Cornwall Council's Cabinet member for health has stated that the current spike of Covid-19 cases in Cornwall is not linked to the G7 summit.

Andy Virr, Conservative member for Fowey, Tywardreath, and Par, made the comments at a meeting of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly leadership board this afternoon.

The board received an update on Covid-19 from Dr Ruth Goldstein, public health consultant at Cornwall Council.

But before that Cllr Virr wanted to address concerns which have been raised that the current increase in cases was linked to last week's summit of world leaders in Carbis Bay.

He said: "More will be said about this later but G7 was not the cause of this new spike."

In her presentation to the board, which includes representatives from the council, MPs, Police and Crime Commissioner, Local Enterprise Partnership, Council of Isles of Scilly, Chamber of Commerce and the NHS, Dr Goldstein said that current data showed that Cornwall has a rate of 71.9 cases per 100,000 people.

This rate is the highest in the south west and is just below the current England average of 75.2 cases per 100,000.

She said: "That rate has increased really, really quickly which has taken people by surprise."

But she stressed that public health officials in Cornwall "understand what is happening and understand all of our cases".

Dr Goldstein said: "It has started to increase since the opening up of the second part of the roadmap. This was where we started to open up hospitality again and people were encouraged to meet up and enjoy life, and we need to do that to help mental health.

"Initially we didn't see an increase in our numbers, but almost exactly three weeks later we saw our cases rise again.

"We knew that as we went through the roadmap we would see our cases increase – Cornwall is a destination and people come here.

"The biggest impact here is the Delta variant, most of our cases now are the Delta variant. It is just so easy to transmit and transmit within days."

Dr Goldstein said that even once people might have been notified by track and trace that they had been in contact with someone who has tested positive they may have already caught the virus and passed it on.

However she said that while cases are rising the numbers in Cornwall had not reached the same scale as they were at the beginning of the year.

She said: "In comparison to the picture in January we are not at that point and we obviously don't want to get anywhere near that."

Dr Goldstein said that the highest numbers of cases were in visitor hotspots in Falmouth, Newquay and St Ives and said that it was people in the 16 to 25 age group who were accounting for most cases.

She said that this was mainly down to that age group not having yet received the vaccine – she said that it was hoped that as the vaccine rollout continues to those over 18 this week the numbers may start to fall.

However she warned that it was not likely that any impact would be seen for at least two weeks or more.

A large number of cases are linked with the hospitality industry and Dr Goldstein highlighted that younger people were more likely to work in that field.

She said that the council was aware today of 75 hospitality businesses across Cornwall which have recorded one or more members of staff with a positive test.

Many have had to close and explained that this was usually due to small staff teams working in small areas which meant that if one person tested positive it would have an impact on being able to operate.

She said: "We are working with all those businesses to support them when they know they have a case, make sure their covid safe precautions are up to speed, they know what self isolation is and to encourage their workforce to get regular tests and get vaccinated."

Dr Goldstein said that while people need to keep following the hands, face, space rules they also need to ensure that they are in well ventilated areas and get vaccinated.

She said that 18-year-olds would start receiving invitations for vaccinations today and that there were sufficient supplies of vaccinations to cover demand.

Turning to hospitals Dr Goldstein said that there were currently three patients in Royal Cornwall Hospital with Covid-19 and none were in intensive care. She said they were all of a younger age.

She said that with older people who have had the vaccinations being largely unaffected by the current rise in cases showed that the vaccines were working.

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