Only 12% of Swale cases come from prisons and carehomes

By: Sean McPolin smcpolin@thekmgroup.co.uk

Published: 18:11, 23 November 2020

Updated: 18:28, 23 November 2020

Only a tenth of cases in the country's worst hit Covid area are from prisons and care homes, it has been revealed at an emergency meeting.

Numbers of cases in Swale, which is made up of Sittingbourne, Sheppey and Faversham, have been on the rise for the past couple of weeks, with the borough having the highest coronavirus infection rate in England.

12% of cases in Swale come from prisons or care homes

As a result, an emergency meeting was held by the local authority with Kent Country Council, Kent Police, Public Health England and the prison service.

At the meeting it was revealed only 12% of the borough's cases came from its two prions and care homes.

Swale Council leader Roger Truelove said: "This isn’t a problem that is just on the Isle of Sheppey, but elsewhere across the borough.

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“The overwhelming majority of cases are through community transmission. It’s spreading in residential settings, and through social activity and it only takes a small number of people to create the clusters of cases that are driving up our figures.

“This is why we needed to call the meeting, so we could be sure where we need to concentrate our resources to get the cases under control again.

Council leader Roger Truelove spoke after the emergency meeting. Picture: Swale Council

Cllr Truelove also revealed the number of cases in Swale are starting to fall but are still "clearly still too high".

He said: “This was a valuable meeting where we were able to bring together a wide range of interested parties to discuss where we are and how we are going to improve the situation.

“We received the very latest figures from our public health colleagues, and these showed that whilst we do seem to be starting to see a fall in cases locally, they are clearly still too high.

“There are also worrying signs that the infection is growing among the over-60s who are more vulnerable to this virus, and we are sadly starting to see the number of deaths increase.

“We also heard that Swale has the second highest level of testing in the county, which shows that the work we’ve been doing to encourage people with symptoms to get tested is getting through, and it will ultimately make a difference."

The Covid-19 infection rate in Swale is the highest in the country. Picture: Public Health England

“We will be getting in touch with local supermarkets to ask for them to be as vigilant as possible, and we will be carrying out work to make sure everyone involved understands the reasons why people might not feel able to follow the rules.

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“Parents seen with in supermarkets with children who should be isolating may not have any other childcare and can’t afford the minimum spend for a home delivery. People may be unwilling to get a test as they can’t afford to have time off work. These are issues we need to be able to identify so the relevant agencies can step in with the right support.

“Everyone is committed to making sure people understand the seriousness of the situation to people, and if we don’t follow the rules in place, we face a winter of further restrictions.”

Thanet is also one of the Kent districts which has been hit hard in Kent which will find out this Thursday what tier level of restrictions it will face.

Earlier this month 90 inmates at Elmey Prison tested positive for the virus.

Here's why people in the borough think its infection rate is so high.