Thanks for helping drive down borough’s virus rates

Surge testing and vaccination is helping to drive down the borough’s virus rates, claim Blackburn with Darwen Council leaders.

Director of Public Health, Prof Dominic Harrison, has today declared the Council’s engagement and surge testing response to high rates of the Delta variant over the last month a success.

Coronavirus rates in Blackburn with Darwen are now on a downward trend. Over the last 10 days, the borough’s case rate decreased for nine consecutive days until today.

Blackburn with Darwen’s Coronavirus case rate is now 543.8 per 100,000 people, down from 650.7 per 100,000 seven days ago.

And thanks to increased testing, the borough’s testing rate has risen by 30% over the last seven days to 891.6/100,000 today.

Prof Harrison said:

Over the last seven days we’ve seen our case rate fall by around 16.4%. This is incredibly encouraging and I’m feeling more positive than I have felt in some time.

I am confident that this is down to the impact of our huge surge testing operation, supported by military personnel, and the excellent engagement work of Council teams.

The support we’ve had from the NHS in the shape of pop-up vaccine clinics in the last month has also been incredibly valuable in helping our residents to get some immunity to the virus. We’ve now caught up getting a large proportion of local adults their first dose; now we need to focus on encouraging people to come forward for their second dose.

It is not surprising that our decline in rates has shown a small uptick today – we expect ‘bumps in the road’ where case rates rise for a day or two again. This is, in part, because we are now testing at a rate more than double the national average, which means we will pick up more cases, but we are now feeling hopeful that the worst of the pandemic has passed.

It could well be another eight weeks or so before we see our rates drop to the lowest since last spring, but we are heading in the right direction, thanks to everyone’s efforts.

Leader of the Council, Coun Mohammed Khan CBE, wants to thank the borough’s residents for supporting surge testing, since it began last month.

Starting in the Shear Brow and Corporation Park area, surge testing teams have moved into Darwen, and the Wensley Fold, Mill Hill and Ewood areas of Blackburn.

Coun Khan said:

Surge testing is helping us to identify cases of the Delta variant, which we know is spreading up to 50% more easily than other variants and has very different symptoms.

I want to say a big thank you to every single person who has taken part in surge testing by getting themselves and their households PCR tests. The 10 minutes that it takes to use the swab and package up the test could have saved lives.

But we are not out of woods yet. We all need to continue following the national guidance, keep on testing and get vaccinated especially when it’s time to have our second vaccine.

The Mayor of Blackburn with Darwen, Coun Derek Hardman, has personally congratulated some of the teams that have been out on the ground in areas hardest hit by the Delta variant.

Last week he met with Council engagement staff and military personnel who have been an instrumental part of the surge testing response.

The Mayor said:

I wanted to meet the surge testing teams to personally thank them for taking on a difficult role, but for doing it with such dedication.

Their hard work is paying off and I hope they’re very proud of that.

Everyone in Blackburn with Darwen is encouraged to take a PCR test to help identify the asymptomatic cases of Coronavirus, in particular the Delta variant.

PCR tests are available at Mobile Testing Units across the borough, and residents can also pick up tests to take at home from Collect & Return community hubs.

Find your nearest at www.blackburn.gov.uk/get-a-test and look under ‘Surge Testing’.