GWENT councils will be “guided by Public Health Wales” in the next phase of the coronavirus pandemic response.
First minister Mark Drakeford announced on Monday that councils will play a vital role in the next phase of the coronavirus response by deploying their environmental health officers.
Council environmental health officers are responsible for public health within the authority’s boundaries.
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These officers will play a key role when lockdown measures are lifted in tracing people who have had contact with known coronavirus cases. This process is known as contact tracing.
Mr Drakeford said that public health surveillance measures would be needed to control the “inevitable” spread of the virus in communities once lockdown restrictions are lifted.
He confirmed that council public health teams across Wales, along with other environmental health colleagues, would be deployed to spot, trace and isolate new cases of the virus.
It is also likely that many more people will need to be recruited to help with the work “on the ground”.
Newport City Council said they are waiting for more information on how they can assist with the next phase.
A spokesman said: “Environmental health officers have valuable experience in contact tracing as they undertake this in relation to other communicable diseases.
“However, we will have to consider the resource implications when we have more details in order to determine how much of this work we could deliver.”
Monmouthshire County Council said they were “happy to assist in any community contact tracing that would be required in a next phase of coronavirus response efforts.
A spokesman said: “There are currently nine environmental health practitioners (EHPs) experienced in infection control work, with 10 additional EHPs that could be reassigned to assist.
“Our response would depend on the scope of work involved, which we would be guided by our Public Health Wales colleagues.
Should we require further capacity, we would first call on trading standards and licensing officers to be redeployed (11 officers in total) who have a similar skill set to our EHPs.
“We therefore have access to up to 30 officers should the need arise.”
Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly and Torfaen councils did not respond to request for comment.
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