Watch: council leader's update after highest number of Covid-19 cases

By The Editor 9th Oct 2020

Richmond Council's leader has urged everyone to follow Covid-19 safety guidelines for the sake of others' health and jobs.

Cllr Gareth Roberts was speaking after the number of coronavirus cases in the borough hit a record high.

Almost a quarter of our total number of cases have been recorded in the last ten days alone.

Transcript of Cllr Roberts' message

These are the Covid-19 statistics for Richmond upon Thames.

Over the last seven days, we have seen 195 new cases identified here in the borough.

Therefore, the total number of cases identified since March stands at 1,054.

We have had no new deaths directly linked to the virus in the last seven days. Therefore since February the total number of deaths stands at 153.

Over the last seven days we have tested 2,382 people and have seen a positive return rate of 5.7%

We have never seen numbers this high in the borough and we need to take this as a wake-up call to make sure that we are doing everything we can to control the spread of the virus.

We've looked at the data and we can't spot any particular trends. There is no particular area in the borough which is being more directly impacted than any others.

We know that a larger number of the cases are aged 30 and under. But people aged over 30 area also becoming infected.

We have had a few cases identified in our schools, but they are being dealt with and dealt with well and we have not seen any outbreaks in our care homes.

Because we can't identify a common link between these cases, we need to all make sure we are following the rules.

We need to make sure that we are washing our hands wherever possible, wearing a face mask or covering properly when travelling on public transport, in shops, supermarkets or similarly enclosed public spaces.

We need to make sure that we are following the rule of six (no more than six people gathering at one point indoors or out) and, of course, maintaining a social distance of two metres wherever possible.

If you are not following these rules, then you are a part of the problem. You might not care about your own health or your own job. But failing to follow the rules is directly impacting on other people's heatlh and other people's jobs.

So for that reason alone, please follow the rules and help stop the spread of the virus. Thank you.