Liverpool’s Health Protection Board (HPB) met this week to review the COVID-19 situation, with free testing no longer available for most people and new national guidance about when to isolate from others being published.
Covid infections continue to circulate at a very high level in Liverpool and remain a real risk to many of us. Many people are getting Covid for the first time after two years avoiding it, and others are getting re-infected.
High numbers of people continue to be admitted to hospital with Covid. This is causing pressure on staff and disruption to hospital care, and delaying efforts to get routine treatment back up and running.
Worryingly, outbreaks of Covid are rising in our care homes – putting our most vulnerable elderly residents at risk of serious illness.
The key advice from the Health Protection Board is:
- Get vaccinated and get your booster. Everyone aged 5 and over can now get vaccinated against Covid.
- The risk of catching Covid is highest in crowded, enclosed and poorly ventilated spaces, so let fresh air in if meeting indoors, or meet outdoors.
- Wash your hands frequently, and cover your nose and mouth when coughing and sneezing.
- Wear a face covering in crowded or enclosed spaces – and when visiting primary care settings like the GP, dentist or pharmacy, and when you are in close contact with someone at higher risk of becoming seriously unwell from Covid .
- Stay away from others if you have symptoms of a respiratory illness, and a high temperature or do not feel well. Try to stay at home and avoid contact with others.
- If you get a positive Covid test result, try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 5 days following the day of your positive test result. Avoid contact with people at higher risk of serious illness for 10 days.
- Children and young people with a positive test result tend to be infectious to other people for less time than adults and should isolate for 3 days following a positive test result.
The HPB is a whole city response to health protection and includes membership from across the NHS and primary care, emergency services, social care, higher education, children’s services, faith and voluntary sectors, Healthwatch, business sectors and Liverpool City Council.
