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AS THE country prepares for the end of coronavirus restrictions later this month, Wokingham Borough Council is planning to use covid marshals during evenings and, in a separate development, wants to launch a permanent vaccination centre.
The latter comes after the success of a pop-up surge vaccination centre in Bulmershe Leisure Centre last month, offering jabs to younger residents.
From Monday, July 19, all restrictions including mask wearing and social distancing requirements will be dropped and pubs, theatres and other venues will be allowed to reopen as normal.
Prime minister Boris Johnson said the changes could come about because the majority of people who were being admitted to hospital were unvaccinated. The decision comes as case numbers continue to rise.
Covid cases rise in Wokingham borough
In neighbouring Reading on Monday, the Palmer Park area saw a high of 1,690 cases per 100,000 – while parts of Woodley had too few cases to register on the government’s data map.
On Tuesday, Wokingham borough’s rate per 100,000 people was 125.6, Reading’s was 270.1.
The figures come after the councils launched a surge testing programme in a number of wards and postcode areas in a bid to stem transmission of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.
Cllr Charles Margetts, the executive member for adult services at Wokingham Borough Council said: “Surge testing and surge vaccination had been a big success.
“There has been a nationwide trend of increasing cases, that trend accelerated in Wokingham first.
But surge testing wards the virus off
Now, it looks like the effect of surge testing is bringing us back in line with the national trend, rather than being ahead of it.
“The vast majority of our cases are in the younger age group – nobody over the age of 60 in Wokingham has tested positive for covid (recently). We’re dealing with rising case numbers, yes, but in totally different age groups from last year.”
And as part of the council’s long-term response, he is hopeful that it can work with West Berkshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to launch the vaccination centre.
“We all know that the only way out of this really, in the long run, is vaccinations,” he said. “We are working with our partners in the CCG to sort out a permanent vaccination centre in Wokingham.
“It’s an ongoing discussion at the moment, no commitment has been offered but we’re going to continue to push this case as we saw what a big success Bulmershe was.
“Even if we could get to the point where we’re doing half the number of vaccinations as we were doing in Bulmershe, that would still be a significant improvement.
“Vaccine take-up among 18 to 24-year-olds in the surge testing wards was 17% before opening and 53% after.”
‘Covid is going nowhere’
As the prime minister alluded to in his press conference on Monday, covid is not going away.
“We’re seeing cases rise fairly rapidly – and there could be 50,000 cases detected per day by the 19th and we’re seeing rising hospital admissions and we must reconcile ourselves sadly to more deaths from covid,” Mr Johnson said.
Cllr Margetts is prepared for this.
“I can understand the logic of the government’s position and I’m supportive of it, but obviously
I’m also mindful of rising case numbers. As a council, as a community we must do everything we can to drive that down,” he said.
“The advice we’ve received from Public Health England is numbers are going to keep rising till probably August but that not necessarily mean we’re in the same situation we were in last year because the number of people in hospital is minuscule in comparison, the number of people seriously ill is very small.
“I’m not trying to diminish this to that one or two people, it’s obviously a big problem, but we’re not dealing with the number of cases rising to the level nationally does not massively mean everything is going to grind to a halt round here.”
Look out for covid marshals
He said that as part of the council’s drive to keep covid under control, the marshal scheme will be extended to cover the evening economy.
“We’re also going to be putting in covid marshals around Wokingham at nighttime, going into pubs and restaurants, finding places where there could be problems and hopefully trying to stop that kind of thing going on. A bit of carrot, a bit of stick,” he said.
And he urged everyone to get vaccinated.
“There is an NHS website called grab a jab where you can, if you’re eligible for a vaccine, it will tell you the nearest place you can get vaccinated. If people want to get vaccinated, this website is very good,” he said.
