YOUR LOCAL COUNCILLOR UPDATE

Well it’s Friday and now on countdown to 16th December to find out if we will be moving down to Tier 2.  It’s been another incredibly busy week, particularly on the council front wearing both district and council hats.

The vaccine rollout seems to be working well and it was just great to see that as a region the World first happened with the Covid jabs from Coventry’s University Hospital going to Margaret Keenan and a William Shakespeare.

Figures released this morning shows that for the SDC area the seven day rate/100,000 is now down to 52.3/100,000 and the over 60’s day rate is currently 41/100,000 with 17 cases over the last seven days which is all encouraging and particularly when compared to other districts in Warwickshire which are for all ages Nuneaton & Bedworth 183/100,000, North Warwickshire 124/100,000, Rugby 106/100,000 and Warwick 124/100,000.

The situation regarding the open SWFT Hospital Beds has seen a slight increase of Covid inpatients with 42 (31) confirmed cases of COVID-19 and two (5) patients in ICU (last week’s figures in brackets).  

The cumulative deaths across Stratford District from the start of this second wave (28th August 2020) have sadly increased by a further two to 20, with 10 occurring in care homes, nine in hospital and one at home, out of a total of 307 all cause deaths in the district for this new second wave period.

The cumulative total of deaths across Warwickshire for Wave 2 has now tragically jumped to 88 from 42 last week for a total of 1408 all cause deaths.  The cumulative total of Covid-19 deaths in Stratford district is 188 since the start of the pandemic and in Warwickshire 688; over the same period there have been 5059 non Covid-19 related deaths in Warwickshire.

As you may know, Stratford District Council is exerting as much pressure as possible on the Government to reduce the tiering and put Stratford on Avon District in line with those in at least Tier 2 and Cllr Tony Jefferson the Leader of SDC has again written to Secretary of State Matt Hancock today requesting that the district be made a special case in a bid to help our hospitality businesses which have been forced to close their doors.  Tourism and hospitality accounts for 40% of our economy and we are seriously worried that many may not survive or reopen their doors until February, even if we are downgraded to Tier 2.  Please continue to support the local businesses with take-aways.

And in order to avoid further potential lockdowns in the New Year we must all wear our common sense hats in planning Christmas gatherings.  In talking to many residents this week there are certainly lots of people thinking very carefully about doing the right thing in terms of protecting more elderly loved ones by just staying put and not venturing out or putting themselves into self isolation for the next couple of weeks in order to be able to visit parents and grandparents.

It’s also important to remember that the vaccine will not start to have any real impact until Easter and as a participant on the Oxford Astra Zeneca Trials I’m really hoping they get the green light from the regulatory authority next week. 

Take care and keep safe as we are all in this together.
Anne
Anne Parry
County Councillor for Wellesbourne Division
SDC Ward Member for Wellesbourne East
SDC Portfolio Holder for Regulatory Services