What will happen if Sheffield’s Covid-19 situation gets worse – and the tough rules we could see

But what will happen if the situation deteriorates even further?

Here’s all the action the Government and Sheffield City Council can take in Sheffield, should the need arise and what has already happened so far

National Government and local authorities will work with the public at a local level to prevent, contain and manage outbreaks.

The aim is to allow authorities to act at the earliest stage for local incidents, and ensure swift national support is readily accessible where needed.

Sheffield City Council will lead any local outbreak planning, within a national framework, and with the support of NHS Test and Trace, Public Health England and other government departments.

COVID-19 local outbreak plans are based on preventing and containing outbreaks in individual settings including:

healthcare and education settings

high-risk workplaces, communities and locations

This is done by:

local testing

contact tracing in complex settings

The council has powers to close individual premises, public outdoor places and prevent specific events.

It means that authorities will no longer have to make representations to a magistrate in order to close a premises. Premises which form part of essential infrastructure will not be in scope of these powers.

Government ministers also have similar powers to take action against specific premises, places and events.

To address more serious and wider-spread cases, ministers will be able to use their existing powers to implement more substantial restrictions which could include:

Closing businesses and venues in whole sectors (such as food production or non-essential retail), or within a defined geographical areas (such as towns or counties)

imposing general restrictions on movement of people (including requirements to ‘stay at home’, or to prevent people staying away from home overnight stays, or restrictions on entering or leaving a defined area)

imposing restrictions on gatherings – limiting how many people can meet and whether they can travel in and out of an area to do so

restricting local or national transport systems – closing them entirely, or introducing capacity limits or geographical restrictions

mandating use of face coverings in a wider range of public places

A wide range of indicators will be monitored to ensure Sheffield is kept under a watchful eye.

These will help provide an early-warning system to enable early, preventative action and include:

Public Health England and NHS Test and Trace data – for example the number and rate of increase of positive cases and the number of outbreaks in an area

syndromic surveillance – for example increase in NHS111 calls regarding COVID-19 like symptoms

NHS activity – for example hospital admissions for COVID-19

other indicators – for example mortality data

This monitoring will enable an understanding of the virus progression and level of risk.

The majority of areas will be operating as ‘business as usual’. However, at any one time, some areas will be designated by national Goverment one of the following.

Area(s) of concern – a watch list of areas with the highest prevalence, where the local area is taking targeted actions to reduce prevalence – for example additional testing in care homes and increased community engagement with high risk groups. This is the situation currently in Sheffield.

Area(s) of enhanced support – for areas at medium/high risk of intervention where there is a more detailed plan, agreed with the national team and with additional resources being provided to support the local team (eg epidemiological expertise, additional mobile testing capacity)

Area(s) of intervention – where there is divergence from the measures in place in the rest of England because of the significance of the spread, with a detailed action plan in place, and local resources augmented with a national support

In the majority of these scenarios, local teams will be able to control the outbreak by drawing on their expertise in epidemiology, analysis, good communications and engagement, infection control, enhanced testing and effective local contact tracing. They may impose restrictions on the specific setting, such as cleansing or temporary closure.

In exceptional cases, an outbreak in a setting will require additional support or intervention. NHS Test and Trace Teams will work with local areas to ensure that settings of national significance, for example those which form part of the UK’s critical national infrastructure or underpin major supply chains, are identified proactively and managed appropriately.

Here’s how it is broken down

Areas of concern

In these areas, authorities will work with their partners, supported by regional Public Health England and NHS Test and Trace resource, to take additional actions to manage outbreaks and reduce community spread of the virus to more normal levels. Actions taken may include additional targeted testing at high risk areas or groups, for example care homes, enhanced communications around the importance of social distancing, hand hygiene and other preventative measures, and more detailed epidemiological work to understand where clusters of the virus are occurring so that appropriate action can be taken.

Areas of enhanced support

Places deemed as areas for enhanced support will be provided with increased national support, capacity and oversight, including additional resources deployed to augment the local teams. Actions taken may include significant additional widespread testing deployed, local restrictions put in place to manage outbreaks and detailed engagement with high risk groups and sectors to help increase the effectiveness of testing and tracing in these areas.

Areas of intervention

In certain instances, decision-making will be referred to the national level. This includes cases where:

local leaders request an intervention from government

multiple outbreaks require resource prioritisation by Ministers (for example where an outbreak requires more resources than local decision-makers can access through their own systems or mutual aid, including supplies of items such as PPE or additional staff)

outbreaks raise issues of national importance (for example impact on critical infrastructure, major parts of the economy or on wider sectors such as food or energy production); or

local capabilities and controls are exceeded (for example local community protection actions are not effective, or the scale of the outbreak calls for the use of wider or more intrusive powers)

These are the measures which could be brought in

Extensive communications to reach groups directly affected by the outbreak, delivered in the languages most relevant to the local community and guidance to improve preventative measures (for example increase the frequency of hand washing or cleaning in response to a potential outbreak, face coverings, bubbles)

accelerate and expand channels for local testing, symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals around the outbreak (e.g. students, customers, staff who may have been exposed but are not showing symptoms, types of workforce, houses of multiple occupancy)

enhanced inspection regime for businesses

close certain businesses and venues (for example shops, cafes, gyms, recreation centres, offices, labs, warehouses)

cancel organised events (for example sporting events, concerts, weddings, faith services)

close outdoor public areas (for example parks, playgrounds, beaches, esplanades, outdoor swimming pools)

encourage working from home (for example instigating working from home measures where this is feasible)

limit schools to set year groups (for example year groups with forthcoming assessments or which are important for transitions between school phases).

close schools (for example close impacted schools with the exception of vulnerable children and children of critical workers).

travel or movement restrictions could be applied for example only travel for key workers

bespoke measures for people who are shielding

In local areas where restrictions have been implemented for certain sectors (from national direction), the Government anticipates that education and childcare will usually remain fully open to all, with the additional requirement that face coverings should be worn by staff and pupils in schools and colleges, from year 7 and above, outside classrooms when moving around communal areas where social distancing cannot easily be maintained.