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22
Jul 2021
Harrogate Council warns of disruption to services due to staff self-isolation alerts
There are fresh warnings that council services could face disruptions due to staff self-isolating as covid infections in Harrogate reach record levels.
Some services including swimming pools and tourist information centres have yet to return to normal since lockdown and there are now concerns that they could be hit by more staff being alerted by the NHS covid-19 app.
Councillor Richard Cooper, leader of Harrogate Borough Council, said people should not expect that public services, also including bin collections, will be “immune” to the same disruptions seen in the private sector at retail and hospitality businesses.
He told a meeting on Wednesday:
On Monday, 20 out of around 1,000 council staff were self-isolating.
Nationally, more than 600,000 people in England and Wales were sent self-isolation alerts by the NHS Covid-19 app in the week between 8 and 15 July.
That was a 17% rise from the previous week – and there are complaints that the alerts are causing serious staff shortages.
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Self-isolation for all fully-vaccinated people ‘pinged’ by the app is due to be scrapped by 16 August, although there are calls for this to be brought forward.
The app alert is only advisory and not enforceable by law, unlike a phone call from the Test and Trace team.
In June, an outbreak among council staff caused delays to waste and recycling collections in the Harrogate district.
Before Starbeck Baths reopened this week, Trevor Watson, the council’s director for economy, environment and housing, warned that the need for leisure staff to self-isolate would have an “unavoidable impact” on services.
He said:
The warnings come as Harrogate’s weekly infection rate has passed its previous record of 497 cases per 100,000 people in January to 532 on Sunday.
However, hospital admissions remain low with just three patients at the district hospital on Wednesday – and there has not been a Covid-related death there in more than three months thanks to high levels of vaccine uptake.
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