Bristol must act now to prevent the spread of COVID-19

Bristol must act now to prevent the spread of COVID-19

Bristol’s Director of Public Health has urged residents to take action.

As cases continue to rise in the city, and hospitals feel the brunt of an increase in admissions, Bristol’s Director of Public Health has urged residents to take action.

Social interaction where families and friends are mixing between multiple households and not maintaining 2m distance is thought to be one of the key drivers for the increase. This is particularly concerning among the 30 to 69 age group.

Bristol is currently deemed to be Tier 1 (medium) by the government and this is under constant review. The city council has been taking additional action to stem the increasing infection levels, which it refers to as Tier 1 plus.

While Tier 1 plus hasn’t meant changes for the public, the council has been working hard with partners to put a number of measures in place which include recruiting COVID marshals and taking on some local responsibility for Test and Trace.

Recruiting COVID marshals.

A minimum of 16 COVID marshals will be working across the city in the coming weeks. The role of the marshal is not to enforce COVID-19 regulations, or have any enforcement powers, which will remain the remit of the police and designated local authority compliance and enforcement officers.

COVID-19 Secure Marshals will explain COVID-19 secure guidance and encourage/help people to comply by:

• signposting members of the public and businesses to government guidance
• cleaning touch points
• directing pedestrians and managing pedestrian one-way systems
• guiding pedestrians through exit and entry points
• checking and promoting visibility of COVID-19 Secure messaging
• handing out face coverings and hand sanitiser
• working with local businesses on queue management in the public realm, for example, advising on one-way systems and social distancing in queues
• facilitating to help prevent mixing between groups in night-time economy areas
• encouraging social distancing in busy night-life areas
• reminding members of the public to wear a face covering where required in relation to business premises
• supporting councils’ compliance and enforcement function through visiting businesses to check compliance with COVID-19 secure measures through observation, escalating to local authority compliance and enforcement officers as appropriate

Test and Trace

Bristol will be taking on some responsibility for the local contact tracing  This work will support the national system particularly where they are unable to communicate with people who have been in contact with confirmed positive COVID-19 cases.

As of 26 October, the national system had managed to communicate with 56% of contacts of positive cases in Bristol. The council will take on responsibility for contacting people the national system have been unable to speak to. This will involve a team of local call handlers and if the contact still can’t be reached, staff will visit people’s houses to advise they are a contact.

Christina Gray, Director of Public Health said: “We are all tired of COVID-19 and want things to go back to normal and this has driven some complacency. While people may have been sticking to the rule of 6, this only works if you limit that number and still make sure you stay 2m apart. Meeting multiple groups of 6 people and visiting people’s houses is driving up infection rates.

“A lot of people have the misconception that students alone are driving the numbers up. While there have been outbreaks at both universities these have been well managed and contained. So it’s really important we all need to look at our own behaviours and ask, are we doing everything we can to prevent the spread of COVID-19?

“The thing we can all do is limit the number of people we see and always stay 2m apart. Wash our hand regularly and wear a mask if we can when needed. The council is working hard with partners to protect you all, please help us by protecting yourself.”

The cost of the measures for this work is coming from central Government funding.

The latest COVID-19 cases are reported here, however this will be updated later today (Friday) when new numbers are released.

Contact Information

Bristol City Council Public Relations