Nottinghamshire's director of Public Health, Jonathan Gribbin, on how week one of the government's roadmap out of coronavirus has gone
Week one of the government's roadmap out of coronavirus brings encouraging news, said the director of Public Health for Nottinghamshire in his weekly media briefing.
Jonathan Gribbin told journalists on Friday: "This week we have moved into step one of the roadmap.
"For some of us the change that involves is that we now exercise socially distanced outside with one other person from outside of our household, but for lots and lots of people across for Nottinghamshire, the really significant change is that our children have been back in school.
"I'm really pleased to say that across Nottinghamshire there have been really high levels of attendance.
"I really want to use opportunity to give a massive thank you to teachers, school leaders, non-teaching staff and especially to parents for all the preparations they have for getting our children back into school because of all of the public health measures I might like to consider, schooling is one of the most important ones."
Mr Gribbin said week one also brought encouraging news in terms of infection rates in the county.
"Right across all of our district and boroughs we have seen reductions in case rates of between a quarter and a half, and that is really very encouraging," Mr Gribbin announced.
"Nevertheless I need to make the point that the rates as they stand at the moment are very high and in one or two areas of the county there are indications that really steep decline might be about to be replaced by a flattening off already.
"I am particularly focussed on Bassetlaw, for example, where there are some early signs that good reduction might be flattening out."
Bassetlaw, as with other areas of the county, he said, continued to witness outbreaks in work place and care homes.
"The indication to us is that while it's thanks to the incredible work done by people that rates are coming down, there is still quite a long way to go and opening up to normal life again — whether it's about our schools, our workplaces or other aspects of everyday normal life, each of those steps will place an upward pressure on R, which we note is just below one in Nottinghamshire, somewhere between 0.7 and 0.9 is our best estimate for this week.
"To make sure it remains below one as we open up schools and the economy and so on, it is absolutely essential that everyone continues to work from home wherever you can.
"It's really important that if you do have to go out to work it is essential that to get to work you car share, you must car share with care and that means making sure there is all of the ventilation, that you're wearing face coverings, that all of the surfaces have been wiped down for each journey.
"It's really important that all of us maintain the social distancing outside of the home and perhaps in meeting up with one other person from outside of the home and, of course, it is essential that when we are moving into confined spaces that we are using face masks.
"It is all of our commitments to these ongoing measures that is going to enable us to carry forward on the roadmap from step one in a way that is really safe."
