Lockdown and self-sacrifice by the people of Newham are working to turn the tide in the fight against coronavirus and the Covid-19 outbreak, says the Borough’s health chief.

From 10 to 16 January, the number of new Coronavirus cases in Newham fell by 37 percent, Newham Council’s Director of Public Health, Jason Strelitz told a Borough-wide online consultation on the health crisis on 20 January.

He said: “The results of lockdown and all the efforts and sacrifices that everyone is making to stay socially distant from each other is starting to have a quite significant and positive effect.”

However, Strelitz stressed that the number of infections was still “way too high” and people in Newham need to keep following Government guidelines. More than 30,000 people in the Borough have tested positive for Covid-19, according to the Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz.

The special online session was hosted by the council’s Covid-19 Health Champions Programme Director, Anne Bowers, and dealt with residents’ questions and concerns about the Covid-19 vaccine which were answered by a panel of experts.

Strelitz told the 90-strong audience, including members of local community groups such as Newham Just Champion! We’re turning the tide against Covid says health chief Save Our NHS and Fight for Peace: “We are not here to convince you to take the vaccine, but we strongly believe that it is really important. I don’t want to hide that bit of it.”

It is estimated that are around 8,000 people across the Borough have already received Covid-19 vaccinations. Data suggests nearly 50 percent of all people aged 80 and 75 per cent of all people in care homes have been vaccinated.

People on the shielding list, those who are considered extremely clinically vulnerable (patients with cancer, those who have received organ transplants, people with severe respiratory conditions, amongst others), have already begun to receive vaccinations.

The organisers allayed fears over any risk posed by the vaccination programme.

“After clean water, vaccines are the most effective public health intervention in the world”, said Bowers. “Unlike tonsillitis or an infection in the lungs, a vaccine is something that each of us does to contribute to the health, safety and wellness of the whole community.

“Can we trust a vaccine that was produced so rapidly?” she asked, “Yes, we are not starting from scratch. We are just building upon a history of everything we know about viruses.

“With Covid-19 affecting everyone around the globe there have been unprecedented numbers of volunteers for human trials, diverse enough across all groups, ages and ethnicities – to allow the Covid-19 vaccines to be developed and tested so quickly.”

Although there are legitimate concerns about the higher threat posed by Covid-19 to people in the black and Asian communities, Dr Winston Morgan, Reader in Toxicology and Clinical Biochemistry at the Medicines Research Group of the University of East London, said the “virus cannot determine difference between races; it sees everyone’s immune system the same way.” Another panel member commented: “we are biologically all the same, genetically it makes no difference”.

Covid-19 Health Champions are Newham residents, tasked with sharing key Covid-19 information across the community. The goal of this initiative, set up, by Newham’s public health team, is to share answers to questions such as: What are the key symptoms? How do I get a test? What is NHS Test and Trace? Questions are asked and answered via Zoom briefings, WhatsApp messages and email. Jason Strelitz, Director of Public health for Newham, expressed the importance of Covid-19 Health Champions, saying “this is how we share information with each other” and encouraged people to get involved and become Covid-19 Champions.

The Newham Covid-19 Health Champions Q&A sessions are being held every other Wednesday at 7pm on Zoom. Information about Health Champions is currently offered in 15 languages: Bengali, Cantonese, English, French, Gujarati, Hindi, Lithuanian, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Somali, Tamil and Urdu. British Sign Language is available in the Q&A sessions.

For more information or to become a Newham Covid-19 Champion, email CovidHealthChampions@newham.gov.uk, ring 02033 732777 or visit this page.

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