{"id":134998,"date":"2021-04-01T12:20:14","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T11:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=134998"},"modified":"2021-04-01T12:20:14","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T11:20:14","slug":"covid-19-weekly-health-summary-1-april","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/covid-19-weekly-health-summary-1-april\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19: Weekly Health Summary \u2013 1 April"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Health Summary is part of our Weekly COVID-19 Bulletin, sent every Thursday. You can\u00a0sign up to receive your copy here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roadmap\u00a0<\/strong>
\n<\/span>This week saw the\u00a0<\/span>next phase<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of the Government\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Roadmap<\/span><\/a>\u00a0out of lockdown restrictions. As of Monday, the public\u00a0is allowed to\u00a0meet six people outdoors and do outdoor exercise. Speaking at the Downing Street Press Conference, the Prime Minister said that despite infections falling to the lowest number in six months, \u2018we must proceed with caution\u2019.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Vaccination\u00a0hesitancy and\u00a0uptake\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>
\n<\/span>While positive vaccine sentiment\u00a0<\/span>has increased<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to 94% in the latest period (17 to 21 March 2021), from 78% when the data were first collected (10 to 13 December 2020), there are higher levels of hesitancy among some groups, including young people\u00a0(12%), Black or Black British\u00a0(22%)\u00a0and those living in the most deprived areas\u00a0(12%).\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Research from the Office for National Statistics\u00a0<\/span>published<\/span><\/a>\u00a0this week on the Covid-19 vaccine highlights the uptake across the population. It showed\u00a0the percentage of people vaccinated was lower among all ethnic minority groups compared with the White British population; the lowest vaccination rates were observed among people identifying as Black African and Black Caribbean (58.8% and 68.7% respectively). Those living in deprived areas were also less likely to have taken up their offer of a vaccine. While people who have a disability also had lower rates of vaccination at 86.6%, compared with those who were non-disabled at 91.0%.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The NHS Confederation has\u00a0<\/span>argued<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that the results show there is \u2018more work to do\u2019. It has said that we need to ensure that the vaccine is equitable, and we need to overcome vaccine hesitancy, \u2018as marginalisation clearly plays a major part in pushing uptake down.\u2019<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Poor mental health among emergency responders<\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/span>Data from a\u00a0<\/span>survey<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of more than 250 staff and volunteers across police, fire and ambulance services in Wales has laid bare the scale of poor mental health within the emergency responder communities. The online survey found that mental health has worsened across 999 services, with ambulance staff worst affected. <\/span><\/p>\n

Only one in three (33%) ambulance staff reported their current mental health as very good or good compared to two in five police (44%) and almost one in two (49%) survey respondents working within the fire service. Ambulance staff were the most likely (72 %) to say their mental health has worsened since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, compared to police (56%) or fire (61%).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The highest proportion of respondents saying they had poor mental health were within the ambulance service, at almost one in three (30%). This compares to just under one in four (22%) respondents from the police service and just under one in ten (11%) within the fire service who rated their mental health as poor currently.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mental health support<\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/span>Over the weekend, the Government\u00a0<\/span>announced<\/span><\/a>\u00a0a \u00a3500m\u00a0<\/span>Mental Health Recovery Action Plan to respond to the impact of the pandemic. The plan will support the expansion and improvement of mental health services, including NHS talking therapies and community services. The funding forms part of the Government\u2019s plans to level up mental health and wellbeing across the country. <\/span><\/p>\n

Announcing the plan, the Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock\u00a0said<\/span><\/a>: \u2018As part of our response to this global pandemic we not only want to tackle the public health threat of coronavirus but ensure our clinicians have the resources to deal with the impact on people\u2019s mental health.\u2019\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Responding to the Mental Health Recovery Action Plan, Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind\u00a0<\/span>said:<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u2018As we continue to deal with the effects of the pandemic and the economic recession, the true scale of the nation\u2019s mental health is only beginning to emerge. It could be many months or even years before we fully recognise the pandemic\u2019s toll on our collective wellbeing. That\u2019s why we welcome the UK Government\u2019s recovery plan, which will need to see departments working more closely than ever to deliver on its promises given the multiple social challenges we face.\u2019<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Office for Health Promotion<\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/span>The Government has\u00a0<\/span>announced<\/span><\/a>\u00a0more information on its reform to public health, following its decision to dissolve Public Health England last year. The new Office for Health Promotion, which will lead the country\u2019s efforts to improve and level up the health of the nation, it set to be established in the Autumn. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Office\u2019s remit will be to systematically tackle the top preventable risk factors causing death and ill health in the UK, by designing, implementing and tracking delivery policy across Government. It will focus on areas including, obesity and nutrition, mental health across all ages, physical activity, sexual health, alcohol and tobacco.<\/p>\n

Announcing the plans, the Prime Minister said: \u2018Covid-19 has demonstrated the importance of physical health in our ability to tackle such illnesses, and we must continue to help people to lead healthy lives so that we can all better prevent and fight illnesses.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Health Foundation has\u00a0welcomed<\/span><\/a>\u00a0the cross- departmental approach to address the wide determinants of health. However, it raised concern about funding the new Office and highlighted that this year\u2019s public health grant allocations represented a 24% cut in real terms per capita \u2013 equivalent to \u00a31bn \u2013 compared to 2015\/16. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u00a0said<\/span><\/a>: \u2018The pandemic makes it all more urgent that we prioritise keeping people healthy. The Government faces a crucial window of opportunity in which to create a public health system equipped to take on the major health issues facing the country including rising obesity, a mental health crisis and a growing gap between the health of the richest and poorest\u2019.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The King\u2019s Fund welcomed clarity on public health reform, but\u00a0<\/span>argued:<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u2018today\u2019s announcement does not add up to a compelling vision for creating a healthier society and needs to be swiftly followed by a clear plan for improving the health of the nation.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week’s Covid Health Summary covers roadmap to lockdown easing, vaccination hesitancy and uptake, poor mental health among emergency responders, mental health support and the Office for Health Promotion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":440,"featured_media":134254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7383,7271,7341],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134998"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/440"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134998"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135000,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134998\/revisions\/135000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}