‘Impact of Covid will be felt for many years’
THE effects of Covid and its two associated lockdowns in Guernsey could be felt for years to come, the director of Public Health has warned.
Dr Nicola Brink said that the health authorities needed to consider the direct and indirect impact on the population which could still manifest in many ways, including effects on mental and physical health preventative programmes, the education of children and young people, economic loss, domestic violence, the exacerbation of inequalities, delays, at times prolonged, in accessing routine medical services, such as non-urgent surgery, and increased alcohol and substance use and abuse.
‘We measured the short-term impacts – the mortality, hospital admissions and so on during the pandemic,’ she said.
‘As we move forward, we need to see what the impact is, for example, on cancer rates.
'Have people been avoiding coming forward for healthcare, have they not had screening?
‘That will only be evident in years to come.
'Which is why it’s so important that we have datasets to monitor the health and wellbeing of the population.'
The new medical officer of health report highlights the need for continued surveillance programmes, using local and UK data.
‘This will enable us to optimise our response to an emergency of public health concern. From a Public Health perspective there is a real opportunity to emerge from the pandemic stronger than before.’
Dr Brink said that the island moved forward with a strong foundation of protection from vaccination and experience of reducing transmission and infection, as Covid variants continued to develop.
‘We are better prepared than ever before for the next pandemic, but need to incorporate the lessons we have learned from the Covid pandemic into an updated pandemic plan. This will focus on prevention, preparedness and mitigation.’
Dr Brink said that while the pandemic was officially over, Covid was with the community stay.
‘We are going to see variants of Covid appear throughout the years and decades to come,’ she said.
‘At the moment we are seeing only a few cases and we still encourage people to report them through our online platform so we can keep an idea of of what’s going on. But we’re not getting any signal from primary care that there’s a significant increase in activity.’
