The concerns were voiced by head of Public Health Dr Nicola Brink at yesterday’s Covid-19 media briefing.
‘We’ve seen a slight decline for people bringing their children forward for vaccination and what we don’t want to be doing is battling another infectious disease at the same time as battling this infectious disease.
‘We want to keep our polio vaccination rates up, we want to keep our measles vaccination rates up, our mumps and so on. [It is] really important we have safe and effective vaccines for these diseases, let’s use them.’
Dr Brink said the health services were operating a safe service and bringing children forward for vaccination was ‘the right thing to do’.
She echoed Medical Director Peter Rabey when he urged people to get in contact with their doctors if they had other health concerns.
‘We’d really like to emphasis the fact that during this time our other medical services are open so people with lumps and bumps that they’re concerned about, please do consult your doctor.
Dr Brink also urged anyone whose mental health was suffering due to lockdown to contact Public Health, who are well equipped to direct people towards appropriate services.
‘Mental health during lockdown is a serious concern for us,’ she said.
‘As I’ve said before, the very narrow health protection issue of the virus, we’ve got the broader health and wellbeing of the population and we really need to focus on that as well.’
While lockdown was difficult for everyone, the conditions will be more difficult for some members, of the community such as those with autism, than others.
Dr Brink said that there was a balance to be struck between recognising the requirements of individuals and keeping the community safe.
‘We’ve been working with the mental health service because some people are finding it very difficult to have confined periods at home,’ she said.
‘What we’ve done is given letters to some people to be able to relax the rules for some people under certain circumstances.
‘This is not a huge number of letters we’ve given out, but we also need to treat people as individuals.’
For those struggling with extended periods confined to the home, Deputy Heidi Soulsby, president of the Health & Social Care committee, acknowledged the difficult circumstances.
‘We’re not looking to keep lockdown for any longer than we absolutely have to and we need to get that balance right between people’s mental health, risk from the virus and getting the economy running,’ she said.
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