"We are in for a difficult winter with Covid-19. This is not trivial" says Sheffield's health chief

Director of Public Health Greg Fell says there is no doubt that the city is in for a difficult winter.

He told a Cabinet meeting: "The issue of schools is very hot at the moment. Care homes, very worryingly, will become hot in the not too distant future, there are a number of care homes with individual cases.

"A key worry for me is universities reopening, we can't not do that, but it will cause pressure.

"And testing, and the accessibility of testing, is red hot. It isn't my control, I wish it was."

Coronavirus rates are around 50 per 100,000 in Sheffield and are doubling every seven days, in line with the rest of the country.

The number of positive tests is still low - out of 100 people who think they have symptoms, only four per cent test positive.

Mr Fell said positive tests were going up slightly, mainly in young working age people, but there was "zero chance" of it staying within that age group.

"There are already signs that the infections are starting to creep back into older working age and retirement age people.

"Hospitals are beginning to be busier, it's not so much of a worry now in Sheffield but it is a worry in other parts of the country.

"And there have been a number of deaths over recent weeks very sadly where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, after a long period where there were no deaths."

Mr Fell said it was a challenge trying to contain the virus while keeping the economy going.

"There is no doubt we're in for a very difficult winter. We are trying to protect people from a dangerous respiratory virus that's very easy to transmit and has one per cent mortality. That is not trivial.

"Equally, we're trying to avoid the economic and social harm that comes from the interventions so it's a difficult balancing act.

"Numbers are going up and we are intensifying our efforts across all areas including contact tracing, prevention, protecting the vulnerable and the shielding programme.

"We are focusing very much on household transmissions because the evidence is that's where most of the risk is and that's where most of the transmissions are.

"Admittedly numbers are still relatively low, but it is a citywide thing now, it's not just isolated to some parts of town."

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