COVID-19 INFECTION rates have fallen across the borough to pre-Christmas levels — but there is still a lot of work to do, said the borough’s health executive.
Cllr Charles Margetts told Wokingham.Today all four primary care networks (PCNs) will start vaccinating the over 70s this week.
Plans are also in place to open two local mass vaccination centres, one in Wokingham, the other in Reading.
“We have a meeting in a few days to sign this off,” Cllr Margetts said. “We’re working to build up capacity. The Wokingham centre should be able to vaccinate 750 people per day — but this is very much dependent on vaccine supply. We want to see as much on the ground as possible.”
This week, Wokingham borough will receive 4,900 doses, 35% less than last week, due to issues with national supply.
Cllr Margetts said: “It is clear that some places, including Wokingham, are ahead in the vaccination programme.
“Matt Hancock is reducing vaccines in these areas to allow other local authorities to catch up. It is disappointing, but I can understand the logic.
“Ultimately, I would like to see the capacity in Wokingham fully utilised — we could be giving out more.”
He said council leader John Halsall is meeting with the four borough MPs to “make this point strongly”.
And Cllr Halsall said that he was pleased that residents were receiving vaccines, with the UK being the envy of the world in this regard, but wished that supply would outstrip demand.
“We hope to vaccinate 1,000 every day in Wokingham,” he said. “But we’ve got to do better because, at the moment, our limiting factor is the vaccinations.”
He added: “My fear in November and December was that, because of the advent of vaccines, people had concluded that covid was all over.
“[Case numbers] were alarming, have been alarming and will continue to be alarming because, while they are flattening off, (the number of) deaths follow in around two-three weeks. We’ll probably see an alarming number of deaths in the next two or three weeks.”
This was echoed by Cllr Margetts, who said staff at The Royal Berkshire Hospital expecting the peak of hospitalisations in the next week.
From there, things should start to slowly improve again, he said.
“Locally, cases have dropped due to lockdown – we have to keep doing that,” he said.
“The vaccine should start to affect figures in March. But until then, we need to keep going with all of the restrictions – we’re not there yet.”
Next month, two lateral-flow Covid-19 testing sites will open in Shute End council offices and a second to be confirmed.
“This will be for all essential workers that cannot work from home,” Cllr Margetts said.
“We are recruiting 42 people to run these, and may even open a third.”
He said essential workers, including blue light services, essential retail, delivery, manufacturing, construction, education and council staff will all be eligible for the scheme.
It will require borough residents, or those that work in the borough, to sign up and book a regular slot, once or twice a week.
“People have to commit to it,” he said. “It will work to identify any problems. All the test does is tell you if you’re fine at that moment.”
On Tuesday, 1,610 people in the UK died within 28 days of a positive covid test – the highest figure yet. The same day, there were 33,355 positive cases recorded, a decline on last week’s highs, as lockdown takes effect.
In the borough, there were 53 cases, down from 76 recorded on Monday. This brings the current weekly rate of infection to 379.3 per 100,000 people.
Locally there were six deaths recorded within 28 days of a positive covid test from Saturday, January 2 until Friday, January 8. No further data is available yet for local deaths.
Slough continues to report high numbers, but saw fewer reported cases on Tuesday – 157, down from Monday’s 201, also down from last week.
It has now had 11,453 cases overall, and its rate per 100,000 has dropped to 1,044.5, down from 1,160.2 last week.
Windsor and Maidenhead reported 59 cases on Tuesday, down from last week.
There has been a decrease in its case rate per 100,000, which is now 446.4, down from last week’s 644.6.
Reading had 111 cases, down from last week. Its rate per 100,000 people has dropped to 712.1 from 760.9 last week.
Bracknell Forest had 53 positive tests on Tuesday. Its rate per 100,000 people is 439.6, down from 712.4 last week.
West Berkshire reported 53 new daily cases on Tuesday. Its rate per 100,000 people is 320.6, down from 350.3 last week.
The figures in this article were from Tuesday, January 19. This piece was originally published in the print edition of Wokingham.Today on Thursday, January 21, and were the latest available at the time of going to press. Regular updates are posted on our website.
