Publish date: 28 March 2022
Patients accessing health services in Tameside and Glossop are advised to continue wearing face coverings when attending appointments to protect themselves and the NHS.
Following the government’s published plan on ‘living with COVID-19’, which outlines removing the remaining legal restrictions while protecting the most vulnerable to COVID-19, NHS Tameside and Glossop Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Tameside Council are encouraging local people to continue wearing face coverings when visiting primary and secondary care settings, such as a GP practice, dentist or hospital.
The guidance will help to protect themselves, other people and health and social care staff from contracting coronavirus.
Thanks to the highly successful roll out of the vaccination programme, General Practices through Primary Care Networks (PCNs) in Tameside and Glossop have administered over 470,000 doses of the life-saving jab to residents since the local primary care led clinics launched in December 2020. Around 80% of all those eligible are fully vaccinated with their booster, giving high levels of protection.
While Tameside currently has lower rates of infection than the peak witnessed in January, recently the rate of infection and the amount of COVID-19 circulating in the community has been increasing again, as it is across the country. This demonstrates that the pandemic is not over and it is still important that we do what we can to reduce the risk of transmission.
Although the legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive COVID-19 test has been removed, the public health advice is still to isolate and avoid contact with others if you have tested positive. This is particularly being followed by health and social care staff, who are still advised to self-isolate if they test positive. They will also continue to self isolate to prevent the spread of coronavirus to their staff and patients.
Debbie Watson, interim Director of Population Health, said: “Vaccination remains our first and best line of defence against illness, and it's vital that everyone has had their latest dose. We can all help reduce transmission by wearing a face covering in crowded or enclosed spaces, washing hands regularly and keeping rooms well ventilated.
“COVID-19 is still circulating at high levels due to the high transmissibility of current variants and expected increases in social mixing.
“While rates of severe disease and death due to COVID-19 remain low, there has been a recent rise in hospital admissions, and we will continue to monitor this data closely.”
Dr Asad Ali, co-chair at NHS Tameside and Glossop CCG, said: “We will be relying on health and social care staff and their patients to keep themselves and everyone they come into contact with, as safe as possible, as we move into new territory in living with COVID.
“The spread of the virus still poses a risk to our health with the potential of long COVID and severe illness to those unvaccinated or more vulnerable, and any rise in rates brings a risk of new variants.
“All of us can play our part by understanding the situations where risks of COVID-19 infection and transmission are likely to be higher, and taking action to reduce these risks."