Welcome to this week's newsletter, published for adult social care providers, issued on behalf of Devon County Council's Director of Adult Social Care Services and Director of Public Health and NHS Devon’s Chief Nursing Officer.
We are expecting a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases as restrictions are eased, which underlines the need to forge ahead with the vaccination roll-out. If you have staff, friends or family who are eligible for vaccination but who have yet to have either their first or second dose then please encourage them to do so. This week 25 to 29 year olds have been invited to book their jabs.
Remember that we do our best to keep the content and structure of our Provider Engagement Network website up-to-date and your suggestions how to improve the site are always welcome.
COVID-19 guidance updates
How to stop the spread of coronavirus. Addition of easy read information.
Guidance on shielding and protecting people defined on medical grounds as extremely vulnerable. Included is a British Sign Language version.
Guidance for arranging or attending a funeral during the coronavirus pandemic. Additional language translations.
Admission and care of people in care homes. Change in procedure of reporting COVID-19 cases and outbreak management in care homes.
Infection prevention and control (IPC). Added requirements on local risk assessments and information around use of respiratory protective equipment and valved respirators. Clarified glove use in amber pathway.
Care homes requiring vaccinations should contact GPs
If a care home has residents who require either their first or second vaccine dose then the care home should request the outstanding vaccination by contacting the GP who links to the care home.
Care home GP Clinical Leads list
In response to feedback from care homes received on the Capacity Tracker, NHS Devon has produced a look-up list of GP Clinical Leads to help providers update the Tracker with relevant GP Leads.
Capacity Tracker thank you
The National Capacity Tracker team is pleased to report that the percentage of providers now updating all daily, weekly and monthly information has increased from approximately 33% of providers completing all information to over 70%. The team are grateful for this increase and appreciate the effort put in by all regulated providers to reach this and your continued support is appreciated.
The Capacity Tracker team is running a pilot in South West to improve the data quality and prompt updating, targeting specific information on a specific issue. This means providers in South West who are not completing the Tracker on a regular basis may receive calls from the team.
New Visitor’s Question
A new question around visitor testing has been added on Monday 7 June to the ICF2/IPC Funding Weekly page:
“Of named visitors and essential care givers, roughly what proportion of tests do you estimate are taken on-site (as opposed to presenting proof of a test taken via other means such as self-test at home, or via an asymptomatic testing site (ATS)?
Please look out for this when you are updating the Tracker weekly.
If you have any queries about any of the above, please email the Capacity Tracker team or phone the Support Centre on 0191 691 3729 from 8.00am to 5.00pm, Monday to Friday, excluding Bank Holidays.
Vaccine take up marks new milestone
Three quarters of adults in Devon have now had their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine - that's more than 750,000 first doses given and nearly half a million second doses.
But the number of people in Devon not attending their second appointments has risen in recent weeks.
Public Health England has looked into the effectiveness of the vaccines against the latest strain of the virus - the Delta strain, which is really good at spreading between people.
With the first dose, both the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines offered 33 per cent protection against the latest Delta variant. But after the second dose, the protection offered by both vaccines to the new variant increased significantly.
Following the second dose, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 88 per cent effective against the Delta variant, while the AstraZeneca vaccine was 60 per cent effective.
"The vaccines are an important frontline defence to help prevent you becoming seriously ill or requiring hospital treatment should you catch coronavirus," said Tina Henry, Deputy Director of Public Health Devon.
"One dose gives your partial protection, the second dose will give you the maximum protection. Please take up the second dose when invited to do so."
Vaccination fertility, pregnancy and breastfeeding advice
The latest government advice on pregnancy, fertility and breastfeeding states that:
- anyone who has already started vaccination and is offered a second dose whilst pregnant, should have a second dose with the same vaccine unless they had a serious side effect after the first dose
- there is no need to avoid pregnancy after COVID-19 vaccination. There is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have any effect on fertility or your chances of becoming pregnant.
- the JCVI has recommended that the vaccines can be received while breastfeeding. This is in line with recommendations from the USA and the World Health Organization.
Second doses brought forward for people aged 50+
Appointments for a second vaccine doses will be brought forward from 12 to eight weeks for the remaining people in the top nine priority groups who have yet to receive it.
This is to ensure people have the strongest possible protection from the virus at an earlier opportunity.
All second dose appointments for those in cohorts 1-9 (people over 50 or with an underlying health condition) scheduled on or after 25 May, where that is more than eight weeks after their first dose, should be brought forward.
People who booked through the National Booking System will be contacted about re-booking an earlier appointment. They will have to cancel their existing booking first.
Case numbers stable but expected to rise due to easing of restrictions
Case numbers for Devon remain stable and well below the average in England. As restrictions ease, we do expect to see increases in case numbers as more people are mixing. Currently across Devon, the South Hams has the highest rate, although that’s falling. Case rates are highest among our 0-19 and 20-39 year age groups. We are seeing occasional outbreaks across educational settings, but generally most are single cases in a variety of settings across Devon.
We can enjoy the easing of restrictions, but we need to keep a watchful eye on cases and trends elsewhere in the country, and know that only by remaining vigilant will we prevent the virus spreading
Potential G7 disruption and cyber security awareness
With the G7 Summit taking place in Cornwall this week and the possible disruption it may cause, providers are reminded to watch out for new alerts and have their business continuity plans ready.
The Summit also means there may be increased activity by cyber ciminals.
Please remain vigilant and ensure you report any examples of suspicious activity. In particular, please ensure you check that all emails, texts, calls and other forms of communication are legitimate, before interacting with them.
If the answer to any of the below questions is yes, this could indicate that the communication is suspicious:
- Is the greeting generic (e.g. Dear customer, or FAO accounts dept)?
- Is the sender’s email address different to the display name (e.g. the display name shows ‘IT Support’ but the email address is ‘abc@gmail.com’)?
- Is it unexpected?
- Does it request you to take action urgently (e.g. please respond immediately to avoid your account being disabled, or please pay this invoice now)?
- Is it offering you something you were not expecting (e.g. log in now to receive your tax refund or you have inherited money)?
- Does it contain an attachment that you weren’t expecting?
- Does it appear to have come from a person or organisation you have previously communicated with, but this particular message has a different style or tone? (Be aware that some criminals will use email trails found in compromised accounts, in an attempt to convince recipients that the message is from someone they trust).
- Does it contain any links? (You can preview the web address of a link by hovering your mouse pointer over it or long pressing on a touchscreen device. If the address doesn’t match what you’d expect, don’t open it).
- Is the spelling or grammar poor?
- If a logo or other branding is included, is this distorted or poor quality?
If you receive a message that has any of the characteristics listed above, please take steps to check it is authentic before interacting with it. Never respond to a suspicious message.
Celebrating success - Funding for wheelchair bikes
We are delighted to announced that Made-Well has been successful with securing funding from the Sport England - Return to Play: Community Asset Fund to purchase a specially adapted wheelchair bike and a tandem cycle. This will enable their clients and members of the community to take advantage of the many local cycling paths including the Tarka Trail.
Made-Well has also been involved with local councillors in developing the Trail to provide a cycling path between Meeth and Hatherleigh to link with the national cycling network.
Pictured above is Ellie on her pink bike with Laura (Made-Well manager) and Daisy with her friend Tillie, on their disability friendly bikes. Behind is Mel Stride, MP for Central Devon (in a grey jacket) and Cllr Patrick Kimber, both supporting the development.
Remember to share your good news stories in this newsletter
Has your support helped transformed someone’s life? Have you got innovative practice to share? Send us your celebratory photos and words and we’ll help share good practice.
Revisit previous good news stories
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