Chair of Council’s Education Committee thanks NHS Highland’s Director of Public Health for Covid-19 presentation

Dr Tim Allison, Director of Public Health for NHS Highland, opened today’s meeting with a presentation on Covid-19, including a Highland perspective.

Cllr John Finlayson, Chair of the Committee, said: “I want to take this opportunity to thank Dr Allison for his informative presentation on the virus that he delivered to Committee this morning.”

The presentation began by providing a brief background to Covid-19 before then providing an explanation of how the virus transmits between individuals and the presence of coronavirus in the Highland region.

Cllr Finlayson added: “From the beginning of the pandemic, we have worked closely with NHS Highland to ensure that our educational settings continue to be as safe as possible for our staff, pupils, and contractors. An early example of our partnership working is on the approach to our schools return in August. Public Health representatives were available to administer advice and Dr Allison joined in our weekly return to school board discussions.

“In recent weeks, we have seen cases of the virus in our schools and we very quickly engage with NHS Highland to support the school and wider local community. We must also regularly ensure that the information and guidance we are communicating with our stakeholders is accurate and up to date as guidance evolves from the Scottish Government.

“Dr Allison’s presentation to our Education Committee demonstrates this continued close partnership working between our organisations and I would like to thank him again for his clear and helpful presentation this morning.”

As highlighted in Dr Allison’s presentation, you can access Public Health Scotland’s interactive dashboard to find out the number of cases in your local area, as well as trends for local authorities and NHS boards nationally.

Please note that because of smaller population sizes across the Highland region, local areas may be classed as a red zone areas for Covid-19 as just a very small number of confirmed cases can skew the ratio of cases per 100,000. Highland Local Authority continues to have comparatively low cases per 100,000 and has currently been allocated Tier One restrictions by the Scottish Government.