A total of 8,500 children are self-isolating in Gloucestershire due to coronavirus outbreaks in local schools.
Gloucestershire County Council leader Mark Hawthorne told councillors of the ‘scary statistic’ during a meeting today (June 30).
He was responding to a question from Liberal Democrat group leader Paul Hodgkinson who wanted to understand why the county is currently above the national average in terms of the coronavirus infection rate per 100,000.
During the seven days leading up to June 24, the county had 1,040 confirmed cases which makes the case rate per 100,000 people 163.2. The United Kingdom has a rate of 145.4.
Councillor Hodgkinson said: “I was very concerned, as are members of the public, that Covid cases are rising rapidly in Gloucestershire.
“And for the first time since the pandemic has started, our Covid positivity rate per 100,000 is above the national average.
“It’s about understanding what’s gone wrong.
“Schools across the country are suffering from absences. Gloucestershire is not unique in that respect.
“We need a few more answers to reassure the public that this county’s public health team is on top of the crisis.”
Council leader Mark Hawthorne said the county’s public health team are “working flat out and are on top of the crisis”.
He said the current stage of the pandemic was hitting the country in waves and while cases in Gloucestershire are rising hospitalisation remains low.
“Rates are extremely high among the unvaccinated groups,” he said.
“In those such as schools, there’s some scary statistic that 8,500 kids in Gloucestershire are currently self-isolating in bubbles due to the outbreaks within their school settings.
“The 18 to 29 age range has seen considerably higher rates of the Delta variants than in any range.”
“The rate per 100,000 isn’t telling the whole story any more. Because not only are we in pandemic where we are clearly interested in measuring the infection rate but we also have a vaccine rollout.
“And we want to understand the impact that the vaccine rollout has had on infection rates.”
