirus together, and we will continue to work closely with communities, partners and businesses to help keep residents and visitors safe and prevent further Covid-19 outbreaks.”
In the plans, the engagement board will work with communities to prevent the spread of coronavirus and emphasise infection control measures to reduce risk, identify data and intelligence to monitor the spread of virus, manage the situation by taking necessary action to contain outbreaks and clusters, as well as learn to inform future actions.
Other members at the meeting included Somerset’s NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, district councils and Police and Crime Commissioner, Sue Mountstevens.
Director of public health at the council, Trudi Grant, said: “There is no vaccine or treatment for Covid-19, so the best chance we have of preventing and managing the virus is our behaviour.
“Our local efforts are supported by Government’s Test and Trace service, and I want to stress that we manage outbreaks of infectious diseases all the time, but prevention is always best.
“Our efforts to stop the spread of disease will help save lives.”
To view the plan, visit docs.somerset.gov.uk/wl/?id=JNTeoNTuUtmTxW3LpuEF3OilF0xgxAI4
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