‘It’s not all over’ – Stark message issued by Sheffield health chief after lockdown measures lifted

That is the stark message of Sheffield’s most senior public health official Greg Fell, as the city slowly emerges from its two-month-long lockdown.

Speaking to the Star on Friday, Mr Fell admitted he had concerns about the Government’s strategy for lifting the lockdown, and urged people to be cautious about returning to normality.

But he repeated that despite the heartbreaking losses the city had endured since the pandemic began in March, the overall story for the city was one of remarkable resilience and success.

He said: “I was pretty clear, I think it is too soon to be significantly releasing lockdown.

“While the infection rate is coming down it is not dropping like a stone. 8,000 new infections every day is higher than anyone is really comfortable with.

“The problem is if people interpret the message as ‘it is all over, I can go out to play again now’. I was out walking the dog at the weekend and it was heaving.

“This will only work if we stick to the guidance. I worry that we all want it to be over but the reality is that all of the conditions are there for a second wave.”

Mr Fell ruled out issuing specific guidelines for Sheffield, but said he would be more proactive in his communications over the coming days and weeks to make sure his cautious message gets across.

He said: “It’s not all over. We have all got the message ‘track and trace’ is the solution for us to go out and do all the things we want to do but the most important thing you can do is stay at home if you have symptoms. 50 per cent of transmission can be stopped this way but 50 per cent of people don’t do it.

“Then there is physical distancing and washing hands which are really important – and track and trace is at the bottom of the list. That is running and it is improving day by day but if we don’t do the other bits it won’t be as effective as it needs to be.”

Mr Fell also backed calls made by other health chiefs in Sheffield for people to use the health service for other medical complaints, after data revealed thousands of people were not accessing the care they needed.

This includes a 58 per cent fall in cancer referrals and a 74 per cent reduction in urgent referrals from GPs to secondary care.

He said: “One of the very unhappy byproducts is that people have the impression that the NHS doesn’t want to see you or is closed.

“Early on the NHS did close down a lot of elective care because it was building as much capacity as it could for intensive and critical care which in the end we didn’t need.

“The NHS is still there and is open for business but we still have work to do to get that message across and that work will probably have to continue for some time.”

The toll of the covid-19 pandemic on care homes is another key issue for the authorities, with figures showing that almost half of the deaths that have taken place during the pandemic have happened in the care sector.

Mr Fell, however, rejected the notion that moving elderly people from hospital into care homes at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak amounted to a ‘death sentence’ for many residents.

“This perception that the NHS knowingly discharged covid positive patients into care homes that were unprepared to deal with that is just not true,” he said.

“We looked into one home which had a significant number of deaths and the reality was that most of those who sadly died developed their illness inside the home from staff coming in and out.

“Were the deaths we have seen inevitable? Probably not but they were difficult to avoid. Care homes are full of very vulnerable people and as we see in flu season every year once it gets into a home it becomes very difficult to control.”

But Mr Fell did say the problems that care homes had faced during the pandemic were an indication of the serious, long-term problems in a sector which desperately needed reform.

He said: “The sector is structurally underfunded and has been for decades. It has always been the poor relation of the NHS.

“Over the last 15 years the NHS has been getting fairly small year on year increases in funding but we have been dealing with very large decreases.

“So we need to address the funding deficit which is ginormous but we also need to look at the interface between the NHS and social care because they are wildly different culturally.”

The next big decision for Mr Fell is whether schools in the city will reopen later this month, which he said he would take on Monday.

He said: “The key sticking points for me last Thursday night were the numbers of new infections and the reproduction rate, and how robust the track and trace system was.

“Last week it was there but it wasn’t robust but it has developed a lot since then. The judgement I have to make now is whether it is robust enough.

“If there is a big outbreak in a school in a week’s time can we deal with it quickly? That is the judgement call but I am not going to make it until early next week.”