The Covid picture in West Dunbartonshire is starting to look brighter, according to health chiefs.
Last week, the area’s health and social care partnership chief officer Beth Culshaw told how there were no positive cases in any of the area’s care homes.
And she said although infection rates have been “volatile”, there has been no added pressure on health services as a result.
In addition, more than half of people in West Dunbartonshire aged 16 and over have received their first dose of the vaccine.
The HSCP chief delivered the good news at a meeting of the board on Thursday.
She said: “We have no Covid cases among residents within our care homes at the minute.
“That’s the first time I have been able to report that for some time.”
This is despite the fact that indoor visiting resumed at care homes across the region earlier this month seeing families reunited after almost a year.
This included Bill and Agnes Campbell, married for almost 70 years who have been forced apart by Covid.
We told last week how Bill was able to hold his wife’s hand for the first time in 12 months with new guidance on indoor visiting within residential facilities.
During last week’s meeting, chair of the board Allan MacLeod expressed concern over why infection rates had been unsteady, saying: “It seems to be quite volatile.
“Have we been able to establish why that has been the case?
“I suspect as we move, hopefully, towards relaxing lockdown, there will be certain criteria that the government will be looking at and one of them is probably the rate of infection.
“If we are too high then West Dunbartonshire may remain in a higher level than others.
“Is there anything that we could perhaps do more to get a message across to the West Dunbartonshire public.”
But the HSCP chief said that the figures were being closely scrutinised although bosses were not concerned about the overall impact on health services.
Ms Culshaw added: “We have seen the figures go up and down.
“We are not the only partnership in that situation.
“It’s something we are very closely monitoring and working with our colleagues in Public Health to try and understand what’s happening.
“There’s a general acceptance that as schools have gone back and people have started to go about their lives perhaps in a slightly different way, we are seeing an increase.
“What we can also see is for those who have had the vaccination, there has been less unwellness as a result of that.
“So far we are not seeing a significant additional demand upon services and hospital activity is greatly reducing.”
She did reiterate that people were still urged to follow Scottish Government guidance to wear face coverings when required, to avoid crowded places, clean hands regularly, remain two metres apart from others and self-isolate and book a test if showing coronavirus symptoms.
Ms Culshaw said: “The responsibility sits with all of us to continue to minimise the risk and following the FACTS guidance.
“Once people are vaccinated, we need to ensure we are still following the
guidance.
“We haven’t had outbreaks over the past few weeks. It has been small pockets of infection in parts of the community.
“The situation can change quickly.”
She also updated members on the vaccination programme locally confirming over 50 percent of over 16s have been given their first jab.
Ms Culshaw added: “We can already see the positive impact that is having.”
Meanwhile Covid-19 was acknowledged as a risk factor for the HSCP along with the likes of Brexit and financial sustainability.
Margaret Jane Cardno who is the HSCP’s head of strategy and transformation, said one of the main factors which put the partnership at risk was the impact of the pandemic
on the workforce who she said are “exhausted”.
Ms Cardno added: “They are short of breath and catching up on the day job.”
She said that focus had to be given on “how we make sure the workforce stays well and engaged and able to deliver for the communities as well as possible.”
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