A ‘STEADY rise’ in the number of cases of coronavirus in the over 65s age group is causing concern in Trafford, while hints have been made that Bonfire Night celebrations could be stopped.

Borough public health director Eleanor Roaf says Trafford is now 36th highest in the country for its infection rates, with a current rate of 322.7 per 100,000 people.

Ms Roaf warned: “If we don’t all change our behaviour a bit, people are going to be seriously ill."

And the same scrutiny meeting was told arrangements around Halloween and Bonfire Night are being looked at.

Ms Roaf added: "It’s a fast moving situation, the relatively good news that we have at the moment is that our rates are stabilising in Trafford, although they are stabilising at a much higher level, at over 300 per 100,000 people.

“We’re seeing stabilisation in our under 15s, which is great news, a drop in the 17-21 year old age group and stable rates in the 30-64 age group.

“The most worrying thing is we’re starting to see a fairly steady rise in cases in our over 65 population, and that’s the population that is most likely to be severely affected if they do get Covid, the most likely to end up seriously ill and end up in hospital and could even die from it.

“While its good news that our rates aren’t continuing to go up at the rate of increase we had, the concern is that we are still seeing these very high rates across the board.”

Areas including Clifford and Hale Barns still remain a concern with high infection rates as they have done for most of the pandemic so far, but Ms Roaf stated an even spread of high infection rates is now being seen across the borough.

Ashton on Mersey, Altrincham and Urmston all also having rates of over 300 per 100,000 people.

Ms Roaf said: “We’re really seeing this spread right across the borough, a continued spread of high number of cases.

“We’re in a very difficult position still, we all do need to think about how we protect ourselves and how we protect other people from COVID.

“The best way to do that is maintain social distancing, keep two metres apart, avoid venues that feel at all unsafe – poorly ventilated venues, noisy, loud, busy venues.

“Meet outdoors, go for a walk with people, just please don’t go into their houses.”

Cllr Jane Slater, the council's health executive member, raised the point that that there has been some confusion over the rule of six and the bubbles rules.

She called for clearer communications on this.

Ms Roaf agreed, she said: “We’ve had that with some of the wording with households too, the messaging has got confusing, and people are tired and are wanting to start to see people, and we can understand that.

“It’s not about not seeing anyone, it’s about trying to do that as safely as you possibly can.”

And anyone looking forward to a bonfire night display might be disappointed.

A council officer stated in the meeting that the council’s teams ‘are looking at plans for Halloween and bonfire night’.

They hinted that public displays are unlikely to take place this year as work is being done on ‘identifying legislation [the council] can use to prevent any public displays from taking place’.

So far, Trafford has seen positive Covid cases in ‘a substantial number of schools across the borough,’ the officer added.

Ms Roaf reiterated the importance of people looking after themselves.

She said: “We want people going out for walks and things, we don’t want people sitting in their homes frightened.

“It’s about having as active a life as possible while limiting their exposure to the virus.

“The virus doesn’t care what Tier we’re in, the virus just likes spreading from human to human so we do have to do everything we can to stop it from spreading.”

Ms Roaf added that she didn’t want to see people in fear of getting help from within the health service either.

She said: “Our health services are safe, if you need to see a doctor you need to see a doctor.

"Please do make sure if you have symptoms of anything else call your GP, don’t avoid getting other treatment because we absolutely do not want to see preventable deaths or conditions getting worse.”