Barry Causer, Merton Public Health Team

Barry Causer Public Health Lead for COVID Resilience, gave a presentation on the latest situation with COVID in Merton. The presentation is attached to this report and covered the latest statistics, and key updates.

The numbers of new infections is on an upward trend with 140 new cases per day in Merton. Merton is in the middle of the pack of South West London boroughs, and we need to remain cautious. There are higher numbers of young people, especially primary school age getting COVID, but there have been breakthrough infections into those people who have been double vaccinated, due to waning immunity levels.

There has been a limited impact of these infections on NHS Indicators, which is different to earlier stages of the pandemic e.g. admissions look stable and the death rate remains low, due to the success of the vaccination programme. Omicron is a new variation of concern, first sequenced in South Africa. The concerns are about transmission, severity and evading the vaccines. There are only small numbers in the UK so far but this will increase.

The COVID vaccination programme is our front line of defence and has four strands:

• Evergreen – 1^st and 2^nd dose vaccinations for those who have not had a vaccine yet
• Boosters – for those most vulnerable e.g. care home residents, those over 50, front-line health and care staff and those with underlying health conditions
• Third dose – for those immunosuppressed residents
• Single dose for 12-15 year olds in schools

Regular asymptomatic testing remains vital and Lateral Flow Tests are available from assisted test sites in Merton (Wilson Hospital and Centre Court shopping centre) and can be collected from libraries, and community pharmacists for home use. We are still providing webinars to help promote vaccinations and testing.

Better Health Merton is an overarching brand for services that support residents to improve their overall health. To find out more you can sign-up for the Council COVID newsletter, and if you would like to be more involved in supporting your community you can still join the COVID Champions. There is also financial support available to local community groups through Merton Giving.

A resident asked about enforcing use of masks in shops, as shops are reluctant to enforce their use is Merton Council able support them. Barry said that the Business engagement team is working with local shops to give them advice and there is a COVID marshals team to help support enforcement. These are intelligence led so happy to take messages on where there are issues.

A resident asked about policing of masks on public transport. Barry said we work with TfL to highlight any issues. Merton is also working with Young Adult Community Champions to promote mask wearing.

A resident asked if the rise in cases could be just more testing and that numbers in hospital are more important. Barry said that as well as testing figures there are surveys that are part of national surveillance that are used to track the nature of the pandemic. Other important indicators used are from the NHS, for example numbers of admissions, numbers of people in ICU and the number of COVID-19 deaths.