Residents with these symptoms advised to get Covid test

The advice comes as CWAC’s chief executive said the council was ‘frustrated’ at the slowing fall in infection rates.

The pair made their comments at a meeting of the borough’s Covid-19 Outbreak Board last night (February 10).

Director of Public Health Ian Ashworth said: “That ski slope [of case rates] is more of a beginners’ slope coming down. I think my main message is we do not lift off early — otherwise we will see that explosion in cases.

“They are just not going down as quickly as we would have seen in the summer so it is vital we keep that spread down further. 

“[We do that by] encouraging people to get tested if they have symptoms. We recognise there’s a lot more research in play around other symptoms associated with coronavirus, rather than just a new continuous cough, a change in taste and smell, and a fever.

“So we’re looking to expand the access and ask people to consider getting tested for a number of other different symptoms — they include shortness of breath, body aches, nausea, and diarrhea.”

Mr Ashworth added that the council would be producing more communications with residents in the coming days on the new symptoms guidance.

It comes as CWAC’s 7-day infection rate is 210.5 cases per 100,000 people — which is a 21 per cent decrease from the week before.

However, council bosses said they would prefer to see those rates to fall ‘faster’.

Chief Executive Andrew Lewis said: “It is worth reinforcing that [cases are] still operating at a really significant level, even after lockdown. We are all a bit frustrated that cases are not falling faster.

“We are above the national average and we would like to see faster progress.

“We have stepped up our work with local business — when there are cases where there has been cases associated with a particular workplace outbreak, we have worked with business.

“We want this to be the last peak and we will work really hard to get that vaccination out.”