Cheshire East Council concerned about increase in Covid-19 cases

Cheshire East Council remains concerned about the increase in Covid-19 cases across the borough.

Cheshire East was designated as an Enhanced Response Area on 14 June, but since then cases of the highly transmissible Delta variant have continued to rise and not just in Macclesfield and Crewe, but more recently in Congleton, Middlewich and Sandbach.

Council teams in public health, education and regulatory services along with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS partners and neighbouring local authorities, are all working together to ensure the outbreaks are closely monitored and timely and appropriate action taken.

Additional testing resources have been brought into the borough along with mobile vaccination pop-ups, to help curb the latest increase of Covid-19 positive cases.

Dr Matt Tyrer, director of public health at Cheshire East Council, said: “We have all worked together for such a long time over the last sixteen months to keep people safe and I want to thank everyone for following the guidance.

“But despite all our efforts, we are now seeing worrying patterns of infection emerging. We can’t afford to become complacent otherwise we will keep seeing rates rise and our schools and businesses will continue suffering disruption.

“We all have to be socially responsible and do the right thing for ourselves and for each other. This includes young people as the majority of new cases are in the 10 to 39 age group and whether you are a young person or an adult, it’s in our hands to do the right thing.”

Councillor Jill Rhodes, Cheshire East Council adults and health committee chair, said: “We are so close to our lives returning to normal, but now is not the time to let our guard down. Hands, space, face, fresh air, along with getting both jabs when they are offered to you along with regular testing, is more important than ever.”

The council has recently launched a new public awareness campaign called ‘It’s in our hands’, which aims to secure the help of residents to think about what they can do individually to help prevent Covid-19 from spreading and to keep communities safe.

For more information on testing, vaccinations and self-isolation support, go to the council’s webpage at: www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/covid19