'Wash hands, wear masks, keep 2 metres apart and self-isolate with symptoms,' says Luton director of public health

Luton residents have been told to stick to four cardinal rules in order for normal life to resume as quickly as possible.
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"If we just stick to the four rules, many of the other restrictions in our lives we won't need," said Luton's interim director of public health, Lucy Hubber, during a meeting of the council's health and well-being board.

"If we wash our hands, wear our face masks, keep our two-metre distance and self-isolate if we have symptoms, then our rate will come down."

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The message comes after a "very significant and steep" increase in the number of cases in Luton throughout October, the meeting was told.

Luton residents are urged to follow four rules in order to avoid other restrictionsLuton residents are urged to follow four rules in order to avoid other restrictions
Luton residents are urged to follow four rules in order to avoid other restrictions

Ms Hubber said: "We had a doubling of cases week-on-week in the town and that was extremely worrying.

"When that doubling starts, it's very hard to stop it.

"We aren't seeing what we'd hoped to see at this point in lockdown.

"We were hoping that at two weeks, we'd begin to see a stabilisation and start to see a decline in the case rate."

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A lot of transmission is taking place within households in Luton, she explained.

"We have some very large households in the town, so one case can very quickly become six, seven, eight, nine, ten cases in one premises.

"That's not because anyone is doing anything wrong, but it's difficult when you live with a large number of people to take the actions to prevent transmission.

"We've seen a small increase in the number of deaths unfortunately.

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"Our knowledge of coronavirus and the treatment have significantly improved, so we're seeing far less serious illness and death.

"Despite the very high number of cases in Luton we aren't seeing the pressure on the Luton and Dunstable Hospital which we saw earlier in the year."

People with Covid are being treated, while patients with other conditions are receiving the support they need, the board heard.

Luton was placed in tier two restrictions before a national lockdown commenced on Thursday, November 5.

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"The council is waiting to hear how this will be lifted and what tiers will be applied," said Ms Hubber. "It's unlikely anywhere in the country will come out of lockdown without some form of restriction.

"We need to be clear that we cannot return to the same freedoms we experienced before."

An extra walk-through testing station opened yesterday (Wednesday) in Vicarage Street.

"We're not hearing from our community any challenge at all about people getting access to a test now, and we're seeing testing numbers increase," she said.

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"Our positivity rate is now very high at ten per cent. That shows me we still need more people to be tested. Our average is 456 tests a day.

"A really key message has to be if you have any symptoms, no matter how mild, book a test and get tested.

"We can't say that often enough."

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