New website for lockdown rules and local data for Berkshire
As England enters new national restrictions, a COVID-19 dashboard has been launched to provide residents with comprehensive guidance on the restrictions that will remain in place until Wednesday 2nd December.
Created to meet the needs of the local community, the website, www.berkshirepublichealth.co.uk , went live this week.
On the ‘My Local Area’ section of the website, users can enter their full postcode for information on the rules and regulations to follow under this national lockdown. The site also provides a wealth of local information, including real-time data on COVID-19 across Berkshire, making it easily accessible to the county’s population of nearly one million residents. Using the dashboard’s interactive map, residents can search for results in their area and compare them with statistics for the rest of the county, the South East region and England as a whole.
Councillor Stuart Carroll, cabinet member for adult social care, children’s services, health and mental health, said: “We know residents are concerned about how to protect themselves and everyone in their household, and understandably they want easy access to what is and isn’t allowed during this latest lockdown.
“The new COVID-19 website is a great resource for all the information people need on lockdown restrictions, plus local statistics relating to the virus.
“We all need to remember to still follow the rules of hands, face, space while the lockdown takes place and ensure that we help to stop the spread. If you do get symptoms, please remember to isolate and get a test.”
As well as critical national lockdown information, the site provides users with specific data on COVID-19 for each of Berkshire’s six local authority areas, including:
- Daily new case numbers and total cases
- Daily number of cases in graph format since the start of the pandemic in March
- Daily new cases for England and total cases for England since records began
- Weekly death rate and location (care home, at home, hospital, etc.)
- Data for 111 and 999 calls triaged for people with suspected COVID-19 symptoms plus the number of daily online assessments
Tessa Lindfield, Strategic Director of Public Health for East Berkshire, added: “This innovative website is a go-to resource for all the latest lockdown information. It also allows our communities to see what’s really happening in their area – how many positive cases there are each day or week, how many deaths and where these are sadly happening.
“We urge residents to visit www.berkshirepublichealth.co.uk to read the government guidance on what they can and cannot do. Remember the importance of hands, face, space, observe social distancing and be sure that if you do have to go out, you’re not bringing COVID-19 back into your home.
“We want to keep our communities safe and well. Together, we can break the COVID-19 chain by following the guidance and by isolating when required. We believe this new website will help us all to stick to the rules.”
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- The Berkshire Covid-19 Dashboard was created by Public Health Berkshire and provides national lockdown guidance, together with data for each of the county’s six local authorities: Bracknell Forest, Reading, Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, West Berkshire, Wokingham Borough and Slough.
- This website offers users all the information they need about the dos and don’ts of the second national lockdown, as well as valuable statistics on COVID-19 cases in their local area, and revealing how each local authority is performing versus the South East region and England as a whole.
- The site also provides useful support and guidance on topics including where to get tested and how to self-isolate.
- It has been developed for use on mobile devices (iPhone and Android) and desktops/laptops.
- Population data for Berkshire County is as follows:
Bracknell Forest 122,549
Reading 161,780
Slough 149,539
West Berkshire 158,450
Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead 151,422
Wokingham Borough 171,119
Source: Office for National Statistics - www.ons.gov.uk