A year later: City leaders recall the moment the British Covid emergency began in York

A year ago today, a student got sick and called the NHS111 number.

Two ambulance service personnel from Yorkshire Ambulance Service headed to the 196-room Stay City Apartment Hotel on Paragon Street, York.

They wore white hazmat suits and headed to the room on the ground floor.

Shortly thereafter, a 23-year-old student and a 50-year-old mother who flew to the UK from Wuhan, China, were identified as the first confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.

So far, it was news that caused a series of events, including three blockades, an economic downturn and more than 100,000 deaths.

Looking back on the day, York’s health boss says he was hindered because he wasn’t strong enough to respond when the pandemic took hold.

Don’t panic

Sharon StorzThe city’s director of public health revealed what he had learned from York about the first two coronavirus patients in the UK. Push..

At the beginning of the pandemic, she said, communication with the Ministry of Health and government agencies was “very difficult” and public health directors were often not first informed of what was happening, she said. He added that it has now improved. ..

However, York, like other councils, began preparing for an outbreak 12 months ago before the first case was identified.

“Clearly at that time, York, along with all the other local governments, was aware of the situation in Wuhan, China,” she said.

“We already had an outbreak plan and were ready to respond.”

Cllr Carol Runciman The news did not panic the council, but said they knew it was important to reassure the population.

Cllr Runciman said: “We learned very quickly, but we didn’t panic because we had an outbreak control system in place and ready to use. I don’t remember panic at all.

“We were very cool and calm, and we did what we needed to do.

“One of the most important things was to communicate on board to send a message when we received it, so what we know and what we can convey. There was a very quick reaction early on to ensure that the public was informed. “

The first two patients, a 23-year-old Chinese student studying at the University of York and his 50-year-old mother, were taken by ambulance from Stay City to Hull’s Castle Hill Hospital on January 29, 2020. It was.

They were transferred to the Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Foundation Trust High Level Isolation Unit on January 31st.

According to an epidemiology and infectious disease treatise, the UK Public Health Service tracked 52 contacts and cases of coronavirus were not associated with the first two patients.

However, Mr. Storz said more incidents seemed “unavoidable” and the council began to work with other organizations to respond to the situation. They meet regularly throughout the pandemic to review and continue to review York’s challenges and changing circumstances.

She states: “Initially there were only two cases in York and the virus did not spread, but the virus was contained in two cases. Even if there were two cases in the UK, it was almost inevitable that more cases would occur. .somewhere.”

However, at first it was a national initiative. In short, it was difficult to act as quickly as local leaders wanted.

“That’s one of the lessons learned for me,” Stoltz said.

“What the government wants to learn is that they need to engage with local governments much earlier in the process.

“The Director of Public Health has a legal obligation to protect our population.

“We have local relationships and have a system that can meet local needs.

“And that from this pandemic, if this happens again, we need to delegate more responsibility and money to local governments so that we can respond to the region. I hope you have learned.

“If the government involved the municipality in the process sooner, it would be pandemic and now elsewhere.

“We’re there now, but in reality it took 10 months for local governments to start getting the data they needed and be able to set up their own contact tracing and testing.

“If it happened earlier, last spring, maybe we would have figured it out earlier.”

Local response

And Ms. Storz moved faster than national policy. She urged York residents to wear masks in response to increasing evidence that it could help slow the spread of the virus before it became national leadership.

The York public health team also called for permission to do their own contact tracing and to open more test centers. The city now has a vaccination hub, which was revealed last week to be the best performing in the region.

Stoltz said: “As soon as we were able to do our own contact tracing, it became more and more powerful and went very well. Of course, we are now doing our own testing in the city as well.

“As the need grew, things clearly evolved.”

Cllr Runciman said that clear communication from local organizations is a message from trusted councils, charities, newspapers, radio stations and websites that people know, helping people with what they can do and where. He said it was important to know what he could ask for.

She states: “That’s another thing the government has to be aware of. It’s all very good to have a three-person intensive briefing behind a desk, but local lawmakers, local newspapers, and local public health teams say. If so, it actually has a much bigger impact. What do you do?

“It means something to you because you know them.”