Devon is in a "good position" to cope with the coronavirus pandemic as restrictions are set to ease in the roadmap out of lockdown.

Infection rates in the county are down to 15.7/100,000 – the lowest on the mainland of England with only the Isle of Wight lower – with North Devon, the South Hams, Teignbridge, Torridge and West Devon is the bottom ten for lower tier authorities.

Dr Phil Norrey, Devon County Council's chief executive, told councillors on Thursday that cases were still declining – and have dropped by 25 per cent in the last week – but that at the lower levels, further declines will be slower and bumpier.

He said that as restrictions ease and life begins to return to normal, there will still be a public health role as we will be living with COVID over the next couple of years.

And he added that, with more than 100,000 tests a week being carried out in the county through community testing, schools, care homes and health settings, about 12 per cent of the population is being tested every week and Devon is a good position to spot anything if it occurs.

And that even with the reopening of schools and twice weekly testing for pupils, infection rates are lower for the 0-19 age range in Devon than when schools first returned on March 8.

Speaking at the corporate infrastructure and regulatory services scrutiny committee meeting, Dr Norrey said: "Our general incidence of infections is lower so we are starting from a better position.

"Cases are still coming down at the moment – 25 per cent down in the last week – but we had a few weeks were stalled in the early 20s for infection rates entirely due to the care home outbreaks which balanced off the decline in the general population.

"Rates are still coming down but have slowed and we are into the hard yards to drive them out from a relatively low position. They are still higher than last summer, but we had far fewer tests then than now, and overall rates are still coming down but slowly and bumpily."

On the relaxation of restrictions, he added: "It is important to emphasise that it is an end to the behaviour changes so we still need to follow the precautions where possible as we are not out of the woods today and the pandemic won't move on and we will be living with COVID over the next couple of years.

"We have a public health role as we emerge from the restrictions and our core role will be ongoing surveillance, community testing, local contact tracing including enhanced tracing which is working really well and supporting self-isolation, and to control outbreaks where they occur.

"We are in a good position to pick it up as we are doing more than 100,000 tests so we are in a good position to spot anything. There is more work to combat the disease and we need a safe opening up of the visitor economy and to avoid some of the excesses that we saw last year as we want them to have a good experience so they come down again."

He added: "Last year we saw little evidence of transmission of the disease in outdoor settings so even if there is the usual or enhanced number of visitors, it won't pose an increased risk based on what happened last year."

Answering questions on the upcoming local elections, Dr Norrey said that for the most part they were confident that they would be running smoothly, although that there were still a few isolated issues to sort out, including that one of the proposed centres for the count is being used as a vaccination centre, and that one district may be counting on the Saturday, rather than the Friday, which could delay the overall result.

Cllr Alistair Dewhirst, chairman of the committee, in a message to those planning to visit Devon in the summer, added: "We will have a fantastic summer for business, but while some places may be pretty busy, other places may be as quiet as you imagine Devon to be."

——————————————————————

You can submit your own news straight to Seaton News by using the 'Nub It' button on our homepage. This can also be done for free for events on our What's On page and businesses, groups and organisations on our Local List page by using the 'Nub It' button.

Please like and follow our online newspaper on your favourite social media channel. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter. And don't forget to sign up to our free weekly newsletter below!