Cheshire launches new partnership to coordinate response to local Covid-19 outbreaks

Cheshire leaders have established a new partnership to combat the continue threat from Covid-19 and respond to local outbreaks.

The new Outbreak Response Co-ordination Group is made up of the Leaders of Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton and Warrington Borough councils, as well as the Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner, and Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership, and will work alongside local public health teams and frontline public service staff.

The group will ensure the whole county takes a unified approach to managing outbreaks by:

• providing collective political leadership in response to outbreaks within Cheshire
• ensuring Cheshire Police can respond to outbreaks consistently, in partnership with local authorities
• sharing information on local outbreaks and lockdowns, and reviewing the spread of Covid-19 across Cheshire
• learning from partners’ experiences and sharing how best to respond to outbreaks
• protecting the local economy during an outbreak, in partnership with the Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership
• supporting cooperation with Merseyside, North Wales, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.

Each Cheshire council has published an outbreak management plan for their area, which sets out how they will prevent and manage local outbreaks of Covid-19, as they occur in their communities. Close collaboration across the county between local councils, businesses and Cheshire Police will also help to prevent and manage local lockdowns, protecting lives and livelihoods.

Councillor Louise Gittins, Leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council, will chair the Cheshire Covid-19 Outbreak Response Co-ordination Group. She said:

This virus does not recognise local authority boundaries.  We have a great experience of collaboration between councils and other partners, which is now more important than ever before.

“We are meeting regularly to share information and learning.  We will help each other tackle outbreaks as they occur, supporting all the organisations and communities working together to defeat this terrible virus.  Our collective aspiration is to make Cheshire Covid free.”