Covid-19 outbreak control plan
Covid-19 was declared a pandemic on 11 March 2020.
This coronavirus has affected the lives of everyone in our communities but the collective effort, expertise and commitment of our key workers and our communities has helped to limit the impact in Herefordshire so far.
As lock-down measures ease and we move into a phase of living with Covid-19 our priority remains to save lives. Our outbreak plan will be a vital tool in setting out how we all need to act in the event of a local outbreak. Our starting point is to build on what we know is working locally and more widely. We will continue to work together with our partners to measure our progress in tackling the spread of infection and controlling outbreaks.
Purpose of the outbreak control plan
The purpose of the plan is to support the quick and effective management of Covid-19 outbreaks in a range of settings. The specific objectives are to:
- Reduce the spread of infection in Herefordshire, minimise the number of cases, protect our health and care system, and save lives
- Support settings which experience an outbreak or complex single cases to mitigate the consequences and help to keep as many services and businesses going as possible in a way that is safe and releases our economy and
- Give the public confidence that we are able to respond appropriately to outbreaks of Covid-19 in order to minimise anxiety.
Alongside the plan we will use standard operating procedures to ensure that we have robust processes and procedures in place for putting the plan into action. These will be updated to incorporate new guidance, evidence or learning, or as standardised processes change.
We've also set out what we've done so far and what we plan to do in each of the seven key areas defined by the Local Government Association and the Department of Health and Social Care.
Key themes
The seven key themes the plan addresses are:
- Care homes and educational and early years settings
- High risk workplaces, locations and communities
- Local testing capacity
- Contact tracing in complex settings
- Data integration
- Support for vulnerable people
- Local Boards for local governance for swift multi-agency response and decision making
You can read more about each of these themes and the detailed processes in our Covid-19 outbreak control plan.
An Outbreak Control Hub has been set up as a single point of contact to support businesses and other settings to help prevent and respond to any cases of Covid-19. To contact the hub please either email outbreakcontrolhub@herefordshire.gov.uk or call 01432 383799.
Read Herefordshire's Covid-19 outbreak control plan and technical document