Page 14 - br-aug-2020

August 2020 August 2020

DORSET COUNCIL- WEST PURBECK REPORT

Below is a statement recently issued by
Sam Crowe, Director of Public Health for
Dorset

Briefing note on current
situation of COVID-19 cases
1. Since the start of the COVID-19
pandemic in January 2020, there
has been a rapidly changing
picture in terms of the information that public health teams and the public
receive about cases and the impact of COVID-19. There have been
problems, not least the different way that positive test results are counted
and the fact they have been coming in two separate streams.
 Pillar 1 which our hospitals have been leading, which tests patients and
NHS staff
 Pillar 2 (from late May) where anyone in the community who has
symptoms can be tested at a drive through site (like Creekmoor in
Poole), mobile testing unit or postal testing kits.
2. Analysing data that comes from different sources is complicated and it has
been taking a long time to get all the data streams together and
validated, as they have been held by two separate systems.
3. This has at times led to confusion. For example, in early July the additional
Pillar 2 positive tests were added to the national COVID-19 dashboard at
Upper Tier Local Authority Level, leading to an apparent ‘jump’ in case
numbers for local areas. At the same time 30,000 positive test results were
removed from the national dashboard because they were repeat tests on
the same individual.
4. Under the Dorset Local Resilience Forum’s Strategic Command Group,
data briefings have been produced regularly via the EpiCell showing the
information public health teams can access to help with our local response
to the COVID-19 pandemic and recognising the above challenges.
5. On 30 June local authority areas published their local outbreak
management plans which sets out how we will respond to any outbreak in
a high-risk setting, and actions we would take should cases start to rise.
6. This short briefing sets out the current datasets that are not in the public
domain that Directors of Public Health and their teams are able to access

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